Work being done in Smurf Village

[RONDAL]

Done school, couple of free days around the house to relax and do some stuff I wanted to, found out Rob was in the same boat so we got together and decided to sort out the cars.





Hardwired the Valentine1 into the sunroof motor with the stealth install so there is no more long cord hanging down to the cigarette lighter and the detector is barely apparent unless its going off.



Spent 3 hours trying to sort out my damn turn signals, ended up doing the Coca Cola mod on the connections to get rid of some corrosion causing issues.

Spent some more time tearing apart the dash and diagnosing the problems with my cruise control not working. After Rob worked his magic on the electrical we found its the most expensive part


With the dash apart I decided I wanted a change in the instrument cluster and so we went for a trip. After some search and playing around I created this:


from this:


Then it was onto the Home Depot mod for Rob's car to try and sort out his intake issues. Tore apart all his hard work only to find he was stupid and we couldn't change what he wanted. Was a good excuse to burn pieces of plastic with blow torches however, and tear apart bits and pieces of supercharger plumbing.




all in all not a bad work session. Definetly nice to have a big heated garage on a day like today.

[Chris]

Re: Work being done in Smurf Village

I love that Jazz Blue!

[R_Ethug]

Re: Work being done in Smurf Village

i concur

[RONDAL]

Re: Work being done in Smurf Village

thanks guys

[karna]

Re: Work being done in Smurf Village

very nice cars !!

[Compton]

Re: Work being done in Smurf Village

Both cars are nice!

[RONDAL]

Re: Work being done in Smurf Village

DIY on the cluster color change.

Step 1: Cut a hole in the box....

1. Remove your ABS light cover on left side of dash, use fingers if not pry right to left with flat head screwdriver
2. Once out you will see a black clip on the inside right of the whole, that removes the headlight switch, pop that out
3. Remove heated seat/blank plates on right of steering wheel to the left of radio, pry out with flat head screwdriver
4. Reach into instrument cluster hole, if you feel with your fingers around the top at the back you will feel a sharp ridge, evenly try and pull on this, it will pop out that whole plastic cover. pull it straight out, lean it down then lift straight out to remove
5. You will seel two phillips head screws now, one on the headlight switch side, one on the heated seat/blank side. Undo these as they hold the instrument cluster.
6. Pull instrument cluster out halfway, then tilt forward and undo the wiring harnesses (x2) on the back on the cluster.
7. Once undone remove as you did the surrounding piece
8. Once on the bench you will see a white trapazoid box area that runs along the length of the top of the cluster, with green plastic coming out of both sides.
9. using a flat head screwdriver push the 3 white clips inwards on the little box ot release them. i also had to use one in from the top to get it all free.
10. once it pops loose DO NOT PULL UP it is still attached with a thin stip of metal
11. lift slightly and you will see the full green strip and be able to pull it out.
12. Cut out the new material and insert into the slot.
13. Reinstall everything in reverse order.
14. Done.

If people want that color or another let me know, places only sell it in 1'x4' rolls so I have TONS of extra if people want some. Like $3 and I can make you the piece cut to spec that you need.

[100%VAGitarian]

Re: Work being done in Smurf Village

thats a cool mod. looks good. i've done it to mk2 clusters before. nice work on the mk3!

[Circuits]

Re: Work being done in Smurf Village

You could have left out the part where I was stupid...

All in all though, it was a good day of playing around...

(The cluster looks sort of white in the photo, but it's more of a blue in real life...)