My winter vette projects
Thread Starter
Melting Slicks
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 2,659
Likes: 7
From: Katy (Houston) TX
CI 7-8 Veteran
My winter vette projects
Some interesting projects I've been up to this winter.....
Shift light and tach:
New Clarion 'music catcher' head unit. This thing can record songs from cd's onto a small built in hard-drive.
I already had some nice Infinity Kappa's in the kick panel and it sounds surprisingly good with just an amp driving the Infinities and a self powered 8" sub.
Amp:
Sub:
....oh yeah, and my engine is still at AR being re-done. Since it's out I've put in some dual Spals and am in the process of wiring them:
And installing the spring that Kid Vette (Mark) so graciously gave me for FREE! Thanks again Mark!!!! Before it gets back on the road I also plan on replacing the old Flow Masters with some DynoMax Bullets. And I'll probably wrap some header wrap around the exhaust pipes where it goes under and near the spring.
What's great is that the majority of this has been free. I already had the tach and shift light, sub, and amp. I got the fans off eBay for $30, only paid shipping for the spring, and I gave a buddy an older head unit and he bought the new Clarion for repayment. If that engine doesn't make it here soon I'm going to actually have to start buying things to do on the car.
If I could only find a TKO 500 for a couple hundred bucks 
Shift light and tach:
New Clarion 'music catcher' head unit. This thing can record songs from cd's onto a small built in hard-drive.
I already had some nice Infinity Kappa's in the kick panel and it sounds surprisingly good with just an amp driving the Infinities and a self powered 8" sub. Amp:
Sub:
....oh yeah, and my engine is still at AR being re-done. Since it's out I've put in some dual Spals and am in the process of wiring them:
And installing the spring that Kid Vette (Mark) so graciously gave me for FREE! Thanks again Mark!!!! Before it gets back on the road I also plan on replacing the old Flow Masters with some DynoMax Bullets. And I'll probably wrap some header wrap around the exhaust pipes where it goes under and near the spring.
What's great is that the majority of this has been free. I already had the tach and shift light, sub, and amp. I got the fans off eBay for $30, only paid shipping for the spring, and I gave a buddy an older head unit and he bought the new Clarion for repayment. If that engine doesn't make it here soon I'm going to actually have to start buying things to do on the car.
If I could only find a TKO 500 for a couple hundred bucks
Last edited by tshort; Feb 25, 2005 at 12:46 AM.
Thread Starter
Melting Slicks
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 2,659
Likes: 7
From: Katy (Houston) TX
CI 7-8 Veteran
Thanks for the comments.
Z-Man: 2 reasons. One, the guys that re-did my exhaust and put in the 2 1/2" pipes with x-pipe really did a horrible job near the rear. Very ugly bends, uneven (one side is fairly straight and the other side has 2 extra bends in it). They were in a hurry to get it done while I was there and before they closed so 2 guys were working on each side and apparently didn't understand the concept of talking to each other to make sure they were doing the same thing. I could have probably bitched and made them redo it properly but by that time I had no confidence in them anyways and figured I'd just eventually get it done again at a good shop. Also, the mufflers are pretty old and I've heard nothing but positive things from the bullets and a lot of negatives about the flow masters. And lastly, I've heard a few vettes with the bullets and they sound dam good!
Jughead: It wasn't too hard. I cut out a flat ring for the tach to sit inside of. The ring has ears so that it can mount to the 3 mounting points. You can see them in the picture. Then I made 3 tabs that also used those same mounting holes and acted as a tang for the ring clamp to hold the tach to the dash. The last thing you can't see in the picture is another tab that connects to the very bottom mounting point to keep the bottom part of the whole tach assembly from pushing backwards.
I found out the hard way that with this particular tach I couldn't mount it completely flush with the ring all the way in. The back hit the support for the steering column. So after 15 minutes of trying to cram the dash back in I finally realized the back of the tach was hitting it and had to loosen the ring and move it forward (toward driver) a bit. Maybe with a shallower tach you wouldn't have to do this. All of it was done with sheet metal, tin snips, and some flat black paint. Pretty easy if you're already comfortable with pulling out the dash. Only thing I'm lacking now is the brake warning light and right turn signal....not too worried.
Z-Man: 2 reasons. One, the guys that re-did my exhaust and put in the 2 1/2" pipes with x-pipe really did a horrible job near the rear. Very ugly bends, uneven (one side is fairly straight and the other side has 2 extra bends in it). They were in a hurry to get it done while I was there and before they closed so 2 guys were working on each side and apparently didn't understand the concept of talking to each other to make sure they were doing the same thing. I could have probably bitched and made them redo it properly but by that time I had no confidence in them anyways and figured I'd just eventually get it done again at a good shop. Also, the mufflers are pretty old and I've heard nothing but positive things from the bullets and a lot of negatives about the flow masters. And lastly, I've heard a few vettes with the bullets and they sound dam good!
Jughead: It wasn't too hard. I cut out a flat ring for the tach to sit inside of. The ring has ears so that it can mount to the 3 mounting points. You can see them in the picture. Then I made 3 tabs that also used those same mounting holes and acted as a tang for the ring clamp to hold the tach to the dash. The last thing you can't see in the picture is another tab that connects to the very bottom mounting point to keep the bottom part of the whole tach assembly from pushing backwards.
I found out the hard way that with this particular tach I couldn't mount it completely flush with the ring all the way in. The back hit the support for the steering column. So after 15 minutes of trying to cram the dash back in I finally realized the back of the tach was hitting it and had to loosen the ring and move it forward (toward driver) a bit. Maybe with a shallower tach you wouldn't have to do this. All of it was done with sheet metal, tin snips, and some flat black paint. Pretty easy if you're already comfortable with pulling out the dash. Only thing I'm lacking now is the brake warning light and right turn signal....not too worried.
