Dusk (2000 Trans AM) build thread

[DRYSUMP]

Very glad to see another f-body being saved, sounded like it was heading down a dark road, nice job!

[Atrus]

Nice! Please keep us updated on your LED projects. I'm still slowly tinkering away with them on mine...I am thinking I'll make some good progress this weekend.

[Akodo]

Got the new dome and map lights installed. All I can say is wow, they sure change it ALOT. I've been making these for awhile now, but its a little different when you actually see them in YOUR car. Here are the before pics. A really funky warm white, very dim.
old front.jpgold rear.jpg

After, we have a nice clean 4k white, much brighter, while not being burn out your retina bright.
new front.jpgnew rear.jpg

Not bad for being hand made components. Heh heh heh.

[Fox Slaughter]

Wow thats a killer improvement.

[BP_Z28]

Damn, thats awesome lighting!

[Akodo]

Picked up some parts from Nick to fix the door panels, and repaired the passenger side mirror. Should have the passenger side door panel rebuilt before this weekend, going to take some paint, a light pipe, several LED's, and some imagination. Stay tuned...

[Akodo]

Making progress on the door panels. Got the donor panel stripped down, started redoing the lights. Here is the replacement light for the door handle and window switches:
door pull.jpg
Obviously, that is not the right door switch. Just something I had lying around the lab to show the light. All of the interior lighting will be this Deep Blue.

Here is the door pocket. I may add a few more LED's to smooth out the hot spots, I will have to see how it looks once I put it back into the door panel. I am also toying with the idea of illuminating the speaker grills on the end.
pocket light.jpg
Should have this door panel back together this weekend, then I can start trying to get out the vents to back light them. Anyone have any suggestions on getting them out in one piece?

[Atrus]

I am really interested to see your light pipe. I am thinking I'd like to do something along the seam that runs in the Camaro door panel, from front to back, under the armrest.

[Akodo]

Made some good progress today. Bought a new fender for it on Friday, spent the morning removing the shards of the old one, and installing the new one. The worst of the dents in the nose straightemned out, but all of the support are a bit twisted. Need to find replacements for them.

Here is the car before I started:
start.jpg

I peeled the old fender off, and lurking in the front corner of the nose, I found a stowaway! 1/2 inch wrench, a little rusty, but still usable.
stowaway.jpg

After getting the old shards out, I removed the support brackets. All three of them are bent, but none as bad as this one. I managed to use the other two to install the new fender, but once I find replacements, I will remove them and do it right.
bent bracket.jpg

After pushing out the worst of the dimples in the nose, I managed to get it ALMOST back into place. I had to drill a few holes in the fender since the donor car was a Firebird, and it sticks out a hair along the back edge. I will adjust it better when I pull it back off to fix the brackets.
front.jpgside.jpg

I also located the correct paint for the door panels, and painted the passenger side one. I will reassemble it tomorrow, and install the extra lighting. Unfortunately, the shape and styling of the door pull means I can't do the light pipe the way I wanted to. There is no angle to cut the channel, and the "grip" part would make it impossible to lay it flat. For now, I'm going to just re-install it unmodified.

After that, I will make an appointment to have the plugged catalytic converter replaced, and start work on the footwell and center console lighting.

I'm not sure what approach I'm going to take for the radio. On the one hand, I would love to install a double din touchscreen, but I want to keep the steering wheel control functions. So I need to do some research on that to see if there is a radio that will meet my needs. Been a LONG time since I looked at an aftermarker stereo.

[93formulalt1]

Get some pics up after work, I want to see what it looks like pieced back together in the daylight!

For anyone who's confused, Mike stopped by tonight with the car, I had taken his badly damaged passenger headlight lid/cover the day he bought the car, and we started straightening it out. Hopefully he has pics of it before, because we had to remove it simply to allow the headlight to raise/lower as it should. It looks much better now, still not 100%, but surely much closer than it was before. We will begin working on the bumper as soon as the weather is warm enough to allow for it, and hopefully he will have some major progress to show off at the Meet & Greet.

[Akodo]

Yeah, I think I have a pic of the damaged "eyelid" I can throw up. I'll snap a pic of the car once the sun is up.

[Atrus]

Looks a lot better already!

[Akodo]

Completed the re-assembly of the door panel, and installed the new map pocket lighting. Need to do some more wiring to the back of it, and add a little resistance since my car runs at 13.2 volts. The camera doesn't do it justice, in person the light is MUCH deeper blue, almost purple.
20130311_133030.jpg

[Akodo]

Finished installing the passenger side door panel. I think I will need to do some adjusting to it, but it doesn't look half bad as it is! I'm running 4 APT Plus LED's on the map pocket at about 50mA, and a single for the down light at the same. I think I will cut the map pocket lights to 20mA, and increase the number to 8 to cut down on the hot spots, and give it a more even glow. I need to offset the downlight a bit and drop it to about 25mA.
day side.jpg
In the daylight, looks VERY purple. The tan shows the color up great, just need to drop the intensity a bit and re-position the top LED.

night side.jpg
At night, the hot spots become MUCH more visible. And the upper light is like a little star. Luckily, I can drop the output on that one without removing the door panel. Adding four more lower lights for the map pocket is a little trickier, but I think I can squeeze them in and wire them up without removing the panel either. Though I might need to make the hole a little wider to slip the resistor in. Or I can just strap it up in the very back. We will see.
I should be able to work the mods out for that tomorrow, then I will move on to the glove box and the center console, as well as some foot well lighting for the driver and passenger side.
repaied eyelid.jpg
As requested, a pic of the car as it sits now, with the repaired eyelid mounted. A little more body work and a paint job, you would never know it was wrecked.


I also want to look into re-wiring the headlight switch so that turning the running lights on doesn't raise the headlights anymore. I want to show it with the interior lighting on but the headlights down for aesthetics.

[MikeM]

I also want to look into re-wiring the headlight switch so that turning the running lights on doesn't raise the headlights anymore. I want to show it with the interior lighting on but the headlights down for aesthetics.

I thought on my car, when you turn the headlight switch from "off" to "parking lights", the interior lights, dash, tail lamps, & foglamps come on without the headlights raising up . . . is this not the case on your car?

If you go the other way, from "headlights" to "parking lights", then the lights turn off but stay up . . . no?