So it begins.......

[WIS89]

Tucker-

Tino's a magician! I really admire the work he is doing, and your gauges are going to look awesome!!

I don't know if I could choose between the awesome choices he has put together...

Thanks for the updates on your build; it's looking great.

Regards,

Steve

[tucker298]

Finally! Home! Came home to a nice present with a message from the wife..... Finish you're car.





Spent the first day with the family, the second day I was able to get out to the garage under the guise of "cleaning" it and wanting to hang my picture, which I did but I really just wanted to start my list for finishing the go cart. Need to finish up some wiring and fix a leak in the coolant lines. Can't wait to hear her start up again!

Looks like I have room for a few more motivational posters on the wall...... If only there was a local GTM around NC that I could grab a picture of mmmmmm

[The Stig]

Excellent!!! Welcome home Brent!!!

We're happy to know that you back home safely, and with your family.

And Thank You!

Mike

[beeman]

Welcome back and thank you very much for your service!
Your garage looks like a great place to build a car, and just hang out in general, now I think I need a TV out in the shop!

[RumRunner]

Welcome home Brent. I've missed those phone calls!

Now get to work!

-Michael

[SteveE]

Welcome back home, no its time to get back to work and keep the updates and pics flowing.

Thanks for your service

Steve

[LCD Gauges]

You need the / in the last tag

[LCD Gauges]

Removed for test

[tucker298]

[tucker298]

So coolant leaks are all fixed! She fired right up after 5 months and most of that winter. That red top battery did its job.
Got a few things to tighten up wiring wise. Plus I want to get the LCD gauges up and running and then I believe it's go cart time! I'll be going on a cruise soon and then I already have to go out of town for work but the beginning of April I have a full week off to get this thing really going! The updates will be flowing soon!

[tucker298]

I did row through the first three gears in the transmission, seems really .... Gummed up, and I tend to think its the cable shifter not the transmission. Any fixes for that? I don't believe I have any hard turns in the lines to kink it up.

[LCD Gauges]

I did row through the first three gears in the transmission, seems really .... Gummed up, and I tend to think its the cable shifter not the transmission. Any fixes for that? I don't believe I have any hard turns in the lines to kink it up.

I notice that mine is a bit sluggish during the Winter season. I'm not sure if the fluid is impeding the internals, and/or the shift cables themselves are prone to extra drag due to the cold weather.

[The Stig]

My car sat for quite a long time from when I drove it (slowly) around my neighborhood, until a week ago when I drove it a little harder. I noticed that getting into 2nd gear was really tough. It almost would not go in. After I drove up and down the access street a couple of times, and the temps came up to normal operating temps, it loosened up nicely and shifted fine.

One thing that I would suggest, (and you may have already done this), is to put some sort of heat barrier around your shift cables, and keep them as far from the headers as possible. The Plastic sheathing will melt, and when it cools can add a lot of friction/resistance to the cables. This has been noted in the past, (I believe by Spytech) but it has been at least 2 or 3 years since I've seen anyone else mention any problems with it.

Mike

[WIS89]

Welcome home brother! I like the video; little man seems happy! Although I think the noise surprised him a bit...

I look forward to the upcoming updates. Keep at it. The weather is going to turn and stay warm here in NC very soon. Just watch the pollen, as it will get on and into everything.

Glad you are home safely, and good luck on the car's progress!

Regards,

Steve

[tucker298]

So I'm trying to finish up all the wiring before I go kart it and ultimately put the body on. I've made it no secret that the electrical part of the build is my weakness. So I'll reach out here and just see what you guys have to say about some of the AC wiring. I do have a friend that can come over and help but I'd like to have most of the simple answers taken care of so I make the most of his time.

the two plugs that come out of the "brain" of the vintage air are a 5 wire multicolor plug that plugs right into the Environment module from infinity box but the other is a simple two wire plug, its just a black and red wire which i assume I just have to splice the two wires: black to chassis ground and red to some sort of 12v power, anyone please chime in if you think differently? maybe i can splice them directly in the red and black wires of the can bus wires?


luckily i labeled two of these wires before i left, back when i thought i had the AC wiring figured out lol but i have since forgotten it. These wires come right off the vintage air wiring harness. The violet I'm near certain is properly labelled "ignition" so i'll splice that into the ignition wire from the ECU harness i got from spear tech, the green one is labeled " heater control" with should go the two wire module i got from crash in his heater bypass kit, correct me if I'm wrong crash but those two wires are power and ground and it doesn't matter which one is connected to which? the third wire is light blue and its not labeled and i think it goes to the AC switch that controls the temp? but since i'm controlling the temp from the tablet via wifi i'm not sure where this goes.


this one i haven't figured out yet, its just a loose grey wire, any thoughts?


and finally this green wire is from the spear tech ECU harness, its clearly labeled AC compressor but not sure which wire that is on the AC wiring harness?


yes i realize i'm kinda hitting the easy button by putting this out here on the forum I could make phone calls to both vintage air and infinity box but I also wanted future builders to be able to have access to this info incase they are wanting to know the same thing. THANKS!

[TomV]

Fun read, thanks for posting

[tucker298]

well i'll update those posts about the AC wiring when i get them figured out!

[tucker298]

look what came in the mail!



pretty excited to get rid of this wiring mess


just rigged up a tablet holder to hold it in place while I'm getting her go kart ready


and just used some sticky velcro to hold these two black brackets down on the frame and used another strip of sticky sided velcro to hold the box onto those metal pieces. Just a quick set up that seems to work while i get the system up and running


and couldn't help but to fire it up real quick just to see it

[tucker298]

already called Tino with some really simple questions about the system to make sure i had a grasp on the product. I'm not the most tech savvy person but i'm also not completely tech illiterate and this is a pretty straight forward system to install i believe. I'm sure it'll still require a few phone calls to get it fully installed and working but the good news is the person that designed the whole system is only a phone call away and is more than willing to answer all your questions........ Tino, thanks for the time you've already given me to start this install off right.

[beeman]

I'm really looking forward to how the gauges look when you're done

[LCD Gauges]

Thanks Brent,

I need you as much as you need me right now - maybe more. You're helping me iron out the bugs in my process and improve my User Manual quality.

It's a surreal feeling to see these photos online from hundreds of miles away. I was tracking the parcel since dropping it off last week
and hoping everything arrived in good order. I'm probably more excited than you, if you can imagine that!

Thank you for being the first to dive into the madness and try out this system!

I'll be sending you some updates over the next few days in preparation for our talk on Saturday.

[tucker298]

so is my camber off? lol

[tucker298]

was a GOOD day in the garage and out of the garage! The car was having issues starting up, it would start eventually and would sputter a little and then it would smooth out and idle and rev just fine. So I called my trusty mechanic friend Tyler to come over and hook it up to his computer. The RPM's wasn't reading in his software and it has never read right in my gauges, and some thing was a miss so he at some point asked if my crank sensor was hooked up, to which i told him of course it was! He then said yeah it must be or else it wouldn't start up at all. after a few more minutes of problem shooting he said you know what I can't shake it and I have to check your crank sensor, it was connected ........ to the wrong plug on the oil pan!!! he switched it to the right plug and immediately the engine started right up!!! fire up really quick! just jumped to life when I hit the start button, that made me so happy because nothing says amateur like an engine that struggles to start!

with that fixed and ensuring all wires and cooling was sufficient it was time..... i put wheels on her and pulled her out of the garage! big milestone achieved! i didn't go far though because i soon realized that first gear was NOT first gear but third gear and I couldn't move the shifter far enough over to reach first..... it would bottom out on metal shifter body first. So i found a document online on how to calibrate the shifter and hopefully that will solve that!

i wasn't able to finish up the LCD gauge system from procision auto due to time constraints but I'm getting there, maybe next weekend I can get the gauges and the trans figured out! i'm getting sooooooooo close!

[Presto51]

Congratulations. Nothing beats reaching certain mile stones like this when building your dream.

Very happy for you.

Ron

[tucker298]

just trudging along on the build, not getting a lot of time in the garage but getting important things done when i do get back there, so i finally got the shifter calibrated. Not real happy with the length or placement of the brackets because my adjustments are maxed at each end to get my shifter properly aligned for the left and right.

this is the back adjustment by the transaxle, notice the amount of threads on one side of the bracket


and this is the adjustment point by the shifter, also adjusted all the way out


but the good news is i finally found reverse and backed it out of the driveway and was able to put it in first gear with it properly adjusted

[tucker298]

and what are people doing with this bracket thats loose and hanging on the steering wheel shaft?

[hwoods864]

and what are people doing with this bracket thats loose and hanging on the steering wheel shaft?

You need to secure it to the frame or the steering shaft will want to pivot around the steering joints.

[beeman]

Are you using the telescoping steering shaft?

http://www.ffcars.com/forums/42-fact...ng-column.html

[tucker298]

no, its not a telescoping steering shaft...... that I know of lol

thanks for that link!

[tucker298]

inching ever so closer to finishing up the go kart stage, starting to finally accept that the wiring is almost done and all the wires in the tunnel and the rear of the car are set and can be cleaned up. The only loose ends to the wiring s in the dash and the AC and all those wires are run, they just need to be hooked up accordingly. Also i did a little heat management in the tunnel with some insulation on the pipes and then some header wrap over that. I had a roll of header wrap that I bought and ended up not needing it sooooo I used it!

heres the pic of earlier today..... just a mess



and here it is cleaned up and insulated and wires stuffed into a wire loom.

[RoadRacer]

Much tidier!

[tucker298]

a lot of little things that i've wanted to fix for so long ,like zip ties holding all my wiring to the frame, has finally come to an end! I'm glad i waited until the very end like this or I can't even imagine how many times I would've have to re-do the wiring but alas the time has come. No more zip ties holding wires and coolant lines onto the frame!
[URL=http://s822.photobucket.com/user/tucker0298/media/up1.jpg.html]
[/URL

[LCD Gauges]

That looks great; that is also on my 'tidy up' list once my million other distractions allow me some time!

What I want more are those sexy red arrows. What program are you using to generate those graphics?

[tucker298]

besides finally cleaning up and making the wiring permanent, I finally found a better way to run all the different accessories that require power from the ignition wire and it was sitting at auto zone, a six cell fuse block and it mounts perfectly under the dash! Just run one wire from the ignition into the box and now i have six options for power and all fused.

[tucker298]

now i can easily power some of the lower amperage things like the rearview camera, the USB charger and the rearview mirror display.

the pic doesn't do the rear view mirror justice, its very clear! and it has driver and passenger positioned interior lights under it as an added bonus

[tucker298]

tomorrow is going to be a GTM-errific day! going to see some car at a car show ...... its been being built for so long it even has its own nickname..... Pandora. Very excited to see my first GTM that isn't in my garage in pieces and I'm dragging the whole family with me on the 2 hour drive, the wife and four kids.

Then I'm coming back home to set the cars alignment and camber, and attempt to finish the wiring for the AC. With all of this within reach I'm starting to think I might get the body on this month!

[beeman]

Great updates... Keep building! Looks great!
Take some pics at the show, I'd be there if I was closer

[tucker298]

Tino,

It's just an app on my iPhone, it's called Captions pm. I just take the pic with my phone, open the pic in the app put the sticker ( arrow in this case) on it then save the new pic, then email it to myself, open the email on my laptop, save it, upload it to photo bucket, then post it on the forum...... wow its a lot of work updating a thread lol

[LCD Gauges]

Oh man, I love you! This may be the answer to my steering shaft interference! I saw the bearing laying
around and didn't know where it went. Maybe it's shown in the FFR manual, but I'll admit...my attention
span for that manual has been short.

Hopefully I haven't thrown out the part that you're showing in the photo below (on the steering shaft).

up5.jpg

[tucker298]

Yesterday was a great day! Finally met Mike after many interactions online and he couldn't have been any nicer! He politely answered my 300 questions and let me look at the most random places on his car to see where things were placed on his build. If you didn't know any better a on looker would have thought i was inspecting his car for the show lol. I really liked the subtle changes that were made to the body i.e. extending the corners of the hood a few inches back for better flow and to cover the merging body pieces and of course his window seals are OEM looking as it gets. The rear hatch from Jason really does stand out in person and looks great as the car flows back to his body painted rear wing. Just a classy combination of parts and color choices put together exceptionally well.

This is me and Mike hanging out on the windiest day of the year! lol notice how dark the car can be without direct sunlight


and when the sun comes out look how blue it can get, I really love the paint choice for his car! please excuse the selfie style pic lol and thats Mike in the background doing what he did all day and will do all weekend... answer ALOT of questions about his car and to be blunt about it, most of the questions were the same as the last guys and must wear him out at some point ....... like "hey whats this car?", "what chases is it built on....... no, like is it a corvette frame?", "whats a factory five?" over and over. Not sure I could answer the same questions 500 times a day, Mike you're a saint!



and just another pic to show how onlookers admired the car all day.