Teh Official "Dude Where's My Forum?" Thread, Brought to you by the minds of Box, and her fiancée, Lorelei Options

[Bitter]

It got dam dash longer an it got dam hood!

[Box]

At least the front of the Firebird being so long complements the size of the dash? It's one of the things I like and dislike at the same time, there's at least two feet of overhang on the front but I like how it looks. At least on the Firebirds you can pop the headlights up to use as reference points, Firebird 1 Camaro 0.

[Bitter]

Capri is almost done.


Eventful day! I got the front bumper strip and passenger side strip blacked out, looks real nice! I buffed the pass side down with some meg ultimate compound, I'll wax it in the morning and do the rear bumper strip tomorrow. Leaving the lower bumper trims gray since they get too much abuse, I doubt the Forever Black will stand up to it, it doesn't soak into these plastics as nice as it did my Celica side skirts.

I fixed the pass side door lock issues, there's a pivot that the lock actuator attaches to that translates it's motion up to the latch, the pivot had seized and the rod clip at the DLA popped loose. I set the pivot in front of the heat gun for a while and then gave it a few whacks with a little wrench while I held it with a vice grips, it came free and I flushed it with WD-40 while spinning it, once it was totally free I lubed with spray lithium, it should be fine for a while now. The door lock cylinder had some plastic debris inside jamming it, shook that out and purged the lock of debris with some mild solvents, flushed out a slurry of metal and old grease, lubed with spray lithium grease, works great now! The pass side is the only power lock, it just clones the actions of the driver side manual lock, cheesy but effective I guess.


I wiped the driver side mirror with the wrong rag and ruined the finish on it, acetone, whoops! So I pulled both and gave both some satin black paint, the pass side got some fish eyes for some reason annoyingly so I'll have to lightly sand it and re-coat tomorrow, how annoying. I prepped the d/s with the same cleaner but then hit it with some SEM plastic prep spray, that one came out perfect, lesson learned. Clean wasn't clean enough!

The pass side speaker is badly water stained and the cone is ripping/thin in spots so I ordered some replacements.

http://www.parts-express.com/kenwood-kfc-c...-pair--267-4326 but from Amazon with prime shipping and my rewards balance they cost $15 for the pair. They should sound as good as or a little better than the OEM speakers with the 16W RMS JVC CD player in the dash.

It'll be like getting a new car when she gets it back, just wish I could fix all the rust on it and take the slop out of the shifter, another time.

This post has been edited by Bitter: Oct 29, 2016 - 8:36 PM

[Box]

I think those Kenwood speakers are rated fairly well everywhere I've seen them, should be notably better than OEM and especially worn out OEM.

[Box]

The pass side is the only power lock, it just clones the actions of the driver side manual lock, cheesy but effective I guess.

Only Ford. Sort of like only Ford wouldn't label the fuse/relay panel in the engine bay or still be using 100K odometers in the mid 90's. Ended up getting dragged into helping on the timing belt and water pump on mom's fiance's Escort. Long story short he couldn't get the crank bolt broke free to pull the crank pulley off so I put a breaker bar on it with the handle against the A/C compressor and in looking for the EFI fuse in the unlabeled fuse box I just ripped them all out and bumped the motor over which broke the bolt free then popped them all back in and went on my merry way. He was talking about buying an electric impact just for that and I was like, just give me a minute. Have to love those old mechanic's tricks.

[Bitter]

Well back then there was no keyless entry so what good would having power door lock on the driver side be if you still had to use a key to get in, right? And once in I guess a lock button would be nice but why bother, just put a switch on the latch right? It all works now, probably again for the first time in quite some time. The little flaps on the lock cylinders are long gone, I've been trying to figure out if the cylinders on ebay for cheap are the same, look close enough but they're not black on the outside and then she'd have 3 keys which would be awfully annoying. I could swap the tumblers but that's a royal pain for me to do. Probably at some point she'll need a new key cut by the lock code (which I got off the cylinder) and new tumblers to match as they're worn with the keys. I would like to get into the driver side lock to see why it hangs, might do that when I put the speaker in. Sometimes you need to really wiggle or push the key in harder to turn it, like it's catching on something when going back and forth from lock to unlock. I'd like to repair something before it breaks, but since the pass side is smooth now maybe I'll just swap the driver and pass sides....

[Box]

GM offered keyless entry as a dealer add-on starting in 1989, then starting in 1993 Corvettes even had passive keyless entry from the factory and F-bodies starting in 1994 had "standard" keyless entry from the factory. At any rather though if the locks are identical it'd probably be better to just swap them as the driver side is probably just worn out from years of use.

I had remembered seeing a few late third gens with it before, but it was ultra basic and could only lock or unlock I think.

[Bitter]

Oh wow I didn't know they had that way back then, I vaguely remember some 80's Lincoln models with the key pad.

This post has been edited by Bitter: Oct 30, 2016 - 10:47 AM

[Box]

I think they may have been the only ones at the time, I know my brother's '95 Maxima had factory keyless entry so I guess around that time most everyone was probably offering it. I do know the Firebird is the first car I've owned with keyless entry, then again it's also the first car I've owned made past 1995. Keyless entry is such a simple yet wonderful thing, especially when it's raining or you're carrying crap.

[Bitter]

Very, I really wish my 98 Mazda had it.

[Box]

Perhaps it could be added, but depending on how it's implemented it could be anywhere from relatively easy to royal pain in the ass.

So not much really happening except for the cover has started to relax and conform better, need to order the double sided tape I found via Amazon Prime. The cover came with velcro to use for attaching but compared to double sided tape it's much thicker and I think it'll be easier to get it nice and tightly fitted with tape instead, plus I don't intend on removing it except for whenever a new dash will be going in.

[Bitter]

I wonder if you could use iron down fabric strips? I don't know the brand name, but they're used to iron two things together permanently.


I drilled out 3 screws, cracked one plate light housing some (but glued it back together, E6000 FTW), got one screw to come out, and now she's got working plate lights for the first time in 5+ years! I also fitted the same LED as I used for my underhood light to her trunk on the lid to shine down into the compartment instead of the single 10W festoon on one side, also replaced her trunk struts with ones that she'd had sitting around for a while. Now when the trunk is unlocked and popped it just lifts itself about 1/2 way and won't fall on her. There's still one corner light out up front but for ****s sake I don't feel like paying $5 for a pair of 168 bulbs. I'll have her pick up a pair and do that over at her place later or something, I'm done buying stuff for this project. I still need to mask the top half of the trunk trim to black it out yet and then once the speakers come it's done I think except for getting the headlight aim correct.

[Box]

Stitch Witchery? I found one tape branded Thermoweb that's supposed to be permanent, once you press it down it's not coming back off. I don't want it that permanent, I found another that's branded Scor-Pal and is heat resistant and seems marketed towards home crafting. Plus all their tapes are rated really well so $4.50 shipped for a 3/8" x 27 yd roll of double sided tape seems like a good deal.

And pictures *cough*

[Bitter]

I'll post pictures when it's all done, I have a feeling the trim is going to look streakier in the sunlight.

[Bitter]

Ok, teaser.

https://youtu.be/2F6f0pz12SY

[Box]

^Nice, I really need to get around to the Firebird's interior especially with Winter hours around the corner and being out in the dark is a given.

So I just got back from test driving the Escort since I'm apparently the most qualified for such an endeavor. For one the Firebird has spoiled me with its power, I'm not used to having to floor it and revving the engine out to get up to speed anymore. Secondly holy crap the clutch engagement sucks terribly as does the shifter feel, on the clutch there's maybe an inch of clutch engagement at the very top of the pedal's travel. Feathering the clutch out to get rolling was impossible and I know it shouldn't be that bad since I was able to get it fairly good after the clutch master and slave were replaced and the system was bled, I'm thinking maybe the clutch rod could've loosened and backed out or at least I hope that's it. Which coming to the intersection in town I was able to engine brake fine, but coming to the turn onto the road home it didn't want to engine brake really. So after pulling in I pulled the parking brake up and put it into third, revved it to 2K and let the clutch out and it grabbed fine and died. So at least it should be a matter of adjustment and/or rebleeding and not replacing the clutch.

This post has been edited by Box: Oct 30, 2016 - 6:43 PM

[Bitter]

Pfft took like 10 minutes with spare junk I had laying around. This LED looks less blue tint than the one I put on the Mazda of course, go figure she gets the nicer of the pair.

[Box]

I like to over think, over research, and over plan so it takes considerably longer than it should to get much of anything accomplished. I still need to pop out the rearview mirror bulbs to double check what they are before buying, but I haven't dedicated the time to seeing how to pop the bulb covers out without potentially breaking anything

[Bitter]

Normally me too, but this was an obvious no brainer, stick the LED strip up, solder the paired red/black wire, heat shrink, fish the wire through the trunk lid bracing, put it through a rubber tube to protect it from pinching in the folding area, snip to length, crimp on some spades, plug into the OE wiring in place of the festoon bulb holder, pop the festoon holder back in place to fill the hole in the trunk. Done.


I also figured out how to re-secure the rear bumper so it doesn't stick out on the driver side, or I figured out how it should be secured. I need to detach the lower holder to see how it's damaged up top, might need some epoxy for a bracket or something.

Also I finally modded that LED spot light with the sense resistor, it probably gets too hot running for extended lengths of time though, assuming the 65W power supply I've connected it to is sufficient, it should be. I'll have to get some surface temps after it's ran for a good while though to be sure it's safe to use on anything. It sure lights some stuff up though! Would make a good high beam spot or a good flash to pass light. It's got less hot spot than my 1000 lumen EC4GT flash light but I'd say it's at least as bright if not brighter than it. It's still a good pencil beam though, just no idea what to use it for. Won't really fit well on either of my cars and I only have one. I'd have to get a 2nd one, maybe I will fit them to my Mazda to give more high beam, worried that they won't be weather proof enough for car use through winter...would be pretty sweet though!

This post has been edited by Bitter: Oct 30, 2016 - 8:56 PM

[Box]

That's how my brother did the trunk lighting for his Genesis, I've thought about doing something similar for the Firebird but with being a liftback everything is exposed and there's no easy way of hiding things.

Woooo secured bumpers. You mean contrary to popular belief duct tape and zip ties aren't the answer?

This post has been edited by Box: Oct 30, 2016 - 9:37 PM