Archive for April, 2005
We went to the Knotts Berry Farm show last weekend. It was great. We saw a lot of familiar faces. And a lot of cool cars. There were several Diablos there which is really cool, I think a few years ago there wasn’t a single one. There was also a couple of really nice highly customized Diablo kits on display. One is the Chameleon Diablo that has been touring the shows for a couple of years now. The other was built by the same builder and is called “Stalker”. It is a three seater, the driver sits in the middle. Very cool. It is pictured below. There are many more pics of it, and all the other beautiful cars at http://kitkar.com/xoops/gallery.php?gallery=kbf2005
I haven’t done anything since my last post. Between going to the Knotts Berry Farm show and working on my damn bike I haven’t had time. Speaking of Knotts, I’ll have to post something about the show. Anyway, I’m done with my bike for now. I’ve done all I can do and I think I will bring it to the dealership and have them look at it. I took tonight off to relax. I played video games, watched TV and relaxed. THAT’S IT! And it felt good. Tomorrow I’ll have to get back to working on the car. I’ve also been avoiding working on the interior because I am terrified of doing the sewing.
We did a little upholstery work last night. We got the main door panel done in tan and the door cap in black. The three black pieces that look kinda dull in the pic are not upholstered yet. The door handle surround and arm rest will be done in black and the piece that goes down to the bottom will be tan.
I’ve also been thinking about how I should finish it off. There is a hole in the lower left that is covered in the pic below where a screw goes. There should be a piece of carpet that would cover that whole lower left area. I’ve never been a big fan of carpet on doors so I think I might wrap a piece of chip board in tan vinyl and stick it there. Also, there should be a map pocket in the lower right. I thought about leaving that out for a cleaner look, but it will probably look like I got lazy and left it out. If I do put one there I haven’t decided yet if it will be black or tan. I believe the real F355 has a tan one where the interior is black and tan but black would be a good contrast. Plus my greasy finger prints wouldn’t show up as bad.
There is the possibility that we will drive the car to Carlisle PA. We did it last year and my wife hated it. She really doesn’t want to drive. We will be there one way or another, either drive and attend as a vendor or fly and attend as a spectator. We’ve been to the Carlisle show every year for the last five years. Last year we were vendors. I’d love to show off my interior at the show and hopefully get some sales but I’m not going to kill myself trying to get it done in time. I’m also not sure I can afford the week off. It’s about a three day drive each way.
I’ve accepted that I’m not going to get this done in time for Knotts. I also decided that I’m not going to rush things so I can drive it there either. We’ve decided that we will just rent a car. I figure I can rent a car and it will still cost less than driving my gas guzzling truck. I can’t wait for the show. We are leaving Friday morning. I’ve been to this show every year for the last five years, except 2001 we didn’t make it.
I haven’t worked on the car much lately. Being the genius that I am I decided to investigate a slight ticking in my Harley. After a week spent on it, new heads, lifters, pushrods and rockers the ticking is now much worse and the bike is unrideable. Now it looks like I won’t have the car complete enough for the Knotts Berry Farm show this weekend. I’m still trying to get it done enough so we can drive it there though. Enough rambling, time for a real update.
The upholstery on the upper dash wasn’t too horribly bad so I decided to try to save it. I peeled back the vinyl where it was loose and used contact cement to adhere it after cutting a manipulating it into position. It looks much better now. I’m still planning on re-doing the lower dash in tan but since I have to hit the road in four days and still have a lot of work to do it’s only a matter of time before I realize I’m on crack and bolt it in as is.
I should have plently more updates throughout the rest of the week.
I haven’t accomplished much lately. I’ve done a little more gauge wiring but haven’t finished it. I found a post online about wiring for VDO guages that looks better than what I’m doing but I’m not going to redo it now.
I am probably going to bring the car to the paint shop this weekend to talk about my options. I still don’t know if I will just touch it up or repaint the whole thing. That is one reason why I haven’t been too worried about getting the wiring done. I plan to put the old gauge pod in when I bring it to the paint shop so I won’t swap out the sensors until I get it back.
I got some nice power window and power door lock switches. I think I paid too much but I was desperate. I tried hooking up one of the lock switches but it would only work one way. I’m not sure if it’s faulty or if I don’t know what I’m doing. Probably the latter. I haven’t put much effort into figuring it out yet.
I decided to make a Fiero shift boot to test out my sewing skills. It’s not perfect but not too bad. I don’t think it will fit in my new console so I’ll have to make another for that. Here’s a pic.
I broke down and ordered some switches for the power windows and door locks. I should have them early next week.
I hooked the center gauges up to test them. I realized the clock only worked with the key on. Duh, I don’t think it will be very accurate that way. At least it was an easy fix.
I located the wire for the light switch (grey) and spliced into it. I did the same for the fuel level sender (pink). All the center gauges work now.
I started wiring the main gauges. I got the positive wires for the lights done, then ran out of time. With any luck I will get those finished tomorrow. I should at least have the gauge lights and all the ground wires done. I also have to install the new sending units for temperature and oil pressure.
I almost forgot about the turn signals, warning lights and high beam indicator. I will have to give those some attention eventually too. The only warning lights I will use will be for oil and the check engine light. Or maybe temperature and check engine light, we’ll see.
I started wiring the gauges yesterday. I started with the center gauge pod because they are the furthest away. Before I begin I would like to say, I could have put a lot more effort into this and made it look real pretty. Since I am under time and money constraints I’m keeping it simple. I’m only using three colors of wire, red for power, black for ground and blue for everything else. I’m also not going to connect everything with a fancy connector. I’ll use soldered connections and spade terminals. Not as pretty but it gets the job done.
I started out by wiring the connections for switched power. These get power when the key is in the “On” position.
Then I added wiring that will go to the headlight switch. This is so that when the lights are on, your gauges light up.
Then I used black wire and made my ground connections.
Later today I will put it in the car to figure out where the gauges in the main gauge pod will tie in to it and at least get the power and ground connections wired.
