BETTY RUMBLE - '87 Cutlass

[GP403]

Er.. Temp sensors. I could run both oil senders but eh. There was only the one. I bet it's the same situation for the coolant temp though.

 

[Rktpwrd]

Crap. My mistake. Saw oil pressure there at one point and got them mixed up. Sorry man!

 

[GP403]

Well, said the heck with the dimmable LED's in the dash because they really didn't make much difference. The ones I put in basically stay on all the time anyway. I need to go brighter, too. Got the dash all buttoned back up. Still waiting on a temp sender but its on order.

Decided, hey I'll do a few other things, while I'm here. So I loosened up the corner piece and fixed this so my OCD could chill.

Then I was like hey lets put the LED backup lights in and see how they look. Bad move.
First off, I start on the passenger side, get the housing off, and the retaining clip for the backup lamp socket breaks off. Not a big deal. Pull out the bulb and put the new LED in. It won't lock. Push a bit more, nothing. Pull it back out, and some genius put some sort of putty or something down inside the socket, I guess to help stick the bulb and keep it from rattling loose, I dunno. The LED wouldn't fit in there, I know for sure because I broke the LED trying to push it down in there. OK, fine, I'll replace the burnt out license plate lamp with an LED. That actually went off without a hitch. Put the housing back on, well, with only one of those goofy nuts, dropped the other down behind the spare tire and didn't feel like fishing it out.

Then I move to the drivers side. Ah cool I have full access to deez nuts. Grab, twist, SNAP. Yup. broke off inside the housing. OK, fine, I'll be extra careful with the 2nd. SNAP. $&!#%!#$% 😡😡😡😡

That same genius (was this original GM practice?) put the same putty in this socket, too. Changed out the tag light here. And got out the duct tape to keep the light from rattling around too much and keep it from falling out (it shouldn't, but with my luck....)

I'll just wait to find new housings until I get the the body/paint stage. It'll work for now.

At least I have working plate lights now. So much win.

Ordered a new metro trunk seal, since I didn't realize just how shot this one is, and a pair of OSHA "caution: area under construction" signs to put in the windows so I hopefully don't get ridiculed too much at the show next weekend. Donations for paint and body accepted. God the paint is so bad on this.

AND I changed out the wipers without breaking anything. so there's that.

 

[1evilregal]

that putty in the light sockets is actually petrified bulb grease.... stuff usually is more problematic than good....setbacks suck, but at least you're making leaps and bounds forward to counter-act!

 

[GP403]

Out at the Salina OK car show. My garbage next to not-garbage. Tach suddenly started reading way high this morning. Jumper probably came loose or something. Come by and say hi. Get some stickers, and I have a few S and M shirts left for grabs.

 

[85GPLef41]

I know, right, priorities! Gotta have decent tunes. Hey this is the first thing we all did back in the day, right?

View attachment 52932

The glue that made this so easy. Two wiring harnesses via eBay. One for the radio, one for installing an aftermarket radio in the Cutlass. Hook the ends, solder, and shrink wrap. Maybe 20 minutes doing that, probably saved hours up inside the dash trying to butt-splice and hack things up that way. Do it this way, trust me. Verify that the color codes are the same. These were identical, but that may not always be the case.

View attachment 52933

The plug in the car is actually 3 plugs. Don't panic when you pull them out and let them flop, they are keyed (bottom edge) so they'll only go into the new harness one way.
View attachment 52935



I had to take these brackets off the original radio and use them on the Pioneer. They're 30yo plastic and brittle, one hole broke on me trying to fit it up. luckily it didn't matter much. The cuts on my hand are from the #%^@#$ trim piece that didn't want to come off.

View attachment 52934

All done. No cutting, hacking, or anything. Fits right in. Find the right replacement or at least get a single-DIN and a bracket kit. Don't cut up the dash to fit a 2-DIN unit unless you're really good at making it not look like garbage. Sounds excellent. I have a set of Pioneer 4x10's laying around here somewhere that I've had since '89. I should see if they're any better than the stock speakers lol. Not going to put an amp and sub and all that garbage in, its not that important that I lose any more of my hearing.

View attachment 52936

Lucky for me, and you probably can't tell.... The bottom left corner of the trim plate on the radio broke off. I super glued it back on, but you can't even see it. I was prepared to sand it and paint it, but eh, nobody knows. Well, erm, you know what I mean.

thats a old school pioneer din and half radio right??

 

[85GPLef41]

That's a real nice looking cutlass!! i was just contemplating selling mine.... now it's big ol nope!

 

[GP403]

Went up to the attic and found the sway bars I'd pulled off my old 86 Grand Prix before sending it off to die. I remember the front being big, but this is a full 1 1/4" diameter and it's got to be solid because it's fricking heavy. The rear is pretty standard. Need to get these blasted and painted.

The attic. There's more to the left but you get the idea.

 

[GP403]

I ordered a slightly different set of solid-state/electronic flasher modules, this time without the ground wire. This one cured the always-on clicketyclickety. Strangely enough the hazards wouldn't work at all without the ground wire module. So, I need to figure out a way to re-wire these front parking/corner lights without hacking up the existing wiring, or at least nothing irreversible. I'll post a snap of that circuit in this post later.....

Edit: Duh, I already noted the circuit design and said it cured something it didn't. I just woke up.

 

[GP403]

The tach reading wrong was just the jumper floating out of place like I thought. The temperature gauge, looks like its going to be more complicated. Put another new sender in and still have nothing. The gauge pegs bottom when you turn the key to run, and then "bounces" when you start it, so its doing something. Consulting the "bible" now to figure out if its the gauge or if I have a wire or connection bad.....