- Dec 19, 2010
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Build Thread 1978 Mercury Cyclone. The pig is in the pen.
- Status
I know you're wondering what I've been doing. I know that you've been laying awake at night, losing sleep over your concern that I may have encountered some monumental obstacle that has stopped me dead in my tracks. I know you're saying to yourself "I wish Mike wasn't so far away, I'd go there and help."
If only any of that junk was true.
First lets talk about the center piece. That stupid little center piece is a weeks worth of messing around, for a less than awesome end result.
When you last saw the thing it was flat, and green. The first thing that needed to be done was create some fins. Since I couldn't get the size I wanted to use in aluminum, I opted for steel instead. Considering that the fins will be glued on, the difference in metals wont matter. So I got two pieces of 1/2" wide bar, and two pieces of 1/4" wide stock and cut and glued them onto the base.
That took two days.
The reason being that stuff slides all over the place. Trying to clamp it in place is tenuous because it moves when it's clamped. it literally takes about 30 minutes just to clamp two pieces, which is what I did. I wanted the outside pieces to serve as a reference when it came to mounting the inner bars.
When that was all dry, I cleaned it all up, sanded the "fins", and sealed them with clear primer. Once that was dry, I clear coated the fins. (they are steel after all).
When that junk was dry, I masked off the fins and sprayed the entire thing in wrinkle black.
The only thing left to do to it is come up with a clear cover for the letters. Either I'll place a thin piece of lexan behind the letters, or I'll use a polyester filler similar to what they use to make the "stained glass" kits you see in craft stores, and fill the letters w/ clear poly.
I moved onto lighting the thing.
I want the letters to serve as a back up light, and have the running lights shine through when the lights are on. The center piece is very shallow. (like 1/2" deep) so there really is no room for any conventional light system. Earlier last week I bought some LED strip lights that you can cut and daisy chain to try and solve that problem.
Originally, the plan was to just stack the strips on top of one another in alternating courses. When I got the stuff at the house, and illuminated them, that idea fell through the cracks. The LEDs are too far apart. What you end up with is not what I was hoping for. Besides,you can see the damn things through the letters even when they aren't on.
Look.
The stuff I bought allowed me to cut it into 3 equal lengths. So, that means I have three courses of red, and white alternately. Since you can see them through the letters, I deciided to try and indirectly mount them. (they are attached to the back of the center piece). That only allowed for one row of white, and one row of red on top and the same on the bottom of the letters. Since I had the two extra strips, I figured I'd mount one strip each to help out the indirect lighting.
Again, that didn't work. I prefer the indirect approach.
red,
and white.
Now, this might get better if I paint the area behind the center piece in a silver, and that would act as a reflector. At the same time, I'm concerned that you'll see that silver background during the day.
So the jury's still out on what to do there.
But, I'm jumping myself here.....I haven't said anything about the wiring.
And there is plenty to talk about.
The only thing left to do with the wiring was tie in the headlights, Turnsignals, Marker lights, (of course the back up lights) and the rear TS, and tails. Additionally the Horn, although wired didn't honk.
Yesterday, I was working on trying to get the LED tails wired up and working. I had already bench checked them, so I knew that they worked.
But in my car,...that was proving to be a different story.
I had nothing. No tails, No brakes, No TS,....I didn't have jack back there.
I checked the head light switch, and all of the wires that went to the four corners of the car were hot at the switch. But at the other end,....dead.
Last night,...I download a 78 Fairmont specific wiring schematic. ( I had used a 79 Mustang wiring schematic when I wired the car, I was concerned that I had done soemthing wrong with a possible color change between the two years)
The first thing I notice was the horn. The fairmont shows a dark blue wire as it's horn wire. I had a dark blue wire alright, but mine wasn't hooked to nothing. I got out my test light and grounded one end of it. I wanted to see if that blue wire had voltage on it.
It didn't.
But,..when I hold the test light against the blue wire, and honk the horn?.......FIAAAMMMMM!!!!!!. By God, I now have a horn!( I'm using a German horn in the car, my horn honk sound like a BMW).
But that's all I got.
I jury rig up a socket w/ a 1157 bulb and hook it to the head light wires. I got head lights.
The harness is now completely bundled, and tied into place. It's almost impossible to trace the wires coming out of the column. I start cutting off wire ties, I remove the column surround, I remove the lower part of the dash trim. I manage to undo about an hours worth of structure in 5 minutes. I start tracing wires.
Every thing looks right.
I call Ron Francis. I tell him my deal.
"You cannot ck a Turn signal circuit with only one bulb hooked up, You need to complete at least one side first" Dude tells me.
"Oh,....Ok that makes sense" I reply. "But what about the running lights?, I got nothing there, and it shouldn't matter how many lights I'm trying to check."
"Have You checked your grounds? nothing will work if it's not grounded properly." He tells me.
"that's the one thing I'm pretty confident about,.I was pretty methodical when it came to scraping the metal, and making sure I got the grounds all tight". I assure the guy.
I go back down to the garage and take the 1157 socket that I had temporarily wired up as a head light, and wired it up as a turn signal for the front left. I went back to the rear, and rechecked the wires to the LED control panel. I take the wire In had as a temp ground off, and move it to one of the ground points I'm using for the engine.
I turn the Key,....pull the lever down,.....and...
[video=youtube;qp-Evu3F3yI]
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp-Evu3F3yI
[/video]
There wasn't one thing wrong with the way I had wired the car, excepting that I didn't have a left front TS circuit completed, and I neglected to ground the horn. And of course it helps to have a complete side hooked up w/ AN ACTUAL TRUE GROUND if you truly want junk to work.
So at the end of the day, I got tails. I got turn signals, I got a back up light (albeit a really dim one) and I got a really loud kraut horn. (I honk it just to piss off #2 son whose bedroom is immediately on the opposite side of the garage wall).
Now I gotta put all the dash wires back together, and restore it back to the way it was 24 hours earlier. In the grand scheme of things,.....Happily.
If only any of that junk was true.
First lets talk about the center piece. That stupid little center piece is a weeks worth of messing around, for a less than awesome end result.
When you last saw the thing it was flat, and green. The first thing that needed to be done was create some fins. Since I couldn't get the size I wanted to use in aluminum, I opted for steel instead. Considering that the fins will be glued on, the difference in metals wont matter. So I got two pieces of 1/2" wide bar, and two pieces of 1/4" wide stock and cut and glued them onto the base.
That took two days.
The reason being that stuff slides all over the place. Trying to clamp it in place is tenuous because it moves when it's clamped. it literally takes about 30 minutes just to clamp two pieces, which is what I did. I wanted the outside pieces to serve as a reference when it came to mounting the inner bars.
When that was all dry, I cleaned it all up, sanded the "fins", and sealed them with clear primer. Once that was dry, I clear coated the fins. (they are steel after all).
When that junk was dry, I masked off the fins and sprayed the entire thing in wrinkle black.
The only thing left to do to it is come up with a clear cover for the letters. Either I'll place a thin piece of lexan behind the letters, or I'll use a polyester filler similar to what they use to make the "stained glass" kits you see in craft stores, and fill the letters w/ clear poly.
I moved onto lighting the thing.
I want the letters to serve as a back up light, and have the running lights shine through when the lights are on. The center piece is very shallow. (like 1/2" deep) so there really is no room for any conventional light system. Earlier last week I bought some LED strip lights that you can cut and daisy chain to try and solve that problem.
Originally, the plan was to just stack the strips on top of one another in alternating courses. When I got the stuff at the house, and illuminated them, that idea fell through the cracks. The LEDs are too far apart. What you end up with is not what I was hoping for. Besides,you can see the damn things through the letters even when they aren't on.
Look.
The stuff I bought allowed me to cut it into 3 equal lengths. So, that means I have three courses of red, and white alternately. Since you can see them through the letters, I deciided to try and indirectly mount them. (they are attached to the back of the center piece). That only allowed for one row of white, and one row of red on top and the same on the bottom of the letters. Since I had the two extra strips, I figured I'd mount one strip each to help out the indirect lighting.
Again, that didn't work. I prefer the indirect approach.
red,
and white.
Now, this might get better if I paint the area behind the center piece in a silver, and that would act as a reflector. At the same time, I'm concerned that you'll see that silver background during the day.
So the jury's still out on what to do there.
But, I'm jumping myself here.....I haven't said anything about the wiring.
And there is plenty to talk about.
The only thing left to do with the wiring was tie in the headlights, Turnsignals, Marker lights, (of course the back up lights) and the rear TS, and tails. Additionally the Horn, although wired didn't honk.
Yesterday, I was working on trying to get the LED tails wired up and working. I had already bench checked them, so I knew that they worked.
But in my car,...that was proving to be a different story.
I had nothing. No tails, No brakes, No TS,....I didn't have jack back there.
I checked the head light switch, and all of the wires that went to the four corners of the car were hot at the switch. But at the other end,....dead.
Last night,...I download a 78 Fairmont specific wiring schematic. ( I had used a 79 Mustang wiring schematic when I wired the car, I was concerned that I had done soemthing wrong with a possible color change between the two years)
The first thing I notice was the horn. The fairmont shows a dark blue wire as it's horn wire. I had a dark blue wire alright, but mine wasn't hooked to nothing. I got out my test light and grounded one end of it. I wanted to see if that blue wire had voltage on it.
It didn't.
But,..when I hold the test light against the blue wire, and honk the horn?.......FIAAAMMMMM!!!!!!. By God, I now have a horn!( I'm using a German horn in the car, my horn honk sound like a BMW).
But that's all I got.
I jury rig up a socket w/ a 1157 bulb and hook it to the head light wires. I got head lights.
The harness is now completely bundled, and tied into place. It's almost impossible to trace the wires coming out of the column. I start cutting off wire ties, I remove the column surround, I remove the lower part of the dash trim. I manage to undo about an hours worth of structure in 5 minutes. I start tracing wires.
Every thing looks right.
I call Ron Francis. I tell him my deal.
"You cannot ck a Turn signal circuit with only one bulb hooked up, You need to complete at least one side first" Dude tells me.
"Oh,....Ok that makes sense" I reply. "But what about the running lights?, I got nothing there, and it shouldn't matter how many lights I'm trying to check."
"Have You checked your grounds? nothing will work if it's not grounded properly." He tells me.
"that's the one thing I'm pretty confident about,.I was pretty methodical when it came to scraping the metal, and making sure I got the grounds all tight". I assure the guy.
I go back down to the garage and take the 1157 socket that I had temporarily wired up as a head light, and wired it up as a turn signal for the front left. I went back to the rear, and rechecked the wires to the LED control panel. I take the wire In had as a temp ground off, and move it to one of the ground points I'm using for the engine.
I turn the Key,....pull the lever down,.....and...
[video=youtube;qp-Evu3F3yI]
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp-Evu3F3yI
[/video]
There wasn't one thing wrong with the way I had wired the car, excepting that I didn't have a left front TS circuit completed, and I neglected to ground the horn. And of course it helps to have a complete side hooked up w/ AN ACTUAL TRUE GROUND if you truly want junk to work.
So at the end of the day, I got tails. I got turn signals, I got a back up light (albeit a really dim one) and I got a really loud kraut horn. (I honk it just to piss off #2 son whose bedroom is immediately on the opposite side of the garage wall).
Now I gotta put all the dash wires back together, and restore it back to the way it was 24 hours earlier. In the grand scheme of things,.....Happily.
Last edited:
I may be able to change the flasher to get it faster. I'll wait till I get the tic-tock LED front bulbs installed in front and I'll see.
- Dec 19, 2010
- 5,721
- 4,244
- 224
Just as soon as I can stop doing the crap that'll scratch it
- Dec 19, 2010
- 5,721
- 4,244
- 224
I'm watching you,..I'm dying to see how the paint job turns out, and what issues you run into with your " drape-o-booth" . I have to get that car of mine painted in the next month, or I'll have to deal with green pollen in the air.
I don't have a fraction of the space that you have, and I'm planning on a more rigid frame because of that ( at least I was). I figure the 2x4's that I buy for the frame can be used to build the bathroom at the front of my garage that I've had the fixtures and plumbing bought and sitting there for 15 years. ( even have a sewage ejector cut and recessed in the floor.)
I just ordered my hinge repair kits from Summit. Even though my hinges don't seem that bad to me, the notion that I'm gonna be able to mount the doors, get them lined up and gapped, and then pull out the hinge pins and remove the doors is just too much of a good thing not to try. ( besides,...ill net " new hinge" performance as well)
I have the whole day today to get the front wiring for the headlights, and TS tied in. ( better not take more than a couple if hours) The led bulbs that are " discussed" on another thread are not here yet, so I'll be using the standard stuff to test.
By midday the hinge pins should be here. I hope that by the end I have the doors hangin on primed and rebuilt hinges, and the front end illuminated.
- Dec 19, 2010
- 5,721
- 4,244
- 224
Well... We'll see how it turns out. I'm nervous to say the least. Been a long time since I've painted.
And the Lord said,....Let there be light.
And I said, So it shall be done. ( I mean, who am I to argue?)
When I said "all that's left" was to finish the tail lights and headlights,..I clearly underestimated just how much of a job still remained.
Two days worth.
In reality, a fair amount of those two days was spent wasted, chasing around supplies. I simply didn't have the stuff to complete the wiring. No butt connectors,... no shrink wrap,... no sockets,...no nothing.
So,...I strike out in an attempt to round up up the stuff I needed.
I manage to get Everything except the sockets in one trip. But I wanted to replace the 40 year old front TS sockets too. I figured that I'd be able to source a generic socket assy, at AZ.
What does the finger say?
No! says the finger. All of the sockets on hooks at Auto Zone are intended for a GM application.
I had to go to 4 "other" parts stores to get what I needed.
One had one, Another had none. One had two, and finally the last had one.
And I went wee, wee, wee all the way home.
I'll admit it. LED replacement lamps are not up to snuff when comparing them to the old tried and true, typical 1157 incandescent bulb. Despite the implementation of multiple rows of LEDS on each bulb, the individual leds don't emit enough light cumulatively to measure up to a regular bulb.
Why then did I use the stupid things?
I wanted "special effect"
See, my LED bulbs will tic-tock between white and amber when acting as a turn signal. When in running mode, they'll just be white.
You can't get that with the old school.
But, the effect was more important than the light lumens. The led bulb still gives off enough light to be workable,..it's just,.......adequate.
As a starting point, remember that I have installed a black screen mesh over my TS lenses to act as a diffuser, and make the front end all black.
Also, because I just have to be diferent, the head lights are not the typical sealed beam. These are halogen replacements, using a standard H-4 bulb. Even going farther than that, I had to have even more of a difference, and opted for a set of lights that have "Angel Eyes". The pic above only has the A I's on.
With The TS illuminated.
And finally, Low beams.
Because of all the stupid separate little circuits with the TS, and headlights, I'm sure that contributed to the 50 million hour ordeal that it took to get them wired. But they're done.
That leaves one more thing.
They don't tink-un.
That's the noise my brother used to make when playing w/ matchbox cars to indicate that he had turned on his blinker.
Evidently, the front leds, combined with the rears are not presenting enough of a load to the flasher, and it isn't doing nothing. I'm pretty sure there is some sort of diode doo-dad that I can add that'll fix that, but that'll have to wait till Monday.
The other thing I said was planned was to get the doors on so I can drill some reference holes to make putting them back on after painting the jambs easier. I was gonna compl;etely replace the hinge pins altogether and use the hinge pins as a means of positively locating the doors when it comes time to put them back on, but.......
There really isn't anything wrong with the existing hinge pins.
So,..I'll just drill some reference holes in the hinges.
I'm thinkin' they're probably gonna stay awhile. I'll probably finish the door panels, and the interior will be GTG.
And I said, So it shall be done. ( I mean, who am I to argue?)
When I said "all that's left" was to finish the tail lights and headlights,..I clearly underestimated just how much of a job still remained.
Two days worth.
In reality, a fair amount of those two days was spent wasted, chasing around supplies. I simply didn't have the stuff to complete the wiring. No butt connectors,... no shrink wrap,... no sockets,...no nothing.
So,...I strike out in an attempt to round up up the stuff I needed.
I manage to get Everything except the sockets in one trip. But I wanted to replace the 40 year old front TS sockets too. I figured that I'd be able to source a generic socket assy, at AZ.
What does the finger say?
No! says the finger. All of the sockets on hooks at Auto Zone are intended for a GM application.
I had to go to 4 "other" parts stores to get what I needed.
One had one, Another had none. One had two, and finally the last had one.
And I went wee, wee, wee all the way home.
I'll admit it. LED replacement lamps are not up to snuff when comparing them to the old tried and true, typical 1157 incandescent bulb. Despite the implementation of multiple rows of LEDS on each bulb, the individual leds don't emit enough light cumulatively to measure up to a regular bulb.
Why then did I use the stupid things?
I wanted "special effect"
See, my LED bulbs will tic-tock between white and amber when acting as a turn signal. When in running mode, they'll just be white.
You can't get that with the old school.
But, the effect was more important than the light lumens. The led bulb still gives off enough light to be workable,..it's just,.......adequate.
As a starting point, remember that I have installed a black screen mesh over my TS lenses to act as a diffuser, and make the front end all black.
Also, because I just have to be diferent, the head lights are not the typical sealed beam. These are halogen replacements, using a standard H-4 bulb. Even going farther than that, I had to have even more of a difference, and opted for a set of lights that have "Angel Eyes". The pic above only has the A I's on.
With The TS illuminated.
And finally, Low beams.
Because of all the stupid separate little circuits with the TS, and headlights, I'm sure that contributed to the 50 million hour ordeal that it took to get them wired. But they're done.
That leaves one more thing.
They don't tink-un.
That's the noise my brother used to make when playing w/ matchbox cars to indicate that he had turned on his blinker.
Evidently, the front leds, combined with the rears are not presenting enough of a load to the flasher, and it isn't doing nothing. I'm pretty sure there is some sort of diode doo-dad that I can add that'll fix that, but that'll have to wait till Monday.
The other thing I said was planned was to get the doors on so I can drill some reference holes to make putting them back on after painting the jambs easier. I was gonna compl;etely replace the hinge pins altogether and use the hinge pins as a means of positively locating the doors when it comes time to put them back on, but.......
There really isn't anything wrong with the existing hinge pins.
So,..I'll just drill some reference holes in the hinges.
I'm thinkin' they're probably gonna stay awhile. I'll probably finish the door panels, and the interior will be GTG.
Last edited:
That's eerie. They look identicalYesss.... Soon my plan will be complete:
.What part of your "plan" is still incomplete, Dark?
Phillip123
Active Member
- Jan 5, 2015
- 125
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That's eerie. They look identical
What part of your "plan" is still incomplete, Dark?
So, why are the ones on the driver's side orange and pass side white?
Really? I spent a whole page talking about why I chose the led bulbs that tic tocked between Amber and white...one side is in ts mode.
- Status