Well, $450 later and a period of good behaviour (no prior offences, so they were not as heavy on me as a repeat offender) and we're good to go. Still, a $450 fine and 6 points on the license is a LOT better than forfeiture of the car. I'll happily take that and walk away with my car and my slightly bruised license. A friend of mine in the district is a police officer, and luckily the heat was able to be taken out of the situation, but as he said to me, next time may be harder to defuse. So take this as a bit of a caution, and learn from it. Believe me, I learned really fast.
The 'good behaviour' condition is a bit moot because I don't tend to do many stupid things, unless I'm trying to test a new diff or get someone to the airport on time... 12 months of staying under the radar is going to be pretty simple for me. I have restraint. More so now, fear that they can threaten to take a car if they deem something to be hooning. Even a straightforward speeding offense.
Things got a bit better just after I paid the fine- I was a bit down about the whole thing and then something.... else.... popped up that I had to grab for the car. Because I clearly haven't spent enough time or money on this thing as it is, and to be honest, I've been chasing one of these for a long time.
I found a Series 2 Caprice steering wheel- the wood grain type that everyone is always chasing, and usually paying $400-$450 dollars for. They were a rare option, and not many were made, as they were only available for one model of WH, in one series run.
This one was not perfect, required a leather retrim and the guy was asking less than a quarter of the price they usually command. So logically I had to have it.
I spent a lot of time at night mulling over how lucky I was to still have the car, whilst I encouraged arthritis onset in my hands by 20 years, with the hand stitching of the new black leather onto the steering wheel. This was the biggest pain in my a$$ as far as fiddly work on the car I've done yet. Stuff up a section of stitching too tight or too loose and you unpick it all and try again. Most thread is too weak and it snaps with the tension you need to pull everything tight. I snapped a thick mattress needle in half trying to force it through a section of leather that was extremely tight. It was just torture. I don't know how people do this for a living but they must have the patience of a saint. Twice I nearly threw the wheel across the bench, and near gave up. But I came back and tried again. And I finished it last night.
The other problems with the wheel were a section of wood grain was chipped/smashed off, and I had to get creative with some brown and black paint and epoxy and "make" a piece of wood grain to fill in a hole, then buff and polish the repair area up to the same level as the rest. How you smash a chunk of wood grain out, I have no idea.
Also, the foam core had let got of the steel hoop, and was rolling around in your hands. I bought some of the SLT99 repair glue and some hypodermic needles in a kit and re-injected glue back into the wheel to stop that happening. It was a bit of a basket case, hence why it was so cheap. But ultimately it was worth saving. The feeling of new leather is really nice.
You may remember that the previous steering wheel (the normal leather wrapped Statesman/Caprice wheel) was all worn and faded, so a few pages back, I stripped the leather and re-dyed it and refinished it and it came out really well. This is the wheel:
It was nice and everything, but I wanted a wood grain wheel for a long time.
Swapping it over was the easiest part. The trick is to disconnect the battery, then remove the airbag system 15A fuse, and wait 20 minutes. I prefer to turn the headlight switch on and walk away for 20 minutes to ensure all capacitors discharge before removing the airbag. Be gentle with the yellow airbag connector on the back of the bag. Its quite a fragile connector and just pulls straight off the back of the bag with a click.
The new wheel looks and feels a million bucks. The grain and smell of new leather, and the soft feel is nice. And I think it looks better in there.
Also while I had some time, I removed all the door trims and retrimmed all of the lower pieces with the courtesy light, in the same suede that I've used in the rest of the interior. I didn't like the hard plastic look. I know dirty feet need to be kept away from the suede on entry and exit, but I'm prepared to deal with that.
And then today as soon as I got the old steering wheel out of the car, it sold and I got back half the cost of the wood grain wheel anyways. I was happy about that.