Now the weekend progress.
First off I want to state very clearly that as much of an accomplishment as getting this car on the road was, it was only the 5th best thing that happened Friday. I built this car to be able to drive around with family and to enjoy our time with the top down and the personal accomplishment of getting a car on the road pales in comparison to other family events from Friday. The only (other) one of those five things was our first drive together as a family. My children and my wife all had monumental days, making this car getting inspected an "also-ran" level accomplishment. Life is a lot more than the wrenches that I turned to get here.
Soapbox aside, the final push was a bit frustrating. I was off work Friday (for those family things) but knew that I'd have some downtime and a rare opportunity to get the car inspected so I geared up for it Thursday night. If you are on the R3vlimited FB group you may have seen my frantic post about the process to get the turn signals working.
I temporarily wired up signals in the front bumper after a few minutes checking wire codes. I could get the running lights to work but the blinkers were a failure. The Hazard light would illuminate but not blink. Google (and R3V) to the rescue- likely culprit was the hazard relay. I attempted to open up the steering column but the steering wheel would not come off. After yanking on it for about 10 minutes I took a break for dinner and thought that pushing on the wheel might help release the lock. Presto- it worked, the wheel came off, I accessed the relay and after some cleaning of the contacts and adding a ziptie to hold it in place the hazards were working.
That done, I went to work on ensuring that the turn signals actually worked. I got them all working with some new bulbs and was good to go.
Some wiring photos:
Leads, as they existed when I got the car:
Testing the Depo lights:
Once I had them working I called it a night.
Friday AM I got up, handled some family stuff, and then in my lull between "stuff" I went to work on the bumper.
I used a moving blanket to protect the paint and got things wired up and ready to install:
I will admit- I used T-taps for the running lights. Shameful, I know. But It was the most straightforward way to use the common ground and to wire up 2 independent positive wires for the running lights and the turn/hazard indicators.
Independently taped, ziptied to secure them, and ready to install:
Lifted into place:
Backed out into the light:
Here is an example of the stupidity of my painter.
They failed to paint all the way down the fenders (on both sides of the car). The car was painted with the bumpers & valance off, yet they (inexplicably) taped off the lower fender where it meets the valance. Now it has to go back to the painter for correction. The only reason that I went to the trouble of re-assembly is that to legally drive it to the painter I needed to get it inspected, and to do that the lights had to work and it requires bumpers. Lots of work to correct the stupidity of someone else.
I still need to install the trim, lip, fogs, ducts, and a few other things but that will be done once all of the paint is done- I don't want to have to remove the bumper trim once it is installed. I also need the passenger side bumper bracket but for now the car looks okay with the passenger end free-hanging.
First off I want to state very clearly that as much of an accomplishment as getting this car on the road was, it was only the 5th best thing that happened Friday. I built this car to be able to drive around with family and to enjoy our time with the top down and the personal accomplishment of getting a car on the road pales in comparison to other family events from Friday. The only (other) one of those five things was our first drive together as a family. My children and my wife all had monumental days, making this car getting inspected an "also-ran" level accomplishment. Life is a lot more than the wrenches that I turned to get here.
Soapbox aside, the final push was a bit frustrating. I was off work Friday (for those family things) but knew that I'd have some downtime and a rare opportunity to get the car inspected so I geared up for it Thursday night. If you are on the R3vlimited FB group you may have seen my frantic post about the process to get the turn signals working.
I temporarily wired up signals in the front bumper after a few minutes checking wire codes. I could get the running lights to work but the blinkers were a failure. The Hazard light would illuminate but not blink. Google (and R3V) to the rescue- likely culprit was the hazard relay. I attempted to open up the steering column but the steering wheel would not come off. After yanking on it for about 10 minutes I took a break for dinner and thought that pushing on the wheel might help release the lock. Presto- it worked, the wheel came off, I accessed the relay and after some cleaning of the contacts and adding a ziptie to hold it in place the hazards were working.
That done, I went to work on ensuring that the turn signals actually worked. I got them all working with some new bulbs and was good to go.
Some wiring photos:
Leads, as they existed when I got the car:
Testing the Depo lights:
Once I had them working I called it a night.
Friday AM I got up, handled some family stuff, and then in my lull between "stuff" I went to work on the bumper.
I used a moving blanket to protect the paint and got things wired up and ready to install:
I will admit- I used T-taps for the running lights. Shameful, I know. But It was the most straightforward way to use the common ground and to wire up 2 independent positive wires for the running lights and the turn/hazard indicators.
Independently taped, ziptied to secure them, and ready to install:
Lifted into place:
Backed out into the light:
Here is an example of the stupidity of my painter.
They failed to paint all the way down the fenders (on both sides of the car). The car was painted with the bumpers & valance off, yet they (inexplicably) taped off the lower fender where it meets the valance. Now it has to go back to the painter for correction. The only reason that I went to the trouble of re-assembly is that to legally drive it to the painter I needed to get it inspected, and to do that the lights had to work and it requires bumpers. Lots of work to correct the stupidity of someone else.
I still need to install the trim, lip, fogs, ducts, and a few other things but that will be done once all of the paint is done- I don't want to have to remove the bumper trim once it is installed. I also need the passenger side bumper bracket but for now the car looks okay with the passenger end free-hanging.
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