A/C & Serpentine Update

So the Vintage Air A/C kit is being delivered today and I finally got a hold of the sales rep at March Performance to get my serpentine conversion kit ordered.  Not sure when the serpentine kit will arrive, but they said it should ship out by the end of the day or tomorrow via UPS.

Here's what these kits get me...

Vintage Air Sure-Fit

• More efficient, new freon type A/C compressor
• Higher performance condenser
• New drier
• New wiring harness
• Electric controls (vacuum  hose conversion)
• All new hoses
• A simpler duct system
• Once installed the A/C system will no longer constantly blow hot air on the passengers

March Performance Serpentine Kit

• Lighter weight mounting brackets (aluminum)
• No longer have to worry about belt clearance with the electric water pump
• Remote reservoir power steering pump (supposedly is more reliable than all-in-one pumps)
• Lighter weight pulleys making them easier to rotate (less drag on the engine)
• Different sized pulleys to increase the accessories' operating rotation speed
• 6-groove serpentine belt instead of v-belts for better grip on the pulleys (efficiency)
• More clearance in the front of the engine compartment
• Finally, it'll just make it look pretty =)

 

Driver's Side Window Works!

After struggling with getting the motor to work, and the pain of getting all the parts back in the door, the window goes up and down.  When I couldn't get the original motor to work I did some testing on the wiring harness and thought something went wrong there because the voltages were very strange on the driver's side.  So installed a new wiring harness and the voltages looked very similar (it was probably good that I replaced it anyway, the old harness was very patched together).

So I ended up ordering a new motor when I ordered the wiring harness.  The motor showed up today and to my surprise it wouldn't work either.  It turns out I was just being dumb...  The motor has to be screwed in to the door to be properly grounded.  The original motor works fine.  In fact, the brand new Ecklers window motor is terrible.  It's unreliable.  It would randomly decide not to work and when it did work, it was very loud.  It will be going back to Ecklers on Monday.

No More New Projects For a While

So started looking into my finances today a bit.  The radiator/accessory upgrade project is really taking a toll on my wallet.  The serpentine conversion is the last thing I will be buying until I get my credit cards paid off (first time is a while I can't do it every month).  The two kits I just purchased were very expensive, even for my standards.  I had planned on the conversion being $600 less than it turned out to be.  Hopefully I have everything that I'll need to complete the projects.

Still have to finish up the interior stuff, do the emergency brake rebuild, and build the speaker box.  So I should have plenty to do while I'm working at paying for this stuff.

Just need to get this thing drivable for the year!  It's freaking nice here!

Quick Status Update

Over the weekend I got the light flashing for the remote figured out.  I have to tap the wires coming directly from the steering column and there's no way to do it without wire taps/splitters.  Unless I want to pay for the connectors to make a pass-thru adapter.  Honestly buying the connectors would be more money than it's worth so I just used taps on the old wire (didn't want to hurt the new wiring harness).  It also turns out that I will need a total of 4 relays to get it to work. I ordered a 4PDT relay to make it nicer, had a single SPDT relay, and it should be here shortly.

Tested out the power window motors before I started putting things back together.  Somehow the driver's side motor died while it was pulled out.  Can't figure out how.  Also did some testing with a multimeter on the wiring harness, the drivers side was bad and the passenger side was just adequate.  Since all the relays and other wiring are new, it came down to a bad power window wiring harness.  That's one that I had repaired so I wouldn't have to buy a new one.  It's a pretty simple harness, so it seemed easy enough to fix.  Moving the wiring around made voltages change, so at least one of the wires is bad internally.  Ordered a new harness and motor to make it guaranteed to be good.  The parts should be here end of the week or early next week.

In the final stages of getting the engine accessories ordered.  Dealing with March Performance for the mounting brackets and pulley system (unfortunately have to get a different type of power steering pump too) and Vintage Air for the A/C compressor and system.  When I'm done with the radiator, water pump, bracket, and accessory upgrade, it seems like the car should be somewhere around 100 lbs lighter in the front end.  A little worried about how the shocks are going to react.

The floor mats came in the right color!

After going in circles with Ecklers as to whether they ordered the correct color blue from ACC, they did.  Went through their customer service twice and couldn't get a yes/no answer as to whether or not the carpet would be the "812 royal blue".  During a sale I ended up ordering the mats and putting in the comments to ensure the color code before completing the order.  The mats showed up today and the sticked said "812 royal blue".  They look awesome.

Show the power locks working

Put a short video together over my lunch break to show the functionality I have working with the remote.  If you read my other post, you know the parking lights aren't hooked up yet.  Another thing is that I mention the alarm going off with the door open in the video.  That's the original alarm not the one in the remote module.  I decided not to use the remote modules door sensor interface.  The shock sensor should still work though.

Preview of the Brake Project

So I know I did the project a while back, but I'm just starting to put together the page for the brakes.  I have the start of the page complete with a few pictures.  Just have to complete the procedure.  There were a bunch of quirks that I have to make note of, so I'm just posting this so people can see what I used.

Good Progress But School Work Again

Well, I've done some work, ordering, and planning over the past couple weeks...

First, what I've gotten done.
In order to put the dash back together I needed to finish wiring the car for the accessories I'm adding (power door locks, remote, bumper sensor, etc.). However, in order to add the power door locks I needed to recondition the doors first. This meant cleaning and treating the rust and adding insulation.  I spent a weekend tearing down the driver's side door and then doing the rust treatment. While I was waiting for that to dry, I worked on getting the door panel and its parts ready. Also continued planning for the speaker enclosure. The weekend before last I finished applying the insulation to the door and was about to put everything together when I realized I didn't want to put rusty bolts back in the door. I looked all over town for replacement bolts, no one had quite the right size. Ended up ordering them, so the door still isn't back together. I'm waiting to finish that door before starting on the passenger side.

This last weekend I worked on getting the rest of the remote door locks wired up. I had to wire in multiple relays. Rather than have the wires free inside the car, I made packs of wires and used connectors.  After getting everything connected, I tested it and everything but the parking light flashing works.

This used to be where the seat belt interlock bypass switch was located

Shortened remote module wires and added locking connectors

The relay allows remote system to work with the original alarm

On to the ordering...
I have the DeWitts radiator with electric fans and the CVR electric water pump.  Recently, I got Spectre stainless steel braided radiator hoses (the kit came with some other hoses as well).  A larger alternator is on order so that there's enough power and I'm in the process of ordering a billet aluminum serpentine conversion kit from March Performance.

Also over the weekend I picked up a set of seats from a 1985 Fiero.  They look like hell right now, but reading through the recovering instructions from the seat cover manufacturer, they should be good enough (Mr. Mikes).  Fiero seats are a common upgrade for C3 Corvettes.  They offer better support and more comfort.

There were some rims sitting in the seats for a long time.

The car had speakers built into the head rests, these will be removed.