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Well i was going to have an early night tonight but after the encouraging results i got from the previous nights dash covering i decided to press on with things.
When i bought the car it came from Japan with all kinds of badley installed gauges , electronics and a pin pad for starting the car . I have ripped out all of the aftermarket junk from the dash and started making things a little more functional and nicer looking but i always like the security of the security pad.
When i turn the key to start the engine , nothing happens unless i key in a 4 digit code - only problem is that it was located behind the indicator stalk meaning i have to struggle to see what im punching in , a bit of a pain in the ass. Also , the revspeed meter was originally installed where the ashtray should be and i had no ashtray to reinstall once i had removed it so i decided to kill 2 birds with one stone - relocate the pinpad to the console where the ashtray used to be
To remove the dash trim i had to actually cut the pin pad off because whoever installed it drilled a hole through the dash trim and threaded the loom into it's respective locations. So i chopped the 4 wire loom about 6 inches from the pad to give myself enough wire to work with.
I rummaged around the garage and found a rigid piece of plastic board that i trimmed and made fit into the ashtray opening which i then wrapped with the dynoc carbon film and prepped it for install . I had some fitting foam strips in my defi gauge boxes so i lined the surrounding with this and pushed the plate into position. The foam holds it in place very firmly and it's very solid without being permanent and can be taken appart easily -
the pin pad looks like this , very small and neat unit with lightup buttons when ignition is on -
now i had to make a hole for the loom to run through so i broke out the trusty dremel with a rotary bit and a minute later i had the perfect hole for wiring -
now i could pass the wires through and mount the pin pad -
2 pieces of 3M double sided frisk tape on the back of the keypad and we're in business
Now the pad is going to be located a a fair distance from the original location so i had to make a loom extension to wire it again , so i needed 4 wires red,green,black and white . I had some spools of light gauge stranded wire in red , black and green so i measured and cut 1 red piece , 1 green piece and 2 black , one of which will be white ( confused ? read on ).
a while back i bought this from fastenal - one of the best investments for modding and creating wiring looms , i learnt alot of how to do this repairing pinball machines back in the day .
I also have one of these soldering guns , irons are great but when you need the extra heat for grounding straps and connectors then nothing touches this baby -
back to the loom , you'll remember i cut 2 black wires - one to be white . Well thats because i didnt have white so we get over that by using a second black but shrinking a piece of white shrink tube over the ends so that it is coded as a white wire , used to do this all the time in very complicated bundles with more wires than colours and it makes it easy to trace if you have problems later.
The bundle of wires was formed into a flexible loom by cutting small rings of shrink tubing and using them to keep it together but keep it flexible .
Eventually we thread several pieces on each conductor and then prepare to splice the loom to the original . I'd like to say at this point how BAD solderless cable splicers are, terrible connections and really unsafe considering how many amps are available in the car. If you are going to do your own auto wiring please learn how to solder properly and use the heatshrink . There is no substitute for soldered joints and the time spent practicing this art is time well spent .
Tin the bared wires and then solder them together . (tinning is the process of presoldering the wires to be joined to make sure the solder penetrates the very thickness of the wire and a good connection can be achieved). Then slide the heatshrink over the bare joints and heat shink them .
Another thing - make sure you slide the heatshrink on BEFORE you solder , hard to slide it on once the wires are joined. I know how obvious that sounds but after decades of soldering i still occasionally make the same stupid mistake
Shrunk and secure -
You'll also notice that i tend to slide yet another larger piece of tubing over all the freshly soldered and shrunk wires , this is a precaution to give an extra layer of protection and to stiffen up the loom in that area where the joins are to reduce the chance of flex and breaking , solder is very brittle.
Finished trim and pin pad ready to be reinstalled
When i bought the car it came from Japan with all kinds of badley installed gauges , electronics and a pin pad for starting the car . I have ripped out all of the aftermarket junk from the dash and started making things a little more functional and nicer looking but i always like the security of the security pad.
When i turn the key to start the engine , nothing happens unless i key in a 4 digit code - only problem is that it was located behind the indicator stalk meaning i have to struggle to see what im punching in , a bit of a pain in the ass. Also , the revspeed meter was originally installed where the ashtray should be and i had no ashtray to reinstall once i had removed it so i decided to kill 2 birds with one stone - relocate the pinpad to the console where the ashtray used to be
To remove the dash trim i had to actually cut the pin pad off because whoever installed it drilled a hole through the dash trim and threaded the loom into it's respective locations. So i chopped the 4 wire loom about 6 inches from the pad to give myself enough wire to work with.
I rummaged around the garage and found a rigid piece of plastic board that i trimmed and made fit into the ashtray opening which i then wrapped with the dynoc carbon film and prepped it for install . I had some fitting foam strips in my defi gauge boxes so i lined the surrounding with this and pushed the plate into position. The foam holds it in place very firmly and it's very solid without being permanent and can be taken appart easily -
the pin pad looks like this , very small and neat unit with lightup buttons when ignition is on -
now i had to make a hole for the loom to run through so i broke out the trusty dremel with a rotary bit and a minute later i had the perfect hole for wiring -
now i could pass the wires through and mount the pin pad -
2 pieces of 3M double sided frisk tape on the back of the keypad and we're in business
Now the pad is going to be located a a fair distance from the original location so i had to make a loom extension to wire it again , so i needed 4 wires red,green,black and white . I had some spools of light gauge stranded wire in red , black and green so i measured and cut 1 red piece , 1 green piece and 2 black , one of which will be white ( confused ? read on ).
a while back i bought this from fastenal - one of the best investments for modding and creating wiring looms , i learnt alot of how to do this repairing pinball machines back in the day .
I also have one of these soldering guns , irons are great but when you need the extra heat for grounding straps and connectors then nothing touches this baby -
back to the loom , you'll remember i cut 2 black wires - one to be white . Well thats because i didnt have white so we get over that by using a second black but shrinking a piece of white shrink tube over the ends so that it is coded as a white wire , used to do this all the time in very complicated bundles with more wires than colours and it makes it easy to trace if you have problems later.
The bundle of wires was formed into a flexible loom by cutting small rings of shrink tubing and using them to keep it together but keep it flexible .
Eventually we thread several pieces on each conductor and then prepare to splice the loom to the original . I'd like to say at this point how BAD solderless cable splicers are, terrible connections and really unsafe considering how many amps are available in the car. If you are going to do your own auto wiring please learn how to solder properly and use the heatshrink . There is no substitute for soldered joints and the time spent practicing this art is time well spent .
Tin the bared wires and then solder them together . (tinning is the process of presoldering the wires to be joined to make sure the solder penetrates the very thickness of the wire and a good connection can be achieved). Then slide the heatshrink over the bare joints and heat shink them .
Another thing - make sure you slide the heatshrink on BEFORE you solder , hard to slide it on once the wires are joined. I know how obvious that sounds but after decades of soldering i still occasionally make the same stupid mistake
Shrunk and secure -
You'll also notice that i tend to slide yet another larger piece of tubing over all the freshly soldered and shrunk wires , this is a precaution to give an extra layer of protection and to stiffen up the loom in that area where the joins are to reduce the chance of flex and breaking , solder is very brittle.
Finished trim and pin pad ready to be reinstalled
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