Matt's Gen2 65 Coupe Build Thread

[mtwarog]

I had my build thread on the other site, but now that I'm finished I decided that I'll duplicate the build thread on this site as well. I had posted my photos on photobucket, but now that they've eliminated 3rd party hosting, all the pictures don't show up, so I'm starting to slowly upload my pictures to the gallery here. That way the pictures will be with the site and hopefully will stay together with the build thread. It'll take a while to complete the process, but I figure if I do a little each day soon it will be finished. Bare with me and I apologize if it may seem funny when I write "today" for something that happened in the past, since a lot of this will be cut and paste.

We'll see how it works out and hopefully it will be helpful to people as their build their cars.

Thanks.
-Matt

[mtwarog]

In October 2013, my Dad, his friend and I took the 1.5 hour trip from Hubbardston, MA to Wareham, to take a tour of the Factory Five headquarters. A few weeks later I ordered up the 65 Coupe complete kit with IRS. In the time between when the kit was ordered and when I picked it up, I spent many hours reading this forum, ordering the Russ Thompson turn signal system and windows, mustang pedal box from Mike Everson, and steering rack and IRS and brakes from Mike Forte. Also spent time trying to understand the rules in MA on getting this car registered.

-Matt

[mtwarog]

January 4th, 2014 was the pickup date.

To prepare for the pickup, I modified my Dad's BigTex trailer by screwing in some scrap wooden trusses from our addition we built. Yes, the basement under the new addition will be where the coupe is being built. I added some plywood on the side and some old deck boards on the top that the car will rest on. By using the trusses I was able to build a nice deck for the car to rest on and be above the rails of the trailer.

My Dad came over around 7am and we hitched up the trailer to my truck. It was the coldest morning in a long time as temps were -9F at my house. On the ride down it hit -14F. We arrived at FFR around 9am and waited only a few minutes while they loaded someone in front of me. Got in the truck and backed the trailer into the loading area. It was complete luck that I was able to back it in straight as I couldn't see the trailer as I was backing it in. We got it loaded up and we were on our way home.

As we got close to home it had snowed and the salt and sanding trucks had been out. So even though it had only warmed up to the upper teens, the roads were getting sloppy. You can see by the pictures below the salt that got kicked up onto the body. Backed it in again into my basement and brought in all the boxes.

As we sat with the car on the trailer, we realized with just 2 people we couldn't move it. After thinking about it for a few minutes, we were off to my Dad's house the next town over to pickup the engine lift. We brought the engine lift back and were able to lift the chassis through the front windshield, much like they did at FFR to load it up. A few minutes later it was off the trailer and sitting on the jack stands. Then it was time to go out to dinner.

The first picture is at FFR before the picture. The last 3 are after the sloppy trip back home in my basement.









-Matt

[mtwarog]

After researching what it will take to get this car on the road in MA, it looks like there were 3 options for the engine:
1. Get a donor car and use engine and associated emissions from that car.
2. Get a pre 1974 car with a V8 that has been registered in the past 5 years and scrap it.
3. Get a pre 1974 engine and rebuild it.

This is all in theory as I haven't finished the car and gone through the process yet.

With that being said, I'm trying to go with option 3. I found a 1971 Ford Mustang at a junk yard in RI with a 302 in it. I called up and inquired about it and the person said the engine turned over when it came to them. It had been sitting outside in their yard for a bunch of years. I told them I'd take it. It was under a bunch of snow, so they said it would take a few days to pull it out. A few days later, I received a call saying that got the engine out, but it wouldn't turn over. He said he'd try soaking the cylinders with oil for a few days and see if that would help. Got a call a few days later saying, "nope, still wouldn't turn over". I figured oh well, it'll be a learning experience. I bought the engine anyways, loaded it up on my truck and took it home.

There was a picture of the car it came out of on the yard's website. The car looked in pretty good condition, which probably wasn't a good thing. I started thinking there are probably two main reasons a car is in a yard.
1. The car is totaled
2. There is something wrong with the engine or tranny.

We'll it wasn't reason 1, so it had to be reason 2. I was just hoping the block wasn't cracked.

Below are two pics of the car it came out of and a few of the engine on my truck.











-Matt

[mtwarog]

I got the engine back home and first thing that I did was to find the block number. After I scraped away all the grime I was able to read the numbers: D1ZM-6015-AA 10L0
Then back to the internet to confirm that it actually is a 302 from a 1971 Mustang. Come to find out it is a 1971 and it's a Mexican block. After reading up about the Mexican block there's a debate as to whether it is made of different material and therefore stronger. I don't know, but I do know the main caps are bulkier than the non-Mexican block. Well at least it is a 1971 block, now just hoping it is all in one piece.



Now for the fun part. Tear everything apart and see what is left. I had never done this before, so I didn't know what to expect. The good thing was that I didn't need to put it back together, so I could just take apart stuff and not worry about which bolt/part went where. Armed with a can of Kroil, hammers and a bunch of wrenches I had at it. What a mess. Finally got down to the pistons. Sure enough they wouldn't budge. So I soaked them with Kroil and had at it the next day. A couple of these came out fairly easy, but there were a couple that wouldn't budge. I thought to myself, I need a bigger hammer. So I got my maul, took a couple of swings and had all the pistons out.

I took a look at the block and it appeared to be in one piece, but can't be sure until I take it to Forte's and have them check it out.









-Matt

[mtwarog]

After I tore everything apart and was left with the block, I took it down to Mike Forte's place to have Jesse build it back up for me. The first thing the Jesse did was to bake it and clean it up. Then he was going to magnaflux it and confirm the block was good. After a few days, I received the good news that the block was "A ok!!" and that he was proceeding with the machine work. I was a big relief to know the block was good.

I had asked him to build me up a 347 with about 375hp. Using a RPM air gap intake, AFR 185 Renegade Heads, Holley Terminator EFI and March Performance Sport Track serpentine system.

I finally received the call that the engine was just about ready and he was going to put it on the dyno to check it out. After the dyno run, he came back to me and said everything is running great, but it's putting out a little more HP than what I had asked for. It dyno'd at 422.8HP @5650, 426.5 torque @4800.

Here's a link to the dyno run:


Here's the graph:


A few days later my Dad and I took the trip down to Forte's and picked it up along with a Tremec TKO500.

Here are some pictures with it back in my basement:










And to prove it is the same block:


-Matt

[mtwarog]

Here's a picture with the drain added below the AC hoses. This is connected with 2 - 90's and shoot's straight down inside the start of the transmission tunnel.



Everything associated with the AC/heater/drain hoses was very tight and just barely fit. Let's hope it actually works....

-Matt

[mtwarog]

For the AC hoses, I borrowed my Dad's Mastercool 71550 Manual AC hose crimper. This worked out great. I was able to put it in my vise, then crank down the bolt and crimp the hoses. Make sure you crimp these down really tight. For the 8AN hose crank down as far as you can, ignore the mark on the tool. If you don't, you'll have a leak. I couldn't imagine trying to mark all the hoses and take them somewhere to crimp. There's no way I would have gotten the length or locations correct since there is a natural bend to the hoses. After crimping one side, I would then screw it in and double check the other side again before crimping. For the connections to the compressor, I needed Vintage Air Beadlock O-Ring Fittings 8AN - 135 degrees (35842-VUG) and 10AN - 135 degrees (35843-VUG). This brought the hoses at the angle that I wanted. Put the access ports in this section.

I ran the hoses out of the firewall along the square tubing and are currently just temporarily held on by tie wraps.



It looks almost like a pretzel.





For the drier, I make a bracket out of 2" aluminum angle that I tapped into the frame and held the drier on with steel clamps.



Then ran the hoses to the condenser and attached to that with a couple of 90's.



I mounted the condenser to the radiator using some aluminum pieces and bolts. It was positioned so the 90's would just clear the radiator.



The routing of the hoses came out better than I expected. Like I said the last post, hopefully it works.

-Matt

[mtwarog]

When I installed the steering shaft it wasn't really centered in the hole in the dash. I then put on the steering wheel to see what that looked like. I noticed the wheel seemed a little high and also totally blocked the gauges. I decided to lower the wheel and center it a little better, so off with the old mount. Then I notched into the frame some to lower the shaft and wheel.

This is not the best picture, but you can see the notch in the frame to lower the wheel


Then I needed to create a new way to mount the pillow bearing. Ended up making some crazy mount, but it seems to work. Then you can see the Russ Thompson turn signal mount into the new piece.


Now the shaft was a little lower and better centered.

-Matt

[mtwarog]

Like others have done, I decided to go with the two piece dash. I don't know how I could have done all the wiring, heater, etc. with a single piece. After I cut the piece, I put in in the car and saw how the dash pointed straight down. I ended up bending the dash up to be perpendicular with the steering shaft. I thought this will make it easier to see the gauges and it also provided more room behind the dash for the AC/heater.



I then added 3 pieces of aluminum from the frame to the bottom of the dash for support. One on each end and one in the middle




See middle mount under rats nest of wires


Passenger side


-Matt

[mtwarog]

I decided that I was going to cover the dash with 3M Di-noc Carbon Fiber Vinyl. Here are the before, during and after pictures.

Before


Spread out dash on back of vinyl


After cutting


Started trimming out around holes

[mtwarog]

Installed with some gauges






With wheel




View from head height in seat. Can see most of the tach and speedo.


-Matt

[mtwarog]

For the pedals I bought a 94+ Mustang Pedal box from Mike at replicaparts. When it came in the mail, it was perfect and looked better than new with everything freshly powder coated. I was planning on using hydroboost for power brakes. To mount the pedal box, there are 4 bolts which go through the firewall/metal and hold it tight. To mount the hydroboost, I had to take off the plate and use some of the spacers to space it properly. On one of the spacers my Dad welded a small tab to fit in the notch of the hydroboost to keep it from spinning. This spacer is held on with the hydroboost nut, then another spacer before the firewall and bolts through and sandwich the pedal box.

The hydroboost unit came from a 2004 Mustang. When I received the unit, the low pressure return fitting was broken off, with the thread part of it still in the aluminum block which bolts onto the hydroboost. I tried to remove what was still in the aluminum, but couldn't get it out. So over to my Dad's who has some bolt extractor bits. When we tried that, it wouldn't budge and would just strip the bit that was still in. Finally, we decided we would drill it out. As soon as we put the drill in, the piece came right out. It was a left hand thread! I couldn't imagine why they would use a left hand thread. Oh well, the piece was out. Next was trying to find a replacement, but I couldn't find any.

After much searching on the internet, I came across this post on the sn95 forum:
"*****Important note, there are differences in the Hydroboost units that you buy, so try to get them from the same car. On the 96-98 the 3 lines for the fluid all go into the unit, but on the 99-04 they have a separate aluminum block that bolts to the side of the hydroboost unit for one of the high pressure lines, and the low pressure return. ALSO I WOULD RECOMMEND NOT BUYING A UNIT FROM 2004, in 99-03 they aluminum block I just mentioned is perfect and can be changed to AN Hose easily, but on all Hydroboost units from the 2004 year they have a LEFT Handed fitting and you have to be careful not to strip it out. My unit was from a 2004, so I have mine machined to use right handed thread fitting adapters."

Once I found that post I decided to buy a -6AN to 1/2-20 o-ring fitting and drilled and tapped the aluminum piece for that.

The other two fittings I found adapters for -6AN.

For the brake master cylinder I got a Cardone Select 13-2937 Brake Master Cylinder.













-Matt

[mtwarog]

I ended up using the gas pedal that came with the kit, but only after a few modifications. I trimmed the edges of the pedal to make it a rectangle instead of a parallelogram to fit in the foot box better. I put a bolt through the pedal to keep it from pivoting on the spring where the pedal mounts to the arm. I also created a piece out of aluminum to mount it and double as a pedal stop. Lastly, I had read a few posts about this pedal breaking off from the mount at the spot weld points. I ended up taking the metal that was supposed to be used for the AC drier mount and wrapped it around the pivot point and mount. I then JB welded it and drilled holes in it to match the mount, then painted it over. Seems like that should hold now.

I didn't like the throttle cable/mount that came with the kit, so I ended up getting the Lokar TC-1000U48 48" Universal Throttle Cable. This gives plenty of length to have gentle bends in the engine and also doesn't use a pivot ball to mount to the pedal. It goes right through the hole in the pedal and makes it easier to mount the pedal straight up and down instead of at some strange angle to meet the hole in the firewall.



You can see how the Lokar cable attaches to the upper arm. Used the middle hole in the upper arm to desensitize the pedal a little and put the pedal at the height I wanted.


You can see the screw keeping the pedal from pivoting where the pedal mounts to the arm.


Pedal to the metal.


If you look close, you can see the piece I put around to strengthen up the welds.


-Matt

[mtwarog]

Going with power steering. Not sure if I need it or not, but thought it would be easier to put in while building, rather than try to add in later. This did complicate the build a bit going with hydroboost and power steering. Bought the rack from Forte's, then when I got the rack found out about the rack extension as well. Called up Factory Five and ordered those as well. Next was the connections, got the adapters to -6AN from Breeze. Then of course more reading on this forum and more spending money, had to have a cooler as well. Got the Derale -13310 cooler. The rack was fairly straight forward to put in, but required a bunch of tweaking to center it and the steering wheel. Once I got that all set, then I need to cut the tie rods a bit as they were too long.

Next was the power steering reservoir. For that I got the PSC 8.25" Pro Touring P.S. Remote Reservoir w/ Filter For Hydro Boost Brakes Brushed Aluminum. It just kept getting more complex and expensive. I was in too deep to turn back now, just need to figure out how to mount and connect all of this together. I made a few more pieces from aluminum and mounted the reservoir right above the pump and it just fit.

So I started drawing some diagrams and figuring out the adapters and hoses that I needed. I'd spend a little time every night refining it, "if I use a 90 here, then I'll need a straight here", "if I route this hose here, then this one will go here", etc. Ok, enough planning, time for some "doing". I ordered up the hose got 10' Russell 632640 -6AN power flex hose, 8 - 90's and 2 - straight ends. Then I started making hoses. Read a little on the internet how to make them and it wasn't too bad. Well I haven't tested them out yet, so I can't say for sure if I did them correctly. Slowly it started to come together. I got lucky that the 90's just fit on the rack and between the X of the frame and still could get a wrench on them. Looped around to the cooler which I mounted to the X frame, then to the pump.

Reservoir


Reservoir also doubles as coil mount.




cooler mounted






90's just fit.....

[mtwarog]

Once that was all in, the last thing was the connection from the reservoir to the pump. Need to head back the Breeze website for these. Got 1 foot of -10AN Braided Stainless Steel Hose and 1 -10AN 120 Degree Swivel Hose End. This worked out pretty well. It's tough to see in the picture, but if you look close you can see the big -10AN hose going down to the pump.



Looking up a reservoir




Looking down from top. Bottom of the picture is pointed towards the front of the car. I tried to show the mount, but it is really hard to get a good picture of it.


-Matt

[mtwarog]

My goal with the brake lines was to use as many of the lines that came with the kit without having to cut them. First thing was to come up with a plan. I started with the front brakes. I knew I wanted to mount the battery box to the X, so I didn't want to run the brake lines there, so I decided to run it along the bottom frame. Before I started bending lines, I cut a piece of thick aluminum wire to the same length as the brake line I was going to use. I then bend this piece via trial and error to come up with the bends that I wanted. Once I had this piece with all the bends, I then took the real brake lines and mimicked the aluminum wire.

Here's the front brake line. I drew some lines in red so you can see how it was routed.


For the flexible connections to the brakes, I ended up mounting the hard line on inside of the square tube and then ran the flexible line down, then up. It looks like it should clear the aluminum shield (yet to be put in) and still provide slack to turn the wheels.

Here's the passenger side:


Here's the driver's side with the wheels turning left


Here's the driver's side with the wheels turning right:


From the brake master cylinder, you can see the lines going to the front and to the rear:


The rear went down along the frame:

[mtwarog]

Then up to the T. Check out the little short piece that I used. My Dad laughs at that one, but hey, they gave it to me in the kit so why not use it...


Here's the one to the rear passenger side




All in all I got pretty lucky. I think I only messed up one line and only had to flare one line (The one from under the car to the back T). All the others I was able to use from the kit. I added fluid and bled the brakes the other day and haven't seen any leaks. At least not yet....

-Matt

[mtwarog]

I thought I should try to use a shroud for the fan as I assumed that would help the cooling through the AC condenser and the radiator. For the shroud I ended up making in by using some 3/4" by 1/2" aluminum C channel on the top and bottom. To hold the fan (see previous post on fan) I used a piece of sheet aluminum. I (with the help from my Dad) cut out the circle where the fan would go. With a brake we bent the ends to go over the C channel that I tapered on the ends. I riveted the aluminum to the C channel, then bolted the fan to the aluminum. Then I took the whole thing and could bolt the C channel to the radiator at the top and bottom.

I should have taken some pictures when I built it, but unfortunately didn't.


Looking down from the top. You can see I started piecing together the aluminum behind it.


I used the radiator from the kit and put it in place according to the directions. I cut some hose and put it around the mount, then put the radiator in. I put some foam strip on the top where the top mount goes. I painted the top mount and then bolted it on. The mount bends down and holds the radiator tight.

I mounted the condenser with some aluminum about 1/2" from the radiator. I used some aluminum bars 1"x1/4" to space it away and mount it.
Not the best picture here, but you can see the condenser mounted. Also, in this picture you can see the mount on top of the radiator and the gap between the frame and the mount. When you put the bolts in, this mount will bend down and touch the frame as you tighten the bolts up.




-Matt

[mtwarog]

For the coolant lines, I used the flexible metal ones that came with the kit. From the top of the engine, I bought from Breeze the coolant fill T kit BREEZE #70586. This gave me a 90 that went right to the cast aluminum T. From there I used the flexible metal line right to the radiator.



In the middle to tie down the hose to the chassis, I cut some of the unused rubber from the ends, wrapped it around the hose and just used a steel clamp to hold it down. So, the metal line is just one section, that clamp just holds it from flopping around.


The lower hose was a little trickier. I was trying to figure out how to route the lower hose and got lucky that I was able to fit it through the X in the front along with the power steering hoses. The flexible hose was great as it allowed me to snake it around the crazy bends.

You can see it go up and over the steering bellows


Then down under the cooler.




You can see that I mounted the hose to the frame here and also added a drain. I got a 1-3/4" x 6" Be Cool Radiators 72014 drain.


From there back to the pump. Note, it was really hard to get the rubber ends on to the pump and needed to break out the heat gun to give me a fighting chance.

[mtwarog]

Now zooming back out.


-Matt

[mtwarog]

For the coolant recovery tank, I bought the Canton Racing Products 80-201 2 Quart Aluminum Recovery Tank. I mounted this to the left of the battery and over the power steering cooler.

I made some metal mounts out of aluminum angle and shared some of the mounting points with the cooler and battery box.




-Matt

[mtwarog]

The electric. At first I thought it would be hard with all the sensors, wires, etc. Then I thought it would be easy since I have the wiring harness with the complete kit and it should just be plug and play. Well, my first thought was correct. It's not that it is that hard, just very time consuming. I spent a lot of time looking over the schematics and trying to draw up my own. I really wanted to understand where all the wires went and not just plug it in and hoped it all worked.

The first thing I did was to mount the fuse box. This I did in the recommended spot under the steering shaft.



Then once it was mounted I tried to trace all the wires going to the fuse box and see where they got their power. I wanted to know whether it was powered from the battery feed, ignition feed or the accessory feed. The schematic in the manual didn't show that detail. Below is a picture that I drew up with the location of the fuses and the wiring to each fuse.


Once I had that information, I could start drawing up the full schematic of how I would connect everything to the fuse box. I redrew the fuse box and added in some additional labels.


Then I put together this sheet with how I would wire in the power to the fuse box. I also show how I wired up the battery, alternator, key switch going to a 12V distribution point.
At the bottom of the page I have the head light switch.


That's about it for the basic wiring diagrams. I'll add in more later showing the turn signal, hazard lights, backup lights, cameras and fog lights.

-Matt

[mtwarog]

Before I installed the engine, I wanted to put some heat shielding along the foot boxes and the firewall. I bought some Zero Clearance Aluminum/Fiberglass/PSA Insulation from Breeze Automotive. First I made some templates with brown packing paper, then when I was happy with that, I started cutting up some pieces. I mainly uses scissors to cut it, but it wasn't easy to cut. I then peeled off the backing and stuck the pieces on. In some cases also added rivets with washers on them to make sure the pieces stayed on.

Here you can see where I added it. I also ran it down the inside of the transmission tunnel a bit.


You can also see some of the wiring that I talked about in the last post between the passenger motor mount and foot box. I ran a + and - from the battery to the starter, then a + and - to the fuse box.


I still plan to put a piece on the top of the passenger foot box and the driver side once I get those panels installed.

-Matt

[mtwarog]

Today's the day (9/13/2015) to attempt the first start, but let's jump back to last week for a moment. Last week we added in the power steering fluid. We disconnected the fuel pump and coil wire and I attempted to turn the engine over to spin the power steering pump. I put the key in, turned the key and the gauges came on, then I turned the key some more and the engine turned over. A lot had to go right for that to happen. After that, my Dad and I took a trip to the gas station to pickup a 5 gallon container of gas. We were going to add the coolant in and then start it up. To make a long story short, we had some coolant leaks, so I fixed them during the week.

So back to today. My parent's came over and my wife and kids were all ready. We pushed the car outside and gave it a quick look over.






I jumped in, turned the key to on, listened to the fuel pump fire up and make funny sounds while the air purged from the lines. Then turned it to crank and fired it up.

Here are the videos for proof:
First start:


P U - It stinks
https://youtu.be/Mlwt8Vd_00U

Burn Rubber:
https://youtu.be/ooY9nF15Vjg

Jesse's turn:
https://youtu.be/NI_iKy5n7S0

One last spin:
https://youtu.be/xmfUF1hsVuw

-Matt

[mtwarog]

When I first received the kit I took out the side pipes and figured I'd better paint them before they got rusty. I didn't know how long it would be before I'd have a chance to use them. I brought them to my Dad's house and bead blasted them clean. I then used some high heat primer on them. Then followed that up with a couple of coats of Rust-Oleum High Heat Ultra "Semi-Gloss" black paint. I don't know how well it will last, but figured I could easily touch it up later if I had to. Also wanted to go with black to match the black wheels.

I wanted to get the pipes on for the first start to see how loud it will be with these. I thought it might be tight fitting them on. I went to put the driver's side on and try to slide them on the header. Nope, wouldn't go. I jammed wood shims in the headers and a clamp on the muffler to bring the two pipes closer so they would fit. Nope. Ok, let me try one of the two pipes onto one of the header pipes. Nope, not even close. Time to start grinding, sanding, filing, dremeling, etc. At this point I didn't care about scratching anything, I just wanted to be able to slide the pipes on. Finally after a few hours of taking a little bit off at a time of both the outside of the header and the inside of the mufflers, I was able to slide the driver's side on. Put on the clamps and called it a night. The passenger side would wait until the next night.

Time for the passenger side. Looking at the two pipes of the muffler for the passenger side, I could see that the metal at the end was much thinner on one of the two pipes. That side would easily slide over the header. The other one was the same thickness as both of the driver side pipes. This needed grinding to fit on, but at least I was prepared for it this time. I ground away and was able to get this side on much easier. Put the clamps on and went to bed.

Back to the drivers side, the header was slightly touching the corner of the driver's foot box. To gain more clearance, I cut the footbox and bent it in. I still need to make the outside piece fit, and will get to this soon.

Here you can see the cut in the footbox that I needed to make (as well as the grass still on the tires from my first go kart) to provide clearance for the header. Since my foot could never get in that corner, it shouldn't really impact the room in the footbox.:




Here are a couple of pics of the passenger side of the car showing the black pipes and how the car sits now:




I didn't install the hangers yet and will wait to do this after the body is on.

-Matt

[mtwarog]

Back to the electric and the hazard switch and turn signals. For the hazard switch, I used the ON-ON double pole switch from the kit. For the turn signal, I was using the Russ Thompson turn signal. It took a bunch of research to figure out how I wanted to connect it up. Eventually I settled upon the following schematic:



Normally, the hazard switch will be in the down position (connecting left to middle in the above picture), which connects the turn signal path. The middle connection of the hazard switch goes to the dash LED and front/rear lights for each side. Then the turn signal will function.

With the hazard switch in the up position (connecting right to middle in the above picture), the turn signal will be bypassed and since the hazard flasher connects to both the left and the right side of the switch, both sides will flash.

-Matt

[mtwarog]

Here are a few more pictures of the car outside after the first start:















-Matt

[mtwarog]

I wanted to have a backup camera on the car since I figured it would probably be difficult to see out the back. Then I decided, why not a front one as well? I spent a bunch of time trying to research different ones as well as how to display the pictures.

I decided that I wanted to use the rear view mirror to display the cameras. I ended up getting the CrimeStopper SecurView SV-9156.CT. This has a 4.3" LCD Screen, Compass and Thermometer and has 2 inputs.

For the cameras I got 2 PyleView PLCM38FRV cameras which can be used as a forward or a reverse camera (ie. flip image). There are 3 wires on the camera that can be tied together to reverse the image and show distance lines. For now I have the distance lines off and the rear camera reversed.

Now for the fun part, hooking them up. Again back to the pencil and paper to map out the connections. I wanted the backup camera to turn on when in reverse, so I needed to use the reverse switch on the TKO500. To connect to that I bought the Ron Francis Wiring Transmission Backup Light Connector Pigtails PG-055. I also added in a manual override switch to turn on the backup camera when I wanted, while not in reverse. So I can see who's tailgating me. :) I didn't want to turn on the backup lights when using this manual override switch, so I can use it while driving and not have the backup lights turn on. This required me to connect it via the schematic below.
The front camera will be powered all the time and the display can be turned on/off by a button on the mirror. So when the ACC is on, the front will display. If in reverse or I override it, the back will display.
There's a green wire on the mirror that when at +12V will display the backup camera, so this had to be wired in.

For the backup lights, I bought 2 Marker Lights - L488-Clear from Finish Line Accessories which match the Factory Five tail lights.

Here's the schematic:


Backup camera (not the final mount):


Front camera (not the final mount):


TKO pigtail. Hard to see.


Override switch under the dash. The switch on the left is the backup camera override. Next to that is the radiator fan override switch, the dash dimmer, clock set button and AC temp knob.


Here's a picture of the mirror showing the front camera. Also has the direction and the temperature.


Lastly, I had to make a video to show it in action. Enjoy. :)


-Matt

[mtwarog]

Time for another hand drawn schematic. I had bought the Russ Thompson turn signal system and at the end of the turn signal is a small button. Like many others I wanted to use this for the high beam switch. Also this button can be used as a "flash to pass" button. With that the headlight switch doesn't need to be on to flash them.



Back to the documents and the forum to figure out how to wire this thing up. Also shown is that I wired up the fog lights to the low beam output signal. The thought is that when you put on the high beams, the fog lights will shut off. For the Relay Switch I used a Standard LR-35. Here's what I ended up with:


Here you can see the headlight switch with the fog light switch under it.




-Matt

[GoDadGo]

So Totally Cool!

Congratulations On This HUGE Milestone!

[mtwarog]

For the rear lights, I used the 4 Red lights that came with the kit and I bought 2 White lights of the same style (L488-Clear from Finish Line Accessories) to use as the backup lights. For the red lights, they have a high and low brightness. I plan on using all 4 low brightness as the tail/running lights. The upper 2 high brightness will be my brake lights and the lower 2 low brightness will be my turn signal lights. I also plan on wiring in a 3rd brake light that I'm thinking will go in the rear spoiler, but haven't connected that up yet.

I took apart the lights and I tested with a 12V battery and then I ohm'd out the connections and determined the low brightness were about 2.3ohms and the high brightness were around 0.7ohms. I then stuck the wire in the connectors on the lights and closed it up a bit with pliers, then soldered the wires together.



After soldering, I slide the rubber cover back on the lights and crimped on some weatherpack connectors. I had bought this tool (CRIMPING TOOL DELPHI SERIES WEATHERPACK 12014254 Item #: 440) a while back and there is no way I'd be able to make the connections without it.


In order to make the connection between the lights and the connector on the harness, I needed to make up a harness. Also used weatherpack connectors for these since I still had a bunch left.




Then I connected them all up and tested them out.


Fortunately it all seemed to work.

-Matt

[mtwarog]

My Dad helped me take the body down out of my garage where it has been hanging for almost 2 years and bring it into the basement. From reading others posts we knew we'd have to trim around the gas tank to get it to fit. After unscrewing it from the body buck we gave it a test fit. It looked like the body would fit fine around the sides of the tank, but no way was it going to fit at the back of the tank. I decided to take 2" off the back. Nope, not enough, still hitting the tank. Then tried taking some more off around the corners of the tank where it was really hitting. Nope, not enough. Then I decided to follow the contour of the back and leave about a 1 5/8" lip on the bottom of the body.

[mtwarog]

Got it on and it doesn't hit. Showing the tank sticking out the bottom


Driver's side




Passenger side




Here's a shot from the side with the body on:


-Matt

[mtwarog]

Before the body went on, I added some weather strip to the trunk area like they mention in the manual. I wasn't 100% sure where to add it, but just put in on the sides of the trunk. Not sure if I need it on the back part.





Then added the bulb seal to the top of the firewall piece. Since I added the insulation, I had to spread out the ends to slip it over that and the aluminum. It seems to hold on there pretty well.




With the body back on, it seems to fit over around the back.

[Jacob McCrea]

Looks great. Re-welding the headers seems to be a rite of passage for Gen 1 and 2 coupe builders, from what I can tell. Carry on!

[mtwarog]

Before I finish up the aluminum in the trunk, I wanted to work out how the gas cap/fuel filler was going to fit. Looking at the crazy shape of the filler pipe and where it ended up, no way was the straight section of rubber fuel hose was going to fit.



After playing around with it for a while, it looks like a 45 degree piece would fit.
I bought a Gates 24712 piece and started having at it. Trim a little here, little there and see if it would work. See below for proof.


As you can see in the above picture I also trimmed to top of the metal pipe. I cut about 1" off, but probably didn't need to cut that much. I did cut off the bead, which does make it much easier to install on the pipe. I think with a couple clamps it should hold as I ended up with about 2" overlap.

Here's the pipe sticking up with the top cut off.


Here's all that is left of the Gates hose after my trimming.


All together.

[mtwarog]

Looking in from outside you can see the metal pipe. I'm wondering if the gas pump nozzle will reach all the way in there....






It took a while and it looks so simple when it's done. Who knows how many hours I spent thinking about and trimming this little piece, but I'm pretty happy with the end result.

-Matt

[mtwarog]

I wanted to have a radio and speakers in the car. Will I be able to hear them while driving? Who knows?
Anyways, I bought some 6"x9" speakers for the rear and 5-1/4" for the front, which I'm planning on putting in the doors.
For the rear speakers, I settled upon putting them in the side aluminum.

Cut the holes and slide on the clips.


With the speaker mounted


Looking from behind


Since the back will be in the wheel well, I starting mocking up how I would enclose them.


Just enough room. Hopefully.


Tracing out sides on scrap aluminum


Sides bend up

[mtwarog]

Making a porcupine


It seems to fit


Is it going to fit? Not with all the quills


Here's where it's going to go.


Both done and seam sealed


Inside


And since I can't stop making access panels I'll probably never use, I made one more in the back. This should give me access to the license plate light, backup camera and third brake light.


Before I finish putting in all the trunk panels, I want to get the rear lights, camera working, so no "final" pictures yet.

-Matt