MR_Loyale Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 So my GL has never had a speedo cable, since it has bigger tires the speedo would read wrong anyway. So I'm solving it the hard way! I'm gonna put a VSS in from an EJ in the trans (because they thread right in). I'm gonna swap the guts from some speedo into the GL cluster (shouldn't be too hard), and to top it all off I have a digital readout. It will show mph, an odo. I can feed calibrated data to the speedo, so it should read right. It has another screen for tripA and tripB with mileage exact to the thousanth for TSD races, and of course a calibration screen. In the pic the LCD looks kinda crappy, it's actually really readable with nice contrast. Also I'm not using that gigantic 40 pin chip, there's a code compatible 18 pin version that's on its way. In 2 weeks when I'm back where my GL is currently living, I'll throw it all together, calibrate it, and enjoy the awesomeness I'm just feeding it test data that should be fairly close to what the car will give it driving down the road. I'd also like to note, for all you nerds out there. No, I'm not using any floating point numbers, it's all integers And of course you are going to post the schematic and parts list for us nerds, right? Is that a micro-controller with some custom code? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
987687 Posted April 26, 2014 Share Posted April 26, 2014 And of course you are going to post the schematic and parts list for us nerds, right? Is that a micro-controller with some custom code? I might, there really isn't much to it. Most of the stuff on there is for my own diagnostics reasons. Really it just takes a signal from the VSS through an optoisolator, has a few lines to the screen, probably 3 buttons, and an output to the gauge head. Most of the magic is inside the pic and my firmware. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kbaaum84 Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 Finally got my pugs on The Dirty Sock!!!! and they are the awesomeness! Before: After: And then went and got it dirty!!!!!! overall very happy!!!!! im going to plasti dip the pugs soon just to see how i like them in black! will post pics then 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmashedGlass Posted April 27, 2014 Share Posted April 27, 2014 Finished my headliner this weekend, pretty simple to do and not too expensive. Decided to NOT go with the crazy fabric though, just plain-Jane black headliner material from Joann Fabrics, and glued it straight to the old liner since it was in great shape (other than a few rips, gouges and stains) and still stuck like Chuck onto the board. Would've been nice to have had an extra set of hands on that project!!! I used 3M Hi-Strength 90 adhesive, you don't have much working time with that glue; you can see a few spots where the material didn't get pushed down quick enough, I'm going to have to figure a way to get something in those spots. Still, looks 100% better than the old light gray with stains and rips original color. Then got to thinking about how hot it is in my car, so early in the day already down here in Florida (was 90+ at my house today). There is no insulation above the headliner--at least there wasn't in my GL, I don't know about anyone elses 3d gen--so I looked into what I could do quickly and inexpensively to help mitigate and insulate. Went to the local Lowes and picked up a roll of Reflectix double-bubble reflective insulation for $16, carefully cut it to fit each section and wedged it in to the stiffeners of the roof. The aluminum furnace tape wasn't really necessary, but I like to be sure. The more rearward panels were wedged so tight that the tape is on them more as insurance that they won't move at all and make noise if the body of the car flexes. May continue with putting this on the inside faces of most of the plastic trim pieces, I have plenty left from the roll. Going to look at getting some Frost King closed-cell foam insulation from Home Depot for the outer skins of the doors next, sort of an inexpensive but good compromise between insulating and noise reduction. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooner Posted April 28, 2014 Share Posted April 28, 2014 Hey smashed, that headliner looks good i like the way ot turned out although i must say i was hoping to see some crazy a$$ pattern up there haha. Damn good idea on putting the insulation up there before the head liner that should help cut down on road noise and some of that florida heat? I can't imagine 90+ right now...it snowed here today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MR_Loyale Posted April 28, 2014 Share Posted April 28, 2014 (edited) I took it on a trip up Hamma Hamma Rd in the Olympic National forest. I had never been there and always wanted to explore this area. Anyone looking west from Seattle can always see the gorgeous snow capped Olympic mountains. They become accessible in the spring. I had never been up that way and always wanted to do so. I was driving the 101 loop around Hood Canal so I figured I'd take a little detour up Hamma Hamma Rd into the Olympic National forest. It was a paved road, nice sunny day and the roads were nice and clear so what could possibly go wrong? It was a nice paved road for about 8 miles and then it went to gravel. Then it narrowed and the pot holes became more and more frequent. Heck there was even one pot hole where someone had put a pole with a big red flag on it to alert drivers how deep it was. Then the relatively flat gravel road gave way to a barely one lane wide narrow rocky road as it winded its way up the mountain. I should have turned around, but those steep gorgeous snow capped peaks were now visible right in front of my windshield and I was drawn like a moth to a streetlamp at night. The road was slightly wet but no snow on them. Finally I reached the end of the road as it terminates on the other side of a bridge that is about 100 feet above a snow fed river and falls below. In the pic below, you can see it looks like there is a guard shack and I was expecting a ranger to be there collecting fees. Turns out it was a toilet. As I crossed the other side, I saw two fellows in a large heavy duty truck with the most dumbstruck look as my little Subaru FWD sedan crawled into the parking area. "Kind of a bumpy ride wasn't it? " one of them said to me as I got out of the car. "Never thought I would be off roading" I replied. It started raining/sleeting so they left and shortly after I left as well. It was a fantastic little trip. I ended up at the Mildred Lakes Trailhead #822. http://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/olympic/recarea/?recid=48055 Here is a pic I took looking over the bridge The snow capped mountain looking from other side of the bridge: Edited April 28, 2014 by MR_Loyale 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam N.D.J. Posted April 28, 2014 Share Posted April 28, 2014 Finished stripping the parts car to get rid of this week. Fixed the blown out fuel pump feed line on the turbo. Sat down and fabbed up a steering rack mount and hung the front sheet metal on the Brat this weekend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmashedGlass Posted April 28, 2014 Share Posted April 28, 2014 ....Keepin' them darn critters outta me bits. Swung by Dollar General this morning to pick up food for the kitty (and cinnamon rolls for me) when I came across an aluminum "disposable grill cover". For $1.50, and the fact that aluminum is even easier to work with than chicken wire, you can't go wrong. No more nuts and butts acccumulating under the air filter!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmashedGlass Posted April 28, 2014 Share Posted April 28, 2014 And.........after waiting for that damn blistering orb in the sky to get behind the trees (so that I just melt, instead of fry, in this sticky heat) reinstalled the new headliner and the 'super black' upper trim pieces. Two things: having an assistant would've really helped, and if any of you ever tackle recovering your headliner......wrap the material over on the front AND back edges. I didn't wrap it at the back, figuring the gray rubber trim piece would cover it, but as you can see over to the left side for some reason that trim doesn't lap over very well, and the cut edge of the liner is showing Going to have to try to get some adhesive brushed up into the channel on the rubber trim to help keep the liner stuck in; had I wrapped it over in the back as I did in the front, this wouldn't have been an issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rrgrr Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 ^^that looks great! Thanks for doing that with the pics, I am ready to do mine, the tips provided are really on point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wagonist Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 Nice idea with the insulation. I'm going to do that now also when I reinstall the interior. Gets to 45 degrees Celcius here sometimes... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SmashedGlass Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 Any little bit helps, I figure. It may not be a drastic heat reduction, but there was NO insulation from the factory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wagonist Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 (edited) So my GL has never had a speedo cable, since it has bigger tires the speedo would read wrong anyway. So I'm solving it the hard way! I'm gonna put a VSS in from an EJ in the trans (because they thread right in). I'm gonna swap the guts from some speedo into the GL cluster (shouldn't be too hard), and to top it all off I have a digital readout. It will show mph, an odo. I can feed calibrated data to the speedo, so it should read right. It has another screen for tripA and tripB with mileage exact to the thousanth for TSD races, and of course a calibration screen. In the pic the LCD looks kinda crappy, it's actually really readable with nice contrast. Also I'm not using that gigantic 40 pin chip, there's a code compatible 18 pin version that's on its way. In 2 weeks when I'm back where my GL is currently living, I'll throw it all together, calibrate it, and enjoy the awesomeness I'm just feeding it test data that should be fairly close to what the car will give it driving down the road. I'd also like to note, for all you nerds out there. No, I'm not using any floating point numbers, it's all integers Can you send me a list of parts please? And like others have said a schematic. And is it configurable for km/h? In fact, make a new thread (and post the link ) I need to do this in my Hyundai as I'm installing the engine, trans & wiring from a later model car that has electronic speedo, and the cluster doesn't fit in the hole in the dash. Wanna ditch the central mount speedo & put the tacho there (where it should be on a race car ). This would be ideal to put over to the side where the tiny tacho normally lives. I know this is prob sacrilege, but my Sub is too good to waste on a track Edited April 29, 2014 by wagonist Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
987687 Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 Can you send me a list of parts please? And like others have said a schematic. And is it configurable for km/h? In fact, make a new thread (and post the link ) I need to do this in my Hyundai as I'm installing the engine, trans & wiring from a later model car that has electronic speedo, and the cluster doesn't fit in the hole in the dash. Wanna ditch the central mount speedo & put the tacho there (where it should be on a race car ). This would be ideal to put over to the side where the tiny tacho normally lives. I know this is prob sacrilege, but my Sub is too good to waste on a track I'll put together a more comprehensive post when I have more time to work on it. The next two weeks are crazy for me, I'm waiting for parts in the mail, and it'll be a couple weeks till I'm actually back where the car is currently parked. I have pretty much finished writing the firmware, I have an auto calibrate mode etc all done. And sure, why not. I see no reason it couldn't work with km. That's just a 16/10 scale factor on everything. Also as I said before, there isn't much for parts, most of the magic happens with the firmware I wrote. I can post a schematic if I ever make one. Usually I kinda just hook things together, draw a scribble or two, and solder it up... I'm pretty unscientific about the whole process... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
987687 Posted April 29, 2014 Share Posted April 29, 2014 Ok, so a friend of mine told me there exists a product called the VSS pro that does something similar? I don' know, it sounds expensive and I didn't look it up. BUT what I did do is try to mock them as much as possible, because this is built out of all stuff I had laying around (I have weird stuff laying around). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MR_Loyale Posted May 1, 2014 Share Posted May 1, 2014 Today it was finally hot enough to need the AC. I put the fuse back into the AC circuit. I had removed it during winter and it for an extra 2+ MPG. Well today was really hot so I figured it was time to see if the AC still works. I started the car and cranked it up. After 10 seconds of squeal the AC chilled up and keeps it icy cold. That was great. But then in the mailbox, something else finally arrived: 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subaruist Posted May 2, 2014 Share Posted May 2, 2014 Concerning your UAV(Urban Assault Vehicle) - Nice urban Camo paint job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subaruist Posted May 2, 2014 Share Posted May 2, 2014 I will be posting pics soon, but so far I have scrubbed and practically chiseled the solidified dust/sedimentary deposits from much of the interior, replaced the exhaust, pos. battery cable, wheels, seats, and hell, I can't even remember the list anymore; but tomorrow, a new starter... Next I have to get around to removing the 2 - 3 inches of red dust, top soil, leaves and needles, etc. from the cab floor and from the pick-up bed (which also has potting soil as well). I have bought or ordered cool seat covers, dash cover, floor mats, etc. to make the inside tolerable, along with a lot of other niceties. I also got uppity and ordered blue reflective widow film with either 20% or 40% reflectivity, not sure because its from China and they can't write descriptions too well on Ebay, lol.. I was hoping to do a lot more, but my mad money for this project is quickly running out... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dinky26 Posted May 2, 2014 Share Posted May 2, 2014 I always go to superbright LEDs, but the LEDs in my 91 Toyota have the same bulb and they don't dim either, so it must be the way the dimmer switch works. Is this in the brat? I wonder if the dimmer is different... Anyway these are the bulbs I ordered.. http://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinfo/miniature-wedge-base/194-led-bulb-5-smd-led-wide-angle-wedge-base/206/ Yeah, I have ordered and received some of these, I just need to get my original circuit board back so I can put them in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subaruist Posted May 2, 2014 Share Posted May 2, 2014 That does sound like fun,I understand the excitement. However, you must remember most public roads are tools for safe, efficient means of transportation. They are not race tracks. If you want to "drive it like you stole it", please be aware of your surrounding have the respect for your car and others around you. This is simply a reminder. Have fun! I do put a priority on knowing where other vehicles and objects are, so that I can either (A) miss them, and ( decide not to pull a stunt because there are too many witnesses, lol... Safety?!? - Safety?!? SAFETY KILLS! lol... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rrgrr Posted May 3, 2014 Share Posted May 3, 2014 My friend (whom I talked into buying an 86 wagon) started having carb issues, so I helped him rebuild the Hitachi. It still wasn't acting right -and still needed the choke fixed, So... I gave him the Hitachi I rebuilt just before my Weber swap -we just transplanted the top of my carb onto his real quick, and it's much better! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
81EA81 Posted May 4, 2014 Share Posted May 4, 2014 I finally got to mounting up the A-bar to my driveway queen. Thanks CaptianHook! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsuru Posted May 4, 2014 Share Posted May 4, 2014 (edited) I was feeling poorly at letting my 77 wagon sit in the driveway while I try and sort or source a functional powerplant for her. So I got her a pet. 1988 GL10 Turbo Wagon. (this one is 4x4 and-gasp-RUNS!!) so now my 1977 is no longer alone in the driveway! 1977 and 1988...now all I need is a 1966 and a 1999 and a 2000 and a 2010 and a 2020 - wait, getting ahead of myself... Maybe I will stick with what I have, and be grateful that I am equipped with twin Subarus! (Subaru? Subarai?) Whatever... I gots two and am happy that they are no longer alone! (it's good to have friends, no?) Laughingly, Timothy Edited for to add photos (apologies, forgot that "without pictures, it's just a story".) Edited May 6, 2014 by Tsuru 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loyale 2.7 Turbo Posted May 4, 2014 Share Posted May 4, 2014 ...1988 GL10 Turbo Wagon. (this one is 4x4 and-gasp-RUNS!!)... Nice! ... But where are the Photos? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnatchedHatch Posted May 4, 2014 Share Posted May 4, 2014 (edited) What did I do to my hatch? Well I had my muffler shop touch up their work and remove a bottom heat guard on a cat to put an end to an incessant rattle. Oh.. and I sold her! More below, but I'll see you all again soon enough. If you ever need one of these on a trailer, 3 guys can do it Got a parts bike out of it too, and sold that the next day! All in all a great week, albeit sorry to see my Subie go Edited May 4, 2014 by SnatchedHatch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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