New World Datsuns...

Lol, soooo terrible it makes me want to watch it! Right up there with Maximum Overdrive and Duel. And don't forget Killer Clowns from Outer Space.

Hurdle number one of 87 box van stereo install. They sell an adapter plate and I'm not quite sure why because this dash has metal reinforcement behind it for the dual knob radio. After I remove that basically use the template I bought plastic of course and traced a rectangle and proceeded to go at it with the Dremel tool. Burn through quite a few reinforced cutting wheels and finished it up with the carbide burr on the die grinder. see as this has no structure behind it I'm just going to poke the fin tabs out so it locks the sleeve in place and with the reinforcement of metal on the back of the dash behind the plastic, it should be fine. It's pretty thick steel.

So the speakers I ordered didn't come with grille cages oddly enough. I called around and apparently those things are hard to find right now so well I may even take some of the leftover diamond plate from the front bumper and just bend a little grille cage and protect the speaker that way. And the amplifier didn't come with any mounting hardware or anything else either nor did the stereo LOL. I think I know why I found these for cheap on Amazon. It won't matter though they'll all work fine when I'm done. Then I can ignore the rattles of the box van hoping that none of them cause me to drive off a cliff and explode in a ball of fire. Cuz you know that's what happens when you leave the roadway. The vehicle always explodes into a ball of fire.

So I'm busy making my shins bleed. Hopped up on the rear bumper but didn't quite hop enough and caught my bumper on the back step. Bled more than I thought it was going to. finally got everything wired in the back and now I'm routing the RCA cables from the head unit to the amp. I'm also routing the cost of power wire to the back as well to run off the auxiliary battery that way when I have my master cutoff switch on the front it still cuts all starting battery and all the rest of the truck electrical besides the standalone auxiliary battery in the back. Talk about a big pain in the ass of running wires almost done with that though. The other big pain in the ass is getting the radio plug inside. It's still attached really crappily to an extension of the original radio wiring. I'm probably going to clip the other one off and then just run a different hole or through an existing hole because it goes back behind the dash where you really can't get at it in a box van. I'm betting they never suspected anyone would have anything but the AM/FM GM radio.

I have the same step stool.

Holy f getting that radio antenna connector through the dash was a giant pain in the ass. Finally found the hole with the flashlight and then stuck a reach grab it through and dragged it through that way. It's actually not as loud as I thought it was going to be. And annoyingly I didn't get to wire the correct way because I realized I had only run one wire back with the RCA lines to the amp for the remote turn on. I was planning on running the constant power for the stereo back to the auxiliary battery and back because it's separate from the switch circuit on the front master cut off. So basically every time I cycle the cut off now it's going to reset the stereo but oh well it's in it works. I may run it eventually a different way if I decided to do some more work. For today however I'm tired and I'm cleaning up and going home.

Well now if you read the directions that helps a lot. There's a gain dial, and a base dial, and it's pretty f****** loud, lol. Sounds good too!

So I went to go home and turned on the lights, and the fuse blew. Odd, I thought. Replaced it. Blew again. Took out radio fuse and replaced taillight fuse. Blew again. So I parked it in the shop for the night again. Either I have a bad headlight switch, or I wired the stereo wrong. I'm beginning to think maybe the old GM unit grounds through the chassis since it's dual knob in metal, and perhaps my ground for the head unit is actually on the illumination circuit. Not sure but I'll troubleshoot more tomorrow.

You may be right. Even though you're working on a "modern" fuel injected vehicle, the chassis is still 1950's technology. GM was pretty lazy like that.

Yep, just got to the shop and unplugged the radio harness. Started the truck, turned the lights on and hey they don't blow out! so now I'll be rewiring this the way I should have yesterday when I was running out of time. Oh well, at least it's a simple fix. Pretty sure I wired the ground to the illumination side which makes sense seeing as if the headlight switches off it'll backfeed through there and make a ground. probably prove it here in a second after I disconnect the wires at the harness just to double check and satisfy my own curiosity. there was another wire I didn't hook up but when I tried to ground it it immediately blew the fuse for the radio so I don't know what other function that's for. there are two connectors on this model one has three pins in for power and whatnot and the other connector has four pins of what appear to be speaker connectors.

I painted the face last night too I figured make it the same color as the box van. You can definitely see it now, muah ha haaaa!

I should have gotten half inch loom. 3/8 just barely covers this RCA line with two extra wires. And holy crap is this a lot of wiring. It's coming out really nice though so that's good and I'm just about done with this portion of it which means I can start hooking up the stereo again and testing.

Okay I cleaned up the wiring for the stereo and put in the Bluetooth mic I forgot. Now it has constant power off the auxiliary battery in the back and switch power from the ignition so even if I turn my cut off switch it still saves the presets even though technically the radio could cause a draw off the back battery, but that's fairly unlikely. And even if it does it only sucks down the deep cycle in the back not the starting battery.

I also took off the stupid plates that the people before me had on here to hold on the glove box assembly that's supposed to bolt to the dog house. I would like to use it cuz it's cool but it's so bulky for such a small glove box it doesn't make any sense so I just carry a box in the back with all the stuff I need.

Weasel has been helping.

The drive home has been pleasant with good quality sound. The Bluetooth is noisy as expected, but can still be heard. Did a test call with the boss.

Weasel found his new favorite riding position on the way home.

So I've noticed a new vibration noise at 65. However it seemed to have occurred at the same time I finished the bumper. I'm guessing there's some resonance from it that I'm hearing. I had Luis remove my driveline on Friday and we checked all the u-joints and the center support bearing and they're all fine so barring wheel bearings or something which it's not that kind of a noise I'm pretty sure it's just going to be the bumper. I suppose that makes sense it's a lot bigger thing off the frame horns and it could be that it's setting up like a tuning fork with the spacing of the slats. I'm thinking about welding some angle iron onto the front of the slats to give it a little better wind profile. other than that I can't find anything wrong with it so I'm going to keep driving and see what happens.

So the box van needs new springs in a big way. Apparently these are original 3600 pound springs in the back. I can order an HD set that's 4600 pounds, which will add quite a bit of carrying capacity. And that's how you spend another $900 dollars. So not doing that yet, but I'll need to before I do a long trip with the race car.

And it started raining here. Never had an issue until I parked the box van on a slight downhill. Started raining in between the cab and box at the seam. If I park it uphill, no problems! So I'm trying to find a proper sealant to seal that up. It looks like it has old basic silicone on it, but I checked around online and there are quite a few different options for RVs, etc. Need to go see if the roof butts up to steel or fiberglass or composite covered wood. Not quite sure on the front edge.

Got some 3m 5200 marine adhesive sealant for the box van cab. Should work well.

So the marine sealant takes 48 hours to set, and seven days to cure. So I'm going to do it after I unload the race car and won't need it for a week.

Today I went shooting with the new Taurus, it's not too bad. Already ordered a shorter pull trigger for it. It's way too long. Shoots reasonably well, better than I expected for such a cheap gun.

Anyway, on the topic of storing valuables while racing I ordered a cheap safe off Amazon and just got that hooked up. Has key backup also. Should work nicely for pistol/wallet, etc.

I also got just about all the screws out from between the bulkhead top and the wall. I know how they lost so many screws but it's got to be a year or two is worth of throwing screws in the top shelf and having them bounce around and wedge in. I also secure this bulkhead so it doesn't move so damn much which will be a welcome idea. Trying to get as many rattles out of this as possible.