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I made a poor man's backup switch. By
welding a "bump" on the shift rod and installing a pressure activated
switch, I was able to turn on my backup lights. The connections to my
Northstar park/neutral switch did not work well. |
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Back to the Car. I finished making my
indicator lights. I built the light boxes out of white plastic. After
I got them put together, the light reflected too much and the edges
showed through the front so I went back and painted them black. I got
6 bulbs from Ron Francis Wire Works to go in the sockets I made
templates in Word and printed them with white text. I used pieces of
transparent folders from Office Depot for the colors that I wanted. It
is not even in the same league as the ones that JC did but they are
functional. |
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I completed the dash dimmer switch to
connect to the instrument panels and the dome lights. I used the Fiero
controls and mounted it below the voltage meter. I had to install the
door switches to operate the dome lights. I actually ran the ground
wire (what activates the dome light) to a separate cut off switch so
I can cut power if I want to leave the doors open for a while and not
worry about running down the battery. |
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On to the instrument lights. The
following pictures are from the second one I built. The first assembly
looked great. I had taken the Fiero indicators from the Fiero
instument cluster, glued them in and the when the light was shined
from the back they lit up perfectly. Andy Bujtas had sent me his
instructions on how he had built his light boxes. I neglected the one
area where he mentioned he sealed the edges around the insert and 'let
it dry' before painting the outer area with black paint. When I did
this, the paint bled under the indictors and ruined the assembly. I
have created a template in Word that I will print on transparency
stock on a laser printer. I will then use colored film from these
transparent folders to give me the color I want and try again. The
assembly itself is made from 1/8" smoke plexiglass for the front and
then I used 1/8" black for the bottom. I should have used white as I
need the reflecting surface for the light box. I may do that on the
second one.
This involved marking the curve of
the dash both horizontally and then matching the the vertical opening
after I had cut the dash piece out and reupholstered the front. You
can see what it will look like when I'm done, but the one doesn't have
the lights in place yet. Hopefully someone can learn from my
mistakes. |
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| I started
on the instruments wiring. I verified the Fiero wires by using the
Fiero Plug on the back of the Fiero Panel and checking the wires for
turn signals, high beam, check engine etc. I plan on using the
graphics in my panel when I'm done. I have a kenwood head unit that is
a black panel when power is off. When power to the car is on, it
reverses for the controls. It retracts half way when you need to
insert a CD. Sounds pretty good with 6 speakers and the sub.
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| Installed
the wiper linkage. A full day job. |
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laying out the instruments. I had some 1/4" Plexiglas that I decided
to use until I got my new carbon fiber pieces. I decided to go with
the same size speedometer as the tach. It is only 120 MPH. I may sell
the Monster 160 speedometer and get another Autometer white gauge that
says 160. I made a wiring loom for all the lights and gauges to
simplify install later on. |
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This was
the test fit of the windshield to determine the bottom edge of the
glass.
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The
bracket will go almost directly over the brake fluid reservoir. This
would have been much easier to do if I would have done it when I had
the body off. Because you need to cut the tubing out, it is necessary
to brace either side. I chose to tie it into a bar that I had between
my two door hinge brackets. AFter I had welded the two braces, I cut
out the center section. The bottom glass is about 2" from the lip of
the trunk. The actual location to drill the hole is 4 1/2" from the
edge of the trunk and 1 3/8" from the lip. I'll have more detail as I
progress.
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Started
on the wiper motor connections so I could get the post in place before
I painted. First picture is the components that comes from IFG. Next
Pict is the Fiero wiper assembly for two wipers. Third picture is just
the section that I will be using. Forth picture is where You grind off
the top of the post so you can remove the shaft by punching it out.
You also have to cut off the vanes around the post.
 
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I
temporarily mounted my gagues in a piece of 1/4" plywood so I could do
the wiring. You will notice that I have replaced the VDO 120mph
speedometer with an Autometer 5" 160mph speedometer. It will look
impressive when I am all done. The connections to the guages is fairly
straight forward. Take the existing Fiero pink and black wire in slot
9 and splice that into a power loop to all the power requirements on
the guages. Make a ground wire for all the guages and provide a good
ground. The fuel sending wire is the pink wire in slot 7 of the Fiero
harness. Still working on the Tach but I am making progress.
 
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I started
to layout the instruments but I want to have the newer style dash. See
picture below. It will involve making a whole new section that I will
have to upholster but I think that is something that I can do. I have
the same leather interior that is shown in the bottom two pictures.
These are from Jim Drew's car that he has listed under the For Sale
button. You can see the older style pod is quite high and the newer on
gives much more visibility.
 
 
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