Scorpion #621 resurrection

[think jedi]

You have to love CAD and precision cutting systems. Nice. Good Choice on the materials. You might consider coating the surfaces with polyurethane to reduce warping, particularly the side which doesn’t have vinyl on it.

OMG, I can't imagine trying to do precision cuts for those seat belt holes by hand...what a nightmare that would be. As far as CAD goes, I'm ALL IN. With decent 3D printing technology and laser cutters, unobtanium parts can be manufactured with relative ease. In fact, I sent The Monte Hospital a sample of my trim rings and the visor mounts for his consideration.

Good call on the polyurethane.

tJ

 

[think jedi]

Using a rivnut setter, I made it possible again to put my center shifter console and rear deck release handle back in the car.

tJ

 

[think jedi]

I repaired the broken boss on my frunk hood release housing. Details are in this thread.

This is what it looked like before:

This is what it looks like now:

tJ

 

[think jedi]

So, a thing that turned into it's own project was the frunk/deck lid release mechanisms. As with 90% of the Scorpions/Montecarlos on the road, the handles on both of my original releases were broken.

The deck release had a bolt tied to the wire so I could pull it. Really janky. There was nothing there but a wire on the frunk release, which we had to grab with a pair of vice grips and yank on to open the funk. My friend, in the first two weeks we had the car, fitted it with a Miata trunk/fuel door release and had it popping out of the speaker cavity. Can you say Jankenstein? I knew you could! But hey, it was functional.

So in the first month of ownership, I managed to procure 2 machined aluminum replacement handles that Chris Obert in Santa Cruz used to make. They are different than the original handles in that they don't use a spring to snap them back. The weight of the handles is really all that is necessary to keep it in place.

Removing the old handles from the car was a puzzle...I ended up having to cut the wire to get it off. Seems like they never thought these would have to come out when they built the car. :/ Removing the handles from the housings was also a bit of a puzzle, but I finally figured out I needed to remove the springs and the roll pins that held the handles on. Once the roll pins came out, I soaked them in Evaporust overnight and then put the new handles in the housings.

The wires for the release mechanism were brittle and too short now so I bought a replacement wire for the frunk from TMH. They didn't have long enough wires for the rear deck lid, so I went to a bicycle shop and bought a brake cable and retrofitted that into the original sleeve. It's nice and strong, but stranded wire is a pain in the ass to cut and work with. I had to get a bike cable cutter to work with this thing. It's really stiff too, so bending it around the retaining screw on the handle was no picnic. But I managed to get the rear deck release installed. The pic below shows it before it's been bolted down.

The frunk release was a little easier because I had the correct solid core wire from TMH ... much easier to coax into place and to cut. After some cleanup, greasing, and adjustments of the frunk catches, I finally closed the frunk completely for the first time since I've owned the car!

tJ

 

[lanciahf]

Great work, thanks for sharing.

 

[think jedi]

Soooo.... a mini projected reared it's ugly head last night. A month or so ago, I finally managed to source the missing right roof release catch and installed it. The problem was that it wiggled around when operating the roof release. Nothing I could do would keep it in place. Last night, I tried opening the roof and the right side would not budge. I ended up having to remove the C-pilllar trims (removing the engine relay panel as well) in order to release my roof.

Once I got the roof released, I pulled off the catch and examined the roof area where it attaches. There are 2 caged nuts that hold the catch on: one on top and one on the inside. The one on the inside was the culprit...nothing I did would get it to tighten down properly. The PO had made a complete pig's ear of that part of the roof. I assume the roof catch had broken so he did some hogging out and other ill-conceived mods to allow him to SCREW down the top using a sheet metal screw. Whatever he did screwed up both caged nuts. The top one was usable, but the side one...not so much.

So I pulled them out, frighteningly easily. They were in horrible shape.

Luckily (or so I thought), I have a rediscovered nutsert tool, so I decided to have a go at putting some 1/4"/20 nutserts in to replace the caged nuts.

The nutserts went in with no drama.

Unfortunately, the 1/4"/20 screws wouldn't fit in the holes of the catch, so I had to drill out the holes, and using a dremel, clearance the area on the side hole to allow for the larger diameter head to clear. This was fiddly and terrifying, grinding and drilling on my precious unobtanium roof catch. But it went well.

However, much to my dismay, I found that the holes no longer lined up. I could line up the top just fine, but the side hole wouldn't line up at all. I think that's why they used caged nuts, as they rotated so that a bolt could be angled in. So I'm screwed.

Then I start thinking....when I pull on the catch, it rotates so that the rear loop of the springs rotates back and hits the side of the C pillar. Why not shim that area to keep it from rotating back? That's what the side screw is supposed to do...to keep the catch from rotating. So I tested out doing this with a nut shimmed behind the loop of the catch and bolted down the top bolt of the catch. That kept it from rotating, thus allowed me to operating the roof release properly. So I JB Welded the nut in place and put it all back together. Now my roof closes and releases with little drama.

tJ

 

[think jedi]

Well, today I came to the realization that I was a real dumb@ss 3 years ago when I gutted the car for paint. I recalled 3 thin black wires coming out of the back of the console that went to places unknown in the dash. I wasn't able to track them down easily and I got impatient and cut them, thinking I'd just mark the wires and solder them back together again.

Today, as I was noodling around with the passenger side dash vent, noting with dismay how the little clear plastic thing was sticking out untidily, I took a closer look at the wire that I had cut that led to that plastic thingy. I could tell it was some kind of illuminated piece, but when I pulled out the wire from the back of it, I didn't see a bulb. Hmmmm....that's weird. I wonder how... OH NO!

I grab my LED flashlight and shine it on one end of the wire and I see light coming from the other end. Dammit...why did I not know this car had fiber optic lighting?! So, now I have to figure out how to splice the fibers back together again.

Chasing down the other two "wires" I cut, I noted one went to the light switch and the other...I couldn't figure out. I thought it was for the other dash vent (mine was broken thus was missing the clear illuminated piece). I thought maybe that was where it was supposed to go and it was loose, but to my dismay, it popped out of something behind the cluster. My suspicion is that I will now need to take the speedo cluster off to get the fiber optic back in place. Is this an easy thing? Please tell me it is...I have been avoiding removing that thing.

The good news is that I was able to manufacture another missing piece that allowed me to replace the clear thingy back into the dash vent. More on this after I have a drink and grumble about my stupidity.

tJ

 

[motoTrooper]

You aren't the only one to do this...

 

[think jedi]

You aren't the only one to do this...

Apparently not. I just had a closer look at my console and the PO had snipped the fiber optic cable that presumably went to the vent indicator on the driver's side. Like short. Really short. I guess I'll get a 7-point fiber optic harness from an X-1/9 and replace my mangled one. The connectors seem to be different though. Hope they can be retrofitted onto the X harness.

BTW, does anyone know where the light collector gets it's light from? I figure it must plug in somewhere behind the console, but I can't see where.

tJ

 

[ng_randolph]

Rather than trying to splice the cut fiber optic cables, I would try to repurpose TOSLINK cables, the fiber optic cable used for audio. They are cheap, so if the experiment fails, no big deal.

 

[lanciahf]

I bought a bunch of led leads to replace my cut optic fiber. Have not gotten to it yet. It's on the list.

 

[think jedi]

Rather than trying to splice the cut fiber optic cables, I would try to repurpose TOSLINK cables, the fiber optic cable used for audio. They are cheap, so if the experiment fails, no big deal.

I found a 7-point harness for an X1/9 on eBay. I'll use that. Any takers on the question on how easy it is to get the speedo cluster out?

tJ

 

[dllubin]

You can probably buy the 1mm plastic fiber for a lot less than they sell it for as TOSLINKs. If you do decide to splice it, I recommend that you polish the ends using toothpaste until it is nice and flat and has a mirror finish. The light source on the X is a pretty good size light bulb with a hood that goes over it containing the fiber. Personally, I would just replace the fiber with LEDs as you are likely to get much better illumination and uniformity.

 

[think jedi]

While I wait for my fiber optic harness to arrive, I'll write up my minor success I had on repairing my passenger side air vent. The clear "CLOSE TO DEF" indicator in the vent was loose and poking out of the grill. If you recall, I had stupidly cut the "wire" to this 3 years ago thinking I could resolder it later. I wanted to fix this, so I carefully pulled it out the vent.

I hate pulling out vents and such from cars that are 40+ years old because...well, because 40-year-old plastic. Luckily, I had a driver's side vent on hand that was to go in soon, so I could carefully examine the tabs and see how they work. If found that I could go in with a small flat blade inside the vents and pull gently up on the lower tabs on each side while using a bigger flat blade (wrapped with tape) to gently pry it out from the "inner" (left) side of the vent. This popped the bottom out enough that I could gently pull it loose.

Comparing it to the driver's side vent, I could see that it was missing the retaining plastic piece. The clear indicator was sitting loose in the housing, but wouldn't stay there without the retainer in place.

Here is the driver's side piece with the retainer in place. Note there is no clear indicator piece...this didn't come with the vent when I bought it. Will locate one later.

Immediately, I knew that this little piece would be stupid simple to draw up in CAD and print on my 3D printer, so I measured it and went to work in Fusion 360. 20 minutes later, I was printing a replacement part:

10 minutes later, the part was finished. After curing in the sun for 20 minutes, and doing a little sanding to tweak fitment, here's what I had:

It popped perfectly in place:

And my CLOSE TO DEF indicator popped in nicely:

As a bonus, I found this mystery label under the vent when pulling it out. Not sure what it indicates, but somebody was paid to write on it and put it in there.

tJ

 

[think jedi]

Well, unfortunately, the dash vent that Midwest-Bayless sent me was not the same as the one pictured on the website...missing the CLOSE TO DEF indicator. Bummer. Gonna have to return it. I've decided I'm going to just make my own in CAD and print it in clear resin. I've got a mock-up done in CAD for now, but I need to get the final measurements and correct placement of text from the actual part this evening. Will update you all on this later.

In the meantime, I got one set of door sills and door seals installed. I ran out of the correct size rivets for the metal door sill, so I'll pick up some on the way home from work and get this done tonight. I also finalized the placement of the rear parcel shelf, C-pillar plastics, so that's finally done.

I've got fiber optics on order that should arrive on Friday. The rubber gator for the parking brake came in yesterday. Gonna have to figure out how I'm going to attach it as the attachment nubs on my console are mostly broken off. I have some wiper arms from a Porsche 924 on order as well...should arrive on Monday.

I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

tJ

 

[think jedi]

Modeled the CLOSE TO DEF indicator last night. Will print this in clear resin this evening. Here's the model:

I also got the passenger door rubbers and sills installed yesterday. My fiber optic harness came in but the fibers are going to be too short. I can probably still use bits of it so I'll keep it.

tJ

 

[think jedi]

Printed and tweaked the model some more. Didn't realize the words were engraved on the back side of the indicator. Made some other changes as well. Looks like these will work...waiting for the sun to cure them. I need to drill out the hole as it didn't print well due to the orientation of the model (I printed without supports). Then some polishing with Novus 3-stage and piant the the words.

tJ

 

[think jedi]

Cured, cleaned up, and painted. The original is the one on the right.

This evening, I tried having a go at putting the center console back in. Holy crap, it's a nightmare. Everything is so tight, it just doesn't want to go back in. I can't even get it to go over the heater control buttons and levers. I decided to stop and walk away before I broke something. If any of you have had experience getting this thing in, I'd be interested in hearing your tips.

tJ

 

[lanciahf]

I think the best way is to assemble everything to the center console and then put it back, Or loosen the dashboard so you can sneak the console underneath.

 

[think jedi]

I think the best way is to assemble everything to the center console and then put it back, Or loosen the dashboard so you can sneak the console underneath.

Thanks. I'll have another go at it and see what I can do about cable management. I think the wires are just getting bunched up behind the console preventing it from pushing all the way back to where it needs to be.

tJ