General rant
Thread Starter
Safety Car
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 3,544
Likes: 448
From: Central Pennsylvania
General rant
:rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant: :rant:
Had my entire dash, center shifter & e-brake console, as well as steering column out my car to install power brakes, factory alarm, and factory am/fm stereo. Hey, I knew what I was in for, since I've had most of this stuff out before (but never all at the same time). But here's my gripe..............these interiors are really nice looking when they're assembled correctly and when good parts are used. But man! Whoever designed these parts and the way the mount to the chasis must have been on some SERIOUS hallucinogenics! What a cluster $%*# all those vacuum hoses and wires are behind the dash sections. And working with 33 year old plastic requires a delicate touch, something I typically don't have. :D
I'm just about finished reinstalling everything, but damn! I just have to stand back and look at this thing in amazment.
I still love it though! :D
[Modified by ettev, 3:10 PM 11/8/2003]
Had my entire dash, center shifter & e-brake console, as well as steering column out my car to install power brakes, factory alarm, and factory am/fm stereo. Hey, I knew what I was in for, since I've had most of this stuff out before (but never all at the same time). But here's my gripe..............these interiors are really nice looking when they're assembled correctly and when good parts are used. But man! Whoever designed these parts and the way the mount to the chasis must have been on some SERIOUS hallucinogenics! What a cluster $%*# all those vacuum hoses and wires are behind the dash sections. And working with 33 year old plastic requires a delicate touch, something I typically don't have. :D
I'm just about finished reinstalling everything, but damn! I just have to stand back and look at this thing in amazment.
I still love it though! :D
[Modified by ettev, 3:10 PM 11/8/2003]
Safety Car
Joined: Nov 1999
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From: Paducah KY
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St. Jude Donor '03
Re: General rant (ettev)
Considering the fact that they were assembled during the same time as all the hippy vans, etc. I think they did a pretty good job. Just be thankful they were built in St Louis and not in San Francisco. They would have all had peace signs on the outside and a million match stubs in the **** carpeted floor board. :lolg:
I know where you are coming from, I've been wrestling my instrument panel and center console all afternoon.
Dave
I know where you are coming from, I've been wrestling my instrument panel and center console all afternoon.
Dave
Team Owner
Joined: Jul 1999
Posts: 65,492
Likes: 230
From: Orange Park Florida
Re: General rant (ettev)
Well, about 2 years ago or so, I had my car entirely apart, and so I put the entire system on a rewiring diet.....engine and interior.....and guess what?? I recovered enough government wiring to make a trade for the computer DPFI harness....I removed about 1/2 a drywall bucket worth of wire outta that thing...allmost enough to do another car.....all sorts of silly things I found in that harness, but the one that sticks out the most is the flasher on the passenger side, two heavy wires run 5' to the right and the flasher on a clip over there, not that flasher weighs about an ounce, soaking wet....so cut the wires back on the driver's side, and let it hang from the harness, which was completely rerouted and taken off the top of the cluster.....
another thing, the cluster lights, instead of having 8 gray wire bulbs for general lighting, hanging there, I installed them all, cut the leads back to a central point, and ran just ONE wire to the harness with a plug on it, for the others, also....the grounds I left the configeration alone.....same thing on the cneter instrumentation console.....I eliminated the P/window relay setup they had entirely, never used it in the first place...my windows work ALL the time...
much more convenient...the list goes on and on,.....
GENE
another thing, the cluster lights, instead of having 8 gray wire bulbs for general lighting, hanging there, I installed them all, cut the leads back to a central point, and ran just ONE wire to the harness with a plug on it, for the others, also....the grounds I left the configeration alone.....same thing on the cneter instrumentation console.....I eliminated the P/window relay setup they had entirely, never used it in the first place...my windows work ALL the time...
much more convenient...the list goes on and on,.....
GENE
Thread Starter
Safety Car
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 3,544
Likes: 448
From: Central Pennsylvania
Re: General rant (mrvette)
Sounds like some good improvements you've made there, Gene. Each time I'm just happ getting the original stuff back in the right places and working properly! :lol:
Melting Slicks
Joined: Dec 1999
Posts: 2,157
Likes: 0
From: Pensacola FLA
Re: General rant (ettev)
I recently replaced a broken brake pedal return spring. I had to remove everthing on the driverside dash. I spent 1/2 a day unbolting everything. Once I got the brake pedal assembly out it took 5 minutes to replace the spring and then another half of day bolting everthing back together. :smash:
Drifting
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 1,325
Likes: 6
From: FRANKLIN GA
Re: General rant (ettev)
I feel your pain :sad:
Had mine completly out to fix defroster, felt like doing this :smash:
I guess patience is a virtue when working on a vette, I'm just not very virtueos :D
Had mine completly out to fix defroster, felt like doing this :smash:
I guess patience is a virtue when working on a vette, I'm just not very virtueos :D
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Verdad Gallardo
Team Owner
Joined: Jul 1999
Posts: 65,492
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From: Orange Park Florida
Re: General rant (ettev)
ettev, well after fighting that dash for a bunch of times through the years, I finally got schmardt and decided to redo the damn thing to something approaching common sense....
Look, I have done design/prototype/ready-to-production product development, been throug the entire cycle more than once with a small company with just 3-5 engineers, 2-3 design techs, like me, and so forth....
it is absolutely amazing the amount of sheer documentation necessary to keep on the same track...and old drawings, keep turning up and constatantly being referred to in a pinch, it was a mess....plus I remember one of the design engineers was a terrible drunk, making the mess even worse...they finally fired his axx over that, but it took about 3 years....in a company only 80 people count, that's a LONG time far as I"m concerned.....
so in an operation with , lest we forget 40 years ago, vacuum tube era....I"m surprised they did as well as they did,.....BUT that does not mean there wasn't room from improvement over the decades....so I just rolled my own version of what I think the car could be today, and that's just one aspect of it, and by NO means ever would I consider it a final version....
GENE
Look, I have done design/prototype/ready-to-production product development, been throug the entire cycle more than once with a small company with just 3-5 engineers, 2-3 design techs, like me, and so forth....
it is absolutely amazing the amount of sheer documentation necessary to keep on the same track...and old drawings, keep turning up and constatantly being referred to in a pinch, it was a mess....plus I remember one of the design engineers was a terrible drunk, making the mess even worse...they finally fired his axx over that, but it took about 3 years....in a company only 80 people count, that's a LONG time far as I"m concerned.....
so in an operation with , lest we forget 40 years ago, vacuum tube era....I"m surprised they did as well as they did,.....BUT that does not mean there wasn't room from improvement over the decades....so I just rolled my own version of what I think the car could be today, and that's just one aspect of it, and by NO means ever would I consider it a final version....
GENE
Le Mans Master
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 5,714
Likes: 6
From: Silver City NM
St. Jude Donor '05-'07
Re: General rant (ettev)
ettev: LOL...see my sig line. I just removed 5 pounds of vacuum hose and enough copper wire to put up new gutters! I'm about to yank the seat out to connect the dang linkage pin for the master/power booster. I swear they hired elves to work on Vettes. No way humans can work on them confortably!
Dep
Dep
Thread Starter
Safety Car
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 3,544
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From: Central Pennsylvania
Re: General rant (Dep)
I swear they hired elves to work on Vettes. No way humans can work on them confortably!
I would love to be able to go back in time to see these production lines at work! It's amazing that they were able to build as many of these things as they did considering all the "goodies" that are in them. Bit, I guess it must have been pretty easy if it wass sequenced correctly.