Progress Thread Nicholase "lights out" build-

Today I revisited my relay / fuse board. I couldn't help but feel it was incomplete. So I decided to make a cover for it. I used some of the perforated aluminum I made my T/C mount with, but this stuff has bigger holes.

Cut


Fold


Add mounting channels and divider


Mounting channels attached to board. Also made some lables for everything.



Now it seems complete


The little dividers drop down inside so nothing can get in there.


The fuse cover can be removed without removing the aluminum shield


Under the seat it looks more like a finished product. With the seat all the way forward I can access the fuses pretty easily.

I got my USB plug yesterday night to replace the cigarette lighter. The first one I ordered was too big and I'd have to enlarge the lighter hole in the console alot. The correct one has a 7/8" body. These things are tough to find in that size and without lights or illumination of some sort. The socket is energized at all times, so it needs to be light free.


Lighter sub harness look like this. There are two connections. One for th lighter and one for the little light that illuminates the ashtray. That one comes from the dimmer.


I used the factory connector. So I de pinned it, removed the old wire from the pin and soldered in my USB lead.



This is gonna be way better than the big bulky adapter I was using before. I plugged in my phone and it says "fast charging". So center console officially back together now.


That leaves only one thing on my vacation "to do list". Call Hagerty and get a better policy.

nicholase said:

That leaves only one thing on my vacation "to do list". Call Hagerty and get a better policy.

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Well, that was easy.
$40,000 declared value
2,000 miles a year
250k/500k per person / accident
$500 deductible
$993 a year
(1,000 miles a year was $874)

My crappy Geico policy was more than that.

My biggest worry was some teenager texting and rear ending me and having Geico saying the car is worth 8 grand or something stupid. Haggerty confirmed even if the accident is another drivers fault, and their insurance was required to pay out, Haggerty would cover it to the 40k. Feel better now. Should have done this along time ago.

Yesterday I pulled the car out of the garage and took a half day to clean the floor and organize. Felt real good to get everything back in order. Then I tinkered around a little with the car. I got some heat wrap from Summit.


One peice for the A/C line to the evaporator core to help shield it from header heat. Also added some on my fuel lines by the filter under the car. The 90° peice is pretty slick. Fits perfect on the filter outlet line.





Got a new coil cover. Put a sticker on it and can't decide if it looks dorky.


Then I washed it. Man it's been a long time since I gave it the treatment. Its quite a process.

-Wash w/ C-guys car shampoo
-Meguires Clay bar
-3m Ultrafine machine polish #3. I do this by hand and only in the spots where there are any light blemishes. When I got the car I restored the original paint. Which was involved, lots of wet sanding and machine buffing. Now it's just yearly maintenance. I'm not sure how much clear is left, so I'm pretty much done w/ machine pads.
-Then two coats of C-Guys Blacklight glaze. This stuff looks wet and slippery. Best stuff I've tried and I've tried just about everything.


-For all the washing, drying, and polishing I use Adam's borderless grey microfiber towels.


Then this morning I took it for a 38 mile cruise. I stopped at a local upholstery shop. Going to work out an estimate to get the seats re done. I like the factory look, so I'm going to stay reasonably close to that. He had some cool ideas with perforated inserts but going with the factory lines.

Snapped a few pice in the parking lot





She ran flawlessly. It was a great ride. Had the new radio on, the A/C working great, and everything felt solid. Finally felt less like a test drive and more like an enjoyable cruise. I didn't try out the traction control. Maybe next time....

BlakeusMaximus said:

Car looks awesome @nicholase, I love it!. I need to pull the trigger on the 17 inch Ponies. Are you going to tint your windows?

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Thanks man. Appreciate it. Yeah, the 17" ponies really capture the stock-ish look I'm going for. Really love em.

I think I'm gonna leave the windows. I know lots of guys tint em. That's cool. As I get older I like the non tinted look better on older cars. Which is weird becasue all through my youth the first thing I'd do was get the window tinted, like the same day I got something new.

But who knows, that could change.... I've been tempted.

91AOD5.0LX said:

Your post just cost me 32.00 bucks. Lol
[Ordered from Amazon]. Arriving tomorrow.

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Lol. You'll like it man. I use it directly to paint. I've found it best to remove whatever wax you have on there first. A clay bar works, or whatever means you usually use. You can then wax over the BL if you want.

91AOD5.0LX said:

Separately: the coil cover decal looks clean in my opinion.

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BlakeusMaximus said:

I just might finish off that black paint, but looks great the way it is. I’ve followed the thread, it’s inspiring. Here’s mine…

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Looks great. I had a white GT when I was young. Got a special place in my heart for them.

^^ Awesome! Glad you like it. Everything you said is why it's my favorite!

This is the first weekend in a while no parts showed up. So I put some more thought into the interior. I decided to do this over the winter, this would feel rushed trying to do it without significant down time this summer and I'vehad enough of that for a while. So it's not happening soon, but its fun to think about and research. Originally I was thinking to go with red for the seats and perforated inserts. But after some thinking, I really like the look of fabric for inserts. I ordered a houndstooth sampler to see if i liked it.


I also ordered a yard of the marine grade vinyl that we thought best matched at the upholstery shop last weekend and compared the houndstooth samples to it. But after looking at it for a while, I actually prefer the houndstooth against my black car cover over the red MGV. So I might be onto something here.



I think this one matches really well. I'd probably do the door panel insert in it too.







At this point I'm leaning to keeping the front seat frames. I'll strip them and beef them up a little with some welding. Don't want that gangster lean happening after I re-upholster them. I also have to fix the lumbar bags. They work but don't hold pressure for more than a few hours. Probably a leaky bag. I'll have to find a fix for that. That's all best saved for a winter project.

As for the upholstery I'm leaning to keeping semi stock lines. I'm thinking replacing the seat foam with the Cobra seat foam They look very much in line with the factory sport seats, but have some deeper bolstering. For the look I'm thinking about black MGV with red stitching and using the red/black houndstooth for the inserts. Something like this:


Then I did a real lame photoshop of a fox seat with the Cobra foam and added the houndtooth. It's just to get the idea is to my head, certainly not going for Ai quality lol. I'm thinking about keeping the vertical stitching like the factory seat. I could have the door panel inserts stitched like that too which might look cool. A few different versions:





Good news is I have plenty of time to think it over, but feel like I have a direction.

gkomo said:

What you have envisioned so far would look really good. What is the cobra foam, there’s a link but it doesn’t go to any website. I need new foam on my drivers seat so I’ve always been on the lookout for something.

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I fixed the link. They sell factory style and the cobra style foam for Fox seat frames I believe it's similar to an 03-04 Cobra. They also sell the upholstery covers for both styles.

I ordered hatch carpet to match the rest of the car. I had tried a black one before but it was pretty terrible. I ordered this one direct from ACC.


There are many more options doing it that way. I ordered black with the Essex upgrade.



Also added the mass backing upgrade, which is a rubber layer bonded to the carpet. The pad is glued to that.


The mass backing is on the seat flappers too.


The last one I tried was so flimsy it always looked distorted, especially around the seat flapper. When you custom order it takes a few days to ship out. I had it about 10 days after I ordered so pretty quick turnaround. Too bad LMR or places like that don't offer these options. No returns on custom orders so that's probably why.

Before:


After:




I think it will all come together when I do the seats this winter.

Separately I got a new tool box Friday. So I've spent just about all weekend swapping tools over. Can't believe how much I've accumulated...

AeroCoupe said:

The black carpet in the hatch is money!

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