Projects The 48 hour coupe

I'll be sure to send you pictures

 

I'll still be driving mine...

 

Nice job! The surest way to progress is to just keep chipping away at it, even if it's a little at a time....something I'm not real good at, but @Tim is and I just keep telling myself, "what would Timm be doing right now?" LOL

 

I'll be watching for for the donut videos this winter.

 

Looks good!

 

Worked on the dash tonight.

Pulled it out of the car and onto the "bench" ground welds from filling the holes in the dash a while back. Trimmed a little on the gauge panel insert.

I'm still not totally loving that piece i like the look and layout but my execution on cutting it out and it it a but too flimsy IMO might do something about thag later but for now it works.



Clamped the panel in place and drilled mounting holes on each side through both the insert and dash to keep alignment. Then I opened the holes for rivnuts. And lastly primed the whole dash and painted it the same semi gloss black as the column.




Got a pretty gnarly run on the drivers side but overall it doesn't look too terrible for a spray bomb.



While it's drying I've been thinking about doing adding some off white to the side panel sections. Which would tie in with the rest of the car having white accents all over. (Frame, firewall, roll bar, old dash was white)

I'll wait for it to fully dry and throw the gauges in and see if I still like the white idea.

Oh and current me is pretty happy with past me for taping the steering column key to the steering wheel when I took it off. Even though until tonight, current me was too stupid to look at the blue tape on the wheel while racking my brain trying to remember where I'd put it for the last couple weeks. I actually just sat down to just order one tonight and glanced at the wheel sitting on the roof and finally noticed the blue tape. Hey, I never said I was the prettiest bowl in the crayon box.

 

Lmao that’s great.

Insert looks good

 

Not the best but it's serviceable.





Can't do off white on my phone so its brighter than I'd want, but here's what I was thinking on the white.

Honestly not really digging it as much as I thought I would.

 

Maybe just white pen stripe instead of a white panel

 

Sorry, I didn’t read through the thread, just the first few pages about the road trip and back.

Damned awesome and you and Joe were two determined guys!

 

That would probably work better.

Would be a good spot for some artwork

 

Forgive my wavy lines but something like this would look good

 

One thing I forgot to ask.

Where did you get the trailer at?

 

The trailer the car was on? Came with the car. Had it sold on FB marketplace but the time I pulled back into my driveway. Actually the kid who bought it helped me upload the coupe into my garage too lol.

 

It has begun.

Using a cloth wire universal speedway kit. This is the first speedway kit I've used but having done a few other universal kits on previous cars they're all basically the same. The cloth wire kit seems nice but te colors are too bright to pass it off as anything but a modern wiring kit.



Started by removing a couple circuts I knew would t be needed from the harness and then started wiring up the gauges. I'm going to use weather pack connectors up under the dash so the insert is easily removable. Waiting on starter button, headlight switch and indicator lights to finish that part.

Then I'll mount the harness in the car and start landing wires.

 

Love the weather pack idea. I think by the time the wires have been on the car a year or two the sun, heat, fuel, oil and road grime that will hit the visible wires will mute the colors quite a bit and make them look “correct”

 

I've pulled old cloth wiring out of some cars it was extremely well preserved in and it was staggering vibrant in color...it'll weather in!

 

Couple things.

1. Turns out, crappy Amazon headlight switches are in fact plastic junk. Mounting "nut/bolt" and the actual know are both cheap feeling plastic. I guess all I can say is good thing it was cheap cause it's going to get replaced.

2. I should have waited to drill the starter button and headlight switch holes until I had both in hand cause I would have lowered them a little more... it's pretty tight with the gauges. Not too tight so it should still work fine. Just something to note in hindsight.

3. Being able to build out this wiring on the "bench"/golf cart sure made it a hell of a lot easier. We're pretty close to finishing up what I can off the car. This weekend I think I'll work on getting the harness mounted to the firewall and then throw the dash back in. Pretty much down to an ac power outlet, lights for the gauges and the turnsignal switch which I can't do until after the dash is back in.

4. I think this will be my 4th wiring harness install. And it's oddly satisfying and relaxing work to me. I kinda actually enjoy it.

5. I'm moving the voltage regulator and the starter solenoid out of the interior and onto the firewall. But the haven't moved the ign. ballast resistor I assume those can get hot just based on what it is. But should that be close to the coil or could I keep that ugly thing hidden under the dash?

Anyway here are a couple pics since I'm sure yall don't care about my rambling most of the time lol.

 

Fuse block mounted and bundles run in the general direction of where they need to end up. Need to spend a lot of time routing them and terminating connections but that's another box checked.

Since this is a speedway kit it had a fuse block that is designed to mount by pins through a hole and then slide locking in place. Knowing that I found a mounting panel online that fits the pins as designed so I wouldn't need to spend anytime under the dash drilling and filing holes so they fit just right. Instead I used this panel. Welded some studs to the remnants of the old fuel tank. The firewall is 25? Chevy (I believe) and doesn't use any of the stock model a tank on on the firewall side. Because of that it made sense to use the remaining tank as a mounting pad. It's already attached and not in the way of anything. It's ugly but it'll work.




Then I spent some time with the harness rerouting wires so they come out of the box in the correct direction with where my gauges, headlight switch, ignition switch, etc. all locate since they are a little different than a modern layout which is how the harness is built. (Switch on steering column, lights to left, brake switch under dash, etc) why am I explaining this? Lol you all know this already.

Still waiting on gauge lights and an ac power socket before I put the dash back in. It sure made hanging the harness a lot easier with it out of the way and me not needing to crawl under the dash

Oh and for anyone looking for a fuse box bracket like I was talking about this is what I used.
https://bp-automotive.com/product/fuse-block-bracket/

 

Wow, didn't know you're building a show car with all that cloth wiring... Nice clean job, I need to learn from you in your pinning plastic plugs for easy removal.

 

Oh its far from show car lol.

The entire gauge panel will plug in. So 2 bolts and a couple plugs and it's out and I can fix, update anything I need to. Did it on my last car and made installing the gauge pod a snap. Just a regular universal weather pack connector kit from Amazon lol. Pretty decent quality too.

 

Gauge light sockets wired in makes the gauge pod finished. Just have ac outlet left so I took gauge panel out. 2 bolts and came right out no wiggling or finess needed. Pretty slick.

Touched up the dash paint. Almost ready to put er back in.

Had to try the lights out on the bench too obviously. I think the oil pressure can is that light blue color while the others are white. Which is making it look like it's a different color light.

 

Not done yet but git the gauges wired in with the connectors on the body side.




Turn signal switch wired in and mounted

I have a couple more connections under the dash.
Still have to terminate Starter button power, phone charger port, a couple grounds, brake switch wires, and power to the squirrel fan above the windshield (I should probably check that it even works before wiring it in lol)

Then I can move onto the front and rear light groups and the engine group.

I do have a question for any of the wiring guys. I have brake switch power and brake switched at the switch naturally. But there is also brake switch tied to third brake that was part of the turn signal switch wires. My switch didn't have those. Instructions say the pair at the turn signal are for the power feed wire from the output side of the brake switch. If so then why do I have the brake switch wire at the floor for a floor switch.

Should be pretty self explanatory but I'm confusing myself on where the pair under the dash go.

 

I can't seem to find an actual schematic for the speedway harness. Just the instructions which tells you where things terminate but not how they're actually wired which wound help the guys who need to change things around a little.

Ok sleep, thinking, and hamb searching here is where I'm at.

I think the brake switch input get 12v power.

Brake switch closes and that power is transferred to the brake switched wire.

Brake switched goes to the turn signal switch where it powers the turn signal circut of both lights for brake lights. Which would be fine if i had a 7 wire turnsignal switch like the signal stat 900, but I have a 5 wire T/S switch signal stat 700. For a note the brake switched and third brake light are connected under the dash and that's where 3rd B/L gets its power. I'm not running a 3rd B/L so technically that could get trimmed out here.

Hamb solution seems to be adding a 3-to-2 trailer light adapter up under the dash. I'd tie it in on the rear turn signal lines and add the brake switched here. Then the turn and brake wires go in and out comes just the turn signal wires which will now work the brake lights too. Wouldn't need tailights to run through this since they already have their own wires all the way back.



As usual, stop me if you think my logic is flawed, or to offer any alternative solutions.

 

Still working out my taillight/turnsignal conundrum after more reading I think this splitter wouldn't actually work for my situation. There are some DIY options I could try if I trust myself to get it right is the question. Of course I could also just add turn lights to the tail panel and just move on too. Just haven't looked too hard for ideas on the look. I did notice the extra lights on the back of the Wade Coupe while watching videos and reels from the Gathering at the Roc. They look more like they're license plate lights not turn signals in that case but the idea would be the same.




Anyway after a couple days of walking past it I started routing and terminating the engine harnessthis weekend. Not finished yet cause I had to replace my crimper after I broke mine. And then we did some Halloween stuff with the kids. It's going alright, just slowly picking away at it. Trying to make it look decent while also not going too crazy. Function over form is my specialty lol.







Also decided to keep the mechanical oil pressure gauge that was in the old dash and repurposed it on the engine side of the firewall to keep an eye on when working on the engine. Useful? Maybe not so much but o like it. I did have an issue where this fauge is a little smaller than the ones in the dash so when I drilled the hole it was borderline too big so I made a little ring out of extra stainless sheet I had to keep the gauge from pulling through the firewall. Almost looks intentional... it definitely wasn't but should work just fine. I also have a vacuum gauge I am considering adding next to it. Still deciding if I want to do that though.

Lastly i had some sending units show up water temp, oil pressure, and a temp switch for the electric fan (earlier in the thread I tried getting a mechanical setup but space wasn't working out very well so electric it is)

Anyway while installing the oil i notice this rubber hose from. The bosses at the rear of the block to the port on the side. I assume it's just to co next things in lieu of a plug or something but anyone know a reason or common modification that would necessitate this hose being there? I'd like yo get rid of it. But if need be i can pretty easily add a t so I can keep all three of the oil sender, oil line to the mechanical gauge, and this line if need be.

 

Alright with the dash basically done still need to wire the ac outlet and a couple small things.

Engine portion is done except for the coil/ballast resistor.

Last night I started wrapping and running the headlight portion of the harness. I started decided to run them down the column and out. Tried running them down the cowl but didn't like that is seemed like it was going to chaff and become a problem in the future.

While I was running them I decided to take off the marker light cover from the top of the headlight and found the first issue in this group. The lights are single filament and the harness has turns and parking lights.









Turned out to be a simple fix though. I had some dual filament sockets from previous jobs. The sockets on the headlights are just crimped on so I used a punch to uncrimp and remove the sockets.

















Had to enlarge the hole slightly. After that it was insert socket. Bend over the tabs and make sure they're tight to the housing.

New bulbs fit inside the glass just fine. Like most everything i do im definitely not the first persone to do this. But thats just fine by me. It works and looks good enough.

Alright back to running wires.

 

Looks great man

 

Couple more items checked off. Headlights and turnsignals wired up front. Coil installed and wired. I bought a Chinese coil (i assume it isn't going to last too long they never seem to) but what i wanted was the ballast resistor mount that came with it. So o code get that of the passenger toe board. When I got the coil mount though I actually liked the old one better so I cut off the resistor mount and welded that to the old coil mount that looks better.

With that I have everything up front wired with 2 exceptions. The electric fan ground and the horn power both easy enough but i ran out of the p clips to mount the wire to the frame rail so I'm waiting.










And now the part I've been procrastinating cause I'm not sure if it will work the way I want it to or not. The rear.

As discussed previously I thought I found a solution and then maybe not to make the single tailights (dual filament bulbs) work all of the rear lights (brake, turns, tailights)
I did buy one of the adapters pictured above. Made sure i got the right one according to wiring they had pictured with it.

 

Another thing I'd been putting off.

Fixing the throttle pedal.

Still want to weld the spoon pedal that came on the car to the end of this throttle linkage I got a while back on ebay. Says 34 ford but no idea if that's accurate or not. I'll probably want to add a heel rest too (in my best @BigJoeArt impression) given where i had to position the linkage to make it work. Then a simple speedway link that i shortened and rethreaded. Rod operates the rear carb and the link from carb to carb was existing stuff to open the front carb.







Need to finish removing the old cable sleeve and weld the spoon pedal as mentioned. Quick and easy and works great.

https://youtube.com/shorts/n3c0hqkBfHc?si=QLau-Dtr3nqHUxcH

https://youtube.com/shorts/ivAtjJUN3pM?si=iJUpUQiJ5QN_H57g



Also got the rear wires run and terminated. Received the tailight adapter now I need to get under the dash again and install it. Down to just a handful of wires and I'm done with the wiring.