License Plate Final

June 23, 2016 -

  A new day brings fresh eyes to a project and my short circuit was immediately obvious.  Both the license plate and the aluminum panel I cut were so far up inside the plate holder they were shorting out the circuit between the metal bracket that holds the light bulb and the copper base plate that powers the bulb.  I disassembled the unit, took out the plate I had cut and used the Dremel to cut out a large notch so the holder plate wouldn't touch the bulb contacts. Here's the notched plate holder.

  Here you can see the notches I had cut in the contacts so that the license plate could go up as far as possible.  I can't believe it didn't occur to me that I could short this circuit with the *metal* license plate.

  So I figured I needed to insulate all this with some electrical tape.  These were very small pieces of tape smooshed on with the smallest needle nose pliers I had.

  And here are the lights working, two blown fuses later.  That's not bad considering some have to keep disconnecting lights one by one and testing with a fuse to find a short.

  Lastly, here's another old plate fitting in there nicely with the lights on.  Incidentally, when this circuit shorted out, the running lights and the gauge lights were all not functioning.

License Plate Holder Part 2

June 21, 2016 -

  Here is what the license plate holder looks like with an old Virginia plate in it.

  The light isn't working and my running lights are blowing a fuse so I suspect there's a short somewhere and this new addition is my prime suspect.  Electrical investigation to follow...

License Plate Holder Part 1

June 16, 2016 -

  Unfortunately Factory Five doesn't leave enough space between the trunk handle and the license plate holder/light for a typical 6" x 12" license plate.  Some choose to cut the plate which I hear might be illegal in some places if not all.  Some choose a different trunk opening mechanism such as a cockpit switch that pops the trunk lid open so there is no handle on the actual trunk.  JKleiner on the forums suggested modifying the license plate holder/light and that is the route I took.  It wasn't hard but took a little patience.  This is after most of the modifications.  You can see three holes in the light assembly.  They are where I drilled out the old rivets that held this all together.  The two close holes in the middle held the insulating board and the hot conductor for the lights, so that got moved up 3/8" and re-riveted.  The plate that holds the two bulbs also got moved up 3/8" and you can see the hole on the right but the left side hole is covered up by the buld holding plate.  See how that bolt coming out at you in the middle is off center low?  It used to be off center high so this bulb holding plate got flipped around and the bolt coming out at you is in the same place relative to the back of the assembly.

  Then you can cut a slot in the clear plastic and put it all back together.  The Dremel will tend to melt some of the plastic but it can be cleaned up with a file.

  I slid the test plate I had in there and I thought it could use a little more room so I used the Dremel to cut a little notch in the plate that holds the bulbs so the license plate could slide up just a little further into the assembly.  (Look closely.)

  To finish up the JKleiner mod we need to cut some aluminium and drill holes so that you can attach a license plate with its pre-drilled holes higher up that the stock holder positions the plate.  That is why this is part one.  I suspect a slight trimming of the bottom of the license plate might be necessary but if it is, it should be very slight.  And for the ultra observant, yes, that is my new wedding ring in the first picture. :-)

Dead Pedal - Heater Wiring - Body Finish

June 11, 2016 -

  I haven't posted in a little while but that doesn't mean I wasn't doing anything.  I'm not sure if this is in the right order but I used Comet, hot water, and Scotch brite (rough side of sponge) to scrub off the wax left from the fiberglass mold process.  Then I used a little drum roll sanding piece on a Dremel to take down the edge that sticks up from the body.  Its not a seam of fiberglass panels coming together but rather the excess fiberglass that was pushed into the seam of the mold in which the body was formed.  I didn't quite take it all the way down to be smooth as I think I'll leave that to the paint and body shop but I didn't bring it down so that it won't cut you.  (Yes I cut my finger pretty good on it while scrubbing before putting gloves on.)

  I also cleaned up the wiring under the dash on the passenger side.  There was a lot of wiring for the heater controls just hanging down.  I tackled this by drilling a hole in the top of the inside of the interior of the glove box.  Then I created a zip tie loop through that.  Then I created two more zip tie loops making a chain behind the glove box that reach down and hold up all the wires.  The chain was needed to cover the long length from the top of the glove box.  I did this because that was the center of the horizontal droop of the wires and there was nothing else I could find to loop a zip tie to up above.  Note that I made a hole to the right of the glove box's locking slot.  The lock's rotating tab comes up and into it's slot from the left and I didn't want the zip tie to interfere with that action.  Here's a close-up of the zip tie hole. (This is a pretty custom idea I just came up with on the spot. The forum might've had better or different ideas but this seems to work well.)

  Here is what the cockpit looks like with the wires cleaned up.  The level of the camera is the top of the seats (pretty low) so if you can't see wires there, then no one should see them sitting in the seats.  The controls are just clipped onto the dash there for now. I'm not convinced yet on where I want to put them.

  I spent several days of charging and cutting with the Dremel's cutting wheel to cut through the left side of the driver's footbox to put in the dead pedal I bought.  I guess one could make their own dead pedal and maybe even one with a flex point so the angle of the pedal could change but I bought this one on Dark Water's custom parts site and I'm pretty happy with it so far.  After multiple charge cycles I had the front edge, top and bottom cut for the square hole. I decided to leave the flap that was cut because, it fit, it had sound dampening and heat shield covering on it already, and why no have something stronger if you can?  Today I finished drilling the holes and riveting in the dead pedal box.  I cut myself a couple times before putting gloves on.  (This should sound familiar from earlier in this post although that was a couple weeks ago before. But word of advice, wear gloves.)  Drilling and riveting in the footbox was a contorted job but hey what isn't in this little car?  I think it came out nice though.  And just those two extra inches bumped out for your left foot feels nice!