263 replies to this topic

[SHEEL]

How many cars does your brother own? I count about 9 roller doors there! 

 

haha 

 

He lives in a block of townhouses and all the garages are in a laneway at the rear, I never thought of it but now you mention... it does look a bit strange

[Shiney005]

I wouldn't have started with the alternator either.

[SHEEL]

Got the Dash Fascia and Gauges wired up and in the car, I've also installed a switch panel where the heater control used to be, this turns on the front windscreen heater/blower, rear demist, boot release and under dash footwell lights. 

I still need to wire up some of the sender units and signal inputs for Vehicle speed, oil press, temp, tacho. So far the gauges all seem to work nicely.

I'll need to calibrate the speedo too which will be interesting to see how that goes.

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[SHEEL]

Tonight I wired up the Tacho and fitted my Period correct Tape Deck which won't actually be used, I've got some other idea's for my Stereo which will be revealed some time next year because it's not a priority right now..

I've also put a closer pic of my switch panel so you guys can see how neat it came up. Ignore the missing lower dash, it's coming soon!

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[Shiney005]

How does that conduit go for the speaker wires in to doors? I would have thought it would kink?

[SHEEL]

Laurie - for all 4 doors I've routed it so that the exit hole on the pillar is about 3 inches forward of the hole in the door shell, so it flexes between about a 90 degree 6-inch(ish) diameter curve (door closed) to maybe a 30 degree bend with the door opened.

 

There is more than enough flex in them. They seem to work nicely.

If I did it again, I'd try to find an OEM conduit from a high volume modern car, probably a late commodore, and raid a self serve wrecker for decent ones to tidy up...

 

What I've done is neat, but an OEM solution would be super slick...

[Heath]

Fantastic stuff. Love that it's at the test-drive stage!

[SHEEL]

Finished the Dash install...

 

I added a trim piece on the Passenger side to delete the heater vents and give the dash a smooth look. came up sweet.

 

I've also made a bracket for the Battery mount in the boot, plus finished wiring up the electric boot release and routed the wiring loom, with the backup cable release tucked in with it.

 

I've just got the tailpipes, wiper arms and Polution gear/breathers etc. to install then I'm booking in for a RWC, so things are getting very exciting!

 

 

 

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[SHEEL]

pics of the boot release and loom:

 

Not sure I've I've mentioned this before, the Boot mech is out of an FG Falcon, I tried a few Generic Ebay Electronic boot soleniods and they were garbage, I quickly decided I wanted to adapt something OEM so that I could take advantage of the superior design and reliability. It was so easy to adapt into this car... great addition.

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[yel327]

I'd be running a 0V lead from the -ve terminal straight to the engine as well. Too much voltage drop through the body from back there. 

[SHEEL]

I've ran one from the engine to the Chassis, and then another from the Chassis to the Body. Everything seems to be happy.

 

I did have a 200a Breaker in the +ve line and it really hated it. Cranking was impacted big time and it would sometimes throw the breaker during cranking. For now I've removed it and the issues went away.

I would like some protection if I can figure out a better way but I'll focus on RWC for now and re-visit that later... 

[RallyRed]

Nice work mate especially the dash -  factory like, but still custom. 

 

The old eleco in me has to comment on the battery install. 

Don't want to be disrespectful, but do the set screws on top of the battery go into nuts that are welded on?

Reckon that top flat bar/retaining bar needs to be -

1  Bolted & Nyloc'd , and

2  The flat bar ( assuming it's metal) needs to be covered with some thick heatshrink or tape.

 

If the flat bar ever came loose , or was mishandled during instal/removal, you'd have a perfect battery +ve to Neg. short circuit.

 

You'd then see the full 720 CCA of the battery more than likely make a nice boot fire/ battery explosion, pretty quickly.  No good.

 

Apologies if I've  misunderstood the flat bar deal.

Regards.

[SHEEL]

that's good feedback mate...no issues there!!

 

I've got some large heatshrink so I can easily add that and some Nyloc nuts... would be silly not to address that when it's such an easy fix to implement. Maybe I could also find a nice boot to put over the +ve terminal, might search ebay for something...

[RallyRed]

Good stuff.

[Bruiser]

I’m with Col on the battery clamp
That bracket you’ve knocked up is a beauty
I don’t know how how tight it holds the battery down as is
But there’s no way to clamp down more on it if it needs some a squeeze
It might be better to have 2 nuts pulling vertically downwards
holding the battery tight against the bottom of the box and mounting bracket
Could cut those uprights down a bit and weld some threaded rod pointing up and
make a new hefty crosspiece a bit longer with holes to go over the rods. Then screw
it all down with a pair of nylocs.
A bit like the factory setups with the hook one end and thread at the other
It couldn’t go anywhere then

[gtrboyy]

Looks super clean...think horn button or centre of steering wheels needs bit of black or something custom.

 

A sparky put me on to these nifty items plan to use on my vk.

 

Anbi Switch battery isolator on negative side

 

https://www.google.c...FscZflxPF-4GAR5

 

Other cool one Projecta Fused Battery Distribution Terminal

 

https://www.google.c...yqTpe2iqjI9jQJw

 

 

 

 

[SHEEL]

Yeh I could probably have done that design too but this way is tight so it'll be fine for now...

 

plus when I buttoned everything up, I proclaimed "That's not going anywhere!"  this works for situations other than tying down trailer loads... right?

Edited by SHEEL, 20 December 2024 - 08:23 AM.

[claysummers]

Outstanding result mate. A real credit to your skill and commitment. I think the paint is my favourite feature. A great choice, and fairly unique I would think.


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[Bruiser]

10/4 that’s not going anywhere means just that

[SHEEL]

Added heat shrink on bracket and boots on terminals: 

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[RallyRed]

Perfect. Well done. 

[neglectedtorana]

Well done Daniel,

 

Gorgeous car, great looking dash, wheels, interior.

Everything looks great and lots of work on the functionality.

 

I'm going to look for a boot release for my LX now.

 

Cheers, Tom

[SHEEL]

Some more updates,

 

Engineer did his first inspection today, it went really well and he was very complimentary on me having built the car in my single garage... it was nice to get some praise!

 

I've been buttoning up the last small things like some heat sleeve on fuel lines close to the exhaust, finished the Tailpipe sections on the exhaust and also added some more hangers toward the front section of the exhaust so it's all tucked up super tight to the car and very secure.

I'm not a fan of the standard tailpipe length and placement, after I get through Rego I'm going to tuck the rear section up even more then have some little dumps level with the rear beaver panel bottom corner. 

 

Engineer wants a kill switch on the battery cable in the boot, Weighbridge ticket and a printout from when I had the wheel alignment done which I've sourced already, lucky they kept a record of it on their machine!

Apart from that he just needs to do brake testing on another visit in a few weeks and he will be happy to sign off. 

Unfortunately he and the RWC guy don't approve of the wheels, mostly that they aren't hubcentric mounted and to much width stagger (8inch rear to 5 inch front)

So it looks like I'm leaving stockies on it until it's rego'd then I'll need to think about what to do there. I might run the wheels anyway, I might go up to a 6 on front which is an acceptable stagger... I could also sell them and change to something else... not sure...

 

anyway, some more pics 

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[SHEEL]

oh yeh... forgot to say, whatever you pay an exhaust shop for a custom exhaust, it's worth it!

I made most of this exhaust from scratch, I used pre made tail pipe sections from Redback and modified them quite heavily to suit my application. 

There is 2 days work in the Exhaust... it's bloody hard work!

[claysummers]

Great stuff. Totally agree on the exhaust. On my HX van years ago I ran 7x14” Steelies all around with 225 tyres. Steering was heavy.


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