Surreptitious.....

[oldeskewltoy]

:wtf: Sushi?

[oldeskewltoy]

Now... what the "F" am I doing with a cutting board????

Well, can you think of a better material for electrical circuit mounting??

It is non conductive, is fully shapeable, drill able, it holds screws firmly, and is firm and light and strong, empervious to most heat, and moisture.........



Here is the piece we need, shaped and drilled to fit a small alcove where the original fuse box resided. It not holds the 4 relay panel, but has room for as many as 6 more relays...





For those who have not viewed a car from this particular angle.... This photo was taken from the driverside edge of the radio enclosure, upper right is the upper clutch pedal arm, center left is a ziptie that is holding the lower edge of the dash to the body tabs. That photo adds perspective... the next shows just how much room there is......


All relatively easy to read and easy to access. Read? Yes read... the white panel should help direct light to this surface to aid in viewing during diagnosis, or for repair in the future.


So... Sushi was never the plan... just some "out of the box" thinking to engineer a solution to a problem.


More to come....... maybe sooner, rather than later..........

[banpei]

LOL!

[oldeskewltoy]

Wellllllllll...................

now that the wiring is proceding along, I have to begin thinking about getting the engine in.

The Setrab oil cooler I had pick-up is just a bit too tough to fit in the area I want...

soooo... I found this....



A curved cooler... from Earl's - I'm looking into the actual specifications to see if there is an appropriate size - 4.9" tall, 14.125" wide -to tabs - 11.6" to center of each fitting, 1.25" thick


The management system has an oil temp sensor to monitor eng conditions and it can be set to shut down the engine if temsp exceed a certain point. Originally it was to go into the oil pan, but I didn't like that so, I've found a -8 AN adapter that accepts the temp sensor



I'll just run a short section of cooler hose to this first, then on to the cooler

[oldeskewltoy]

Oh... I'd almost forgotten this..................

While Mark was running the wiring, a solution had to be found for making sure there would be no cut wiring do to sheetmetal bends, or pass-thru's. We needed grommets for the wires to pass neatly through and protect them against chafing.




What you see above is a 3 photo panel. top showing the type of pass-thru we used, 2nd and 3rd showing the harness and "the grommet used".



If you look carefully, "the grommet used", was not a grommet at all... it is a piece of 3mm(1/8") vacuum hose that has been slit from one end to the other, it is then fed around the outside of the hole....... custom body grommet.

A much neater job can be done *IF* you do it BEFORE the harness is there... the harness found permanence before I had a chance to grommet the hole. IDEALLY... the seam is at the bottom where the harness hides it




This system will also be used on the oil cooler pass thru, as it is on this section where the alternator part of this new harness passes back into the engine compartment....



This one is NOT finished... it was done this way temporarily to show as an example, I need a longer section of hose to accomplish this and keep it clean



Oh.... btw.... under the headlamp you can spy one of the two large horns mounted to scare wanna-bees, and old people.


MAXI SOUND - MODEL 320-2T / 114 Decibels- 400/480Hz

and a sound file! - http://www.wolo-mfg.com/320-2t-325-2t-stereo.wav

I WILL be heard, no whimmpy JAP horns on this car!!!




As re-assembly occurs, I'm hoping to beat rattles and squeaks before they occur!
Here is the "A" pillar interior molding.

Note the foam tape added. This is to attempt to keep trim rattles to a minimum.

Each "B" pillar has also gotten the foam treatment as well. I won't be able to stop all of the rattles and squeaks, but I will be able to stop more then it could originally without the foam treatment.

[oldeskewltoy]

Further progress.... the dome light is wired in, the reverse lamps are routed, the chassis harness is making its way to the passenger side of the car.....



The fuse/relay panel grew by 2 relays today, one for the radiator cooling fan, and one for the fuel pump.



More and more of the chassis is getting wired... It looks like I'll be moving the car some, and getting it 2' up in the air now so I can.... 1) see if I can fit the GT-S fuel tank (if not, it means an inline pump I'll be buying), and 2) running a 5/16 fuel line from back to front.

Mark estimates the chassis is about 80% wired now, the major items left to do are the windshield wiper/washers, the rest of the ventiation system(have low and high speed, will wire in med speed next week). The BIG time consumer left at this point is the cluster.........



Those wires coming from the cluster are the connections for the FX16s 9k tach...

Hmmm, remember that.........



=) =)

more to come.........

[oldeskewltoy]

Well... the car is a bit higher now on stands(about 18" -20" off the ground).

Jeff and I dropped the AE71 fuel tank....




It looks quite a bit like an AE86 efi tank......


......but, there are 5 significant differences on the outside.
1&2) the AE86 tank has larger opening for the pick up/pump hole, and the filler neck hole, then the AE71 tank has.
3) the filler neck flange on the tank is slightly different angle
4) The AE71 tank has an external venting hose
5) The AE71 tank uses a flexible(rubber) filler neck with a firm mount to the car at the top, the AE86 tank uses a rigid filler neck that never actually mounts to the car at all, just the tank.



the reason I pointed out the differences above... because all of them make using the AE71 filler neck impossible with the AE86 tank. Why is that a concern???

The ONLY fitment issue... is the rigid filler neck on the AE86 tank needs to be straightened, or bent up about 3/8". Right now, I can actually strap the tank into the car, but the filler neck touches the filler neck opening in the inner body - not allowing a fuel cap to be fitted. I've already "adjusted"(read hammered) some of the inner body for clearence. I've had to do this inner body work, since the rubber fill hose on the AE71 had no clearence issue. As easy as it might sound to just bend the accordian section, that really won't fix the problem. The upper part of the AE86 filler neck needs to have some of the angle removed.





Oh... 1 EXTREMELY odd similarity - the AE71 has 3 pipes coming from the pick up assembly... so does the AE86. What is so odd about that??? The AE71 was carb only... no efi, so no fuel return line! So if there is no fuel return line... why would the AE71 tank have the same number of connections???

[cannabolic]

this thread has some serious info

Looks very good and thanks for sharing!

...and why would the AE71 also have 3 connections

[oldeskewltoy]

Hmmmmmmmmmmm, this may be too early to report, but the interior may has just taken a MASSIVE leap forward. I'm negotiating the purchase of some "lightly used" old school seats.

The original interior color scheme of my car is blue on blue. The original interior is there and intact, although some panels are better than others - none are not useable.


The seats are ok..... they are not the most supportive, but they do go well with the interior.

..... they had been in better condition, but an encounter with a heat gun caused a small blem in the passenger side seat.




What is difficult to see from the above photo is the interior color. Here is a somewhat better photo of the blue on blue interior color scheme






Ok, now this next photo is what the "MASSIVE leap" hints at.....





I've come across a pair of old school Recaro seats (early-mid 80s version) in BLUE!


Passenger side - full seat, and outer bolster





and the driver seat, and outer bolster



The driver side shows some minimal wear... but it does appear to be in excellent condition. It appears like they might have been in this car from the beginning

Now, hopefully the seats are settled...


its on to flocking the dash.....

[oldeskewltoy]

Some disappointments.... some achievements

First the disappointments.... I was prepared to pay for the seats... and the guy selling them tells me his buddy actually owns them... and wants to put the blue recaros in his Blazer with a black interior......... WTF?????

So for now all those pretty seat pictures are like the "pretty" Air Stage wheel pictures... MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING!


Ok... so the syrup to enjoy while taking the bitter pill......

Wiring is now MUCH further along........ The wipers work on all speeds... washers work... fan works on all speeds....

.......... and now Mark begins the tediuos task.. Cluster F***... using the factory manuals to note where each wire goes, and what function it has. Both the wiring manual, AND the chassis manual were EXTRAORDINARYLY useful in decyphering the connectors.




Connectors all wired in...




But does it work????



The ONLY thing we do not know yet... is if the tach actually works. All the other gauges could be tested with ground application... everything works! Even the low FUEL light will function!

Oh... sorry about the crappy photo... my camera could be better......