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Kyle242GT's 1959 5.044

Horn, high/low/flash-to-pass, park/signal, done!

...well, don't have a hi/lo switch in yet, but the wiring and relays are in place.

Have the gas tank out to move the battery to the trunk, remove the buttcheek, and do some rust repair. Fun. :help:

Humph, attached 'gif don't blink :-(
 

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The PV's came with flash-to-pass in Europe, but for whatever reason they didn't send them to the US with that relay installed. So the turn signal switches have the 'pull' contacts.

Which makes it pretty easy to put in a 140/240/??? headlight dimmer relay. The harness that reaches down to that horrible foot dimmer switch easily reroutes, then a little bit of looking at a wiring diagram, and you have a working 'OEM' ho/lo/flash working from the stalk.

On mine, the stock pull wiring was an unstripped wire tucked back into the plastic sheath partway down the driver's side wiring loom in the engine bay .
 
Hi John! Yep, in retrospect, the 240 relay would have been the smart move... but you how I roll, always try to cobble something together with what's on hand.

Here's what I did:
Battery to SPDT (could have been SPST just as easily). Headlight switch turns it on.
From that relay to another SPDT. NC to low beams, NO to high. Hi/lo switch switches them.
Then a third relay, SPST, independent of the first and second, that does the flash-to-pass from the TS switch.

Got started on the sheetmetal work. Ugh.
 

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Battery box finished. Have to come up with a holddown for the battery, and then make the patch for the rear trunk floor.
 

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Thanks gents. Some of the first metalwork on this section was iffy, but I got my chops back in time to make the battery box.

Highly doubt that I'll make Davis - it's a conflict with work (tax season) and I'm not sure how it'd do on a drive that long. Though no real reason to doubt its ability; more of a concern about my ability to put up with it for 2+hrs each way :lol:

Still on the fence about paint and final body work - the slope from there to glass-out full interior redo is a slippery one.
 
CPAing is overrated. OT: my wife left the audit practice at GT in favor of technical accounting at a local steel company. Sooo happy.
 
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:blah: say what you like, but today's Wednesday, and I'm in the garage. :neener:

Battery holddown done; not sure how smart it was having it secured with a nut from underneath. :oops:

Fabbed up the patch panel for the trunkfloor, all was well until I beadrolled it - should have remembered about shrinkage. Wound up narrow and a big curved on the top, hence the oversize welds in a few places. Otherwise came out pretty nice.

Need to put it back on the ground to be sure the lower valence is straight and level, then I'll weld it to the patch panel and call it done back there. Might look at the bumper situation next.
 

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Ordered some new gaskets for the fuel tank while it was out for surgery, got one right, one wrong... :-(

While waiting for the right one to show up, looked at the bumper situation. Found them to be in really rough shape. Of course the rear wouldn't fit anyway, since the fenders have been widened quite a bit. After some consideration, decided to not put them on. The expense of refinishing, additional weight, and the fact that they really offer zero crash protection anyway kind of made that the obvious choice.

Welded up the holes where the overrider entered, got some help from the kiddos doing fab work, which was fun. Until my 11yo got hit with a spark from the grinder and freaked out.

Put the rear interior in, and while I was at it, managed a surprisingly adequate job of getting the headliner back in place.

When I lowered the car to do this, noticed the rear suspension only sags about 1" under load. No wonder it's so freaky to drive - any bump and the extension of the suspension hits the limiting straps in a hurry. I shortened those quite a bit due to the one-piece driveshaft not having clearance. Going back under to see what I can do about that.
 

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Funny thing, it doesn't actually use the full extent of the straps. Weird. Maybe the shocks' internal bumpstops allow for another inch or so at full droop. Whatever.

That piece I cut out ties the rear suspension mounts together. Chances are I need to reinforce that with something, huh?
 

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:party: loaded the whole family in for a little drive yesterday, first time in 3.5yrs we've been able to do that.

My younger son, after I gave it brief blip of the gas, remarked, "Huh, that's funny. I was thinking about something, but I don't remember what anymore."

I'm pleased to remark that it's 40% less scary to drive with the rear suspension able to work more fully. Guess it was hitting those straps all the damn time - braking would unload the rear tires, even minor bumps on the road would hit the end of travel, etc etc etc.

Don't get me wrong, it's definitely still alarming, but all in all, not bad for something as unhinged as it really is.

Getting a little resistance to start with a hot soak, so I'll have to check into that.... and the brake master is getting hotter than I'd really like (~200F?), so I may need to get a little more distance from the header and heatshield, maybe add an extra layer of AL in there.
 
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