310 Encore Build (Colorado)

[hahuang65]

@chrisp993 your blog is very thorough and clean. Well done!

 

I took a video time-lapse blog but the downside there is that there are no up-close video of what I did. To complement that, I just took hand-written notes in a notebook that I'm holding onto forever lol. I'd love to convert that to a blog one day, but as time passes, my recollection of what my notes mean are fading more and more. At the time, given I only had 2 or 3 hours to work every night after the kids went to bed... I just wanted to get the build done and documented JUST enough.

 

Anyways, looking at your pic, I'm realizing that if I wanted to get off the pods, I'd likely have to pull the entire length of wires out of the chassis to remove the pods... re-threading those through the tubing and the chassis will be quite a pain. Not sure if I want to do that.

 

Yeah, I found the spec on the pins but couldn't find anywhere to purchase them without buying 6000 of them. Thank you for the offer to send over some, but your link to Corsa is great. I'll just order a batch myself. Thanks again for being so generous.

 

As far as blacking out those nuts... you could use a Sharpie for now... but given your thoroughness with the blog and build so far... maybe get the same spec nuts, and get them powdercoated, even cerakoted lol... and replace.

 

I think overall I like the look without the pods from afar.... but looking close-up...the headlights look weirdly stood up and strangely tall. I'm un-sure if I'll commit to removing the pods, probably will be an in-the-moment decision when I re-pin the headlight.

[jmaz]

3 hours ago, chrisp993 said:

I also just completed the headlight wiring for my build - long blog post here - but the short version is that I ditched the indicator pods and went with aftermarket LEDs (integrated turn signals) and just took all the wiring through to the engine bay where I crimped on pins to match the factory wiring.

I wasn't aware that you've got a new blog going.  You're doing a very nice job with it!  The option of leaving off the indicator pods entirely hadn't occurred to me.  It's definitely something to consider.

[chrisp993]

Thanks for the complement - like the car, the blog is a work in progress! Hopefully it's a resource for others as I've really leaned on blogs for help. And a record for me as my memory fades!

 

FWIW, tightly bundled in heat shrink - and crucially, without pins - the 5 wires from the headlight were no problem to push through the bracket. I did slide the grommets off and spray silicone lube but I wouldn't worry about doing it again. For me the PITA and most time spend would be the need to replace the pins. OTOH if you didn't want to replace the pins, then the wires would be trickier to to be fed back and I'm guessing could only go through the bracket one at a time? That would also limit heat shrink to just the headlight end, not the full length?

 

Regarding the look ... I don't think I'll really know if it looks weird until I put the nosecone, hood and front wings on. I'll try and remember to report back when I get to that point. 

[jmaz]

47 minutes ago, chrisp993 said:

Thanks for the complement - like the car, the blog is a work in progress! Hopefully it's a resource for others as I've really leaned on blogs for help. And a record for me as my memory fades!

 

FWIW, tightly bundled in heat shrink - and crucially, without pins - the 5 wires from the headlight were no problem to push through the bracket. 

Yep, your blog's definitely a help.  The level of detail (including obscure stuff such as the part numbers for the Econoseal pins) is spot-on, and there aren't many blogs on LHD cars.   

 

I also found that the 5 wires wrapped in flexible, tight heat shrink to be pretty easy to get through the bracket.  Shouldn't be hard to re-do if desired.

[chrisp993]

Quick experiment with some black self-fusing silicone tape .... seems like a clean black out solution? And I know from past usage, this stuff is completely weatherproof.

[hahuang65]

Yeah you're right about the difficulty of threading the wires with vs without the pins. I did it with the pins as that's how it came already from the factory.

 

If I have the wire length, then cutting off and recrimping the pins should not be a big deal. 

 

I'll see how it is when the pins come in and I fix my loose one.. if they work well with my crimper I might just redo it. I should probably heatshrink the wires too (I didn't previously).

[chrisp993]

8 minutes ago, hahuang65 said:

If I have the wire length, then cutting off and recrimping the pins should not be a big deal.

 

Done properly you only need a tiny section of wire, enough for the forward crimp on the pin, so cutting and re-pinning should only lose ⅓"  or so of the wire. In the picture you only need the wire between the green lines ... the section I've crossed out is surplus (my sloppy work, too much bare wire on all the pins!) and in fact occupies the space that the connector's internal catch needs to click into in order to retain the pin.

[jmaz]

A good thing to keep in mind is that on most types of pins, the rear "wings" on the pin are intended to grip the wire insulation and serve to anchor the pin, while the front wings should grip just bare wire.  This helps when looking at how much insulation you want to strip off, and how you want to position the wire in the pin when the pin's being held by the crimping tool.

 

[chrisp993]

1 hour ago, jmaz said:

A good thing to keep in mind is that on most types of pins, the rear "wings" on the pin are intended to grip the wire insulation and serve to anchor the pin, while the front wings should grip just bare wire.  This helps when looking at how much insulation you want to strip off, and how you want to position the wire in the pin when the pin's being held by the crimping tool.

 

 

On the Econoseal pins it's a bit different - and I got it wrong! I was doing a little digging into pins and seals - specifically why I had grey seals vs. stock yellow and whether this made a difference - quick answer on that is that colors do correspond to wire sizes, but they aren't that consistent and the important thing is to choose a seal that is "snug" on the wire. But in going down this rabbit hole, I found that on Econoseal, the rear wings are actually meant to grip the seal and not just the wire insulation. This is shown in BigCol's excellent post on Fitting Econoseal Connectors - scroll down for the picture and you'll see what I mean. I think my connectors are OK, but pinning them in the proper way ensures the seal gets pulled into and really plugs the connector. And now, my OCD exists in this world where my connector seals are not quite 100% 

Edited Thursday at 01:05 AM by chrisp993