i love picture updates. makes the threads worth watching. nothing worse then a build thread thats all words.

keep up the good work. it'll look like a car soon enough

haha i dont own an ED.. never have

and they are.. damn sexyer then melted boxcar fronts

Well, here's an update for today, for those that have expressed interest No pics just yet, camera batteries died. Will take some tomorrow and post then.

With so many things to do, plus trying to keep the kids happy on their last day of holidays, I decided to deal with some simple stuff. First up, was attacking the airbag mounts required so I can finish up the dash. So I did the usual and drilled out the spot welds on the two mounts and extracted them from the EL. The sensor near the floor area is simple to install although I haven't done it yet. The control box is a little more tricky as I thought I could just locate under the dash area a little ways from it's original location in the EL. However, the under dash padding had other thoughts and the cutout specifically for the box no longer lined up. In the ED the ABS computer mounts under the dash also on totally a totally different mount, so I need to get rid of that to put the airbag box in the right place.

Not feeling like lying on my back again today, I then moved on to the cabin wiring. First job was to remove the ED's wiring which went smoothly until I got to the back. I then started with the very rear wiring that feeds the tailgate and interior lighting and what a bastard job getting the left hand taillight plugs up through the body cavity! After persevering with that I finally extracted the old wires and threw it out. Then I had to do that same to the EL. Installing it was a little easier although one difference had me scratching my head.

In the ED, on the right hand rear side is a block of relays along with another black box (WTF is that for?!). When I extracted the EL's I couldn't find the bloody block anywhere (I had previously started removing the EL's wiring) and I spent at least an hour looking for it everywhere. Turns out the bloody EL didn't have one, proven by the fact that there was no wiring/plug for it! SO, to cut a long story short, the ED now has EL cabin wiring. Oh, and the EL has different plugs then the ED's wiring for a lot of things so changing the tailgate and door/door looms is a must now

So then I thought I would tackle the wiring harness that I need the bloody big hole for in the side of the drivers footwell. The plan was to run it as far as I could and bore my required hole later. Well, I didn't get to run it anywhere! Turns out there are *more* differences between the ED & the EL in that area too. For a start, the hole that the wiring re-enters the engine bay through is closer to the windscreen that the ED and that little fact throws everything else off. Need another hole now

So I decide to play around with the wiring that runs across the front of the car, more differences to deal with later on that one too. I even temporarily installed the LH headlight, airbox and bumper to see how much room I had for things like the thermo relays - it's going to be squashy!!!

By now it is late in the day so I had dinner and put the kids to bed after my wife left for volleyball. Not looking forward to the hot day forecast tomorrow, I broke out my new dual flood lights (1000W of light! yay!) and installed the EL K-frame. Now that was fun on ones own First up I dragged it onto my engine crane and wheeled it under the car (eventually). Using the hook over the top, I attached a chain in a cradle formation and started hoisting the K frame up under the car. However, I couldn't get the balance point right because the crane wouldn't go forward enough so only the front of the frame was lifting. Got out the floor jack but it wouldn't fit under the rear part. So I then jacked up what I could of the back so I could put a couple of blocks underneath. Eventually I managed to get the jack in place and started the fine balance between the crane, the jack and pushing/pulling the frame until it was finally hard up against the chassis rails. To this point I have the main nuts and bolts in and the struts just sitting in their respective holes. The remainder will be finished off tomorrow morning when I intend to put some wheels on, drop the front off the stands and move to the back to do the diff.

Until then (with pics of some stuff from today - goodnight!

Cheers
RD

Sounds like you're a good keen man there RDude.

Am interested if you could simply tell me what colour wires on the EL loom do the reversing lights to the boot. No worries tho, I can find it myself simply enough too.

See - I have the after market VN Commodore lamp option and they have INDICATOR, BRAKE and REVERSE built into them so I can finally move towards taking the reversing lights out the tailgate after the next warrant of fitness... I don't want to pay another $350 to get one little thing like that certified so am going to pull off the hub adapters (and put my old mags back on with any luck), take off the rear swaybar and get car back to standard on those things that could require a new certification. Then can put them all back on and with the other changes I am planing can get a new cert next time a warrant of fitness is due (six months).

All good RD. Have you found the front bumper sensor for the climate control?

Keen? Maybe.... I am on a deadline of Monday Feb 2 so I can take my daughter to dancing at 4pm

No idea on the wiring buddy, I just pulled and installed the whole loom, and the tailgate is coming across as 1 piece!

I have an ambient sensor now, just have to figure out how to mount it. Will probably do that when I am stuffing around with the air bag sensor that goes into the grill area as well...

Cheers
RD

RD

Good to hear that my new tailgate and C Pillar Trims are just about ready to pick up. LOL

Ehem

Again you are making great progress. And really, if it all just plugged and played I know you would have been dissapointed. Having to mod it makes all the more personal, and you will have a greater sense of achievement and satisfaction when it is all done and you are driving around in it.

Cheers
BenJ

The block of relays is for the older "non mooing cow" sounding lock actuator. You can keep the relays and wire them to suit the newer EL wiring.

As for the black box in your ED, that is the control unit for your rear wiper.

Ha! Yup, the tailgate is almost ready to go one so I can button up the wiring back there. The C pillar trims however will be staying as I decided to keep some as spares - just incase. Sorry 'bout that...


You are 100% correct. Through all my frustration is actually a sense accomplishment and enjoyment. Most of the time just sitting back and nutting things out makes a big difference!


Ah thanks matey. For now I won't be tinkering with any wiring so I will keep the relays and a section of wiring for later consideration

Cheers
RD

So, pics from yesterday:

Rejected ED cabin wiring etc - go away evil infested mess!!!


The mess that is the dash area:


The EL K frame installed:


The two airbag mounts extracted from the EL:


So, onto today....

After finishing up the front suspension I turned to the next thing. Got my hole saws today so I worked out where the handbrake hole should be and....

Oh no, there's a hole in the floor!!!


That's OK, I filled it with something


There is the same depression in the floor in both cars, it's just the ED's was covered up just begging to have a hole bored in it!

Then it was on to geting the airbag mounts in.

The sensor mount was simple once the location wass found via the firewall padding:


The controller however got me thinking. If I was to drill out the spot welds on the old ED mount I would have holes in the leaf tray under the windscreen, not good on rainy days with water dripping into the dash loom! So I modified the controller mount to fit around the old one and then only had to drill two holes for the mounting screws. The holes were drilled and the mount was attached with plenty of blue silicon inbetween and all over the screws to ensure no leakage. This is the end result:


As the heat outside increased I decided to try one thing that has been bugging me......

Look Ma, No door!!!!


I have already fitted the EL door, had to adjust the door mounts to get it to close. Not too sure about it yet, it was easier than converting an ED door to use all the EL stuff but I know the color difference is going to bug me. The jury is still out on this one.....

So, until it cools down a little, thats it from me for now. I will be continuing later so there could be more updates for today to come.

Cheers
RD

Last edited by racedirector on Tue Aug 30, 2011 3:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

pics of EL door on ED?

Here ya go.... best one I can come up with given the position of the car...



Oh, and one other thing done today, the big hole in the kick panel for the forward wiring loom. One more to do at the very front of the car and I'll be ready to wire the front end.



Cheers
RD

Last edited by racedirector on Tue Aug 30, 2011 3:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

You are certainly not mucking around there Bruce. Have you got a planned finish date in mind?

Movin' right along matey Being a stay at home Dad has it's advantages!

I am aiming for Monday to drive down the driveway. If not I'll be push biking it to take my daughter to dancing - arrgghhh exercise!!!! If not then Wednesday at the latest....

Cheers
RD

deinately 100000000% go the ED doors.... but put the EL handles and mirrors on. the rest looks GLi spec big time.... unless you can find yourself a set of NF/NL trims.

I am thinking this way now mainly due to the paint. I have to weigh up the cost of painting them to a few hours of converting the ED doors to EL spec. If I *did* stay with the EL doors complete I would be transferring the trims over from the ED and getting rid of the black trim that's there now.

A bit to think about, not high on my list just yet with all the mechanicals etc still to do....

Cheers
RD