Wiring page 2 - The tangled web I've weaved!

Well I am sort of done wiring.  I still have about a dozen details to sort out like the backup lights and A/C functions but without the engine and dash in place I can’t go any farther.  
I tell you its really scary how many wires I think are not needed that I cut out of both harnesses. 

These should not be needed but I’d be shocked if everything works!

When I was in the dealer I used to say you live or die by the schematic and the meter and I found that to be very true with this experience too.

  And I love the GM schematics!

What is concerning going is forward is I no longer have a good schematic of the car to work with.  As soon as I ran a wire from the GM harness to the Miata harness both existing schematics became inaccurate.   

I envision a time half way through One Lap of America with something not working and having a nightmare of electrical issues to sort out.  Of course it would happen in the middle of nowhere at 2 AM!  Even now I have no idea if the work I have done is good and there is no way to test it before I try to start it.

So all I can do is move forward the best I can.  But before I do I would like to leave a note here for myself on the next build and others planning their build a couple of things I would do differently.  In order of importance:

1, limit music selections to Norah Jones with some easy Rory Block, Lisa Mann and Michael Buble for variety.  Simple, easy and relaxing tunes are paramount to the process.

2, have at least 3 wire cutters, 3 small LED flashlights and 3 utility knives.  One set for dash work, one in the engine bay and one set in my pocket.  That should reduce the hours spent searching for them by at least half.  :-) 
3, remove ALL unnecessary wires in the Miata before you even take the Camaro harness out of the box.  Working around a half installed Camaro harness to do it is really a PITA.
4, take more photos as you take things apart because you WILL forget how the dash harness was routed and where the fuse box bolted in.
5, remember thinking I know I am not going to use this so I don’t need to mark it?  You were wrong!  At the moment I have 3 wires that are tagged “unknown probably not needed”.  No wonder I sleep so lousy!

In other news I had an interesting turn of events in the parts department this week.  The wheels I ordered are back ordered for 6 weeks.

I love those wheels but am hoping to need them before I would be able to get them. 

Meanwhile I found a set of used fender flairs on a forum for 125 bucks.  They are just bolt on arch flairs not a full fender flair so they will look like this

This is a big deal because I got them for 1/3^rd the price of new and because it opens up 0 offset wheel options.  It will mean more body work but I can live with that for the pay off.  So with that I picked up these wheels in a 0 offset

The spokes are more bronze then this on the real wheels and with the 0 offset they should fill up the wheel wells about like the above car. That JPS car is steadily growing on me to be my favorite and I might just have to reevaluate the wing idea…

5/30/13 Wheel update HERE I did not use the flairs or the wheels due to scrub radius issues.

Speaking of body work this week I connected with a fellow V8 Miata guy that passed along a great idea for the hood.  After a couple hours hunting around for photos of various L88 Corvette hoods I decided his idea is the way to go and ordered this mini version of a Corvette L88 hood scoop. 

It will be a lower, smaller and much less radical version of this concept.

Is that cool or what?  Thank you Shannon for a much better idea on the scoop that I was planning!!

7/6/13 Scoop update HERE I did not go with the L88 scoop but used a Camaro SS scoop instead.  It turned out to be not such a good idea because I still needed a vent but that is a whole other post HERE.

 

Now of course when I started all this I had no intention of doing this much body work to the car.  The rust is a big enough problem to deal with without hanging flairs and scoops on it too. 

But what’s another 10 hours of body work in a 2000 hour project right? LOL!
 
God willing next post Jenna should be sporting her LS1! Yahoo!!

 

PS if you did not click on that One Lap of America above you should check it out. I have followed this event for years and it is very high on my bucket list. My dream is to do it with my son Charlie and Jenna would be a great ride for the adventure.  Anyway the race is running this week so and it's fun to keep up with the events.

 

Proverbs 27:17 Just as iron sharpens iron and one man sharpens another.  Have a GREAT week!