92 Firebird

[WildBillyT]

Yeah, that's the place I was looking at. Wasn't sure if their stuff was good quality or not.

[sweetbmxrider]

I only use them, never had a problem. They offer can-bus specific bulbs that I used in my jeep, work perfectly.

[Blackbirdws6]

Forgot to mention this in my last post but the lights look good!

[PolarBear]

I only got about half the LED conversion in the cluster converted, the adhesive took longer to dry than I thought so I'll have to finish next weekend and I want to try swapping out the oil pressure gauge with one from a V8 car since the V6 car didn't have many hash marks on it and no numbers.

I also fixed the turn signal, I would have to pull the stalk back like I was putting the headlights to turn on the RH signal. I was constantly flashing people at night with the lights on, lol.
Turns out the car is more molested than I thought. Someone cross threaded the holes for the steering wheel removal bolts, I'll have to get some thread repair inserts and fix that. Also the hole for the lever arm for the turn signal stalk is slightly stripped out so the lever was loose and that is why I had to pull back when I wanted to do RH signal. Also the nub where the horn button wire goes in the turn signal cancelling cam is broken, so I have a few parts to buy and take it all apart again.

[PolarBear]

OK, here is a picture of the speedo and tach, the speedo only has a regular 194 replacement 5 LED on the LH side, the tach has the LED halo and a 9 LED 194 replacement bulb lighting the needle through the plastic optic. I haven't put in the PWM dimmer yet for the halo. The picture is a bit over exposed though, but I am not entirely happy with the halo, I may put in a second ring that is smaller than the 100mm to light up the numbers. I'll have to see how it is once I get the dimmer wired and see how the light is after that



Here is the tach and the second cluster, tach has the orange scraped off the needle and white painted instead, the others have the orange needles still. For the Volt and fuel gauge I cut the 60mm halo into sections so it fit a little better behind the sections of the hash marks.



Here is a comparison against the stock orange



I am going to have to figure out how to light up the needles better. I think I am going to wind up gluing small sections of one of the halos on the plastic optics and those will be full bright all the time so they light the needles up better.

I also got the orange filter off the lighting for the headlight switch and dimmer. I was able to open it and I will be able to get a couple small LED's in there to replace the orange glow of the incandescent bulb.

[sweetbmxrider]

Very nice.

[BigAls87Z28]

I like the placement of the sat. antenna.

[PolarBear]

Originally Posted by BigAls87Z28

I like the placement of the sat. antenna.

I didn't want to have to look at it from inside and I think the installs out the back of the car look bad. The other alternative was an OEM style like my Solstice had, but I didn't want to drill a hole in the car roof

[PolarBear]

Ordered up an Advanced Keys smart entry system for the car. I have been wanting a keyless entry system for the car and the VATS is giving me a little bit of a problem lately. I will do a resistor mod bypass on the VATS once I get the Advance Keys system in there and working.

I also want to use the unlock to trigger a timed circuit to light up an LED strip under the door handle. It will turn on with the auto unlock of the system and stay lit for ~15-20 seconds so it doesn't stay on continuously after a unlock signal.

Also on the list will likely be a detent roller replacement and maybe a set of the greasable hinges for the car. I sprayed the hinge earlier in the fall/winter but it is not rolling now.

[sweetbmxrider]

Are you going with a push start as well? I really wanted to do it in my car but was fearful of the quality and support if an issue arose.

[PolarBear]

As much as I kind of like the idea of push button start, I also feel like it is something that could go wrong. I will put a bypass switch in the car so if this fails I can start the car anyway without it, but I think with the push button that would be more of a problem. Also I still have the ignition switch to deal with, I'm not sure what I would do about eliminating that with the push button.

I want it, but it's another ~$190. I can add it later if I really want.

[sweetbmxrider]

Yeah, I had similar thoughts and concerns as well. I've seen guys put caps where the cylinder would go but it doesn't look 100% good ya know. You could wire something in parallel to it so either could be used? But ya, down the road it can be added in.

[PolarBear]

You have to connect a lot more wires to make the push button start work because it controls all the circuits in the car. It has Ignition 1 and 2 and Accessory control circuits so essentially you have to remove the ignition switch completely. If I could figure out a way to mount the push button IN the steering column in place of the lock cylinder I would consider it a little more, but that is all a fairly major job IMO. I am really just looking for keyless entry, lol But now you have me thinking about doing the push button more. The push button is a pretty cool system though, it actually learns the engine tach to know when the car has started and is running. Along with the push button it natively does remote start, and it won't shut the vehicle off when you open the doors.


Maybe I'll do that later in the season now, haha

While I have the dash apart again I have to move the microphone to somewhere on the A pillar I think. Anyone have any input of where the best location for the microphone is?

I had it mounted on the dash, but everyone said it was hard to hear me when I would talk. I think that the exhaust noise is part of the problem, I really need to do some major sound proofing in the car this year.

[sweetbmxrider]

All of the wiring could be done in parallel to a separate switch for ignition and momentary start.

I like the bluetooth mics to be high. Anywhere in the headliner area from the a pillar to the rearview mirror. You should temporarily move it there and make some calls, see what location works best

[PolarBear]

Originally Posted by sweetbmxrider

All of the wiring could be done in parallel to a separate switch for ignition and momentary start.

Yeah, it's just that the wires from the ignition switch are pretty beefy connections so wiring something in parallel isn't that easy. You may be onto something here. I'll look at some wiring from old cars and see if I can figure out making mating connectors so there would be no cutting necessary. I really wouldn't want to be stuck with a bunch of the ignition circuits to be cut or spliced to make this work.

[sweetbmxrider]

I hear ya. Its definitely doable, but like you are saying doing it neatly and in a way to prevent getting stuck. Could always make some sort of jumper connector to go to the push button connector that connects the ignition on and then have a hidden momentary or what have you for starter engagement.

[Artful Dodger]

Nice! Have fun just driving it!!!

[PolarBear]

Originally Posted by Artful Dodger

Nice! Have fun just driving it!!!

It's my daily right now and I am tired of not having keyless entry. I do small upgrades periodically.

[BonzoHansen]

Originally Posted by PolarBear

It's my daily right now and I am tired of not having keyless entry. I do small upgrades periodically.

lol because turning a key is so laborious ha ha.

[PolarBear]

Originally Posted by BonzoHansen

lol because turning a key is so laborious ha ha.

It is when the lock is frozen. and I won't have to carry keys with this system

[PolarBear]

Originally Posted by sweetbmxrider

I hear ya. Its definitely doable, but like you are saying doing it neatly and in a way to prevent getting stuck. Could always make some sort of jumper connector to go to the push button connector that connects the ignition on and then have a hidden momentary or what have you for starter engagement.

OK, I think I have it figured out so I can do it without cutting anything. I would use a couple contactors instead of relay's under the dash since all the circuits have fuse totals over what standard relays usually do. Then I can use some Series 56 spade connectors to plug into the ignition switch connectors with some 10 gauge wire. That way if the unit craps out the ignition switch is still there.

I may buy the push button after I get the keyless system installed now.

[sweetbmxrider]

Awww yeah!

[PolarBear]

I got my alarm installed today. I forgot what a pain it is to take the rear panels apart so it took a lot longer than I expected. Also I had to put some relays in to activate the lock/unlock function since GM uses + to engage the locks and this system uses - , I needed the relay to "invert" the signal. Well that wasn't working, Turns out I found an error in the Helm manual. There are some power taps on the back of the fuse panel, I wanted to use them so the wires wouldn't be in the way if I needed to swing the block down. Turns out one of the taps that is labeled BAT is actually IGN. Took a while to realize.

Otherwise this is cool. Just walk up to the car with key in pocket and the doors unlock, walk away and re-lock.

Next weekend should bring the completion of my gauge cluster lighting. The oil and water gauge isn't lit up, something must have gotten disconnected when I put it back together and the dimmer isn't working. I bought some white LED's to help distribute lighting a little more evenly for the numbers since the blue only really light up the hash marks.

[PolarBear]

The car rolled over 100,000 miles on Sunday

[greenformula92]

Been a while on this bear. Any updates?