Moore_rb's 66 Ebay Patrol (re)build thread

[bosque]

Rob't,
I'm sensing you could have handled Med school easily and saved the world....but instead you chose to waste your time on stinky cars....
...... and thank you for that!

[moore_rb]

This weekend I removed the original Patrol water temp sender, and the oil pressure sender off of my red Patrol to use on the green 66....

The water sender measures exactly 50 ohms cold, same as the gauge, so I am assuming that as the temp increases, the resistance in the sender decreases, which increases the voltage at the gauge, which excites the coil in the gauge and makes the needle move up the scale.

The oil pressure gauge would not give me a solid resistance reading, so I am unsure about whether or not it is good, although I do remember that it made the oil gauge move on the red Patrol.... I guess we'll find out. The green Patrol was totally missing the oil sender wire under the hood- I cut open all the looms and could not find it, so I ran a new one out of some yellow 16 gauge wire

I also started messing around with how I was going to insulate this factory 4wd indicator light to use it as the alternator charge light, but I am concerned about finding a rugged, permanent solution that would keep this lamp from grounding out against the dash, so I ran down to the auto parts store and I found this cool red indicator light from Dorman for 8 bucks:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/rnb-8 ... SH9Pbw_wcB

I think it looks pretty similar in shape and size to the original indicator lights; and since it is in a non-grounded housing, it will work perfect for an alternator lamp.

So with that, I will use the green factory Patrol indicator for the turn signals, and the red one for the high beams.

Speaking of turn signals and high beams - that's what I spent the rest of the weekend doing- chasing down corroded connections with the multi-meter and cleaning them up, and finding and re-doing millions of past "twist it and tape it" style wiring "repairs", and also cleaning up the contacts on the switches...

By this evening when I was done, I had parking lights:



and I had headlights (both low and high beams)



and I even had tail lights and turn signals:



This was a pretty major accomplishment - when I got this Patrol last year, none of the lighting on it worked at all; and I was able to get things working using most of the original wiring harnesses and switches. I ran through 3 rolls of electrical tape re-wrapping everything after cleaning it all up.

I also removed and cleaned the speedo cable and the speedo sender, and I put my cleaned up speedometer back together and got it ready to re-install.

I am really close to getting the dash panel all reassembled.

[RiverPatrol]

So with that, I will use the green factory Patrol indicator for the turn signals, and the red one for the high beams.

Pssst…that's what they were for originally. There isn't a 4wd indicator on the early Patrols.

More good work going on for this Patrol. Whoever ends up with this is going to have a nice rig.

Don't beat yourself up trying to get the parking lights to work with the headlights on - they're not supposed to.

[moore_rb]

Don't beat yourself up trying to get the parking lights to work with the headlights on - they're not supposed to.

Yeah, I remembered reading that the front marker lights operate by themselves on that first switch setting...it's kind of odd behavior, but I'll probably leave it alone- I'll just have to explain to potential buyers that they are working as designed.

I was reviewing my budget on this build so far, and I'm getting pretty close to the spending limit I had set in my head before I started, but there is still a few hundred left, so I am considering going back into the brake system and upgrading to a 2 reservoir MC... Just thinking about it.

[moore_rb]

Rob't,
I'm sensing you could have handled Med school easily and saved the world....but instead you chose to waste your time on stinky cars....
...... and thank you for that!

HAHAHAA Thanks Dave-

Check out my new slogan in my signature below...

[moore_rb]

I also started messing around with how I was going to insulate this factory 4wd indicator light to use it as the alternator charge light, but I am concerned about finding a rugged, permanent solution that would keep this lamp from grounding out against the dash, so I ran down to the auto parts store and I found this cool red indicator light from Dorman for 8 bucks:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/rnb-8 ... SH9Pbw_wcB

I think it looks pretty similar in shape and size to the original indicator lights; and since it is in a non-grounded housing, it will work perfect for an alternator lamp.

Yeah, well.... maybe not.

These Dorman indicator lights won't work easily as alternator lamps. They are LED's...

HELLO... it says "LED" right on the package, Robert.....

I know I could make it work with some additional electronics, but unless Faux40 wants to design me a circuit, that ain't happenin....

Back to plan "A". Now, where did I put that extra Patrol indicator lamp I had... ?????

[bosque]

ebay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/SET-4-pilot-das ... 5ae3f03f95
try speedwaymotors.com:
and here are some alt tail lights....not saying anything bad about your trailer lights at all! Errrr, here's mine:

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Search?query=911-37018
but I bet these pontiacs are more the size.
http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Search?query=911-37050

[moore_rb]

HEY !

My tail lights were only 7 bucks apiece at Autozone... Criticize all you wish -

Yeah, the Pontiac ones from Speedway look pretty close to stock.

[moore_rb]

Dash is back together:



Gauges all work, but temp and oil pressure both do not seem accurate, so some tweaking with inline resistors may be forthcoming...

Did you see my alternator light above the starter button? Originally it was going to go in the hole between the key and the start button, but placing the light on top, lined up with the turn signal and high beam indicators, looked more natural.

All I had for a center panel for the dash was this old haggard looking thing:



I can't imagine how much grinding, filling and sanding I was in for to get this junkyard reject back in presentable shape, so out came the plasma cutter...

I took a template from the hacked up piece and cut a piece of flat sheetmetal to shape:



then I sanded the edges flat on the belt sander and drilled out the holes.

Here it is painted, next to its predecessor:



I also welded and ground flat a couple cracks in the frame around the glove box door, and spent some time straightening and sanding the door flat.

Here is the entire dash as is looked this evening:



On another note... Dude, Where's my steering wheel...? I guess that's gonna be the topic for the next few posts.

[RiverPatrol]

Chaching, chaching $$$. The price goes up a little more.

The gauges look outstanding! I guess the person that painted over the high beam switch must have been a previous owner.