I have a '72 Cutlass/442 and need to fix the ashtray area of the dash. Is the dash plastic made from molded ABS plastic? I can buy sheets of ABS on line and wonder if I can use ABS and PVC cement to make the repairs. Thanks!

Rodney

 

Invest in panel bonding adhesive and the required gun. That stuff works on almost anything. Once you start using it, you will find all kinds of uses for it. I used 1/4" plexiglass and panel bonding adhesive to redesign the dash on my vista including what was the ash tray area. ABS will work as filler material, but I cannot say how PVC cement will hold up.

 

Wow Loaded68W34, that looks excellent! Really well done

 

Loaded:
That is very impressive, but I have some questions. What are the 2 black circles where the map light should be? Did you retain the stock headlight switch or did you customize this too?

Rodney

 

This will probably be way more info than you wanted, but since you asked:
There is a lot going on in the dash vs. the original. The 2 black circles are a 12 volt outlet and USB port like this:

I used the plate in the kit and glued it into the area where the map light was so the plugs would sit flush in the dash.


I also shaved the lock mechanism from the glove box door. I used an extra ash tray door to fill the outer hole and plexiglass to fill the hole inside before flocking the inside cover. There is a small flush-mounted push button switch that activates a solenoid (repurposed from a chevelle/ camaro cowl induction hood flapper). Strong rare earth magnets glued into the inner door hold the door against adjustable pins at the top of the opening. When you press the button, the solenoid forces the door away from the top of the dash (forces the magnets away from the pins) and the door opens.
Here you can see the flush-mounted push button:

Here is the inside of the door (magnets located in the recesses that would normally receive the rubber bumpers in the dash):

Here is the solenoid and adjustable pins located where the rubber bumpers would be:

I also filled the holes normally found below the gauges that light up the heater controls and wiper switch. This shot also shows where I shaved the steering column ignition switch, but I used a different process for that.



In the photos above, the **** closest to the column is the power mirror switch (Although they look like cutlass sport mirrors, the car has left and right electric power mirrors from an 81-82 corvette). The **** in the middle is the 7 speed delay wiper switch ( I used a 98 camaro wiper motor and made my own switch out of a 3 pole 8 throw rotary switch). The **** to the far left is the headlight switch.
The area where the headlight switch once was, is now the shifter. I cut apart a 2013 land rover rotary shifter and mounted it in the dash:

When the car is off, the **** sits flush in the dash:

When you start the car, the **** automatically moves out:

This selects Park, Reverse, Neutral, and Overdrive. The paddle shifters on the steering wheel control 1st gear through Overdrive. The nice part is that I was able to retain the auto park function so if the car is shut off in any gear other than park, it will shift back into park as the **** moves back into the dash. I used panel bonding adhesive for all of these modification in addition to filling the heater and wiper holes (using plexiglass).

 

Evrything is really nice loaded i love the details and modern touches.

For me the shifter is the icing on the cake very cool well done !

 

Loaded:
I too am impressed with all the modern updates you've incorporated. I've been trying to work out a way to use a more modern wiper motor to provide multiple delay speeds and retain the self-parking feature of the stock wipers. Did you use a '98 Camaro wiper motor as well as the switch? Does the Camaro motor have a self-park option?
Sorry for more questions; I hope you don't mind me picking your brain a little.
Rodney

 

I used a 98 camaro wiper motor (these have hidden wipers so it still has the self park), but I made my own switch.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/37308613026...8AAOSw4Ste6fQf
I cut up the camaro mount and welded it into my firewall. I also cut up the cutlass and camaro arms to get the stroke and parking position I was looking for.


Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of the switch, but I used a 3 pole 8 position rotary switch (7 speeds and off/ park) like this one and the schematic below to make my own switch. you could use a switch with fewer positions (less delay speeds but it must have 3 poles.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/372625557660
For all three poles, connect the common pin to the 12 volt wiper supply along with the yellow wire to the motor harness. On one of the poles, tie pins 2 through 8 together and use them to power the green wire on the motor harness through a 24K ohm resistor. On another pole, connect pin 8 only directly to the purple wire on the motor harness. For the last pole, connect pins 2 through 8 with resistors close to those listed below to the grey wire on the motor harness (you can play around with different resistors to get the delay speeds you are after). If I remember correctly, I made a slight variation by connecting pin 7 and 8 together, then I connected pins 2,3,4,5, and 6 to pin 7 with resistors close to those shown and finally connected pin 7/8 to the grey wire with a resistor close to 360 ohms. The difference between the delay resistances and the high/lo are so large it did not make much of a difference in the operation. I did not put washers back on the car so the fourth pole shown below as well as the mist positions are not on my system. The black wire from the motor harness connects to ground.

Hope this helps. Feel free to ask anything else.

 

This is helpful information. I've been investigating many OEM delay wiper systems trying to find something that I could retrofit to fit the stock Cutlass dash bezel. I started with a '74 Buick system, then looked deeply into late 70's Nova wipers which had a slider for the fixed speeds and the wiper **** turned to access the delay speeds but Nova's didn't have the self-parking feature. I even tried fitting a wiper switch from a late 70's Silverado but the size of the switch was too large to fit the Cutlass dash. My most recent research subject was a Buick Centry system based on info I found from a guy on the Pro-touring website who fitted this system to his '69 Camaro, but the early Camaros had a rotary wiper switch so this was a pretty easy retrofit. I guess I will have to surrender my plans for a sliding switch and work out the rotary options.

By chance, did you ever look for a push-button rotary switch to control the washer function? It would be nice to retain this feature and a rotary switch with a momentary, push-button switch wouldn't require a second switch. What issues did you have to work out to get the stock wiper transmission arms to work with the Camaro motor? Did you have clocking issues with motor or problems with the sweep when parking the wipers? One more thing, I think the DSE kit for first gen Camaros used a '99 and later motor. Was there a reason you chose to use the earlier '98 motor? Thanks!

Rodney

 

Rodney,
I did not look for a push button rotary switch, but I did have some trouble finding a 3 pole 8 position switch to begin with. Some possible ways to add washers to the system would be to eliminate one of the delay settings (5 is really more than needed anyway). If you make pin 2 the "off" position, you could make pin 3 the first delay setting and pin 1 the wash setting. The only drawback is that it would not be momentary. Another solution would be to add washers to the turn signal lever. I am running Ron Francis wiring tilt and turn signal levers with push buttons. The turn signal lever is the high/ low beam switch for the headlights and the tilt lever is the "set" button for my cruise control. You can see the push buttons on the end of the levers in this photo:

If you want a more original look, you could use a factory cutlass cruise control turn signal lever to activate the washers as well. I used the 98 camaro wiper motor because I used a totaled 98 Z28 as my starting point. I actually bought the camaro before I bought my vista and originally planned to LS swap one of my chevelle wagons, but I liked the vista so much that the plan changed. I used the PCM, harness, short block, trans, cruise control, and wiper motor from the camaro along with a few other things. I was also running the 12 inch camaro disc brakes front and rear on the vista before I tore it apart and put on Wilwoods. As far as the motor arm, the camaro motor parks using a multiple piece spring loaded arm that catches a small tab while reversing to bring the wipers the whole way down. The motor can be clocked to any position you want because the arm bolts onto a splined shaft. The position of the metal tab on the mount will determine where the wipers park. The ball on the new arm and the ball on the original arm were slightly different and I had to play with the radius to get the sweep I was after as well so I welded the end of the old arm with the ball on it to the main portion of the new arm.
-Tom

 

Great custom work !