My fuse box relocation (project log)

[RedTurboEclipse]

I like that plug harness for the wiring.

I believe the last time I saw that used on a DSM was from 16g95gsx or something like that. He doesn't post here, but has that sick red 2g. he's on talk and Link.

 

[UnsafeAtAnySpd]

Few more things I forgot. I went hunting through CAPS and found that Mitsu makes rubber plugs in all different sizes. So I found the proper sized plugs to plug up holes that I had (heater core lines, big a/c hole, little a/c hole, windwhield wiper motor plug, windshield wiper fluid line to engine bay hole, rear o2 sensor, and antenna drain). I also found they make a plug for the windshield wiper fluid filler neck. So instead of the ghetto mod I did in post 126, I installed this factory plug and eliminated the filler neck altogether. I also found plugs for the antenna, rear wiper, and rear wiper fluid squirter, but I decided to keep them as is for a more stock look.

Source? Part numbers? I have exactly all the same hole is my car.

 

[123abc]

Those rubber plugs interest me. I'll have to check those out.


I love how much work you're doing to clean this car up, really nice man.

 

[kawboy]

Do you have part numbers for plugs to do a rear wiper delete?

 

[92AWDHX40]

Thats looks good i relocated my transistor box into the car itself. One clean firewall, on my next project ill relocate the fuse box into the car, could have now but dont plan on keeping this dsm forever.

 

[97gst_spyder]

Your car is amazing. If you want another project car, I have a 97gst spyder that needs alittle more TLC than most.

 

[turbosax2]

I like that plug harness for the wiring.

I believe the last time I saw that used on a DSM was from 16g95gsx or something like that. He doesn't post here, but has that sick red 2g. he's on talk and Link.

That's exactly who I stole the idea from His wiring is very nice, so I copied some ideas from him and threw some of my own in. I really wanted to do a firewall bulkhead right behind the intake manifold, but there just wasn't a good spot for it. There was only one spot that might have been big enough, but if it wasn't then I would have had a random hole in my firewall. I could have put a bulkhead fitting where the stock harness passes through the firewall but it wouldn't have looked clean and I lose some flexibility in expanding the harness in the future if needed.



Wow, didn't realize there would be so much interest in some rubber plugs
Large a/c hole - MB272166
Small a/c hole (25 mm) - MU670034
Heater core lines (30 mm) - MU670025
Windwhield wiper motor plug (30 mm) - MU670025
Windshield wiper fluid line to engine bay hole (20 mm) - MU670033
Rear o2 sensor (25 mm) - MU670034
Antenna drain (25 mm) - MU670034
Windshield wiper fluid filler neck - MB530314

These I didn't purchase so I don't know exactly what they look like.
Rear wiper fluid squirter - MR109515
Rear wiper - I thought there was a plug for this too, but I can't find it now. Maybe I am remembering wrong.
Antenna - MB622697 (the CAPS picture doesn't look like a plug, but it says it is, who knows)

For the rear wiper, if somebody measures the size of the hole in the hatch I can search CAPS to find a plug similarly sized.

 

[VETTE_50_TH]

I hope your car makes it out. It'll win cleanest car there if we have a contest.

James

 

[92AWDHX40]

Your work is very nice gives me lots of ideas keep it up.

 

[turbosax2]

I really appreciate the compliments guys, just keeps driving me to get the car done

Finally got the fuse box mounted, took me all evening I am extremely pleased with how it turned out. I used pieces of 1/8" x 3/4" steel as brackets, bent up with my hands, hammers, vice grips, etc. the straps go up to the metal bar than runs underneath the dash the whole way across the car. I mounted it here because it is really easy to access by dropping the glove box down, rather than on the firewall where I would have had to crawl under the dash to change a fuse. Also, mounting points on the firewall in that area are scarce. Other possible mounting points I've seen are in the glove box (which I didn't like the idea of) and in place of the passenger airbag (which would be a good spot, but I'm keeping the airbags). The clearance to the glove box is consistent the whole way across and is slightly less than a finger width. Even if the glove box is slammed shut there is no contact between them. The fuse box is mounted pretty solid because the metal I used was thick; taking the cover on and off is easy without holding on the fuse box. Right now I have bolts and nuts at the fuse box mounting points, but I'll probably weld the nuts to the brackets so installation/removal is easier, maybe even make some type of quick release setup.

 

[VETTE_50_TH]

Why didnt you go with some type of aftermarket fuse box?

James

 

[Afroclipse]

probably because nobody will be seeing it anyway.

 

[TRBOBLU]

Where did you get the round connectors for the wiring harness?

 

[snowborder714]

From post #371.

The connectors I'm using are Deutsch connectors from laddinc.com.

 

[TRBOBLU]

From post #371.

Lol!! Don't know how the hell I missed that one. Thank you sir

 

[laserspeeddemon]

Wow, Eric. This is truly impressive. That says a lot coming from me, because I don't get impressed by anything anymore. I have started to wonder far from the DSM world and I have worked on and personally seen some very "out this world" things done with cars, even some stupid clean restorations. But never have I seen someone so young do this in their personal garage. The restorations I've seen are done by shops costumer who has too much money or older men that have spent their life buying equipment to pursue a passion like this.

Your work here is truly inspiring. It makes me want to get back to work on my own car and stop putting it on the back burner. You have inspired me, but then I realize that my car will be prepped for mostly off-road duty in the dirt. So it would be counter-productive, for me to go as far as you have. But still it's time to get back to work.

Thank you for giving me the spark back.

 

[snowborder714]

But never have I seen someone so young do this in their personal garage.

Correction to that. "Their parent's street space." We don't have a garage to work in, and half the time we get yelled at for working on the car out front of the house

I can't wait to see it in person, and then once it's all nice and wrapped up

We need to get cracking on the fuse box this weekend, as well as getting that motor out!

 

[blcknspo0ln]

Great job to you two, it's gonna be badddddddddd

 

[turbosax2]

Why didnt you go with some type of aftermarket fuse box?

James

Good question. The single biggest reason is cost. If you go back to one of my first posts in this thread I said I wasn't going to use fancy connectors, but after seeing some other people's work (Chris'), I liked it and justified the cost of the connectors. The benefits they provide to me are worth the cost. With a new fuse box I just couldn't justify the cost for the little to no benefit it provides me with. The stock fuse box is just fine for what I need, since I've removed some components from the car I now have empty fuse/relay slots that I can use in the future for other components that I add to keep all the fuses and relays in one location. Another reason is that a lot of the aftermarket fuse boxes I've seen you have to run power wires to each individual fuse, which means a whole lot more wires than I have right now. The stock fuse box has big metal strips inside that provide the power to all the fuses so wires aren't used for that purpose. I didn't really look that hard, so I'm sure there are some very nice fuse boxes out there that would have impressed me. But like I said, cost was the biggest reason.

Wow, Eric. This is truly impressive. That says a lot coming from me, because I don't get impressed by anything anymore. I have started to wonder far from the DSM world and I have worked on and personally seen some very “out this world” things done with cars, even some stupid clean restorations. But never have I seen someone so young do this in their personal garage. The restorations I’ve seen are done by shops costumer who has too much money or older men that have spent their life buying equipment to pursue a passion like this.

Your work here is truly inspiring. It makes me want to get back to work on my own car and stop putting it on the back burner. You have inspired me, but then I realize that my car will be prepped for mostly off-road duty in the dirt. So it would be counter-productive, for me to go as far as you have. But still it's time to get back to work.

Thank you for giving me the spark back.

Glad I could be an inspiration to some people out there, even though I somewhat consider my project "trivial", as in I'm not really getting much performance gains out of the money spent. That will come in time though. And like Brian said, we work in the street. Wouldn't be so bad if it didn't rain every single day for the past two weeks


The schedule for right now is to start working on the fuse box wiring. Brian's coming home this weekend but we'll be busy with other plans most of Saturday, but while he's home I want to pull the engine Sunday. So by Sunday I need to get at least the wiring situated in the engine bay, then next week I can finish up the wiring on the cabin side. My new paint gun is on the way (thanks Erin!), gotta buy paint/accessories for the gun and learn how to paint yet. We might practice on a CF hood Brian picked up for cheap before we do my engine bay.


I still need to get ahold of new front knuckles with good ABS sensors ('97-'99 only). We found a guy parting out his car and I was supposed to get them from him but he's been putting us off for awhile now. So if anybody knows where I could get some affordably or has some please let me know! I really don't want to drop the cash on new OEM ones, but it seems like nobody ever has these for sale...even in partouts.

 

[92AWDHX40]

Wow i like that id like to put mine in my cubby hole. That looks great.

 

[nek]

I just went through all 14 pages. Looks bad ass. Good Job!

 

[wezzy785]

ya me too, nice work man

 

[Eddieboy480]

Nice job. This will diffenetly save me time when doing my wire tuck and fuse box relocation, for that thanks in advance. Nice to know I can keep the passenger air bag if I mount it in that area. On my integra did the same thing and I ended up removing it and using a block off tray.

 

[Calan]

Well I finally got around to spending a couple hours and reading your entire thread...and all I can say is I thought I was being anal-retentive and going to extremes on my build.

This is truly awesome work that you (and Brian) are doing, and I think Sean said it very well. Now that I'm in my "young" 40's, it seems natural for me to approach projects like this with care and attention to detail...but I can't imagine ever having the patience and motivation to work at the level you are when I was your age.

Great job!

BTW - How did you blast your tranny? Did you dissasemble it, or just block everything off and heave it into a blast cabinet?

 

[97 GSX 97]

WOW. I just looked at every page of this build and I am amazed. I have not seen this beforehand and your work is intense. I hope to do this one day. I could not afford/do this right now because this is my DD and I would never DD a car after this much work was put into it. Props to your intense skill and patience!