The All About My 1980 Pontiac LeMans Station Wagon Thread...

[motorhead]

Ordered up a couple of large servos for the 4L60E and some rubber fuel tank straps...

Sonnax Super 4th Servo 4l60e 700r4 77767k

Sonnax Super Servo 2nd 4l60e 700r4 77911-03k

[motorhead]

Fired in some bucket seat mounts (came from Mike's Montes - good quality parts) and POR-15'd the floor.

Rant time:
POR-15 has to be the biggest disappointment I have ever had... one of my cans had the pigment separating from the epoxy(?)/solvent and the paint laid down poorly; and despite following the directions to the letter (bought all the cleaners and prep, and scrubbed it all down with a HD Scotchbrite pad) I still got some fisheyes.

[Charlief1]

What kind of temp was the shop at? That has a lot to do with it as well. I went with a different product that removes rust and leaves clean metal that you can prep and prime rather than "encapsulate" the rust so it can come back later.

[motorhead]

What kind of temp was the shop at? That has a lot to do with it as well. I went with a different product that removes rust and leaves clean metal that you can prep and prime rather than "encapsulate" the rust so it can come back later.

The radiant floor heating was set for 65*F, but the air temp was 69*F with the windows open (note that it was snowing (91% humidity) and colder than a witch's tit outside) - I was wearing a t-shirt.  So I doubt temperature was the issue.

[motorhead]

Well it is official... the wagon is "rust-free"! Or at least as rust-free as I care to make it; and it only took 6 months to get there. Finally seam sealed and under-coated the last of my repairs under the car and now its time to prep this thing to get a heart transplant.

Last night (while waiting for some paint to dry) I started pulling all of the previous owners wiring out of the car (gauges and sending units, power seat, electric cut-outs, electric fans, etc) so that I could identify what circuits were in the car, and more importantly what was missing or had been molested. All and all the car is pretty sound for having a 34 year old electrical system, and in it life only a few circuits were screwed with - still working on identifying some of the unknown wires. The true advantage of working on a car of this vintage with very few options is that it is easy to get your head around what is required and where... plus it cuts down on the need to delete or integrate systems (especially when I pull the wiring out of the Camaro for the LS swap).

My next major undertaking will be removing and adapting the steering column (with delay wipers and cruise control stalk) from my 87 Monte Carlo to this ancient beast. I am thinking that I will need to make a bespoke harness to the cruise control and wiper assembly vs. trying to repin the 1980 wiring. Good thing that I have a complete donor car to rape for parts

[motorhead]

Ran State-side (again) this morning to pick up a pretty large order of parts: more stereo equipment, more sound deadener, more engine crap (fittings, air filter, 4 aluminum intake piping, 3" v-bands, etc), transmission cooler, LS1 front brake conversion parts, and some dress-up parts.

[Forzfed]

Damn, that is a lot of work!  Should be really nice once you're done.

[motorhead]

Damn, that is a lot of work!  Should be really nice once you're done.

Funny I just went back and looked at it all... and now I am astonished how far its come; and upset knowing what I still have left to do. 

[motorhead]

It has taken me nearly two days to methodically cover the interior with sound deadener (GT Mat "Onyx" in the front and Eastwood brand in the back; The GT Mat "Onyx" is far superior in both quality and ease of installation IMO).  I still have a few details to go over as well as the inside of the doors and the tailgate.

Oh, and here is the new spare tire hatch cover (I still need to laminate two pieces of 1/2" MDF together - that is the top curing its Tremclad top coat)... I have big plans for this thing.

[motorhead]

Finally got the damn thing back together for the last time... and this was on top of wiring the whole car for sound.  A picture is worth a thousand words, see attached.

We still need to upholster the hatch before final installation.  And if I am right I have left just enough room for a 10lb bottle of button induced fun (which is also why there is a power and ground distribution block back there); please don't tell my wife. 

I've also cut my templates and started fabbing up the "cubbie hole" MDF mounts for the rear woofers.  Making surprisingly good time on this despite that I hate working with wood (*cough*MDF*cough*).  I should have pics soon for those who are interested.

[daveismissing]

Yes, calling MDF wood is like calling hamburger - steak. Sadly it has that low resonance deadening property we want for audio, at least dry audio. And you get strong from lifting sheets of it.

[motorhead]

Yes, calling MDF wood is like calling hamburger - steak. Sadly it has that low resonance deadening property we want for audio, at least dry audio. And you get strong from lifting sheets of it.

MDF does feel like iron-light.

The reason that the hatch is made out of MDF vs. something far lighter is because I am considering adding a shallow-mount sub in the future if I don't get the lows I want from the component 6x9s - RE Audio's XXX-6.9C system (http://reaudio.com/products/components_xxx.php).

Also bought a set of Polk Audio DB351 3.5" coaxials for the front... now I have to figure out how to wire in bass blockers (read: really a simple capacitor) post amp; or if I even want to (gotta see if the head unit can limit frequency to the front channel - concept is here: http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?54573-Bass-blockers-with-DB-series-drivers&s=ba954eb41dd7c168c31a6da9f5b4de51&p=661369&viewfull=1#post661369
).

[motorhead]

Okay so my head unit (http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/StaticFiles/Manuals/Car/DEH-X8500BH_OwnersManual100212.pdf - page 17 English) has both a tunable high and low pass filter function (50Hz — 63Hz — 80Hz — 100Hz — 125Hz for both front and rear channels and is tunable +6 to –24Hz); now the front speakers have an effective range of 90-22kHz which doesn't exactly line up with high/low pass filter options as Hz isn't equal to kHz.

My best educated guess is to simply set the high pass filter to 125Hz and call it a day because the included "bass blocker" is rated at 200Hz; and close is good enough in this regard.  Plus if I start getting distortion from too much bass I can just solder the "bass blockers" in later.

Sound about right?

[daveismissing]

If the blocker is just a cap then it is single pole filter with a gentle 6db slope.

[xpander343]

You're just trucking along with this project.  Looks good