1969 Pro-Touring Camaro - ZZ69

[YenkoSC]

Originally Posted by zappa

*** On a seperate note to everyone, I did notice I am doing an awful lot of posting in here without much feedback so I can only assume its either boring as sh!t and people aren't reading it or people are just following along!
Make sure you let me know if I am posing too much of something or too little of something else or if you want to see something else completely as I will just adjust it to what people want to see ***
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Keep posting exactly as you are mate. You are giving me plenty of ideas for how to do mine. Enjoying the read, waiting to see what's coming.

[zappa]

Cool Thanks guys, I will keep on rolling it out then

Originally Posted by Stealth 69

Liking your confidence to just jump in and get amongst it - I take it you have a good grasp of electrics
Am watching your AV setup, as I'm keen to revive my own setup in my next build phase - Twin 3" magnaflows used to be enough sweet music for me, but with the LSA going in its time I caught up with 2017

OOOO LSA....Hell Yes! *Drool* :roll eyes:

I was an Auto sparky + AV Installer when I was younger but that was quite some time ago now, its one of the very few things that I seem to be able to understand just by looking at it ....I just wish everything was like that but yes my background is in electronics+IT and just adding it up I have been wiring cars as a "hobby" for around 25yrs which makes me feel REALLY old I have never gone back into it for work though
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So after taking a good look at the gauge cluster harness I decided to make a new one from scratch as there wasn't much that could be re-used and a lot wasn't working anyway

Old Harness


As part of the refresh I decided to convert all of the dash lights from bulbs to LED and from the old yellow colour to a more modern light blue...this was quite easy to do on the Autometer gauges as I just bought a bunch of light blue LED globes that would fit however the AC controller was a different story....hers a shot as it came out, it basically had a small filament type globe attached to the silicon on either side of the housing, the wiring was very flimsy and it also provided very poor light.



So I decided to come kick back into electronics 101 class and make a better setup, I also stripped the controller down and sent the billet plate off to be anodised black so it would match all of the other new billet gear.

[Angry]

little feedback...casue Im sitting here drooling n tryiong to work ot how I do that....LOl

Keep posting damn it

Al

[zappa]

Alrighty heres something a bit new! My first DYI explainer post :

HOW TO: Make custom LED lighting for your car!

For this project I am using 4 x High Brightness LEDs in the AC controller and one to backlight the Wiper switch. While they are all going to be powered from the same feed I have decided to wire them so they can take a direct 12v power feed individually as it provides a bit more flexibility and keeps the wiring nice & clean behind the controller.

What you need?

• Light gauge wiring (Red/Black)
• Single wall Heat shrink(Red/Black)
• Dual Wall Heat shrink (Black)
• Solder
• 5 x 5mm LEDs (Light Blue)
• 5 x Resistors
• Cable Ties
• Black Paint

Tools:

• Wire Stripper/cutter
• Soldering iron
• Heat-gun (or just use your iron if its gas powered)
• Drill with 5mm steel bit

Process:

1. Given I am using high brightness LEDs that give off decent light I decided to mount 2 x LEDs into each mounting plate of the control panel, this will also help minimise heat build-up
   
2. Drill two 5mm holes in the Mounting plate and ensure they are aligned with each control strip insert (e.g.; H M L), and test fit the LEDs
   
3. Paint the mounting strips with a Rust proofing paint e.g; Rustoleum

1. Next cut 5 x 30cm lengths of both red + black wire and strip 2-3cm off one end of each piece
2. Cut 5 x 5cm pieces of black heat shrink
3. Cut 5 x 10cm pieces of red heat shrink
4. Cut 5 x 10cm pieces of the double wall black heat shrink

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The Electronics Bit

• Most LEDs operate at between 1.9v through to around 6v with the average being around 3.2v.
  
• Know your voltage! So for reliable, stable LED operation you generally want to exceed the rated voltage by a small amount, for example: Use at least 3 volts for the lower voltage types (e.g; 1.9v Reds), 4.5 volts for the 3.4 volt types, and 5 volts for the 470 NM blue (which is what I am using).
  
• The challenge is cars run at around 14v while the alternator is charging the battery so you need to install a dropping resistor to bring it down to the correct voltage (Calculation: LED Voltage - Operating Voltage = required drop value) ~ 5v - 14v = -9v
  
• Then you divide the dropped voltage by the LED current (in this case 20MA) to get the value of the dropping resistor you need, so: 9v / 20ma = 450(k).
  
• Dropping Resistor Value = 450k 5% Tol - The closest they had was a 470Ω which is fits what I need!

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Solder Time

1. Twist the black wire onto the Neg (-) leg of your LED (the short one) and solder them together
   
2. Twist one leg of the resistor with the end of the Red wire and solder them together
   
3. Then Twist the other leg of the resistor with the pos LED leg (+) and solder them together

Heat Shrinkin'

1. Given they will be reasonably exposed behind the dash, I am making sure the they are well protected and using the heat shrink to add a bit of extra strength as well.
   
2. Place the single wall black and red heat shrink over each connection accordingly and use a heat gun to shrink it around the connection and the resistor.
   
   
   
3. Then take a piece of the dual-wall and place it over both wires and take it right to the base of the LED and hit it with the heat gun, you will notice the internal glue wall fills all of the gaps and "seals" everything together.
   
4. Finish off with a cable tie at the base.
   
   

Fitting and Test

1. Install the LEDs into the mounting bar, I use a single drop of superglue to ensure they won't move
   
2. Strip the other ends of all the wires and join all Black and all Red together (don't cut them down yet).
   
3. Whack them on a 12v PS to test they are all working as expected
   
   
   

The Vintage Air AC Plate came back from the Anodises and I am stoked with how it came up!

[zappa]

So next I just had to add the switch inserts back in which was way harder than expected as they don't have any way to stay in but once it was done it was ready to put it all back together and test the lights

Day Time:


A quick test fit to make sure it all still lines up


And finally a quick trial run in the panel, its a really sh!tty photo but gives you the idea! It won't be as bright in the dash as theres a large amount of cabling that comes to this switch that will block some of the light and I need to put the sliders back on too the only downside I can see is that you loose a bit of the red colour on the "warm" side but other than that I was really happy with the result.
Night Time:



And heres a Sneak Peak at the CAD model for my CNC dash panels...unfortunately I don't have a CAD model of the main panel i can put up but I will post real photos soon enough They are being made from 6mm Billet, then being anodised and then back on the CNC to machine in the labelling + lines etc The goal with these is to add something really different with "Pro-touring style" yet still retains some original flavour haha (I haven't seen this done before?).....it could fail or it could work well


Next up...The gauge harness

First up, I made all new globe holders for the Autometer Gauges, all tested and ready to go!

[zappa]

Originally Posted by Angry

little feedback...casue Im sitting here drooling n tryiong to work ot how I do that....LOl

Keep posting damn it

Al

heheh thanks mate! I recon if I can do it anyone can

[Angry]

Ill send measurements for back lighting of my VA AC controller...buggers blacker than a coalmine...,,,,needs this,..just got no see thru pits on panels

[zappa]

Originally Posted by Angry

Ill send measurements for back lighting of my VA AC controller...buggers blacker than a coalmine...,,,,needs this,..just got no see thru pits on panels

Which controller do you have?

[zappa]

Dash harness re-wired, wrapped + completed

[TJS811]

Nice job. Any pics of it powered up yet?

[Angry]

Originally Posted by zappa

Which controller do you have?

Ive got Vintage Air slide controller , ...no lighting,,,GGrrr

Al

[Nev68]

Very tidy, nice job.