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I remember as a kid when the words "made in Japan" were equivalent to the current phrase "Chinesium". It's really sad that we don't find "made in the USA" on many products anymore.
I remember as a kid when the words "made in Japan" were equivalent to the current phrase "Chinesium". It's really sad that we don't find "made in the USA" on many products anymore.
Our politicians have given away our manufacturing prowess and all that goes with it. We're done. Right now they are looting the country. It's almost over.
I happy to report that the SKF wheel bearings solved my end play issue and I now have a functioning parking with the installation of new parking brake shoes, pads and rotors. I had to reroute the brake lines on the axles to clear the tailpipes while I had to car up in the air. Moving the mounting clip where the hard line transitioned to the rubber hose further outboard because it was rubbing on the tailpipe going over bumps. Now I'm fighting with leaking caliper hoses. Tried some new copper crush washers but they did not have ridges like the originals ones. I'm going to take off the calipers next weekend to remove the paint around the banjo bolts, also read on the web about reheating the copper washers to soften them up before reassembly. Here's a question for the CO brain trust; if I'm reusing the original AC Delco crush washers (with the ridges), should the ridges face outward toward the caliper and bolt or face inward toward the hose boss?? Thanks
Rodney
New wheel bearings, rotors, pads and parking brake shoes.
Leaking caliper hose. Going to try different crush washers.
The original AC Delco washers on the left have concentric ridges which the parts store replacements do not. I'm going to try reheating the AC Delco washers to soften them up for better sealing.
I finally got the rear calipers to stop dripping; the solution was new banjo bolts and crush washers and alot of muscle. It seemed like I would tighten the banjo bolts and they would drip, so I would tighten again and they would drip; after three iterations of this the drips finally stopped. With each subsequent tightening I would find the banjo bolts could be turned further, I guess the copper washers needed to compress between tightenings until they finally seated. I need to do a few more panic stops to dial back the rear calipers. With the current proportioning valve settings I have the rear pressure reduced about 30% and the rear wheels just barely want to lock up if the road surface is wet or uneven. I calculate the front-to-back brake bias to be 71:29 F-R. The car is very stable in a panic stop, very controlled, but I'd like a little more bite as the pedal travel is about 1/3 down before feeling the brakes start to work. I have Hawk HPS pads on the front with µF=.38; Hawk makes an HPS 5.0 pad with a µF=.44 which I might try for more stopping force.
I moved on to my crooked steering wheel issue. I had been moving the car around with an old beat-up steering wheel; I removed the horn pad so I could quickly remove the wheel to facilitate working on the dash and instrument wiring. When I tried to install the sport wteering wheel, I aligned the tick marks on the wheel to the tick mark on the steering column shaft and found the wheel was cocked a 1/4 turn to the right. I had centered the steering gear when I reassembled the front steering linkage and the pitman arm will only go on the steering gear at 90-degree intervals (which my misalignment was not great enough for this to be the problem. I discovered I had in correctly attached the intermediate shaft between the rag joint and the steering column. There is a small indentation on the steering column shaft that aligns with the coupling on the intermediate shaft. I happy to report that after realigning these two my steering wheel is now correctly centered. This took me less than 30-minutes to correct; I'll take the easy fixes any day of the week!
Next up: installing the cancel cam, horn contacts and the sport wheel. Once the horn is working I can get the state mandated vehicle inspection and a valid registration so I can "legally" drive the car.
Rodney
The steering column is on the bottom of this pic. The indentation allows the bolt to feed thru the coupler on the intermediate shaft.
I had some time yesterday after I got home from work, so I thought I'd reinstall the steering wheel, but first, I had to swap out the ignition key cylinder. Back in 2019, I had Jim from GMtilt build me a tilt steering column, but the key didn't match any other locks on the car. I tried to find a local locksmith that could re key my door cylinders to match the ignition key, but struck out. I really wanted one key for the doors and ignition so I bought a package set that included the ignition cylinder and the door cylinders all keyed to the square GM ignition key. With the steering wheel already off, I quickly pulled the turn signal switch and swapped out the ignition cylinder - easy peasy!
Then it happened, my screw driver slipped while reinstalling the locking ring and I broke the cancel cam for the horn button. Duh! Do you ever feel like there are forces at play behind the scenes conspiring against completion of your project? I jumped online, couldn't find one on Amazon that wasn't stupid expensive; surfed over to RockAuto, they have a Dorman replacement part but will take a week for delivery; I tried O'Reilly Auto and they could have it shipped to a store for next day pick up and it was half the price quoted on Amazon. Win!!
Hopefully, I can get the steering wheel back on tonight!
O'Reilly came through for me; I picked up the cancel cam yesterday after work and reassembled the steering column last night before the big storm hit H-town and knocked out the power. A permanent steering wheel and working horn are welcomed additions to my checklist of completed tasks. Next up, replace the high beam head light bulbs, then get the state mandated vehicle inspection.
Rodney
Dorman #83232 cancelling cam; this part number does not fit standard steering columns, only tilt columns.
I got the locking plate and the snap ring on (without breaking the cancel cam).
All buttoned up ready for the steering wheel.
The final product: centered steering wheel, new ignition cylinder keyed to match the door locks, and a sport wheel with working horn!
According to the great state of Texas, the car is officially legal to drive on the public roads! I don't know why they gave me an April dated sticker, obviously, it's May almost June; but it's kind of fitting as I brought the car home from its previous home (a West Texas cornfield) on April 1, 2012. Yes, that's right, 14 years in the making. I wish I could say it was completely finished but I still have a few lingering interior items and the convertible top needs to be installed. I should take it to the upholstery shop in a week or two for the top install. I took the family for ice cream at Baskin Robbins last night to celebrate the occasion.
FYI, no ice cream was consumed inside the vehicle - LOL.
Congrats! Go ahead and just accept that "it's never finished" now.
I highly recommend looking at the Antique registration. Enforcement of the limitations is extremely sparse. Year Of Make is also nice and license plates can be found fairly easily. I had to explain what was happening to the clerk and they had to find a supervisor, but it went pretty smoothly. Also lets you use a single license plate on the back and a small plate with the small sticker instead of the windshield sticker.
Congrats Rodney (check your math) I don't think it's 2026 yet, give yourself a break it's only 12 years not 14
Tim:
You cracked me up when I realized my math error. It definitely feels like 14 years - LOL; and will probably be 14 years before I finish the lingering interior items. Anyways, thanks for brightening my day.
I've put about 60 miles on the car since becoming street legal and I'm happy to report the car is super fun to drive. Lots of pep thanks to the 3.42 rear gear and the steeper first gear of TH200-4r transmission. By my calculations, the effective starting gear is 9.37:1 which is comparable to a TH350 with 3.73 rear gearing. All my previous Oldsmobiles were basically stock with a little performance; never had a car with headers, or a lumpy cam, or high horsepower, so I'm very pleased with the outcome of my 12-year long pursuit of motoring happiness, The transmission needs some tweaking; down shifts are much too hard, the car really hammers into first gear when slowing down, the OD/lock-up engagement is too sensitive to throttle input and the 8 sec delay on the lock-up convertor is way too long. I'm gonna try a 4 sec delay on the lock-up engagement relay and will adjust unlocking sensitivity using the vacuum switch. For the overly hard shifts I plan to take the car to Century Automotive which built the transmission to see what they can do.
The car handles like its on rails. I installed some aftermarket upper control arms from SPC and tall ball joints from Howe Racing to alter the pathetic stock camber curve in the front suspension. The steering is very quick thanks to the 12.7:1 fixed ratio Saginaw steering gear. The power assist is way too much and would feel better if it was heavier with more road feedback; I could drive this car with one finger it's so light. Some day when I don't have bigger fish to fry I may pull the gear box and have the torsion rods changed to reduce the power assist. The car has a tendency to oversteer; once you get going in a turn it wants to stay in the turn. With all the improvements to the front suspension geometry I think I need a smaller rear sway bar. I have an 1-1/4 tubular front bar and a 1-1/8" rear bar; both bars are from Hellwig. The rear bar is adjustable and I currently have it set at the softest setting, but I will need to make a change to the rear bar for more predictable handling in the corners.
Another significant revelation after putting a few real world miles on the car is the exhaust is really loud. My family is too embarrassed to even ride in the car. I love the throaty tone of the DynoMax Super Turbo mufflers and there is no droning at cruising speeds, but the second I put my foot into the gas pedal it just screams "give me a ticket"! It's already gonna be a cop magnet, I don't need any extra attention from law enforcement. I started another thread to discuss alternative muffler choices, thank you to everyone who shared their experiences in that thread, but I was surprised to hear from the experiences of others that I would not likely find a quieter muffler than the Super Turbo mufflers I have on the car now. The best suggestion was to add straight-thru resonators to quiet it down a little.
On the advice of CO member CMCE (don't know his given name) I've purchased a pair of Vibrant 1792 resonators which are small enough and short enough to graft them into the tailpipes behind the rear wheels. The Vibrant resonators are only 4" in diameter & 12" long and should fit nicely in the space along the trunk drop down area. I kinda wish they weren't polished so shiney (I'd rather they be less visible) but not much should hang below the quarter panel so maybe they won't show as much as I think. I plan to work on this project tomorrow and will post some installation pics this weekend.
I have a C5 Corvette with the same problem. It's fairly quiet but when you stick it, it is like open headers. I never have liked loud cars. Not sure about your fix to the situation. Myself, I would have changed the stock location mufflers. Never been crazy about the resonators in that location as you have suggested, they don't look right. Great work and happy motoring! It's been a looong road for you.
I installed the LH side resonator last night and snapped a few pics of the install. I was able to tuck them up high enough that they really won't be seen from a standing gaze. Got up early this morning and finished the RH side and took her for a short ride. I can't stop grinning, I'm so happy with the sound. I have to give a hardy "thank you" to CO member CMCE for his suggestion to add the resonators; they certainly did the trick. The car still has the throaty, rumble I loved without the resonators; when I put my foot into it it still gets louder but it's easily half as loud as before. I would describe the sound as more refined, still gives the impression of power without drawing too much attention. I can actually hear other mechanical sounds coming from the car now which were completely masked by the loud exhaust before. I did pickup a little "droning" sound under light throttle, but it's not intrusive and still no significant drone at cruising speeds.
Rodney
Inside the resonator; straight through with damping material around a perforated inner pipe.
Undercarriage shot. I installed a hanger at the front of the resonator to support the weight. They are definitely heavier than the tailpipe. I had to cut reliefs into the flanges of the resonator so the band clamps could squeeze down enough; the joints would not get tight without the relief cuts.
Tucked up nicely into the trunk drop-off. I rotated all the clamps so the nut was above the pipes; all you see from the bottom is the smooth metal bands.
I've been getting all the glass and the convertible top frame aligned before sending the car to the trim shop to install the convertible top. Today, I'm fabricating two spacer sticks to align the center bow. The Fisher Body manual gives instructions on how to assemble this spacer on page 12-4, but the manual does specify the correct spacing of the center bow. I'm hoping someone with a convertible could measure their car to provide me with this measurement. Here's some pics of the spacer stick and the needed measurement:
Rodney
This is the measurement I need.
This is the spacer stick built to the Fisher Body manual specs on page 12-4.
The spacer stick is used to align the center bow to the rear bow when installing the side pads.
I bought some U-shaped rubber strips to install the quarter window sash chrome, but they were too wide to fit inside the chrome channels. Sometimes I wonder if these manufacturers even try to make parts that work. I did some internet searching and discovered that most people were using a glass setting material call Sealstrip for this application. I picked some up from a local glass shop that was 1/16" thick but couldn't get it slide over the glass, even with a little heat it was just too thick. The local shop didn't stock thinner material, but offered to order me a 100ft. roll for $75; only need 16" per side. Now that I knew what I was looking for I returned to the internet and found an eBay supplier selling 5ft. rolls in 1/32" thickness for $10, so I promptly order a roll from Classic Industries Auto Parts Store on eBay.
It's important to clean out all of the old setting material from the sash channels. I found a little rust in a few spots so treated those with a rust convertor followed by a generous coating of flat black Rustoleum paint. The Sealstrip material is a bit tacky but using the square end of a pair of Chinese take-out chop sticks was just the right width to push the setting tape fully inside the channel. With a rubber mallet and a little heat from my heat shrink gun, the sashes slid on with minimal effort. I trimmed the excess off with a razor blade for a seamless fit.
Here's some pics:
Rodney
This is the U-channel sold by D&R Classic Auto, advertised to fit Chevelle, GTO & Camaro but won't even fit inside the chrome sash channel.
I bought this from Classic Industries Auto Parts Store on eBay. 1/32" thickness, 5ft. roll.
By comparison, this is the 1/32" Sealstrip material tucked nicely inside.
Following this thread with interest for years. So much good info, but had to comment on this one because I went through the same thing with my 1/4 windows and gave up after wasting a set of aftermarket channels trying to make things fit. Will follow your lead and use the Classic Industries strip. Thanks for all the effort you put into sharing what you’ve learned as you progress!
I installed the quarter window seals by placing the tape along the leading edge of the glass, then pushed the trim into place over the tape. That way the trim fit snugly without bunching up the tape.
I've been putting a few miles on the car since getting the tags and inspection sticker. The car gets lots of attention when I'm out-n-about, even got the "does it have the 442 engine?" question once, but thank God, no one has mistaken it for a Chevelle-lol! One thing that has not met my expectations is the braking performance. The stopping performance was good, just not "throw you into the windshield" good, and no matter how hard I tried, I could not lock up the front brakes. I had re-bleed the front brakes several times looking for air entrapment in the system but never got any bubbles. I'm running early 2000-era C5 calipers and rotors on the front with 13" rotors but the dual 1.6" dia pistons of the C5 calipers are much smaller than the 2.9" single piston calipers that the car was born with. To compensate for the smaller caliper size and to increase line pressure, I selected a 1" master cylinder and a dual 9" vacuum booster when I assembled the brake system. This all looks good on paper but the real word performance left me wanting more.
Looking for more brake force, I looked closely at the brake pedal arm. The brake pedal under the dash has two mounting holes drilled in the lever arm: one is for manual drum brakes with a ratio of approximately 6.8:1; the other hole has less mechanical advantage with a ratio of approx. 3.4:1 for power brake cars that used the 11" vacuum booster. To get a little more pedal pressure to the master cylinder, I drilled an additional hole in the brake pedal arm positioned in between the two stock holes. The new hole has an approx. ratio of 5:1 for a 13% improvement over the previously used power brake position. Although this was a step in the right direction, I still could not lock up the front brakes. I thought about using the manual hole on the brake pedal arm, but the additional mechanical leverage comes at the expense of extended pedal travel, and my new 5:1 hole was almost too much pedal travel. A lot of guys running aftermarket or re-purposed braking components will install a hydro-boost set-up that uses the power steering pressure for brake assist. These systems are known for "throw you into the windshield" performance, but I really didn't welcome the thought of replacing the vacuum booster/master cylinder and re-plumbing all the brake lines and the power steering hoses, etc. I decided I needed some empirical data before I threw the baby out with the bath water in my pursuit of better stopping times. I needed to confirm the line pressure at the calipers before deciding on a path forward. So, I spent about $30 on Amazon for a 2" pressure gauge and some pipe fittings which I crafted into a brake pressure gauge that screws into the M10 bleeder hole on the C5 caliper. With this gauge I confirmed the actual line pressure at the caliper. With moderate foot pressure at the brake pedal I measured 800-900 psi at the caliper; pressing as hard as possible I measured line pressures of 1300-1500 psi at the caliper, which is much higher than I expected and these pressure readings fell within the design range for the C5 brake system.
After confirming the line pressure at the caliper, I shifted my focus to pad formulation looking for more bite from the pads. I was running an HPS street pad from Hawk Performance with a friction coefficient of µF=.38. I found a newer Hawk pad formulation called HPS 5.0 with a higher µF=.44 and similar thermal and dusting specs as the previous HPS pads. The new pads increased the brake performance another 19%; combined with the pedal modification the total improvement is 32% better than where I started. After bedding in the new pads, I'm happy to report I can finally lock up the front brakes with nice modulation/pedal feel and the pedal travel is not excessive. Now I need to find a safe place to make repetitive panic stops to adjust the front to rear brake bias using the proportioning valve on the rear brake line.
Here's some pics:
Rodney
I drilled a "3rd" hole in between the manual hole at the top and the power hole at the bottom.
This is the brake pressure gauge I assembled with parts found on Amazon.com. The fitting at the end of the 1/8" pipe is an adapter that screws directly into the bleeder hole of the C5 caliper.
The HPS pads (blue box) have a µF=.38; the HPS 5.0 pads (red box) have a µF=.44
Haven’t had much time to work on the car the past few months; the usual life/work interferences; I had to move my daughter into a new apartment, shower pan started leaking in my master bath which has lead to remodeling 2 bathrooms & the master bedroom at the same time. But back to the car. I’ve been chasing air fuel ratio issues with the Fitech EFI; rough idle, rich mixture, poor acceleration. I bought a replacement O2 sensor for the EFI and a dedicated wideband gauge to sort out the rich AF mixture but haven’t found the garage time to install either one. I’ve been looking for someone to help with the Fitech tuning, pretty much no one wants to work on these things, so I joined a Fitech Facebook group looking for some support there but most of the time it seemed like the blind leading the blind with most posts just people ranting about how their Fitech ran good for XX years then just died one day.
So I took advantage of Holley’s holiday sales after Thanksgiving and purchased a TerminatorX system with the Stealth throttle body. Of course, I couldn’t put the credit card away for too long as the decision to switch to the Terminator will require an MSD 6A ignition box and a different distributor (for timing control). The new MSD distributor has a .500” diameter shaft (my current distributor has the smaller .491” shaft) so now I need a new composite gear for my roller cam, the Stealth throttle body requires 2 fuel connections (the Fitech has a single port) so a few more AN fittings, the wiring connections/fuses are completely different from the Fitech and will require reworking the engine harness, and I haven’t even started working out the throttle bracket for the accelerator cable and TV cable for TH200-4r, pretty sure the current bracket is not going to fit the Holley throttle body without modifications.
After receiving the Terminator kit I started working out the installation details. First order of business was to find a suitable location for the ECU. Most people install the ECU inside the car but I didn’t want to bury it behind the glovebox and wanted it to be accessible for the diagnostics LEDs on the outside of the housing. I fabricated a shock-mounted bracket to tuck it inside the drivers side front fender beside the battery. I mounted the MSD 6A box on the plastic fender liner below the custom auxiliary fuse box. The Holley wiring harness is a universal design which uses short pigtail extensions to adapt to various installation options. I think these additional connectors create more possible failure points. So I opened the Holley harness and de-pinned the universal connectors and wired just what was needed for my installation. The MSD distributor only has a magnetic pickup inside (no HEI module, etc.) as all the timing events will be handled by the Terminator ECU. I twisted the distributor pickup wires while I had the Holley harness open to prevent signal degradation and possible interference. I will also extract the external fuses & relay and hard wire them into the custom auxiliary fuse panel.
The TerminatorX has input & output options that the Fitech did not. I’m still digging into all the things I could do with this new capability, but at the moment I’m considering using the Terminator I/O to control the AC compressor, an emissions vapor purge valve, and possibly PWM radiator fan control. I’ll expand on these more in a later post. Here's some pics.
Rodney
I pulled the spark plugs to read the AF mixture; they all seem to be rich. Not sure whats going on with cylinder #3, looks a bit fouled. This is the first time to pull the plugs since engine break-in. Could it be caused by poor ring sealing during break-in?
Close up of #8 spark plug.
This is the location I chose to mount the ECU.
I fabricated this bracket from 16 ga metal construction plates you can buy at Home Depot.
The bracket bolts to the fender and core support through rubber isolation mounts. The ECU is mounted on rubber washers as well for additional vibration protection.
The hole at the lower RH corner of the ECU will mount the master fuse in the Holley power harness.
This is the de-pinned ignition connector with the twisted distributor pickup wiring. The other wires are heat-shrinked and folded back into the harness.
Terminator ECU nestled inside the fender with the MSD 6A box mounted to the plastic fender liner. The ECU is mounted at a slight angle so the diagnostic LEDs are visible on the top.
I've been working on wiring tasks in preparation for the Terminator-X EFI install that is coming soon. One of the things I discovered when searching for a more dependable EFI set-up was the I/O capabilities of the Holley EFI systems. Even the stripped down Terminator-X has 4 inputs and 4 outputs that can be configured to control or respond to a myriad of things; the most important to me is an AC compressor cut and variable cooling fans using pulse width modulation (PWM). Currently, I'm using a stand alone PWM fan controller sold under the name AutoCool. It's a cottage industry kind of business run by a guy named Daryl (that name always makes me think of the 2nd Newhart TV show). After a few snafus getting it set-up properly, the fan controller has worked without fault, keeping the engine temps rock solid. The benefit of the PWM fan controller is variable speed can respond to smaller changes in the engine temp; whereas a relay can only turn on and off at a preset thresholds allowing the temp to fluctuate between the 2 set points. Another benefit of PWM control is lower current draw when the fans turn on. The start-up current using relays can be very large and creates a big power draw on the alternator. My biggest beef with the AutoCool controller is the temperature probe; it's designed to slip between the lower radiator hose at the outlet port. I always thought this was a bit sketchy and could be a potential failure point.
The Holley Terminator-X has outputs that can be configured as PWM and can be mapped to the engine temp without the need for the radiator hose probe. Next I searched on RockAuto for a straightforward OEM PWM fan controller capable of handing the current load of my twin 13" Spal fans; I prefer using OEM designed parts for dependability and availability. The Spal fans each draw about 15A at steady state so 30A minimum, 40A would be better for a little margin. It's important to note, the start-up current of the Spal fans is over 30A each for a combined load of 60A; with PWM the start-up current should be less than 3A and will gradually increase as the controller speeds up. After a hour or so on the RockAuto website I found 2007 Dodge/Chrysler minivans use PWM for fan control and use a stand alone fan control module (Chrysler calls it a solid state fan relay - SSFR) that is fused at 40A; this should do the trick. The Chrysler PN is 68023333AA, Dorman makes a replacement part that includes the connector with pigtails; Dorman PN 902-310. Next step, bench test that it functions as expected.
To that end, I rigged up a short harness using a salvaged 12v muffin fan removed from an old computer case. This will be fine for a proof-of-concept test, but I will need to perform a second test using the Spal fans to verify current handling. I bought the Dorman part on Amazon for $27 and a $9 PWM generator and wired up the test harness. The Chrysler fan controller has 4 pins: large pin1=battery feed to the fan module, large pin2=output to the fans, small pin3=PWM ground, and small pin 4=PWM negative control signal. The Amazon PWM generator is positively pulsed, the Terminator PWM output is negatively pulsed so the duty cycle during the test is reversed; 100% duty cycle=12v turns the fans OFF, 0% duty cycle=0v turns the fans ON. Once the testing is complete I will mount the fan controller on the LH side of the core support between the radiator and the grilles. The video clip is in the attachments below. Here's some pics and a short video of the bench test.
Rodney
This is the AutoCool fan controller.
This pic shows the temp probe for the AutoCool fan controller is sandwiched between the radiator hose and the outlet port.
My bench-top test rig.
This is the $9 Amazon PWM generator. I started the fans at 20% duty cycle (the polarity is reverse so the generator shows 80%).
The Chrysler fan controller from Dorman comes with a 4-pin pigtail connector.
Last edited by cdrod; Jan 19, 2025 at 11:37 AM.
Reason: Add video
Very cool research!
I gave up and just shelled out for the new Derale unit with fans with integrated PWM controllers. Mainly because I found one in the Summit Discount Depot. Looked like someone tried to bench test it but didn't understand how the controls worked.
If you've been following my build thread over these many years, I installed bucket seats from a M3 BMW because they offered an integral, 3-point seat belt and I wanted to incorporate the same safety enhancement for the rear passengers. I tried several retractors from various makes & models without success. The inertia-locking mechanism in the seat belt retractors is very sensitive to their mounting orientation. I was about to give up on the search when I stumbled upon rear seat belt retractors from 2010 era Camaro convertibles. I had tried retractors from the coupe models but couldn't work out the mounting issues as the coupes mount the retractors in the C-pillars and retrofitting them into my convertible just wasn't working. The convertible versions were designed to be mounted to the rear deck behind the back seat and they attached in a flat, level orientation. So I picked up a couple of these on eBay and worked out the mounting in the 442 convertible. Here's some pics of my efforts.
Rodney
This is the retractor from 2010-2015 Camaro convertible.
I mounted the retractors in the trunk, behind the convertible top well. These mounting pads were fabricated from 1/8" plate steel and carefully plug-welded thru the trunk floor to the floor brace below for strength. There is a 1/2"-13NC nut welded to the under side of the brace to mount the retractor.
The retractors have a guide pin in the front to prevent them from rotating and bolted down with a 1/2"-13NC bolt.
The other end of the retractor belt was secured to the inner rocker floor, below the hydraulic top rams. This location is very strong as there are several layers of metal "sandwiched" together at this point.
For additional strength, the mounting location was reinforced from below at the inner rocker pinchweld with a 1/8' steel washer. This washer was plug-welded thru the floor from above.
I may need to fabricated a guide where the seat belt crosses over the seat back. I'll work out these details when I get the seat cushions in the car.
I recently made some wiring changes to my audio system which required me to remove the passenger seat. I've been driving the car without the center console for almost 2 years now, so I decided it was high time I worked on the console. I started with a pretty banged up specimen; I replaced the top section from another salvaged console, removed the lock, the chrome/aluminum trim and the upper section before painting. I've had good results with SEM products and used the Landau Black color; I thoroughly washed the top and bottom pieces with dish soap using a small brush to deep clean inside the "grain" and, used the SEM plastic prep to degrease. I had a few scratches that were raised to the touch, so I lightly sanded them to take the edge off but not enough to diminish the grain pattern.
I've added quite a few creature comforts to this car as I've rebuilt it and the console was not immune from my mods. I added a dedicated USB jack inside the console for phone charging or other electronic power needs. I had to offset it slightly to provide clearance for the shift-indicator plate that slides below the woodgrain bezel. I used a DC-DC buck convertor to provide 5v power to the USB jack. I also wanted the console lid to be padded for elbow comfort. I had some toolbox liner material leftover that was about 1/8" thick; I used this to build up the top of the lid and will wrap it with black vinyl. I'll post a finished pic after I wrap the console lid. Here's some progress pics,
Rodney
This was the starting point - pretty rough.
I added a USB jack inside the console for charging needs.
I cut a piece of stiff felt for the bottom to cover the screw heads.
A shot of the USB jack inside the console compartment.
I used this closed-cell foam as padding for the console lid.
Using 3M 90 vinyl adhesive, I glued the foam to the console lid and carefully trimmed the edges to follow the curves. I didn't wrap the foam complete around the edges as I don't want the lid to look too wide.
Pic of the foam.
I had this vinyl piece laying around but it wasn't wide enough to fully cover the lid, but you get the idea of the end result.
The stock console connector is a 3-way packard 56; I used a 4-way to allow for the dedicated power to the USB jack.
I have a 200-4r OD transmission which modifies the shift detent plate to allow for the extra gear. I purchased this "slap shifter" detent plate from CO member Dane Jones.
I've been chasing a loose steering issue that has been getting worse; I only have 500 road miles on the car since the restoration. All the linkages seem tight, the idler arm check out OK; turns out the play is in the steering gear - see attached movie file. The frustrating part about this is I had a local rebuilder overhaul the original steering gear and pump back in 2014. I thought about returning it to him but opted instead to buy a reman unit from Lares to shorten the down time and lessen the chance the local rebuilder would do a bad job two times in a row.
One thing I discovered while under the car is the freeze plugs in the block have corrosion around the edges. I'm not sure what to think about this. Here's some pics.
Rodney
Installed a Lares 970 reman unit 3.25 turns lock-to-lock (approx 13:1 ratio vs. the stock 16:1).
The freeze plugs in the block all look like this. Should I be concerned?
Hmm, that freeze plug looks bad and has some leakage. For any EFI, do a stand alone power box like the Sniper 2 uses. Hopefully your Terminator X experience turns out better than mine. Tapping into 55 year old wiring no doubt caused my engine fire. My tune was finally getting there then my X Max **** the bed. I did find a dying cat which may have been causing some of the low speed off idle stalling. Good luck, you may need it.
