Author: xpbr2000

I finally got the last gauge installed. It took a week or so to get all the proper plumbing required, however if I just looked at the GS website they have an adapter to fit an LS rail and their sensor. It just so happens that a 4AN fitting is the on both LS and L36 fuel rails.  The gauges have a pretty “fancy” startup and shutdown animation. It’s nice, but I could do with out it. I recorded a video of the shutdown but I’ll grab a vid of both startup and shutdown just so you can see it.

Here is the fitting that Glowshift provides for LS fuel rails. the 90 is just in case there are plenum issues with it sticking up. There are no issue with the plenum for the L36.

I had to add about 3ft of length to the sensor wire to the gauge. the way I have it routed, it goes from the motor to the passenger side (entering in where the engine harness does), then traveling all the way across the underside of the dash and up to the gauge.

Here is the animations that the Gauges have.

These are Glowshift Elite 10 black face gauges. They have a smoked lens.

Wideband, Boost/Vac, Fuel pressure.

For a while now I’ve wanted to quieten down the road noise inside the car. The uni body is super thin and its so exhausting sometimes listening to the roar of the tires and also the rattle of the suspension. My goal is to tighten up things and throw some sound deadening mat on the floors and doors to hear less outside noise and to keep inside noise in.

While I’m working on this I also decided to take the time to rerun all the wiring that I’ve added to the console area. This also means designing a console. I’ve ordered an armrest from another vehicle that looks like it will do the trick. I’ll mount it and build the console from that to make room for all the wires.

My supplies include the following:

Tools, solder, 4 power buses 1 ground

Spare connectors

Wire Loom

And the all important Sound deadening mat.

This past weekend I started the process of removing all the interior to clean and put down the deadening mat.

I feel ashamed that there is this much trash. Between Kids and my busy schedule this isn’t surprising. Just embarrassing.

There is a pile of miniature gravel in the back seat where my Son gets in every morning…. I need to pay more attention to cleaning.

Another view of the amount of wiring that is in the dash. this is hidden behind the radio :-\

All stripped!

I’ve been riding like this all week. You hear everything. The carpet does a pretty good job dampening the sound.

Finally installed my Grill for the 8″ I hope it doesn’t stick out too far and hit my t tops.

And since the wife’s car had a bum amp (one of my super old kicker amps finally “kicked” the bucket), I decided to pull my 2 channel for the door speakers to put in the wife’s and add a 4 channel to the Camaro to power all 4 speakers. It’s an easy way to justify getting a bigger amp for the car lol.

I replaced the RF 2 channel I put in the wife’s car with this. A super small but powerful 4 channel amp. I should be able to hide this under the new console. It’s really small for 300w.

The console lid has arrived. It belongs to a 2015 Chevy Equinox. It has the simplest hinge design that I can mount to a hand designed console and it looks comfy too :D.

I’ve been trying very hard to get a lot of this done, but energy and weather do slow me down a bit. This is the progress so far.

The trunk area is done. It was one of the hardest places to start, but its done now.

Moving towards the front didn’t get easier, just more dangerous.

This hole is the only access to the areas behind the doors…. I cut up my hands and arms pretty good on some very sharp edges. They don’t deburr those parts apparently.

I found a problem with one of my seat mounting bolts…. its about to tear our of the frame. I’m a big boy, so this is to be expected. I’m going to weld the metal back the best I can.

Well, It’s been more than a month since the last post but I can’t say there has been a months worth of progress. However, I did managed to get several pieces down and its looking pretty good. I’m off this week for the 4th. The goal is to have it back on the road by Monday. I honestly think that is a stretch goal. lol

The month’s worth of dirt is definitely noticeable.

I sanded down the floor pans and put down some Rustoleum to try and save them from the little bit of rust that was there.

This looks like more is done than it really is. All the gaps and corners take a while to fill in.

Hopefully by this weekend I’ll have it all laid down and then its the re-wiring of all the stuff under the dash. I’ll first have to make a wiring diagram of everything before I take it apart. That will be the only way to get it back together again.

Progress is slow but motivation is high. Still working on laying the deadener. I’ve put the seat in to drive it some just to keep everything charged up and make sure all the electronics are working before I move it all to the center console. The worst thing that could happen is I try to fix something that I thought I broke by moving that was already broken before hand lol

I expect to be done with the deadening under the carpet this weekend. then the interior can be reinstalled. I can finally start on the new console. My goal is to make a console that has a custom frame and I attach 3d printed parts or fabric to it. I have an arm rest from an 2010-2015 Equinox that feels very comfy and should be easy to mount.

Its beginning to look like a space shuttle now lol

I have another set of hands to help out with the build when he is trained. Please welcome Andrew. Right now he only has 1 week worth of experience with anything…

Right now he’s in training.  Once he gets the whole walking thing figured out I’ll have to get him some wrenches to practice with.

(…..Caught him sleeping on the job. )

We are over the 3000 day mark. It honestly feels like I painted it 1 year ago and dropped the new motor in 5 years ago. But its been more like 4 and 8. I’ve had more fun (and hate sometimes) with this car than I ever imagined.

We are finally back to the original color inside. Its not fully assembled yet but I need to make a few electrical connections and such but we are making progress. The goal was to make it a nicer ride and it has done just that. I’ve put foam in a lot of areas that couldn’t be covered but the rubber, including under brackets for the seat mounting, the arms rests in the rear, below the rear speakers, and probably the most important place, inside the shifter boot. I didn’t take a photo of that but its filled pretty tight with foam. It doesn’t make the shift feel any different but it does remove the trans noise a noticeable amount. The tunnel is double layered for that extra sound blocking. The doors are not done yet and its noticeable that the sound is coming from the doors. I’ll be working on that and the console next.

Carpet in

Rear seats in

Seats, seat belts etc in

When I bought this set of rims, I decided to just run the old tire that were on them and replace them as needed. the front were first. the driver rear acquired a hole in the side wall and finally the passenger rear managed to find a stick to poke through the very center of the tread. If you look at what was left of the tire you wouldn’t be surprised. ordered another tire and now its a full set lol. And no more of those sensor valve stems either. I’m working on getting the interior back together since the Operation Silence. And there is a little more behind the scenes that I’ll post about in a little bit. I’ve been working on this for months which also is why there hasn’t been activity on the blog since Sept or so.

Just about used up

New tire. One thing I probably mentioned before is these new tires are somewhat wider than the old ones despite them being the same size. This means there is literally 3/16″ clearance on the inside of the tire. The other side had this already but now its both sides. I’m probably going to use some spacers to fix this but until I swap for longer lug studs I’ll have to deal and hard cornering is not advised.