DRL lights and wiring - Circuit 1/8

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Major System Category: ISIS Wiring
Task: Wire up the DRLs
Parts:
Power Cell: 1
Circuit: 8 - GREEN
Master cell: BLUE/LIGHT BLUE
Prerequisite Tasks: Mount DRLs
Additional Costs:
Time Requirement: 90 minutes
Date Started: August 10, 2013
Date Completed: August 10, 2013
A good chunk of the front end wiring never got completed in April 2013. When I returned from the Southern Man Cave, I spent the first seven weeks working on the body. In northern climes, you really need to take advantage of the warm weather months! The GTM has been living with dangling wires from the DRLs, power cells and other things. I left them to hang down behind the grille, and it looked like a real mess.

This is an early photo of the passenger side DRL mount.  You can see wires dangling over the side. This is not the first GTM to have DRLs.

Fortunately, I have wiring diagrams worked out for these circuits. In addition, I have a spreadsheet in my master build document that goes into detail about each circuit. I will be sending this spread sheet along with my next order to ISIS Power for the remaining power cells, motion cell and master cell coder. This is because I need ISIS to prep a file that can be downloaded into the master cell for my specific circuit set up. With five power cells, I am pushing 50 circuits - there's a lot going on in the car.

This Gen I GTM in Poland mounted the DRLs above the front grille. I am finding that this area is very busy. I use the upper lip of the front grill to manage the cross connection between head lights, hazards, fog lights. I'm not sure I would want to add the DRLs there. I corresponded with this builder, and asked him about the DRLs. As in every case, GTM builders are quite happy to share their knowledge.

This is half a terminal block. Easily cut with a hack saw.

The DRLs were cut into the body to the left and right lower corners of the grille opening. The fiber glass is very thick in this area, and it is tough going. The wires coming off the DRLs is 22 gauge (not the easiest stuff to work with). Initially, I thought I would create some kind of socket to plug these into, but since I plan to add Angel Eyes around the head lights into the DRL circuit, the idea of some kind og 6 way splice become unmanageable.

I daisy chain the terminal block to create a single circuit. Then I just need a single to power or ground.

Over May and June, I worked on the Intellitronix Dash for the cockkpit. One of the techniques I used here were terminal blocks. Now six way splices are easy. The white plastic terminal blocks are very easy to customize. They come in strips of twelve connections and the strip can be cut apart with a hack saw. I need six connectors for the ground and six connectors for the power leads. That is: 2 x DRLs, 4 x Angel Eyes.

These are the power and ground terminal blocks for the DRLs. The green wire is from Power Cell #1, Circuit 8. The black ground lead hasn't been connected in this photo. The terminals were bonded to the hood using 3M 8115 panel bond.

Note: Angel Eyes cannot be installed after final paint is complete. This is probably 12 to 14 months in the future (and it could slip to Spring 2015). However, the Angel Eyes need a place to connect, so I AM building that now.

The hood mounting is problematic due to the variables associated with centering vis-a-vis the rest of the car.. I explain to people that there are 100 ways to mount the hood, and I settled on the 101st position. I have made the decision that hood will remain attached to the car and it will need to be painted in place. Everything else can be removed. To this point, a great number of things have been permanently mounted (e.g. lights, signals, parking sensors) and the wiring associated with these peripherals.

I mounted the terminal blocks above the front grille opening on the interior of the hood. This is convenient, because most of the wires can run directly to these terminal blocks. The ground is to the chassis area that supports the AC condenser, radiator and fan assembly. The power lead runs to Power cell #1 and is enclosed in wire loom. I made sure I left enough slack in the wires so the hood can open and close without pulling something loose.

Hood Preparation

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Major System Category: Body (Hood/Shell)
Task: Clean up all issues on hood through primer
Parts: Primer (6 - 8 cans), Primer Sealer ( 4 cans)
Prerequisite Tasks:
Additional Costs: 150 - $190
Time Requirement: 70 - 90 hours
Date Started: July  10, 2013

Date Completed:  July 27, 2013

There are no short cuts here. If you don't want to do this part of the build, then farm it out.

This is close to the final version of the hood. It is basically how I spent my summer vacation. I used steel wool as a final stage prior to sealing the primer. This smooths it down close to a glass like surface.  It has been a long journey to this point, but I found I kind of liked the body work and I'm glad I didn't panic and farm it out.

The body work is the area that most intimidates me (not that I'm not intimidated about dropping in an engine and hooking up a seven speed transaxle). The hood presents many challenges:

1. Seams
2. Fender Louvers
3. Headlight/foglights
4. Grille Area
5. Hood Latch area
6. DRLs

If you peruse the Factory Five Forums, you start hearing that the car vanishes for weeks and months before it come back finally painted and finished. There is a princely sum associated with the work, and if it comes in under $15,000, it probably is a bargain. There is a ton of work that needs to be performed to get the car ready for paint.

This is an early photo from 9/27/2012. I just brought the hood back from my neighbor's garage. This looks deceptively easy. The surface is smooth. At this point, I didn't know the grille opening is not centered or that the hood is off by 3/4" or that the Factory Five hood louvers are really sub standard and that I would end up purchasing the Vraptor hood louvers. Ignorance is bliss.

The seams and the fender louvers present the greatest challenge. You can't simply grind down the excess material on the seams and say good enough. There are the following issues:

I spent more time getting the fender louvers right than anything else on the hood.  This is the louver before I did anything to it. I expected the left and right louvers to be identical. They are not. I expected them to line up nicely. They did not.  I am happy I have them, but they are very labor intensive. I spent man weeks getting these right.

• The pieces connected by the seam are uneven, so grinding everything down to a even plane removes too much material.
• The seam needs to have a fiber glass strip to strengthen the area, and this just takes time.
• The hood has seams running from edges closest to the cockpit to forward the wheel wells, then down. There is another seam that runs across the front of the car over the grill.
• Fender louver add a further complication, because they need to be feathered into the rest of the hood, and there are cuts required to make them functional. 

 

This another early photo (9/29/2012) with the Factory Five hood louvers and fender louvers taped in place. I used a cross hatch laser level to figure things. It is sitting at the bottom center on a small tripod. The best way to describe mounting the hood is that there are 100 ways to put the hood on and I settled on the 101st way. Someone who came by to see the car, asked if I intended to take the hood off when I painted the car. I popped open the hood and showed them how it was mounted, then explained, "It is never coming off again."

If you add DRLs, then these need to be custom cut and smoothed out.

Another non-standard mod are my DRLs. I had to cut into the hood just below the grille. These took some time, but eventually I got them mounted properly. It was only later that I realized I had to make them pretty. I might have to do some more work here before everything is perfect.

I think it is easier to do this work with the hood connected to the car, and the car on a lift. This configuration provides a stable platform for the sanding process (and you will do beaucoup sanding).

This is several months later (6/27/2013). The seams are pretty rough at this point. Someone asked me on the Factory Five forum why I bothered fiber glassing the seams, because other builders just ground them down. Yes, you need to get rid of the extra bonding material, but remember we are talking about the strength of the body here on a high performance car. I applied Bondo, fiber glass, more Bondo and sanded and more Bondo and more sanding... Well you get the idea. I have to say that when the front seam blended into the rest of the body I was amazed. At that point, I knew the only standing between myself and a completed car was me.

I use the following products to get the hood prepped:

This product is phenomenal. The can has two chambers: 1 for primer, 1 for fixer. You shake it up for 2 minutes, then pop a button on the bottom of the car. This opens the barrier between the primer and the fixer. Then you shake it for 2 more minutes. Now you have the perfect mix (every time) withe professional fan spray nozzle.

• SprayMax 2K Rapid Primer Filler.
• Dupli-Color Primer Sealer
• Dura-Block autobody kit

A friend commented that there was a lot of nasty Bondo to sand down. He wasn't wrong. I bonded the fender louver to the body using 3M's 8115 panel bond. I then fiber glassed the edges of the louver to the hood. I then spent many evenings feathering the louver into the hood. My bride asked me if I had bitten off more than I could handle. I admitted that might be true. I certainly wondered if this would ever look right.

Once I was satisfied with the primed surface, I went over it with steel wool to eliminate any "pebbly" surface distortions, then I sealed the hood. This stuff is pretty caustic, so get a respirator and face shield.

This is the louver 1 month later.