Project StinkBug: Laying Down the Green

It took a while, but I finally was able to learn the name of the light green color for the various dash bits including the instrument cluster, steering wheel and steering column collars. It's called Surf Green. I had thought it was Sea Foam Green, but after buying a spray can of lacquer I realized that SFG is more of a light turquoise. Surf Green is the right mint green for a 1957 Chevrolet.

A 12oz. can will easily do a full complement of dash pieces seen here if they were originally green and you are putting 2-3 light coats of new paint on top of prepped old paint. You can probably make do with one can if you are starting with primed pieces too.

At first I didn't want to repaint the instrument cluster because it had the original paint, but it had a number of chips and issues. I'm very happy with the results though. I also took this opportunity to use a silver chrome paint on the backs of the gauge faces and gauge housings for better gauge lighting.



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Tips and Tricks: Brighter Gauge Lighting

I've had the gauge cluster out of the '66 a number of times over the past few years for various "refurb" projects. I have experimented with new incandescent bulbs with new diffusers, and blue LED lighting in place of the stock incandescent bulbs as well. Recently, while the gauge cluster was out to add an XM module to the Pioneer stereo, I decided to experiment once more.

The gauge cluster itself basically sandwiches the gauges and some oddly-placed light bulbs attempt to light up the gauges at night. But even with new incandescent bulbs and new blue diffusers, the gauges usually appear with a dim, green glow.

Well, the green glow won't change with this method, as I believe this is caused by a yellow incandescent light bulb lit behind a blue diffuser (yellow + blue = green). But the green glow will appear much brighter by repainting the white gauge cluster with a silver metallic paint...

Before: The white background of the gauge cluster wasn't bright
and shiny anymore, so the dash lights were ineffective. 

During: With gauges removed, paint the white areas with silver metallic.
Don't paint the black areas. (Sorry for the blurry photo...)

After: With shiny silver metallic paint and new diffusers, the bulbs
light up the gauges much better.

Here's what I used. You'll need a silver metallic paint
for this task. The more reflective, the better.

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1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3.

I recently bought a set of WebElectric Sequential turn signals (STS-1MSS Pre-wired Harness) for the 2001 Bullitt. I waited a while since there was one aspect of the plug-n-play turn signal kits on the market that I didn't like: the brake lights sequenced once when the brake pedal was pressed. In fact, using the hazard lights caused the turn signals to sequence as well. Luckily for me, WebElectric updated their plug-n-play offerings, and now the kits function as (I think) they should.

Here's the WebElectric kit. It's really a plug-n-play deal. The phone cord connects the two harnesses, and keeps the brake lights and hazards from sequencing at all.

Here's the driver's side harness installed in the tail light housing. The only thing I didn't like was that the rubber grommet (left) is straight in the kit, unlike the 90-degree one from Ford. I taped the wires down when installed.

It's worth noting that I put a small blob of 3M Strip Caulk (every classic car guy has some of this around) at the bottom of each tail light housing assembly post in the photo above (the gold threaded posts) to keep water out of the trunk. Also, all three of the bulbs are illuminated in each housing when the lights are on or the signals are in use. From Ford, only two bulbs on each side are in use. Having additional lighting out back must be a good safety feature too.

Here's a quick video I posted showing the sequential turn signals in action. Perhaps it would be nice if they were a tad slower, but this really doesn't matter much. With LED bulbs installed, they'd probably be pretty cool too.

The Albatross Has (Finally) Dropped From Around My Neck...

Just like Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Ancient Mariner, the albatross hanging from my neck (an inoperable passenger brake light, in my case) has dropped into the ocean and freed me from my life of misery. Ok, it wasn't that bad, but it seemed that way sometimes! :-)

A couple years ago I had noticed that my passenger rear taillight seemed to be not working properly. I didn't think too much of it since I had so much other work to do on the car as I disassembled much of it for paint. I did, however, ask the vendor of the LED sequential taillight kit to replace the passenger side unit. (They did.) I figured it would be fixed when I reassembled everything after paint and that would be that.

Fast forward a couple years. My car is done with paint, and it's pretty much assembled. I replaced just about all of the wiring and switches last year. But the passenger taillight is still dim when the lights are on, and the brake light only works (dimly) when the car is off. When the car is running, the brake light on that side does not work at all. To fix the light, I've wracked my brains and spent stupid money replacing (again) new wiring, taillight housings, the turn signal switch, headlight switch, and even flashers... (I did after all have my share of defective reproduction wiring and switches.)

So today, perhaps out of complete confusion and total despair, I swap in two regular ol' 1157 bulbs, and voila! the passenger tail light and brake light work... I guess I got two bad LED lights in a row for that side? I couldn't get the slick LED backup light bulbs to work either last year, so I stuck with the regular incandescent bulbs there. Just to complete the trifecta of LED aggravation, I removed the LED parking lights on the front of the car (which worked fine!) and went with the 1157s up there too.

So now the only LEDs in the car are in the gauges (which work fine.) And all my lights are operational. I also decided I'm not putting sequential taillights in the '06 like I was considering... Not sure of the moral of the story here—besides having a run of bad luck perhaps—but it's a relief for sure!

Brand New Repro Parts, Part III: Yet More Adventures in Head-Scratching

I've been chasing a passenger rear brake light that's out and just replaced the turn signal switch thinking that might be the issue.

Surprisingly, the new expensive OEM unit I bought was defective. Neither rear light worked after I installed the switch. So I removed it and installed a cheap repro unit I had on hand. So now the switch worked (but the light problem persisted - darn.) In the end it was a complete waste of time.

On eBay I did find a NOS turn signal switch that I bought for $57 (vs. $80 for the OEM one...) I'll install it later when needed. It's been in the box for decades, so I feel funny using it unless I really need it now! (In the photos, the defective OEM unit is on top, and the NOS unit is next to the box.)

[Update: Ok, since I have the patience of a mouse, I already installed the NOS switch—and I feel good about it! Since the turn signal switch is such an integral part of the electrical system on these cars, there's no use running with a cheap one when I can use the best.)

Let There Be (More) Light!

I had purchased a pair of Sylvania H6024ST SilverStar 65-Watt High Performance Halogen Headlights last year when I was reassembling the car. I figured any modern light would be good enough, and the price was about $20 per bulb, so they must be pretty good. Well, they didn't work out for me. I found them to be not bright enough, which might be a result of the white light they emit (rather than the usual yellow).





These might fit the bill for somebody that just wants a white light. I'm assuming that a whiter light requires far more light to illuminate the road. Looking at the lit bulb they seem bright enough, but not driving down the road (for me anyway).





So I bought a pair of Sylvania H6024XV XtraVision 65-Watt High Performance Halogen Headlights from Amazon. These appear brighter to me, so I can see better at night while driving down the road.





In the last photo you can see the yellowish light rather than the white light from the ST's above... And these were $13 each from Amazon.





(The first two photos are the ST's and the last two are the XV's.)




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More Good Deals at Amazon...

I've bought a number of items from Amazon to install on my car over the past couple years. When shipping is free, and there's no tax, certain deals are too good to pass up. 10W-30 Red Line Oil for under $9/quart is a good example. (Other oil weights are even less!)

I found K&N oil filters for $10.85 instead of the nearly $14 plus tax at the local auto parts place.

I also plunked down $13 each for a pair of new Sylvania headlights. I had bought a pair of white Sylvania H6024ST a couple years ago, and frankly they aren't bright enough even with relays, since they are a whiter light. The H6024XV's are supposed to be brighter with a more traditional yellowish light...

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Tach Attack

I had previously purchased some blue LEDs to replace the small instrument cluster light bulbs. They went in easily enough (didn't have to remove the steering wheel or unhook the wires behind the cluster, just the screws holding the assembly to the dash, and the speedo cable), but my aftermarket SunPro tach didn't look right using an incandescent 194 bulb.





I tried a blue 194 bulb, which helped a bit (a green one would look right using stock blue instrument bulbs believe it or not). In the photo you can see a blue LED replacement bulb I bought on eBay for the tach (in the middle). I bought 2 which was good because the first was DOA (if it doesn't work, remember polarity matters, and they install in one direction--so swap it around in the socket).

This photo shows the whole dash lit up with the LEDs including for the tach...






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Is This What They Had in Mind?

The stock dash lights on these old Mustangs appear dim and green. What's odd is that there are 4 of them in the cluster and they are pretty bright on their own, but they don't light up the gauges too well. There's also a blue plastic "diffuser" that each bulb fits under, but still they appear green--even with all new stuff. I think it's because a yellow incandescent bulb and a blue diffuser equals a green light.

Enter the LED... I bought a kit of blue LEDs (and a couple clear ones) for replacing the dashlight bulbs for about $25. I used this opportunity to grease the speedo cable behind the dash too. (Sorry for the poor pic though.)

The clear turn signal bulb sockets were kinda loose and the bulbs were springing out, so I took some pliers and gently squeezed the sockets where they were grooved for the bulbs. This caused the stops on the sides of the bulbs to catch and hold the sockets better...

AC/DC

I bought a new 95 amp 3G alternator, along with a fused power cable and a stock wiring kit with modified voltage regulator, from PA-Performance. This will replace the 65 amp 1G unit on there now, which really can't keep up with the electric fan. Actually the fan only uses 10 amps, but at idle the alternator probably doesn't put out more than 15 amps. Along with the MSD igntion system and the relayed Halogen headlights, I'm getting about 13.1v at idle. The new alternator should put out about 60 amps at idle to maintain 14.5v. Someday, I actually might get around to installing this thing.

Brand New Repro Parts: Adventures in Head-Scratching

After I figured out my brand-new repro fuel sender float had a pinhole in it (after I installed it of course), and then replaced that, I could check out the electrical issue with the front parking lamps, which double as turn signals. To make a long story short, I was given some good advice on the forums that sent me checking the wiring behind the parking lamps. I found that the blue and brown wires were reversed on both brand-new reproduction assemblies. Un-freakin-believable. Oh well, I guess the moral is don't assume a replacement part is not defective out of the box...