You're Never Actually Ready for Paint

It's sort of like when you tell yourself that "maybe we'll take that trip next year". Or "maybe we'll do that bathroom re-model after the taxes are paid". "Maybe I'll go back to school after the kids are gone." Yeah. It's like that. What is? When you say "we're almost ready for paint". No, you're not; we have been saying "we're almost ready for paint" about this 1979 280ZX for almost 3 years. Today's post pulls the Zed out of storage and back into the workplace. First, let's remember some of the history of this thing.

Zed, a History

original CL listing

We bought it 3 years ago (come August) from a couple of guys who were turning it into a drift car. They made many dubious decisions like removing the center console, the little rear partition where the stereo speakers go, the sunroof (tack-welded and duct-taped on a piece of tin to fill the hole), the carpet, etc in the interest of dropping weight. They hacked up the ignition and wiring so the fuel pump, ignition and radiator fans are all controlled by switches. Of course, the switches don't match and they were installed kinda hinky, but they work. They did start with a great shell, though they painted a big purple V on the hood that just had to go. There is very little rust. In fact, there's hardly any anywhere on this thing. They did fold the driver door and fender, though. And, they did a top-end rebuild, so the valves still need to be re-gapped.

We bought a second 280ZX from a guy outside Seattle and had it towed home. This one was rusting apart, but it had a very clean grey interior, the center console and some other goodies, like original alloy rims. Our plan was simple: remove the interior, rims and other bits... then pitch the donor. The keeper would get a decent paint job (probably one that we'd do and learn how along the way), and then we would re-add all of the pieces. A replacement driver door was found during a separate trip T and C took into northwestern Washington. Unfortunately the yard was closing by the time they got there so they couldn't grab the matching fender. Oh, I almost forgot: this was my son's project. So, I was available labor, bur the decisions were his. The body parts were removed and hand-stripped either with chemicals or a grinder by C. Somewhere along the way, he either lost interest or became overwhelmed and the Zed was parked.

Out of Garage Storage
After shimmying along side the Zed, parked in the prime spot in the garage, for the next 2 years, I decided I needed to take more of a lead role. So, Boo and I pushed Zed back into the driveway. We are going to do everything we can to keep the Zed from returning to the garage in less than 1 piece. Zed hasn't been meaningfully looked at in months, so I spent a few minutes just getting re-familiarized with it. The fenders looks decent. The driver side has some small dents from where the fold near the driver door was hammered out. The passenger side looks straight. Both have a little rust along their bottom edges. The tailgate is solid, with some rust along the top edge. The hood is in great shape, showing no rust. A replacement driver door was originally a copper color, the outside skin had been stripped like the rest of the body panels, but the inside and edges were still copper. Overall, it felt like we could be fairly close to paint.

Still Not Ready for Paint

purchase day, passenger side

And yet, we're not. Over an exceptionally rainy weekend, I tucked into the 2 doors. I laid out cardboard, and starting with the passenger door, removed the glass, window controller and door latch mechanisms. Then, I re-sanded the outside with 100 grit and then 150 grit to get the skin smooth enough to an initial coat of primer, or filler if needed. The passenger door had a glaring imperfection at the door handle that I needed to bang out. Not having decent body tools, I made do with what I could pull together. In the end, I was left with a divot about an inch across (25mm) and about 1/4" deep. Because of where it is located, I can't get a good push angle from the inside. Anyway, I'll body fill that divot in stages so the filler dries correctly. I found some additional little pits that I can fill while I have the Bondo mixed.

The replacement driver door was in better shape, but it had a small horizontal outward fold about 6 inches from the bottom near the rear edge (front is front) that I couldn't see nor feel until I has the skin nice and smooth. That will be harder to get flat. I worked it with a rubber mallet, and that actually fixed most of it. There is, of course, more to be done before the doors are ready. These cars are so rare, the door rubber isn't available anymore. So, I am carefully removing the originals for reuse after paint. Once removed, the rest of the silver (passenger door) and copper (driver door) that would be visible after the door cards are returned will be sanded. Then, I'll do the body filler. Only then can I tape them for paint. Of course, the fenders (look at the driver fender in the original CL posting for an idea of the worst of it), the tail gate and the hood need similar attention... as does the remaining shell. So... it's gonna be a while before we're actually laying paint.

Ready is a State of Mind
In some ways, maybe this is like considering having a child: you're never actually ready for that either. Ultimately, you have the kid when you don't think you're ready, but maybe you actually kinda were; you were just scared. I think the same will be true of the paint prep. I painted houses for years, and if you are methodical and meticulous, you eventually get to the end. In both cases, it's about trusting yourself, and accepting that you're never ready and it's never perfect. At least not for your first few paint jobs... or your first few kids.

I can tell you that this effort will be consuming the next several weeks, and I have stopped all work on Hapy to make room to get this thing moving forward. I probably won't post much. But, then again, I have said that before and always managed to post anyway, so who knows? Regardless, thanks as always for following along.

Defrosting - Part 2

First, happy belated Summer Solstice. Our annual pilgrimage to Bend for 4Peaks which usually coincides with Summer Solstice and Father's Day was thwarted by CoViD this year. So, we are taking the side-lining as an opportunity to fix or upgrade things on the bus that are just too hard to do in the cold and rain. It seems with every improvement, I discover 2 more opportunities. Today (hopefully) begins the end of the defrost epic. In my last post about the defroster, I provided background. Today, I get started on the plan I described.

Tear Down
While I had disconnected the electrical from the Vanagon rear heater a while back, the coolant lines were still hooked up. So, my first step to removing it was unhooking those hoses. The clamps are easy enough to loosen with a Phillips screwdriver, and I was able to back the hoses off the barbs with a slotted screwdriver. With each one, I quickly moved the hose end into a clean bucket to catch the coolant. Once the lines and the heater were drained, I could extricate the heater unit from the shelf. With all of the wires and cables, this took a few minutes, and the resulting empty shelf doesn't look much better. Quite the contrary, actually, but, it does create a much better space for me to re-arrange the wiring one day. Yeay, more work.

Defroster Placement

valve shown closed

With the Vanagon rear heater in-hand, I could try out some ideas for how to fit it under the bus. The radiator sits just in front of the rear cross-beam, leaving a little over a foot between the front edge and the front cross beam. It is into this small window that the heater will fit. I held it up and thought about my options. If held right-side up with the front edge of the heater parallel to the cross beams, the coolant barbs would be facing rearward on the passenger side and the mounting tabs would be on the bottom. There looked to be enough space in front for a cowling or register to be put so the approximately 9" by 6" rectangular box could winnow down to the 3" diameter circle of the old air channel. The angles would be kind of sharp, but the air flow would be direct.

If the heater unit was turned sideways, the barbs would face the driver side. The air would need to make a hard left and it didn't look like there would be much space. So, I rejected that orientation.

I tried flipping the heater upside down, back in the parallel-to-the-front-beam position. Like this, the barbs were still on the driver side, but facing rearward. Since the coolant lines leaving the engine were also on the driver side, this was preferable. The drawback to this set up is that the bleeder screw is on the bottom, not the top. So, getting the air out of the system could be more difficult. In contrast, though, the mounting tabs were now on the top, so any attachment would be greatly simplified. The simple attachment won the decision. In this orientation, the valve for allowing / preventing coolant into the heater core was also on the driver side, sliding forward and aft for open and closed (respectively).

Defroster Mounting

safety hole drilled

Before I could consider routing coolant and air, the rear heater needed to be attached. The mount holes are exactly 7" apart. So, I found the centerpoint in the air pipe and measured 3-1/2" out from each. I aligned the heater on those lines and pushed it as far rearward as I could before it touched the debris-grill on the radiator. My thought was that the more gentle the angles in the air register, the more easily air would flow into the old pipe. As is, the front of the heater is about 4" back from the front cross-beam. Once the spots were marked, I drilled 2 holes through the floor. Through these holes, I sent a pair of 2" long bolts. From below, I nutted down against the floor with a pair of nuts, then added another pair less than 1/2" from the ends. I slid the heater unit onto the bolts and then nutted it down with another pair of nuts. So, that's bolt head | floor | nut - some space - nut | heater | nut. I put some threadlock on the bolts. Before I added the heater, I set an extra (safety) hole through the mounting tabs. Through this hole I sent a cable-tie, and then looped each side up to the pipe that the transmission shifter runs through. I figured that if the nuts found some way to work themselves free, the cable ties would hold the heater until I discovered and fixed it. Figure, the likelihood of both nuts coming loose and both cable-ties breaking before I realize something's up is fairly remote.

Get Hosed

"defroster unit" installed

From the engine to the Vanagon rear heater / bus defroster is a stretch of a little less than 8 feet. From the prior install, I have 1 meter lengths of 5/8" hose attached to the outlet and inlets, draped into a bucket of shallow coolant. I did a little research and learned that the Vanagon had 5/8" hoses, but there was a section of hose or pipe through the firewall that was only 1/2". There is also a restrictor of some kind that reduces the coolant flow to the rear heater. The theory is that if the rear and front heater units present the same diameter, the coolant will take the shorter path (rear heater), leaving the front of the Vanagon wanting. Well, we don't need the restrictor, but we can use the 1/2" pipe concept. I figure if the original can handle the smaller pipe, and deliver coolant without a pressure issue, we can use the smaller diameter pipe, potentially getting the coolant to the defroster faster. Maybe it will stay that little bit warmer. Ultimately, I had 1/2" pipe and I didn't have 5/8" pipe, so maybe I'm just back-justifying.

pipes in, hoses started

Aaanyway, I cut 2 33" lengths of 1/2" aluminum pipe, wrapped them with pipe insulation and mounted them to the underside of the driver-side belly pan, at least 6" inboard of the diesel heater exhaust. For mounts, I used 1/2" pipe hangers threaded into the bottom of the pan with long Phillips head sheet metal screws. Onto each end of the 1/2" aluminum pipes, I added a short stretch of 1/2" hose, and then a 1/2" -to- 5/8" reducer. At the rear-end (front is front), I attached the 5/8" hoses that were hanging in the bucket, previously used to route coolant from the engine to the heater. At the front end, I ran a stretch of 5/8" from the engine-outlet side to the lower barb, and the upper barb to the engine-inlet side. My thinking was that if there were an air bubble, it would be forced through and back to the engine... or at least down to the bleeder screw. On that, I have been considering how to thread in a short stretch of hose into the bleeder threads in thinking that I could raise the other end above the heater core for bleeding. I haven't pieced that all together yet.

I'll stop here for now. I did fill the system with coolant, opening the various bleeders along the way. I burped out air and then ran the engine for a while trying to get any other air out. We'll see how effective I was. As is, Hapy is drive-able again, with a completely closed cooling system. Next, I need to tackle the register, connecting the heater to the air duct and then wiring up the fan.

As we get deeper into the summer, this project seems less important, but fall feels right around the corner. If we ever get to see live music again, or simply camp in a State Park, having a means of clearing the windscreen hasn't a season here in the Pacific Northwest where the dew point is usually only a few degrees away.

Thanks, as always, for following along. You don't need to believe in CoViD-19 to catch it; you just need to be careless, or be around others who are. Please continue to wear a mask, wash your hands and practice physical distancing for the better health of those around you--

Defrosting - Part 1

No, this post isn't about how to remove frosting from a cupcake or the like. Today's post (and, knowing me, the next several) is a return to the seemingly never-ending effort to clear the windscreen on the old VW bus.

Modern Set-Up

It probably makes sense to start at the beginning. Most folks who drive modern cars do not realize how spoiled they are. The engine is sitting right in front of you, and it is water-cooled, providing a great source for warm air. The defroster system has relatively short hoses to move that coolant from the engine to the heater core inside the little plastic chamber (like the one pictured to the right here) below the windscreen. The heater core is controlled with short cables or little motors controlled from the dash, routing air through short channels into the cabin or up onto the windshield. In my more modern cars, I can push a button and fire up the air conditioner (A/C) and speed up the defrost even faster. You probably knew all that, but still it is important to have that context. One last little bit worth mentioning: the source of the outside air is usually right in front of the windshield up on top. This gives the highest probability of fresh air.

Original VW Bus Set-Up

from JBugs of a Beetle but you get
the basic idea

The bus is not at all like the modern car I just described. We start with the obvious: the engine is in the back and it is air-cooled. Back when these buses were new and before owners got their hands on them, the design of the heat/defrost system was relatively simple. The air cooled engine produces lots of heat, especially off the exhaust manifolds. This is a heat source for all cars, frankly, but the German engineers latched onto the exhaust manifolds for the cabin heat source. They did so by wrapping big metal sheets around the exhaust manifolds and called them "heater boxes". Air was driven through these heater boxes by the engine fan when the engine was running fast enough. Alternatively, there was a "booster" blower fan when the engine was not fast enough. The air was forced from the very rear of the bus through these boxes to a pair of controllers (one on each side) that were activated by a cable adjusted on the dashboard with a pair of levers (one lever per cable). From the controllers, corrugated tubes connected to a "Y" joint, then to a long central pipe up the center of the bus to the front. This picture on the right here shows a slightly different story for the Beetle, but the concept is very similar. At the bus driver's right foot there is a lever which directs the air either to the floor register or up to the windshield.

When it was originally constructed, I imagine that it worked quite well. Unfortunately for many bus owners this system is not typically well maintained. Parts are removed for "performance" reasons (heater boxes are often sacrificed), they deteriorate and fall off (corrugated tubes or air hoses from blower fan) or they just fail (cables). Often the various parts of the system do not connect together as well as they did originally, creating gaps. So, by the time a bus reached even 25 years old, many drivers would not get warm air when they manipulate the levers. Personally, the best I ever got was semi-warm oily-smelling damp air drifting thru the vent with zero urgency. Ultimately, my defroster was a squeegee and a towel I kept between the front seats. When it was cold, I would also keep an ice scraper.

There are many posts and threads about how to restore or improve these systems. The best advice is to start at the back and work your way forward, making sure everything is the way it is intended. Replace the seals, adjust the cables, lubricate the moving parts, etc.

Add-on Blowers

Atwood bilge blower

Years ago, I read a piece suggesting the addition of a 12V bilge blower to the mix of parts. The idea was that if you boosted the CFM, with a fan in the middle that you would get better performance. I found that the bilge blower just increased the rate at which the damp semi-warm oily smelling air appeared at my windshield, ultimately increasing the fog, rather than reducing it. At it's peak, I was able to reduce the damp (by letting the engine get super warm), but there was no way to prevent a flash-fog while driving in the rain and hitting a puddle. Also, no matter how long I ran the engine, once it was cold enough for ice to form, the bus could never get warm enough to keep ice from forming on the inside of the windshield. Now, this could in part be because of door and window seals, but even sitting still, with the bilge blower running with a hot engine the best I could do was hold the ice at bay.

So, I added a "parking heater". No, not like the one I just installed (here). This was a super small electric-coil based home space heater that I left plugged into the AC outlet inside the bus, under the rock-n-roll bed. When I was parked at home, I would run an extension cord under the garage door and plug it into the bus. An hour before I had to drive somewhere, I'd plug in the garage-end and pre-warm the bus. This worked for the morning drive to the mass transit parking lot, but the drive home was still quite cold. Icy windscreen at worst, foggy (queue squeegee/towel combo) most of the non-Summer months.

To help remedy the cold windshield, I got one of those accessory-plug fan things like in the picture here. For the drive home from the transit lot, I would point that thing at the windshield right in front of me. If I stayed at or below 25mph, I could keep a small circle in the center of the windshield clear enough for me to take the backroads home without having to resort to wiping the windshield with a towel. Needless to say, this was not exactly safe nor workable for the long term especially since I had to drive with one hand holding the thing, moving it around to make a big enough circle to see through.

First Defrost with TDI
When I did the TDI conversion, I thought "well, I'm finally gonna have some heat". 10 years later, my first defroster attempt was okay, but it still lacked. When my ignition melted a couple of years ago (See 4Peaks 2018 - Road Report), I thought maybe the fan set up was part of the problem so I ripped the electrical part out. Still, for perspective, it is worth describing what it was.

I bought a used Vanagon rear heater locally in Portland for, like, $20. I set it on the driver-side auxiliary battery tray (left side) and added lengths of 5/8" hose from the heater to the appropriate in/outlets on the TDI. I fab'd a register that fit onto the front of the heater that routed air into a 3" diameter insulated air hose (from McMaster-Carr) which then ran up over the driver axle and up to the front of the bus along the driver-side of the radiator. Just in front of the radiator, I connected it to the original air system. I took the original Vanagon rear-heater fan control and popped it into the dash. I was able to get reasonable heat, but rainy weather continued to be an instant-fog issue. And, the air source was less than a meter from the exhaust pipe, so, when we were sitting still at a traffic light, we would get a nice lung-full of diesel exhaust unless I remembered to turn off the fans when we were decelerating. Considering how it was with the air-cooled engine, this was still leaps ahead. From oily, semi-warm drifting air to warm diesel-exhaust moving with purpose, it was a definite improvement. Now, that the cooling issues have been solved, I can focus on restoring, or rather, improving this system.

That was a lot of context, and not hardly any content. I know. So, I'll spill my plan today, and then next time I'll start on the work. I am going to move the Vanagon rear heater from the auxiliary battery tray under the bus just in front of the radiator. I will route the air through a different custom register into the old air system. Coolant will be plumbed, electrical will be run and eventually a cable to control the coolant flow will be added. I hope. Maybe I'll figure out a way to source intake air so it's not all exhausty nor damp. Big plans. As always, I'm sure I'll have lots of errors and discoveries along the way. I'll do my best to document it as I go.

That's it for today. Thanks, as always for following along--

Hapy Gets Solar

Last summer at the Newberry Event, I met a couple who were driving a pickup with a camper set up down the way from me. We got to talking about this and that as happens at music festivals. Conversation turned to camp set-ups and after a walk-thru of Hapy, they showed me their camper. I had seen newer camper-styles before, but I was really taken by their tiny solar panel. Today's post covers my transition from covet to install for Hapy.

Zamp Solar
I'll start with the panel that the Newberry Event couple had. It was a small, like, 1 foot square, portable panel (like this one - USP1005). It had an extending foot so you could prop it up independently, and had all of the conversion electronics attached to it. All you needed to do was run the supplied cable to your battery and clip it to the posts. Shazam, you have a trickle charge running to your battery. This all seemed to good to be true, so I took pictures of it to research later. They explained that they only camp in central Oregon, where the sun is seemingly ever-present, so a smaller panel completely suits their needs. I figured that we camp on the fog-socked Oregon coast as well as central Oregon, the Willamette Valley, etc so maybe we could use a larger one.

solar port

I did some research. I found that Zamp Solar is a small company based in Bend, Oregon. The reviews were great, and everything is manufactured here, so a purchase from them directly benefits the central Oregon economy. So, once my annual bonus arrived, I bought us one with the 1/3 I set aside for "fun" stuff. For the curious, the other 2/3 are split across saving for the future and paying off the past. It is a model I learned from some money-manager types 20 years ago. The thinking is that you're going to spend a little on stupid stuff anyway, so budget for it with 1/3 of your win-fall so you don't blow it all. It also creates some savings and eliminates some debt. Anyway, so I bought a larger one (USP1002). I also got an extension cable and a solar port. I probably could have gotten the wire harness, but I didn't realize they had it until after I had ordered a different install cable.

Install

controller

Like I said above, adding a solar panel to your luxury (or main) battery doesn't need to be complicated. I could just set up the panel and run the cable in through the slider, under the rock-n-roll bed to the battery. In all honesty, if I need to top-off the main battery, I will run a cable through the open engine hatch and alligator-clip to the posts. Since 99% of the battery usage when we are parked is consuming from the luxury battery, I wanted something a little cleaner.

To start, I soldered a 10 gauge red-black cable to the solar port (red to red, black to black, of course) and then heat-shrinked the connections. Now that I had a plug with 20' of cable attached, I could consider where to install it. I had thought about a few locations: inside the rear driver tire well, and under the belly pan on the passenger side. I resolved to putting it just behind the driver in the driver-side pan. I figured that if we were going to camp in a sunny spot, we will park so that the slider is on the shady side, so a port on the (non-slider) driver side made the most sense.

The backside of the solar port is rather thick, requiring a hole saw. Once bored, I threaded the bare-wire end of the cable up through the hole. I have an old hole in the floor of the bus where the '79 kitchen used to be so I pulled it the cable through by putting my arm into that hole. I ran the wire up out of that hole (I'll repair the larger hole one day) and then along the bottom of the old fridge cabinet where the furnace (see the Parking Heater series 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5) now lives.

From the front outer edge, the cable bends around and inside that cabinet, and then runs along the outer edge before turning towards the center of the bus at the rear, exiting where the power wire for the heater exits. The cable runs the same path around the rear edge of the base of the rock-n-roll bed to the luxury battery. At this point, I added a ring terminal on each cable.

With the wiring route defined, I returned to the belly pan. I pressed the solar port into the hole, and drilled a pilot hole for a metal screw. I oriented the port so the cap ran fore to aft with the little hinge facing the front of the bus. This seemed the best for debris flying around under there while driving. Once that first hole was screwed in, the solar port was fixed, so I could easily pop the other 3 holes and thread in corresponding screws.

Testing

DrivewayFest 2020

The ring terminals slid easily onto the luxury battery extra posts. I nutted them down, and then pulled out the solar panel. It ships with a thick semi-stiff zippered case to keep the glass safe. It unzips easily, and removes by the pull of the handle. The panel folds in half, held with a simple twist clasp. Once released, the hinges are stiff, so it doesn't flop open. Instead, you need to choose to open it. Inside are all of the controls, the 15' of cable and the flip-down feet. I set the panel in a sunny spot, and the controller started flashing me status that was basically: no battery connected, but able to charge. I connected the extension cable to the attached 15' and then connected the other end to the solar port. These cable only mate one way, so this is super simple. I walked around to the panel, and toggled through the controller screen. According to the panel, I was getting 13.6V, pushing amps (peaked just below 5A, just under 2A when cloudy), and charging the battery. I felt the wires inside the bus to make sure there was no temperature at all (I used the same gauge wire so there shouldn't have been) and there wasn't.

We set up the bus for what Boo and I referred to as DrivewayFest 2020, and left the panel running all weekend. We rolled music and spent the better part of 2 days lounging by the bus. With the solar panel installed and the furnace finished, we are now 100% ready for 4Peaks.... 2021.

Since that first test, I have set up the solar panel pretty much any time I'm in the driveway working on the cars or the yard, powering the stereo so we have tunes for the work. The battery charges up quickly and then the panel suspends pushing amps until it registers a need. This panel requires no input from me once it is set up. Perfect. I'd rather use my brain effort on other things. I highly recommend Zamp Solar; I do not get anything from that endorsement. I just like them.

Thanks as always, for following along.

Oil Pressure and Temperature - Final

world's most dangerous man

Before we begin, my heart aches as I watch my beloved country descending into ruin. I generally try to avoid politics in this blog, but we all eventually reach a point where we can hold our silence no longer. The absence of leadership, and the propensity for the current White House occupant to throw gas on a fire are exacerbating our national catastrophe. A disbeliever attitude towards a pandemic has gotten everyone anxious as well as over 100,000 Americans killed. Add 40 million unemployed people (many of whom are not getting their promised checks) who are going hungry and are going to get upset, looking for an outlet. Add to that what appears to be police conduct inconsistencies (white folks with guns can stop ambulances from getting to the hospital, but Black and Brown folks can't just walk down the street armed with only signs). Add an elected official directing tear gas and rubber bullets at unarmed protesters so he can have a photo-shoot outside a church after threatening our citizens with military forces. The people want leadership; we want answers. After all this, we demand, and frankly deserve, a change. Okay, back to the usual chaos oasis: car stuff.

I have been slowly working through a gauge solution for the oil system in the TDI conversion (For reference, see Oil and Temperature 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5). This really has been interesting, and I think those running a stock air-cooled motor might want to do something similar. Since the air-cooled engine runs oil hotter, the broader range gauge may work better, which means less work for you. I unfortunately did not take any pictures of the final steps setting up or installing the Porsche combination gauge. My phone died, so while it sat on the charger I readied the dashpod. Then, assembly inside the bus required 3 hands so I couldn't get a picture without risking dropping something. So, please try to use your imagination as I describe the final assembly.

Final Gauge Prep - Bulbs

When I left off last, I had the new 250*F limit temperature innards swapped out, and that half of the gauge re-installed into the gauge. We were entering the home stretch. I focused on the bulbs next. There are 4: one each for illuminating the two gauges and one each for the 2 new idiot lights (Alt and Oil). Now, I don't have the light wired at the alternator, but I figured if I could get the gauge-end ready, it would be one fewer thing to fiddle with later. The illumination lights are simple push-and-twist 1.2W bulbs like the others in the bus dash. In fact, they are the exact same bulb. The idiot lights, however, are not like those, nor are they the same size. The alternator bulb is bigger, and the oil pressure light is an odd spade style. As luck would have it, back when I replaced the thermostat panel bulb in Flash, I had to buy a 2-pack of bulbs. That bulb (Sylvania 2721) was a match for the oil pressure bulb socket. Kismet!

Final Gauge Prep - Wiring
With the bulbs set, I shifted to the wiring. There are 4 signal wires (oil temp, oil pressure, oil warning and alt warning). For these, I simply stripped the wire ends. They already have disconnects at the gauge so I could disconnect them later when I pull the dashpod. The other wires (1 ground, 2 illumination and 2 switched 12V) needed a different treatment. In the interest of keeping the dashpod remove-able, I wired the 2 switched 12V source wires into a single male disconnect. I did the same for the 2 illumination wires. To the ground, I attached a female disconnect. Before I moved out to the bus, I fiddled with the gauge to make sure it was straight up/down.

In the Bus

warming up

The dashpod re-mounts similar to how it came out: slide it under the steering wheel from the center, near the stick shift, face down. Rotate the guts towards the hole. With the combo gauge in the third hole, this is a little harder, but not by much. Now, the hard part begins. I started with the illumination wire that was in the bus, cutting the end off that goes on the passenger-side end of the dashpod. I spliced in another wire with a female disconnect on the end as well as that original wire that I had just cut off. This gave an illumination signal that the combo gauge could plug into. Then, I started plugging in all the things that were there before... the grounds, fuel gauge, turn signals, and the low beam / hi beam and, of course, the illumination bulbs. Before I took any more steps, I tested things by turning the key to run, and flipping various switches to see the bulbs light up. Satisfied I had done no harm, I shifted to the new gauge wiring.

I started by inserting one of those "chair" disconnect splitters into one of the dashpod grounds and then connecting the ground wire from the combo-gauge. I then used my wire color map from my last post, heat-shrink splicing the gauge signal wires to the cable wires. Then, I plugged in the illumination male:female. Last, I sourced switched 12V with a covered female disconnect, and plugged in the male from the gauge. I thought about wiring it into the black switched circuit that powers the fuel gauge and the turn signals, but couldn't get my head around how to do it with one of those chair disconnect splitters without risking an accidental grounding. I wanted to minimize the wire cuts too. Last, I could have just put disconnects on the ends of the colored wires rather than splice into the original gauge wires; I just didn't. I still might.

thermostat just opening

The location of the new gauge interrupts the wire-flow for the brake warning light. I will need to extend those wires, or change the warning light location. Since we are still semi-restricted for CoViD-19, I won't be driving any great distance terribly soon, so I have time to resolve it. I found it interesting how much tension was on these wires, though; curious that there was no wiggle room on them. That was true when I went to remove the dashpod at the start of all this as well. Looking back, it was an issue when I went trying to figure out what was up with the fuel gauge years ago. In fact, removing the dashpod this time involved moving the wires one by one through the hole, while placing considerable tension on the wire, so I wouldn't mess up the wires during removal.

Unrelated, the couple of hours I spent in the bus getting the dashpod wired and installed I also test-ran the little heater with the new Afterburner thermostat. Once I had the temperature probe in a spot where it was not up against the outside wall, the thermostat held the interior temperature at a fairly static 70*F. Considering the wind and rain outside, it was really luxurious. Imagine how different the experience is compared to lying in the street gutter trying to get an alternator swapped out in front of that old Lake Oswego house.... in a late fall rainstorm. We've come a long way, Hapy.

Testing

after thermostat opened

With the wiring complete, I slid the dashpod into the hole. I found that the washers that are helping to hold the combo gauge to the dashpod will hang-up on the hole if you are not careful when you remove the dashpod. I will think about how to construct something to hold the gauge on better. Anyway, once roughed into place, the 4 Phillips screws will get it into the right position. Once locked down, I re-tested the system by flipping the key to run. The gauges lifted off of their bottom position just like they did on the kitchen table during the tests. This told me that the round-trip for the 2 circuits was good. Then, I turned on the lights and I could see the gauges illuminated. The oil warning light popped on, but the Alt light did not. This was all as I expected. Next, a test fire of the engine, and maybe a little cul-de-sac parade to get the gauges to move. First, of course, thread the speedo cable into the back of the speedometer.

Because of continued limp-mode issues, I ran my engine-running tests in my driveway. That made the picture-taking possible, though. The gauges respond as I would have expected. The oil pressure starts high when the engine is first started and then settles down once the engine is warm. The oil temp warms faster than the coolant. When I rev the engine up and down, the oil temp climbs and then settles. My last test was to check under the bus for fresh oil spots. There were none. You can see from the pictures what the coolant temperature is (number in lower left corner of UltraGauge).

With that, the oil system gauging is complete. I am not sure what's next. I have a cable for re-wiring the front-to-back stuff, and otherwise I'm just about running out of parts for projects. I do have some coolant hose and a stretch of aluminum pipe, though, so maybe I'll get after some part of the defroster. Of course, some day I'll have to get back to paint-prepping Zed, the 1979 280ZX. I'll figure it out when I get to the garage. Thanks, as always for following along--