More Dash Wiring
& $6500 in Damage
January 26th.... As I've mentioned on
the Triumph Mail List...... I'm still FMAO (Freezing My A$@ Off) here in
mid January. For the past 2 1/2 weeks it's barely gotten out of the low 20's
which is too cold for my trusty 55K BTU kerosene heater. I've only gotten to
work on the 2 days since early January. and in the past 3 days we've
gotten about 18" of snow with temps staying in the teens and low 20's. All I
need is about 3 nice days and I can finish the wiring and begin testing. So
here's a few pictures that show what I'm using and how I'm doing things.
Here's the soldering tool of choice:
a mini Butane Torch. It's small, portable, easy to use and Dan's wire can easily
take the heat. I highly recommend it over a soldering iron for this project. As
the second picture shows, you have to get creative in how you go about
soldering. In this case, one of the hazard switch wires are clamped to the
window to be soldered. In this project I've gotten quite creative with this
little clamp and used it everywhere for soldering connections.
Without this heater, I would have
put this project away 2 months ago and waited for warmer weather. It pumps
out 55,000 BTU's and is great down to about 30 degrees outside and
"bearable" when it's in the mid 20's. The secret to uses one of these to
avoid tons of condensation is plenty of ventilation while running it,
followed by opened garage doors when done. Opening the doors for a while
when done seems to equalize the temperature and eliminates any condensation
problems.
The other picture is of those
switches I showed on the previous web page. So far the most "difficult"
wiring centered on: ignition switch, wiper switch and these add-on switches.
This last picture is of the way I'll be testing my
gauges.....yup, mounted on heavy duty cardboard! I'm a firm believer in
not putting things back together until it's been thoroughly tested. I don't want
to install the dash until everything has been tested and wire-wrapped so this
will be my test bed. All I need is a good ground wire and I should be good to
go.
Oh yea..... the $6500 in damages.... well today
was a school snow day so my wife had the day off. We needed a few things at the
Mall so we went there for lunch and did a little shopping. As we were leaving
the Mall parking lot, a car came around the corner and slide on the snow/ice
right into us.... side-swiping us from the left front wheel to the rear bumper.
There were about 6 guys in this old beat up Toyota Corolla and no one spoke
English. When the Police got there, it turned out he didn't have a U.S. Driver's
License and the car was borrowed.... but it was insured! On the way home I
stopped at my favorite Auto Body place (an owner of a TR6 and a TR3) to make
sure the car was OK to drive and to get an estimate: $6500. There's a little
wind whistling through the driver's door which doesn't quite meet with the frame
at the roof line but the front and rear suspensions survived in tact.
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