Fitzy's GP is back!

[Fitzy]

Let me respond re light switch. The replacement is an exact GM replica, right down to the car's multi wired plug plugging straight in. It WILL NOT send power to instrument & tail lights, even though I could clearly see (with a multimeter) that the front parks & headlights had juice. I even soldered in an earth wire to the switch body just in case that was a problem - no cigar. Damn switch is faulty - there is no other explanantion. I offer these words as helpful advice in case someone else is under their dash scratching their head wondering what the f@#k is going on down there.

I gotta say that I was never happy with the quality of that switch. It's switch action felt just as crappy as the original. I ordered a basic generic Narva pull on switch that will accommodate the headlights, tail lights & instrument lights. I'll never be driving at night anyway - it's just to pass the Inspection.

The fact that I hot wired 12 volts straight into those tail & instrument circuits is proof of switch failure.

Oh, and I remember hand polishing my Supra rims. They looked friggin' fantastic, but my fingers were trashed from the effort, sandpaper & water. Those RZ Supras are now worth considerably more than the 10k I paid for my immaculate low mileage unmolested original.

Edited January 16, 2022 by Fitzy
Forgot something

[Frosty]

On 1/15/2022 at 12:24 AM, 64 kiwi boni said:

sound like me mate!!! f--kin glasses p me off !! and need a head light justA to see 😡

As my late mum use to say, old age isn't for sissies! Damn her, she was right. Doesn't mean we like it either.

[Fitzy]

13 hours ago, 64 kiwi boni said:

i really like your upgraded fuse board.... i should to the same with my girl.

There's a caveat with using the board I used: the factory fuse box has 3 separate feeds going into it. The board I used only has one, so I deleted the feed that is always hot (12 volts all the time, whether ignition switch is on or off) there's a feed that is hot when ignition is on and a separate feed from the light switch to look after instrument & tail lights. 

What that means is that nothing will work with ignition off except for lights, which is how I like it. Everything will work with ignition on.

So, there's a bit of head scratching but if I muddled through it, anyone can.

[Fitzy]

What a day. I trotted off to the dentist this morning, terrified as usual. Root canal coming up next Tuesday. $1600 thank you. That's okay - if it was car related that's just another expense on the GP, so it's about time I spent some money repairing myself.

I left the dentist and spoke to the bloke who's going to do my Safety Inspection. I told him it was a 1965 US import and I wanted to know the official position on seat belts and rear stop lights acting as indicators. He takes me to a restoration shop next door (where has this place been for the last 30 years? I didn't even know it existed) and right in front of me is a mid 60s Mercury Park Lane (I think.) The dude in the shop explains that the rules keep changing but at last count, US style rear indicators are fine. Also, because the car was built before 1969 it doesn't require seat belts, so my old retractors should be fine. One ruling they both agreed on, and this was certainly news to me was that the sealed beam headlights (low beam only) have to be changed to Australian ones because of the directional bias that is built into the sealed beam units. So, depending on where your car is made and whether it's left or right hand drive, if you drive on the left you need specific locally approved headlights. I never knew the bias was inherent in their manufacture - I always thought they were adjusted at the factory to point slightly left or right as the case required. So Kiwi, you may find this news interesting. Were you aware of it? Fortunately, plenty of older Aussie & Jap cars were issued with the same 5 & 3/4" units, so sourcing a couple won't be a problem. The ones I removed from the GP look like the original 'Guide' T3s, which are sought after by owners who need that sort of concourse authenticity. You can buy repros, but they ain't cheap.

One last thing, I wanted to install a battery isolater so that I can isolate the battery whilst I'm away for 7 days every fortnight, or so that I can isolate the car if I park it somewhere and want to have lunch or something and don't have to worry about someone hot wiring it within 3 minutes. I'm also going to route the wire that goes to negative coil through the car's interior and wire up a discreet simple off/on toggle switch to further thwart any thieves. This is my proposed set up. The red key can be removed once the switch is isolated. This way, I'm not drilling any holes and it can be removed without any evidence of butchering. Yeah, it looks kinda ugly but I'm gonna paint it black and will neatly route the battery cable under it.

[Fitzy]

Zzzzzzzz...

Edited January 17, 2022 by Fitzy

[64 kiwi boni]

mate i am not quiet sure about that head light bias bs.... my dodge ram only had to have the beams adjusted for dip to the left... never needed to replace them. and that was the last car i had complied.

all i know is that here, they have to have the correct markings on them for standards requirements.

usually they will park that head light test machine in front of them and tell you if they are correctly aligned or not. and thats it 

come to think about it. my hellcat has its factory head lights.... good luck finding alternative headlights for her!!!....

and i know how much they are worth after i had a hunk of steel bounce of an on coming truck and up through my drivers side one in my old 2011 392 challenger !!! they where $1800 each !!!

[64 kiwi boni]

JustA bout the price of a root canal

hay test your test your head light!!!!! see which way they dip when you switch them onto low beam.... i cant test mine at the moment, she on the hoist with no wheels!!

 i would bet that being a separate low beam only light that you can simply adjust them to turn on facing slightly left 

Edited January 17, 2022 by 64 kiwi boni

[Fitzy]

Yeah, it sounds like a ridiculous set up, but I'll grab a set when I get back from work and will check for markings on the lenses. If there are such things, I'm sure that's all the bloke will need to see. If they end up being possum spotters I don't think he'll care.

I don't know about NZ, but if your car is pre 69 here, no seatbelts required. This is from the country that is chronically over regulated about almost everything. So I can tool down the highway unrestrained but not without the correct headlights. Makes sense...

[64 kiwi boni]

6 minutes ago, Fitzy said:

Yeah, it sounds like a ridiculous set up, but I'll grab a set when I get back from work and will check for markings on the lenses. If there are such things, I'm sure that's all the bloke will need to see. If they end up being possum spotters I don't think he'll care.

I don't know about NZ, but if your car is pre 69 here, no seatbelts required. This is from the country that is chronically over regulated about almost everything. So I can tool down the highway unrestrained but not without the correct headlights. Makes sense...

here its seat belts from 1956 and thats been the rule since .... well 1956..

one thing i learnt very early mate, give the inspector what he wants and he will forget the other stuff,,,,..... so yeah do the lights.... and make sure you point them out to him.... ahahahaha 

Edited January 17, 2022 by 64 kiwi boni

[Frosty]

I'm with Kiwi on the inspector point. Still I am of the belief that the headlight bias is a whole lot of local hogwash. If that were the case, then the left or the right hand lights would have different angle of bias. So in North America, left hand low beans would probably point to the right more than the right hand headlights, which would be correspondingly point straight a head or only slightly to the left.

So in Britain, NZ, and OZ, the reverse would be true, right headlight has the bias and the left is straighter (or you flip the same bulbs upside down and mount them in the proper location. LOL!). So in the case of your T3s, you'd have to know which one is left or right. I know that T3s are not sold that way.

I can't see why a headlight manufacturer would ever do that unless there is some sort of law on the books requiring that. Typically there is a North American standard, a European one, etc.  Not to mention that car manufacturers / vendors build adjustment screws/mechanisms into the cars to adjust the up/down left/right angles of the bulbs. So why do that if the bulbs have the bias built in? Call me stupid but I smell a racket going on somewhere to force the use of "local content" or state certified parts. 

[Fitzy]

I have never heard of the headlight bias phenomenon either - that's what adjustment screws are for. But, both those blokes chorused in unison that I had to have Australian sealed beams. Perhaps there are markings on the lens to denote the 'bias,' if it exists. I see there are arrows and other mystery symbols embossed into the lens glass, so maybe it is a thing. Whatever - it's a minimal outlay so that'll be a nice change.

I am quietly confident that the car is almost ready to be presented but also wonder what other piddling crap he'll dream up.

No seat belts? No worries.

A cracked reversing lens? Ba-bow.

[Fitzy]

Hi Guys. I'm back from work for a week and rearin' for some wrenchin.' Tomorrow is Australia Day and my Kiwi missus is going in for her Citizenship Ceremony - it's a thing here. Every Jan 26, it's traditional for aspiring citizens to receive their citizenship after pledging allegiance and other lies. I tried to block her application and have her sent back, but to no avail. Oh well - I guess she'll keep hanging around.

Wipers & washers. Working. ALL lights. Working. Halfway thru new horn installation and need to try and get the blower motor to work. Once that's done, it's off to try and get it's Safety Certificate. I shall post pics and updates tomorrow. 

[64 kiwi boni]

6 minutes ago, Fitzy said:

Hi Guys. I'm back from work for a week and rearin' for some wrenchin.' Tomorrow is Australia Day and my Kiwi missus is going in for her Citizenship Ceremony - it's a thing here. Every Jan 26, it's traditional for aspiring citizens to receive their citizenship after pledging allegiance and other lies. I tried to block her application and have her sent back, but to no avail. Oh well - I guess she'll keep hanging around.

geees mate... if your boss had a tattoo or rode a Harley she would have been deported back by now!!!! 

 

6 minutes ago, Fitzy said:

Wipers & washers. Working. ALL lights. Working. Halfway thru new horn installation and need to try and get the blower motor to work. Once that's done, it's off to try and get it's Safety Certificate. I shall post pics and updates tomorrow. 

fingers crossed that inspector is soooo impressed with your head light replacement that he justA signs off on everything else mate...

other wise deport the f--ker !!! haahhaha

Edited January 25, 2022 by 64 kiwi boni

[Frosty]

Great job on the wiring Fitzy. I hope all goes well with the certification.

If not, well tell him to bugger off then! 

[Fitzy]

And here we are again. FINALLY got the horn working. After carefully routing the required wiring thru the engine bay and firewall and into and out of the fuse box, after a couple of hiccups that baby shrieked away. Believe me, if I ever have to use it, the car in front will be in no doubt whatsoever that the big red car behind them honked them. The ebay ad said it was a 'deep tone.' Ah, no - it sounds like a Ferrari honking some shitbox Lamborghini to get out of the way. The compressor and horn are a combined unit - made in Italy (the traditional home of shrieking air horns) and it seems to be a pretty robust unit. They take their horns seriously in Italy. And then with an unusual burst of energy, I decided I would check each brake assembly one last time and refit my mags. To my horror and disappointment, one of my rear wheel cylinders has decided to start leaking. Bloody hell - smash out an order to Rockauto and I guess it'll be here next week whilst I'm at work. And THAT my friends, SHOULD be the last thing to fix.

Let's all remember those words and laugh: THE LAST THING TO FIX!

The pic is of my new coolant recovery bottle and horn assembly.  Unlike Kiwi, my car has a crossflow radiator, so I didn't have the space he had to fit everything, but it'll do.

Edited January 26, 2022 by Fitzy

[64 kiwi boni]

looks good mate!! well done, nice n tidy, tucked away there👍

a note about the rock auto slave cylinders... when i ordered mine the back ones where perfect reproduction and fitted the 3/8 threads.... the fronts had some other thread and where not the same as original, so i ended up honing my cylinders and using the seals and springs out of the new rock auto ones... fingers crossed you dont end up with the same issue.

[Wrongway]

HEY! What's wrong with tattoos and Harley's Kiwi?!?! lol

Looking good Fitzy! Really good brother.

[Fitzy]

Hungover as f@#k yesterday, so I hobbled about like the broken down old wreck that I am and decided to work on the other broken down old wreck. I fitted my new 'Australian' sealed beams.  Hmm...they look suspiciously EXACTLY the same as the US ones. Never mind: I kept their packaging and the receipt to prove to God (& the Inspector) that I changed them out. Today I want to see if I can get the blower motor to work - there's 12 volts at the switch so that's a start. There's a black wire in the engine bay that runs to a connector at the back of the blower motor. Does anyone know what that does?

[64 kiwi boni]

17 minutes ago, Fitzy said:

Hungover as f@#k yesterday, so I hobbled about like the broken down old wreck that I am and decided to work on the other broken down old wreck. I fitted my new 'Australian' sealed beams.  Hmm...they look suspiciously EXACTLY the same as the US ones. Never mind: I kept their packaging and the receipt to prove to God (& the Inspector) that I changed them out. Today I want to see if I can get the blower motor to work - there's 12 volts at the switch so that's a start. There's a black wire in the engine bay that runs to a connector at the back of the blower motor. Does anyone know what that does?

i will have a look at my one when i get home tomorrow mate, not sure what that wire does either 

[Fitzy]

Today was productive. Frustrating as hell, but I got a result in the end. That black wire that feeds into the blower motor was actually live, but the connector wouldn't sit securely in place. I cobbled together a jump wire and turned the ignition on - blower motor hums away contentedly but without me activating the blower control knob! It's simply live when it gets juice. The obvious easy fix is to route that wire into the cabin through a toggle switch and then back out to the blower which was what I did. The blower motor connector had snapped off at some point in the last 56 years and I had precious little room to work in. No amount of tinkering with various connectors worked, so I soldered a new wire onto the remains of the old connector, then heat shrinked the connection to keep it safe. In order for the car to pass it's Safety Inspection, the blower motor has to be able to direct air onto the windscreen. The Inspector dude said he wasn't too worried about that aspect, but would be happier if it worked. Because all the vacuum lines that control airflow disappeared years ago, I simply removed the floor vent and glued a plastic wall of a milk bottle on top, so that when the blower operates, the air has no choice but to go straight to the windscreen. It will never be used - it's just for the inspection.

The other task was to fit the missing grommet that sits in the accelerator linkage bracket. It has never been in place and the linkage has been flopping about forever.  Instead of being raped by OPGI ($7.99 + $14 shipping) for a piece of rubber and a piece of nylon, I found an old rubber grommet, drilled out the centre, snapped it in place and voila - one nice smooth throttle pedal.

Time for a beer and a laugh at what the rest of you have been up to.

[64 kiwi boni]

gota love that thinking outside the box mate

[Fitzy]

Spot on, Kiwi. Never before have I had to practise so much 'thinking outside the box' and laying awake during the wee hours trying to figure out seemingly impossible problems. Boy - what am I going to think about when everything's fixed and works? I haven't planned that far forward yet. Perhaps another car? I always wanted a chrome bumper C3 Corvette but I think I've missed the boat. Every Corvette owner has said to me to never buy one. What's the problem? Does anybody want to get involved in this topic? I love their sinister look and nice simple Chevy mechanicals.

[64 kiwi boni]

9 hours ago, Fitzy said:

Spot on, Kiwi. Never before have I had to practise so much 'thinking outside the box' and laying awake during the wee hours trying to figure out seemingly impossible problems. Boy - what am I going to think about when everything's fixed and works? I haven't planned that far forward yet. Perhaps another car? I always wanted a chrome bumper C3 Corvette but I think I've missed the boat. Every Corvette owner has said to me to never buy one. What's the problem? Does anybody want to get involved in this topic? I love their sinister look and nice simple Chevy mechanicals.

I know exactly how you feel mate !! The 64 is near complete too !

and I am thinking next car !! But I have a plan !!! 

Not saying anything yet , as I still haven’t bought the car yet , but I can tell  you this .... it’s going to be a Pontiac 👍👍👍👍👍

vets are ok and c3 are the prettiest , I say go for it mate 👍👍👍

[Fitzy]

Back to work tomorrow, so I thought I'd pen this latest update. Today I wanted to do the final fitment of the blower motor toggle switch. The switch requires a 12mm hole to be drilled. I get under the dash and hold my drill against the underside of it and I think to myself that I really am not happy with butchering my car like this. There is already a small 5mm hole there from somewhere in the car's past. In a moment of inspiration, I know what to do. I fashion a bracket from flat aluminium plate. This will now become the sacrificial component. I drill the appropriate 12mm hole for the switch and then another 5mm hole to attach the bracket to the underside of the dash. I simply bolted the bracket in place using a 5mm nut & bolt and the toggle switch hangs down from it, totally accessible but only just visible if you look hard. This solution may have been obvious to a lot of you, but it was new ground for me. I'll have to post a pic next week.

As posted in Kiwi's thread, I'm gonna run the gauntlet next week and buzz down to our local servo for some juice and to see how (IF!) the auto shifts. If it doesn't, car will go to auto specialist. If it does, I'll get a permit and test drive it for a coupla days to iron out any wrinkles...not mine - the car's.

[Frosty]

Fitzy - found this video online. Here is a local '65 GP that is for sale near Justa and me. Thought you'd like to see it.

 

Asking price is $62,900 USD.