Still slowly getting there...

Friday I made up the BEM bracket to mount it sort of where the smartlock module lives in the ED... Mounted it with the grills down to try and stop dust penetrating it and causing possible issues... That's the way the smartlock module in the ED and this BEM in the AU were mounted...

Sunday I re-wired the headlight switch, clock, demister button, and heater/aircon to suit the ED... I have changed the functionality to the same as AU... Those with an ED know that if you have the fan off and turn the AC button on then the fan will kick into low speed... The AU, if you press the A/C button then nothing happens, if you turn the fan on then the AC is allowed to kick into gear... Meaning you can leave the AC button on and just turn the fan off... This was always my preferred way of it working so I have now adopted that...

The headlight switch had me baffled... I alwasy thought the resistor to make the lights dim was in the switch... And the drawings of it leave a lot to be desired... This isn't so... When on dim it grounds one wire, when on high it grounds another... The dim wire then has about 2 foot or resistance wire hidden in the middle of the harness giving it about 4ohms... After this resistance wire it joins back into the bright wire which is the blue/red trace that goes to everything that illuminates and dims... Was nearly going to change the resistance to work with the LED illumination I use but ended up not worrying as I have never had the need to dim it, quite happy with the way the LED's are at full...

I reinforced the fuse box with a piece of 6mm reobar that was floating around here... Just because the factory bracket is a bit flimsy and I felt it couldn't hurt to steady it up a bit... Turned out pretty good and is rock solid now...

Today I added in the footwell courtesy illumination... spliced into the interior light wiring... I've borrowed a heap of the airbag wiring to help get things like this courtesy illumination around the dash... The airbag stuff is now well and truly disabled, has been handy to have it in there but...

I also adopted the AU vacuum canister which lives down inside the round piece of pipe that runs along behind the AU dash... I have to bring wiring through where the vacuum ball is on the ED so it'll no doubt be in the road... I put it up above the glove box and cable tied it in place...

Run into A?C duct issues now, the driver side duct hits the wiring above the fuse box, it expects the wiring to be run along the top, but the AU wiring does not allow for this, so a heatgun will fix the problem part of the duct work... I'll try with the NL cluster first and make sure it's reduced size doesn't fix the problem for me first, trouble is I need the bracket that holds it in my car so putting off needing to pull it out...

I used the AU dash buttons (fuel, doors locks, boot)... I had to grind the top, bottom and sizes down a bit to fit in the ED bezel, but they look soooo much better than the yellow ED ones... plus all press instead of rock side to side like the ED ones did... Suits the door locks too, where ED you rocked one way for lock and the other for unlock, the AU just needs it to actuate one way... And I don't have to change any plugs... All just plugs in...

Added in a 3 pin narva plug near the radio plug so I can just plug my PAC straight in for the radio button control... Makes it really really easy...

Pretty sure that's it for now...

What I need, is someone wrecking an AU? I need the heaterbox wiring loom and what it looks like? I am hoping to avoid cutting the UA plug off the dash loom and just use the AU heaterbox loom pretty sure the AU heaterbox is identical? If someone can assist here i'd greatly appreciate it...

Cheers,
Tim

Forgot the photos...

Dodgy phone photos still...

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Cheers,
Tim

Ah the memories.

Keep at it mate.

Looking great.

Cheers
BenJ

Haha

Thanks Ben... Still a s**t easier than what you went through...

Pretty much everything reaches and works in a similar fashion... It's only been a matter of mostly plug changes... The NL cluster was cause for most of the major changes... A cluster without door ajar would have been loads easier to wire in...

Few teething issues like where I'm going to mount the plug for the computer loom on the passenger side... Gotta sit the NL cluster into it and suss out the driver side duct work... And then trial fit the dash back into the EB test car... Start on mounting the AU fuse box and re-jig the battery mounts... Can see that being a nightmare... Putting it off thus far... So happy I didn't have to run an EF computer to get data but... Running out of room behind the dash...

Cheers,
Tim

Chipping away...

The dash is done... Taped up... Added in every I need for the ED including reverse wire and amp signal wires into the looms for the head unit... The red/green "on" wire down to the boot for my dual battery solenoid... Driver and passenger courtsey illumination has been added to to the dash... Mounted the OBDII plug in the fuse compartment instead of under the dash... Handbrake wire has been reconfigured... It has been hooked up and powered on and everything works... illumination, indicators, door entry for both driver and all passenger doors, door ajar for the NL cluster, I left fuel flap ajar out, boot ajar works and was already run into the body loom, I just had to do the dash loom side...

One thing I found, dash boot button on the AU will not work it if you don't have the orange loom plugged in behind the dash... The earthing star point is in that loom for that feature... Also gives an earth to the OBDII plug... Seems weird but that's a catch... Hooked up my master door lock (of the aftermarket variety) and programmed my new AUII remotes... All functions as it should... Very happy so far... The AU buttons in the dash look so much better than the ED buttons too, something small but huge improvement...

The driver side air con duct ended up being THE LARGEST PAIN IN THE a**!!!!!! Finally made it fit, ended up having to stretch it and put holes in it doing so, I'll fill them up this week but it now fits, sits good, clears the low slung wiring clips onto the vents properly... So happy with it...

Worked on the body loom today... Marked out my power window wires at the tunel... Devised a plan... Just waiting for my two BA looms to come to cut the plugs off and then splice into the AU loom... I run in all the other required wiring including my amp signal, on wire for the battery solenoid, two lengths of suitable cable for the amp and the reversing camera, and the wire for the door buttons to turn the interior light on... The reverse wire needed to be run up the boot wiring too for the ED...

I noticed that not all AU's feature the engine coolant light sensor plug in the engine bay? Both AU II looms I have don't have that plug... it is in the AUII XR dash loom, but stops where it runs into the engine bay harness... Ford need to save that money for that one length of wire apparently... All ED's (even the GLi) came with it, but not on AU's apparently... I'm going to borrow one of the ABS wires that runs up to the dash loom and stops there for the job, move it to the right pin in the plug and attach the coolant sensor plug from an E series... Bit slack on Ford's part I feel... Something should have been mandatory...

Mounted the relay block in the EB spare parts car... about an inch and half needs to be removed from the left hand side of the panel that sticks up behind the battery... This is enough to get the wiring though the inner mudguard and then feed the relay block down into position as well... The block mounts on the same flat section of the tower as the EF/EL block does, the lower mount I can probably make something up for too... and the front mount missed the support panel by maybe an inch and a half... So I'll fab up a simple bracket for it too...

The wiring runs spot on through the inner mudgaurd cavity... Even the plastic barb on the wiring lines up with a factory hole... It is obvious where the hole needs to be for the large rubber grommet to get the wiring inside the car as well... So just need to make an appropriately sized hole for it and in the inner mudguard to pass the wiring through...

The wiring will run up under the radiator support panel no worries and there is hole either side of the radiator in which the existing wiring passes through the metal work... Not big enough for the AU plug that goes near the airbox, I have a 40mm knockout punch and it then made it perfect to get the required wiring through... Will clip under the edge and look as factory as... Good length on everything there too... Even the horns should reach I think, if not that wont take long to fix...

I've made one front and one rear door lock to try... They work fine and as you'd expect... Rather simple too... The actuators I got have damn near the same hole spacing between the two mounting holes as the ED actuators have between theirs... Even has the same oftset... So All I had to do was use ED brackets and drill out the holes to pass an M4 bolt through and put nylock nuts on... Only downside is these then protude 15mm further than the ED ones... On the drivers door I'll drill the two 6mm holes 15mm lower, and the rear door I didn't get the luxury so I had to mount the actuator lower on the bracket... One bolt was going to miss then so I also moved it in 5mm to make up for it, and then straightened out the rod a touch to make up for the 5mm I moved it in... Works good... Once I've made up the other two I'll get photos... That should be an after work job I feel...

Once I get it in the car then I can make up the boot wiring to length and that'll sort of be getting to the end of what I can so out of the car... I'll trial fit the dash to the EB, Trial fit the computer loom and make the change to the charcoal canister solenoid plug which is wrong... Still lots to do I guess but most of the hard stuff has been achieved... Makes it easy when I can retain the ED battery tray and box and retainer... Little things like that which don't have to be re-designed make the process easier...

I'd take photos, but there really isn't much to see at present...

Cheers,
Tim

Thinking about getting the engine bay repainted when the motor comes out... The goal one day when I build my shed and have the car properly garaged is to fix the hail dents and repainted it all to give the old girl a new lease on life...

Would be easier to do the engine bay now when the motor is out along with all the wiring and a large stack of other bits and bobs...

Curious on peoples thoughts... I'm going to rip the firewall deadener out and throw it to kingdom come... All cracked and mangey looking after all these years and even later model ones don't seem to hold together... Sooner be done with it...

As such do I go the AU route of a black engine bay, but in flat black, or does that look cheap (which I am thinking it will look like)... Or do I do the whole lot red and have this vibrant stand out firewall behind the motor... Or the way I am thinking of going is the firewall painted flat black and the inner mudguards done in red...

Always wanted Cobalt Blue... But kinda attached to my red Falcon now... Think I'd keep it its original colour... Plus I don't go much on anything that needs a clear coat... Seems like too much effort and they always seem to turn opaque from the sun's awesome rays...

Cheers,
Tim

If you keeping the car red, I would do the bay in a fresh high gloss red

Check out what Reds are available in the LIC40 paint range.
There are heaps of them!
The paint is made by Valspar. It is a 2 pack polyurethane that is 45 microns thick so self levels , fills scratches and doesn't require primer etc. When cured its 4x harder then powdercoating.
Costs about $140 for 4 litres of paint and the activator.

wow!! ... presume there are lots of other colors too yeah?

Yep. You can also play with the pigments etc and come up with some weird stuff.
Ill put some pics up in my thread of what I have been using to save clogging up Tims thread.

Didn't wanna go too wild... I'd have just been happy with a fresh coat of what's on the outside of the car... If I went too good I'd never drive the thing for fear of other knobs on the road...

Le Mans Red isn't it? Or something to that nature... But whatever goes on the outside will be in the bay... Just wondering if doing the colour coded firewall thing like in the XH is too much for most people?

And as mentioned, anything that requires a clear I tend to file in the too hard basket... At least the non metallic colours don't need it...

Decisions decisions...

Cheers,
Tim

Paint the firewall and all.
It will look great and be that little bit different without being obvious.

All the same?

I hate the dodgy looking deadener... Just was worried I'd kill the sexy looking engine with a wildly bright firewall... But that may be the go I'm thinking...

Does that paint you listed need a clearcoat Matt?

Painting cars is far from being my niche so a pro mate will be doing this for me... No idea what they use... Spray painters by trade may have their favourite products they don't like to deviate from? I know I do as a sparky...

Cheers,
Tim

Tim, the engine bay will look fine. My XH is metallic green, but the engine bay looks the same colour, but not metallic - that's factory.
Sprayed a car years ago with aviation exterior paint - Polyurethane is hard as.

That would be a good characteristic for the engine bay, also resistant to solvents would be great - any solvent or thinners will damage acrylic.

The price Matt quotes is cheaper than acrylic on trade price. 2K would be more expensive still.
And the ability to brush paint in the engine bay would be a big advantage.

This has given me ideas too.

Mind you, a good respirator would be the go with painting poly.

Cheers Ray...

Yeah Ok... So you have polyurethane and acrylic? Is that it? Completely new to the painting concept...

On that note... What is the factory paint in the engine bay? acrylic? Or they used something different again...

May go out with fresh eyes from now on andhave a look around for a "pretty" red... Though I am still really attached to my factory red... More I look at my car the more I love it... Wonder how it'd look with a metallic particle in it...

Cheers,
Tim