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Dash Layout & Screwing Around in the Garage
Still waiting on my gauges...
Our roof leaked in several places last winter. Thankfully it was minor but it is well beyond repair so we are putting a new roof on before this fall. The roofers have been working 12 hour days for 2 weeks and they have another 2 more weeks to go so we’ve been leaving the house when they are here because of the current crisis. That means work on my car has been basically impossible.
I’ve got the center panel now flush with the dash. I’ve got my Dash layout set more or less. Maybe some minor tweaking. Better pictures to come, sorry about the quality.
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I’ve been screwing around with my 3D printer. I made a Daytona emblem though I don’t intend to use it.
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But for explanation purposes I can tell you that by converting a .Jpeg or .png to .svg using a free online converter you can import images in Tinkercad and create your own emblems. Super easy. 3D printers are cool but the quality is kind of janky but with some bondo and paint these could look great. But this made me think, what if I could cut my own emblems out of aluminum. I could sand them and then polish them.
Since I’ve gotten good at making models and printing them (which didn’t take very long) I figured I’d graduate to CNC milling and Laser engraving. I started with the laser. Since it’s a 2D image and thus 2 axis it’s easier to get a handle on and I’m working my way up to the CNC mill which is 3 axis. This model comes with both a laser and a router. I laser engraved my emblem into some wood.
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Then I figured out how to get the resolution and image reproduction accuracy way up. I started on some leather (very smelly) and it works awesome but my wife stopped me short, we had to leave the house and this isn’t something you want running while you’re gone.
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But the fact is that now that I understand how the machine works more or less with a laser in 2 axis I can try milling emblems out of aluminum. My goal is to make this FFR logo. Probably I’ll try to get it between 2-3mm thickness. I can feasibly make it between 300mm wide x 180mm tall. Way bigger than I would ever want it. Where I would put it on the car I have no idea and I probably won’t. It’s really just for learning purposes and fun. Im still feeling like the only branded product on the entire car is going to be the FFR key.
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But this would be awesome for making custom brackets or parts. Kind of late to the game on this one but hey better late than never. Maybe I’ll use these new skills on a roadster.
Sorry I don’t have more on the car. I think once I get my gauges and make holes in that dash and send stuff off to powder coat it’s going to progress leaps and bounds very quickly and there will be a lot more to share.
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Wipers - Solutions to Problems I Didn’t Even Want
I clawed my way back into my garage after 4 weeks of waiting patiently. I couldn’t wait any longer for the roofers to clear the way and I even took off a day of work too. I was getting antsy.
So I mentioned I absolutely did not want wipers. But practicality seems to have won over. One major reason for not wanting wipers is because I didn’t want to see the wiper motor on the firewall. The second is that the switch that it comes with it wouldn’t match my other switches. Lastly it looks slick without the wiper blades and they are distracting to the overall look. I was willing to give on my third gripe if I could solve my first 2.
Solution to Wiper Motor placement:
The first problem was solved when I mocked up the wiper motor to the firewall. For whatever reason it’s too large. Doesn’t sound like a solution but rather a further barrier. But it prompted the solution. The solution was to put the wiper motor behind the dash.
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By pointing the motor in such a fashion a nice smooth and “easy” (per Factory Five’s instructions) bend can be achieved. I drilled a 1” hole in the dash firewall. This gave me enough play to get the angles correct. By bending the tube slowly over the round section of my vise it came to shape. But I learned this technique after destroying the first set of tubes which I reordered through McMaster Carr. And after destroying another section of tube trying to bend a 5/16” tube in a ¼” ring roll. Who would have thought that wouldn’t work :(?.... Anyway the vise trick worked. Also you can see I spaced the motor off the firewall panel with a piece of 1 ½” square tube which still needs to get painted but that’s going to happen when I take everything apart for paint anyway.
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When I went to flare the stainless tube with my $17 flare tool that said it’s for copper and aluminum wouldn’t you be surprised it didn't work. I bit the bullet, returned the $17 flare tool I bought on Amazon and bought the $180 flare tool that can handle stainless and frankly I should have bought it earlier in the build for the brake lines.
Stainless is tough to work with.
So with a nice clean product we can definitely say everything under the hood is completely done. The final product is clean and free of stuff.
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The 1" hole needs a grommet still but will also get covered. I might have mentioned I want to add a touch of upholstery in that area to tie the interior and engine looks together and do something a little different.
Solution to Wiper Motor Switch:
This leaves my second gripe. What to do about mismatched switches. It’s something that I see on a lot of builds. Rocker switches, toggle switches, knobs, buttons, each one is a little different and consistency is key to a good look. So how do I get a DPDT (Double Pole Double Throw) On - Off - On toggle switch to work in place of the wiper switch provided.
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Some googling led me to a fantastic writeup after struggling to figure this out on my own.
“The MGA with Attitude” https://mgaguru.com/mgtech/electric/et219.htm. Further Info Here https://mgaguru.com/mgtech/electric/et219b.htm
First we have to know how the original switch is intended to work and so I am going to borrow some pictures from this person's post. Again the intent is to consolidate information into one thread, not to take credit for this person’s effort and information.
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The basic idea is that to park the motor the low terminal and the park terminal need to be jumped. By releasing the connection to the park terminal and powering the low terminal the motor begins to move in it’s slowest speed. Then by removing power to the low terminal and the jump between low and park and powering the high speed terminal the motor moves rapidly.
We need to replicate this using relays and here is the setup.
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Great diagrams. But I felt like it wasn’t brainless. Obviously you have to translate this diagram into the positions on the relay. Which I did and I was going to post my diagram until I found this one.
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Executing this just took patience. Don’t have the patience? You can buy it from Watson Streetworks here https://watsons-streetworks.com/prod...rk-relay-pack/
I used these relays (https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1) and I like how the relay holders interlock.
The final product on the bench looks like this
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Obviously wire colors and stuff are going to change depending on what you’ve got or you bought. So don’t pay attention to the wire colors. In fact don’t pay attention to this at all it’s just an example of what the end result looks like. What is most important is the second and third diagrams above.
The final installation can be seen above in the section regarding wiper motor placement.
A further update on how to wire the switch is to come.
Possible Solution to Wiper Arms and Blades:
One possible solution is paint the wiper arms body color or black and black out any chrome. The idea is that it’s not a focal point. But time will help me make these decisions.
So there you have it solutions to problems I didn’t even want in the first place. Kind of rewarding isn’t it? LOL.
TO SEE HOW TO WIRE THE WIPER SWITCH CHECK OUT "DPDT" in post #174
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Chassis Cockpit Interior Photos
Happy Thanksgiving! Over the weekend I'll post several photos of the finished chassis and for even more photos and content, follow on Instagram @SixtyFive_Daytona
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There is still more work to do, tweaking panels for perfect alignment, (but this is a preliminary fit and photos get the point across) more upholstery and lots of finishing touches and tweaking to just polish it off a little further.
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Ford Small Block + EFI + Full Chassis Electrical Overview
Finally the Full Electrical Update:
You’ve heard me say this before. Strap in cause this is going to be a long post. It’s been months that I’ve promised to do a full electrical update and here we are finally. It took months to think through how to explain & show how I opted to route my wires. Also I’ll be honest there are things I think about now that I could have done better and so I’ll mention those along the way. I am tackling this in the same was I tackled the wiring which was to break it up into sections.
Let’s Begin:
I identified 3 main wiring systems and my battery placement, and I tackled them in this order
1. Battery Placement
2. Ignition System
3. EFI Harness
4. The Factory Five Full Chassis Ron Francis Harness
Battery Placement:
The goal was that awesome hot rod look, when you look down into the engine bay and wonder; Where are all the wires and plumbing? It’s just an engine floating there... It starts with your battery location. Frankly, Factory Five’s placement is fantastic, it can accommodate a big battery, space is ample and it’s convenient to work on. But it would have been right there for all to see, so I opted to place the battery under the trunk. It didn’t want it near the gas tank for fear that Sparks + Gas = BOOM. A smaller, more powerful solution had to be used and only one specific location would work. I used Braille’s 21lb Battery and though it’s cold cranking amps aren’t what you’d want in a Michigan winter, here in Southern California it’s more than enough. Also by placing it under the trunk I could concentrate my home runs in an inconspicuous place. AGM batteries are great because as Braille put it to me they can be mounted in any position except upside down. And they can be heavily discharged and recharged. We have AGM batteries in our boat and we come back to batteries every year that easily take a charge after 15 years of use. So with the placement set I could move on.
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From the battery I would follow the transmission tunnel to the starter using 2ga QuickCar Battery Cable Kits 57-011. I loved this kit and I found it to be perfect for what I needed. Using the same wire I connected it to jumper posts in the trunk.
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Ignition System & EFI Harness:
The second trick to a clean engine compartment is finding a spot for your Ignition Box, ECU, and Coil. Most importantly is the coil you choose. I used an MSD SS series coil because it’s compact and could, just like the battery, be mounted in various different positions. Second most important is your ignition box placement. I found that just above the bell housing, behind the firewall was a great fit and could be accessed via the panel covers on the transmission tunnel wall. Just make sure your carpet or upholstery lends itself to taking these panels off for any maintenance otherwise you’ll be dropping your transmission to change your ignition box. Gotta think 10 steps ahead here. I also engineered my dash face to come off because that would need to happen as well. It has to be acknowledged that the difficulty maintaining components has grown exponentially.
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Now with the ignition system located, the EFI computer needs to be placed. I was extra careful to put this in a central location. I placed it behind the dash. Something important about the EFI system is they want the main power feed to come straight off the battery NOT the fuse panel, even if the wires needed to be lengthened which they did in my case.
Now with the coil, ignition box, & EFI computer located it’s easy to see how the 3 systems are all now hidden and centrally located. Meaning wires can be short and direct. This also means a good ignition signal. I started wiring these components first.
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The Factory Five Full Chassis Ron Francis Harness:
Fuse Panel:
It’s from here that you can begin to determine your fuse box location. I will say it right now I prefer EdwardB’s location however, in my case function would have to follow form. I needed something concealed. And so I made life more difficult for myself and after fiddling with the mounting location, I arrived at where I did because it would work for my specific application. If I had to do it all over again, I am not sure what I would do but I don’t see an alternative in my particular instance.
Front Harness:
In a more general sense I think the way I would route my wires for the front harness was the key to the clean look under the hood. But it came at the sacrifice of having much more wiring behind the firewall.
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I followed the frame tubes as shown by the blue lines. I then followed the AC lines on the passenger side and the lower radiator hose on the drivers side and brought the lines up to the hood hinge joint and terminated them with 6 pin connectors. It’s from here that I will connect my front lights.
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I routed the alternator wire, the oil pressure wire, the water temp sensor wire and the distributor signal wires together and routed them behind the alternator and pulley tensioner where I would combine them with the Factory Five front wire harness and follow it back through the transmission tunnel and behind the dash. I added these wires in after I routed and secured the front wire harness. It would have been much better to do this outside the car. I did not use the supplied sensor wire harness.
Ignition Harness:
I made the unusual choice. Of placing my ignition switch, my headlight switch, and AC & Heat controls on the transmission tunnel. I like the idea of having these things at my fingertips and just less clutter on the dash. You don’t have to look down; one can just feel their way around and make any adjustments. This area also highlights how I routed my wires back to the battery and the rear harness through the transmission tunnel.
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Rear Harness:
The photo says it all. I kept things tight to the frame. Made sure I wasn’t having wires crossing over wires. I didn’t do any extra storage areas in the trunk. I feel like I did enough sheet metal mods for one project and frankly this ain’t built to be a grocery getter.
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To keep this short, I used an Aeromotive in tank fuel pump and through multiple miscommunications between, FFR, Roush and myself I bought an Aeromotive fuel pump wire harness as well. Turns out FFRs wire harness has the leads for the fuel pump and so did the kit that came from Roush. I decided to use the Aeromotive harness because it was the most robust. But the lesson is. Don't buy stuff a year in advance of when you need it like I did. Thankfully this was an isolated extra purchase and added to a slightly better wiring setup. In retrospect I should have used the wire leads from FFR but I didn't realize this until I laid out the rear harness which was the last thing I did, coming months after first start. Oh well.
Advice & The Rest:
As I connected each wire I placed a check mark next to it on the wiring diagram. This insured I have no loose wires or wires that were unaccounted for. Also take notes you'll see I made sure to note the AC input wire to tell the ECU to trigger the fan needed to be 12v +.
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Also, map things out before you drill holes to make sure everything has a place & that you don't drill into your ignition box as was my ultimate fear. Which I thankfully didn't do.
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There was a lot of specialty wiring I chose to do like wiper relays and latching relays for high and low beams. I covered these in previous posts and they can be found under the electrical section of the table of contents.
Last piece of advice, buy extra wire. Buy it in different sizes and colors and be prepared to extend or shorten wires. I had to extend every wire in the front harness and all the wires for the ignition switch. Some wires had to get extended as much as 1-3 feet and others as little as 6".
I hope this helps someone. I know it will help me locate things if maintenance is ever required. So if anything this was a good post to add to the journal.
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The Body and Paint Phase Begin
I am so freaking excited to announce my car is in the hands of a legend. It was dropped off yesterday to Jeff Miller. He’s a great guy and I’m not making it easy on him. I had a ton of special requests and he agreed to nearly all of them.
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He and I spent a good while chatting. I’m excited to be working with him. His wisdom and knowledge about these cars are really amazing. I also love his philosophy about building them.
I should have the chassis back shortly. This means the chassis gets put back together, aligned and the first road test is coming! I anticipate it going smoothly. Then off to upholstery. I’ll be honest, it’s in the hands of the experts at this point. I plan to be a good documentarian, photographer and student. Exciting new journey!
