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The Journey Begins - Series I V6 Restomod

Bill Eisinger

Platinum Level Sponsor
It's going to be a while before I need this but it's another box checked off. For inquiring minds, these are Speed Hut gauges with a GPS speedo and also a voltmeter instead of ammeter. The stock heater controls have been replaced with controls for the Old Air Products Heat/AC system. The manual washer pump is replaced with an electric one with corresponding switch. The dash itself was custom made by a wood worker friend using marine grade plywood and walnut burl veneer finished with spar urethane so it should stand up well to UV and any unfortunate rain exposure. Rather than hard wire it to the main harness I'm going to build a separate instrument harness so that the dash can be unplugged if necessary to remove it.Dasboard.jpg
 

loose_electron

Donation Time
Looks very nice! I used a similar approach with Speed Hut gauges and a GPS speedo.

The one thing that you might get annoyed with a little is that the GPS speed sensor takes a few minutes to acquire signal and start to give proper speedo information. So, when you start the car up you may drive the first half mile without a speedometer.

I did not use a sub harness because I did not want extra connections in the high current switch paths associated with the ignition switch. Both methods should work.
 

Bill Eisinger

Platinum Level Sponsor
Whatever downside there is to the GPS is offset by the simplicity.

I guess when I said harness I should have said it in the plural form…I wasn’t planning on running the ignition leads through the same plug set as the instruments. Heater controls the same way…they come already pre-assembled with plug sets so I’ll just tie them together into another sub-harness…the point of it all is that I’m just trying to improve (a whole bunch) over the stock wiring set up.
 

Bill Blue

Platinum Level Sponsor
Did the multi connector (three in my case) gig in the Orange car back in '06, using Molex connectors. Inexpensive and very convenient when removing the dash, which happened about three times, due to bad gauges. No electrical problems were encountered over 113,000 miles.

Bill
 

Aladin Sane

Diamond Level Sponsor
So it turns out VDO sells a harness for the set of gauges I am using, so I just bought one of theirs instead of making my own.
 

weaselkeeper

Silver Level Sponsor
I was fortunate enough to spend a little of Bill's time yesterday to invade his space and walk around his Sunbeam. Beautiful work! I admire his worksmanship. His build experience really shines. My intent was to generate a little self-motivation to get back to work on mine and Bill fully came thru and met that goal. Today's project is to clear the clutter from around my SIV and turn the welder back on after a several year hiatus. I won't bore you with my excuses. Thanks Bill !!
 

Bill Eisinger

Platinum Level Sponsor
Finally decided on wheels/tires etc…I think these are going to look pretty good. 185/60/R15 Bridgestones on 6” wide VTO wheels. The primary reason I went with the Bridgestones was that in this size of available alternatives, the Bridgestones have the least amount of checkering and design on the sidewalls and look closer to vintage tires than other choices. The center cap decal comes from a person in Portugal who sells a variety of automotive logo products.
 

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Bill Eisinger

Platinum Level Sponsor
Fuel tank is in…proverbial 10 lbs of stuff in a 5 lb sack…traded the spare tire space for a 16 gallon tank. The tank is all set up for the EFI with an in tank fuel pump as well as a modern style float-less fuel sender.
 

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Bill Eisinger

Platinum Level Sponsor
I’m an electrical engineer but this is still a daunting task!
 

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