Why can't I ever do anything the easy way??

I have recently added to the car....

An OEM hardtop
A set of OEM Fog Lights

I really wanted to hate the hardtop because hardtops are for sissies. Turns out I really quite like it.

I knew I would like the OEM fog lights....

Is it just me.....

or do they look a bit......

You know.....

Shit

Oh but it gets worse. So much worse.

My car is a 1994 JDM spec. So there isn't one connector behind the dash for the front fogs and one for the HRW in the hardtop. Oh no! It's ONE six pin connector. You can plug in a 6 pin fog switch and not be able to use the HRW or plug in a 6 pin HRW switch and not be able to use the fogs. Or you can find a switch P/N: MZ-N021-V7-237

(the one on the left)

It's JDM or USDM only and because only four people in the world ever spec'd a MK1 in Japan or USA with a hardtop and front foglights it's as rare as rocking horse poop.

I never ever ever chop off multi plugs and rewire then to after market switches. That's a bodge and I shall have none of it.

I have found a supplier of the switch HERE (not cheap)

I could just bin the foglamps and start looking for a 6 pin hrw switch. But even they seem to be a bit rare.

Aaaaaaaaargh! Bloody car!

 

Hardtops rule. They look better, and stiffen the car up. Win win IMO.

 

Epic thread, unsuprisingly im not too keen on the hello kitty stuff but i do like the spirit of it

Get rid of the fogs, i have them and i'm not a fan, but not so much that i could be arsed to take them off and have a swith in the car that doesnt do anything. From reading through this though i guess you'll keep them on just for the challenge of having both the heated window on the hard top and the fogs........

 

Cheers!

I will have to admit the challenge of finding the switch is the only thing keeping the fogs on the car at the moment

 

If you cast you mind back up the thread you may remember the loss of my beloved HKS exhaust.

The HKS was replaced by a standard exhaust. Thank you to Shogun for the donation.

That failed due to rust after a week

The standard exhaust was replaced by another standard one. Thank you to Mozza for that donation.

I took that off after a week and replaced it with a full system that I purchased form Simon.

Similar to this one

All except for the tubular manifold. Which was for a 1.6 and had to be sold. Sucks cos it was bloomin pretty!

but.....

(Come on, it's me, you know there is always a but)

I never really have bonded with that stainless catback. I don't really like the tip and because I am a fashion victim and run hellalow I keep twatting the centre section hanger on pebbles and lint.

So when I saw this

Advertised on the forum and located in Sutton Coldfield. I sprang from the blocks like Linford Christie reacting to a very spicy curry in a faraway lavatory situation. I was first in a queue of many.

Met the seller last night. Talked him onto joining P5's and collected my new exhaust.

It is, in fact, the quitesimilarlookingottheHKS exhaust that I considered buying from eBay america

Mine has seen a few miles since it was as shiny as that.

Certainly not in bad shape at all. But we could do better. So we cleared the coffee table. Slipped a sleeping bag into two binbags and set to with fine wire wool and autosol. Just the sort of romantic Sunday afternoon that we like here at Cerbie towers.

Before

After

Before

After

After

After

Just got to get the lil bugger bolted up in place now!

 

What, you didn't shine up the hanger? Hang your head in shame young man...

Great job, my car would probably be really nice looking if I had some of the patience you have!!

Russell.

 

I've developed a lot more patience now that I am a grumpy old man. But, yeah, it didn't extend to polishing the hangers. LOL

A previous owner had fitted an air horn to my car. But one of the air horn trumpets has always refused to make noise.

I've been looking around for a Steibel Nautilus. I spotted this :

in Halfrauds today. It looks like a copy of the Nautilus?

Worth a try. Can't be worse than the rather lame squeaky parp I have now!

 

The new zorst is on! Kinda! Sorta!

Looks good eh!

Shiny!

But.............

That can't be right can it!!

Sounds nice tho. Much more bass :thumb:

With huge thanks to Greg for the borrow of his pit. Which made fitting the zorst MUCH easier, and warmer, but slightly damper.

 

Just read from beginning to end in one sitting. Epic Read, Epic Car. Well done buddy.

 

Just fyi on the HSD's, i have just found the perfect set up imo, zero preload, 3 clicks on the front and 8 on the back, seems to work the best like that, equal compression all round on bumpy roads!
Nice car too op!

 

At last a day with no rain! I hope this is a good omen for the rest of 2013!

So off out I went to replace my broken air horn with my Stebel look alike!

The air horn had been installed by the DPO but they had made quite a nice job of it. It has a proper fused, relay switched, circuit feeding it. Result, saved me adding it!

The compressor and horns were neatly tucked in front of the air con rad.

The work of but a moment to extract the horns.

Followed by the compressor.

Then I had to figure out how the heck to mount the new one.

The horns are built into this one so it wasnt going to fit back in the same location as the first compressor. The first compressor had a label on it showing that it must be mounted upright. I'd long since binned the packaging for the new horn but I assumed it too would want to be upright.

An hour passed. The bonnet latch got taken out. The passenger headlamp got removed. I damn nearly took the front bumper off. Could I find a location to mount the new horn, upright, in front of the air con rad? Could I bollocks to buggery!

In the end I found a compromise position. Mouting it just behind the power steering reservoir. I applied some paper tape and maked up the location of the required mounting hole. With the drill in hand I got cold feet. Sure I could mount the horn there but it would be far better ahead of the air con rad instead of muffled inside the engine bay. There had tro be a way.

I took the paper tape off and stopped for a cup of tea. With the grey matter suitably lubricated by the Earl Grey. I found a location that could work, in front of the air con rad. But the compressor would be mounted horizontally.

I put the horn on it's side on the table and fed it 12 volts. It still went *PARP* on it's side. Plus the trumpets would be pointing down so no chance of them filling with water.

That would have to do then.

After an hour and a half of 3D Tetris trying to find a location. It took 5 minutes to drill the hole, bolt the horn in place and attach the wiring. Luckily I didn't have to make any wiring changes at all. The existing wiring was the perfect length.

A quick alteration to the the cover doodad.

and it was fitted back in place.

Just have to see how long it lasts mounted horizontally I guess.

*PARP*

 

Very cool car mate, love what you've done with the interior. Very original

Good work with the exhuast, little bit of elbow grease goes a long way!

 

With the Christmas tree down some reality is slowly returning to Cerberus Towers and a few days off last week we decided to have some quiet days pottering about the house.

So I made myself busy with some graphics for the car pc and some new software.

First up, New buttons for the front end. The original buttons from the FreeICE project (The front end I use and the project I am part of) have become a bit of a mish mash because the focus has been on getting the core code stable. Took me a morning to knock up some better buttons based on a standard button outline that I created.

Much nicer than the old ones.

Then on to the K8055 relay control board. For those not keeping up that's the box of tricks that allows me to interface with 12Volt relays via USB from the car pc.

The application that I wrote to control the relays was looking a bit past it.

New buttons were needed! This is what I came up with.

I was going for something with icons rather than wording. I'm not sure I hit the mark with them but they are better than the old ones.

Next up was the real challenge.......

To listen to the radio one had to click to the main menu, hit the relay app icon, hit the aerial button to raise the aerial, then back to the main menu, then hit the radio icon.

Pain in the bum!

So I coded a plugin that intercepts the hitting of the radio icon and sends the relay control app an F6 key-press. I then rewrote some of the relay control app so that it will listen for key-presses and if it sees an F6........

The grade A students have already figured this one out. Automatic aerial raising whenever the radio app is started!! 8)

It only took me three days to figure out how to do it and get the code written and bug free.

But now I can listen to the radio without having to pull over and press a million buttons.

Well it pleased me........

 

Not much happened to the car lately. Been too cold to wield the spanners. But the list of niggles is growing. As soon as the weather is above freezing I will have to fix the central locking

I finally took the leap and had some door roundels made up. Thanks to Valentinik for sorting these for me

Excuse the use of TiltShift but I quite like this picture

Still can't decide if I like the roundels. Might try them without the numbers. Will live with them for a few more weeks and see how I feel about them.

 

Oh, and I built this -

But I can't tell you what it is for yet. Top secret!

 

Now I'm aware that I don't actually know you, never met you and have only read about your car on here but here are some pictures....

Every time i see a Hello Kitty item of any sort i instantly think of your car and I smile, you have indelibly linked Hello Kitty brand with your car in my mind now, congratulations! Lol

Thank you,

Robert

 

Nice one

If it amuses a handful of people as much as it amuses me then I declare victory.

Remember kids there is nothing moar JDMz than Hello Kitty

 

I bow down to you and your amazing car!! We are not worthy, we are not worthy!!

 

Snow..... Seriously? Snow...!

Forrrrr fuuuuuuuuuuucks sake!

Don't care. Hardtop is staying off. I don't care that the roof has holes in it.... I got one of these

at the weekend and I'm going to do epic win roof repairz with it. So.. there... #SCREWYOUJOHNKETTLEY

I still need to do a load of important jobs like-
The cam cover gasket which is leaking like a waterfall
Change the oil. Because it is well overdue.
Change the spark plugs because they are ancient.
Put a proper passenger door lock solenoid in because the one in it now is frankensteined.
Strip and regrease both door glass systems
Replace the drivers door glass mechanism because the wire is frayed to buggery.

These jobs mostly involve being out in the cold and therefore I am ignoring them.

Besides I can always find things to do indoors to make it look like I am achieving something......

Remember the HelloKitty fuel lid?

It was made of awesome and winning. Hand stickerbombed, 3 coats of PVA and then 3 coats of UV resistant lacquer. It lasted a month and then the whole thing faded to white.
I haven't even taken a picture of it. It is that awful looking!

Quiet Sunday night in, Bottle of wine, good film on telly, a third fuel flap and 10 bags of Kitty stickers.........

Seems rude not to eh...

Needs to be lacquered.

With a lacquer that actually DOES resist UV rather than one that pretends to! If you know of such a lacquer then please do give me a shout!

 

"But wait!" I hear you cry. "How did your passenger door solenoid become frankensteined?". Of course you would be quite correct to enquire. I'm pleased to see you have been paying such close attention!

It all happened a few months ago when the cold and the damp and the cold arrived. Heralding the annual expiration of my central locking. Well I happened to be at the garage of a good mate the other day and while he was looking the other way my car somehow accidentally rolled backwards into the warmth of the garage and then the door cards fell off!

I know! I was amazed too!

So, with the doors gubbins exposed I whipped out her locking motors for a looksee.

The problem wasn't actually the motor part. The problem was the micro-switch inside each one. The switch should be open with the solenoid extended (Infinite resistance) and closed with the solenoid retracted (zero resistance). Give each one 12v up it's bottom and the motor would spin and the solenoid would move. On the passenger door unit the switch wouldn't hit zero resistance. Even when it should have been at zero there was enough resistance to annoy the central locking relay. On the drivers side the switch was fully open (zero resistance) all day long no matter if it was open, closed, bouncing off the wall or being sworn at.

Non user serviceable these things. No way into them. Riveted closed. You know what rivets don't like? Rivets don't like drills!

Well there's your problem!

Full of water!

Believe it or not this motor works!

However this micro switch is banjaxed!!

A replacement 5 wire solenoid was obtained. Cheers Greg! Drivers door working beautifully. But they only had one in stock so the passenger door got the Frankenstein treatment. I used the best motor, snipped the wires off the microswitch and installed the creation as a 2 wire 'slave' solenoid in the passengers door.

I'm on the hunt for a replacement pair of door solenoids. Preferably ones with some sort of seal to keep the water out!

 

Absolutely adore this fuel cover thingy, looks the dogs wotsits! Btw not being sharp eyed or anything but your faded to white previous hello kitty fuel cover makes an appearance in your last post about the door solenoids h34r: unless its just the picture making it look like that lol

Wish I had a garage like that, even if it is a mates, I am jealous lol

Cheers,

Robert

 

Absolutely adore this fuel cover thingy, looks the dogs wotsits! Btw not being sharp eyed or anything but your faded to white previous hello kitty fuel cover makes an appearance in your last post about the door solenoids

unless its just the picture making it look like that lol

Wish I had a garage like that, even if it is a mates, I am jealous lol

Cheers,

Robert

You weren't supposed to notice, lol. I wish I could say the camera flash whited it out. But, no, it is that bad

Halfrauds UV resistant lacquer? My fat hairy bum! Grrrrr

 

When last I posted there was technology afoot. But I was keeping it quiet. Well it's done now and I'm too excited about it to wait three weeks to unveil it at the monthly 8)

Way back in the long long ago I changed from a standard rectangular front numberplate to a 6x9 offset plate. It's always a bit of a gamble when you do this to a 5 as to what you will find lurking behind the original plinth.

I was hoping for 2 neat holes. I got TWELVE raggedy ass holes. Three of which were 10mm diameter!

I could fill them and repaint the bumper. If only I knew what colour my car is! (Refer up thread for paint colour confusion stories!)

So I decided to live with them. The car is black so they aren't as obvious as they would be on a white car. Off I set with my mad KITT dash and Car PC and other projects. Ignoring the bumper quite successfully.

Many many people who see the KITT dash ask "So are you doing the scanner" and I would always reply "Nah, that's a bit much really" whilst thinking.. hmmm.. maybe..

After all.... I already have a load of holes in the bumper....

What if... I made a scanner out of 10mm LED's? I've already got three 10mm holes... Just... add more holes...

There was a 10mm hole in the middle. So whatever I did the scanner would need to be made of an odd number of lights. I had a look around and came across this

It's the 'Larson Scanner' from Evil Mad Scientist Labs. It uses an embedded processor (ATTiny3212). EMSL were kind enough to open source the code. All I had to do was download the firmware, burn it to the chip and build the circuit.

Challenge accepted!

The heart of the beast, the attiny.

This is the circuit built on breadboard. The Arduino UNO is being used as a programmer to upload the, slightly modified, firmware to the attiny on the breadboard.

Great! but it would need turning into something a bit more permanent than a breadboard! So I grabbed some stripboard and soldered up a permanent version.

Lovely.... but now for the scary part.

MOARHOLES!

The layout for 9 holes was fairly easy. Using the existing spacings of the three 10mm holes worked out ok.

Pilot holes drilled

No turning back now!

So in between snow storms and torrential rain it was time to remove the bumper. General consensus was that the process was a total nightmare and many seized fastenings would be encountered.

Nah, easy peasy! Not one seized fastener anywhere.

There was no way that having 9 bloomin great holes in the front bumper was ever going to be invisible. But I did want the scanner to be at least subtle when turned off. So I went for water clear LED's

The hope being that with them off and recessed in the bumper slightly. They would be easy to miss. I made a template of the bumper holes and put the scanner bar together

Soldered and heat shrink covered. Win.

With the bumper off and in the living room it was time to fire up the hot melt glue gun.

Another break in the weather and the bumper could go back on -

The scanner is a bit more obvious than I had hoped for I think. But that could just be because I am very focussed on them at the moment. Maybe in a few days they won't leap out like a sore thumb so much?

Well... that's it... the madness is complete... the scanner is installed... so what does it look like???

I love it. Amuses me no end. But don't worry, you are allowed to hate it. I won't judge.

 

Love this build! so much respect for being different!!

 

Seriously this is all kinds of awesome, from what I can see it doesn't look overly obvious when lights are off, tbh I don't think people would guess what they do, they probably wouldn't think twice when seeing it.... Until lights came on, and all kinds of awesome were unleashed!! Lol

Congratulations! I love it!!

Robert

 

ahaha amazing! can only see it if you know it's there

 

Cheers guys

 

I've just read this. Amazing! I love how you're not taking it too seriously, but everything you do is done to a serious level of quality