GRIZZ’s Chevy S10 - Random Rambling NEXT ROADTRIP 27/10/23

Centre caps Take 2

Or is that Grand Finale?


Left them to dry overnight with the knackered primer, then stripped some of it back, realising I was not going to strip them totally.

So a plan hatched to create a set of 10 yard caps.




Followed by a dusting of satin black, for shiny chrome results, go with gloss paint. Mr Impatient did not want to go buy more paint, rather choosing to use what was on site.



Followed by 4 more coats, building up, despite the messy finish I chose to go with.



Then I started on the chrome finish.

Disappointed, but I chose the satin base.

Leaving a more aluminised finish.

Painting them Indoors as the wind was just too much outside.





Outside to dry.





And that’s what we have.


Happy with it, certainly better than what I started with.








A few people on a few forums and FB questioned whether one could get away without the centre caps altogether.

It is a possibility. Depending on what exactly pokes through the centre bore holes.

A flat cap, and chrome wheel nuts could change the look completely.





Right.


Time to get outside and start on the front indicator reworking and tidying up.


Remember what they looked like?

Is that with or without tyres on ?

And is the ceramic removable if one wants to make a change Henry?

Not sure a sticker is the answer.

Not sure they are the answer.

May go Naked in stead

If it is to do with the chrome effect paint, you have all my sympathy grizz

Mercdan68 does have a passion for polishing.

Yes I sure do, in fact five cars got the full treatment this weekend....Rian a Saturday soon for yours ??

Well, at this point I suspect most of you have forgotten and thought I had finished fitting the LED indicators.

Wrong.

Cold and not getting it done happened.

Today and yesterday were warm days, so I got a few things done to the truck.

So this morning I started the process of tidying and wiring in the resistors and LED lamps.

Cut off .



New wires added as the bodged up U.K. MOT standard wiring is just so crappy, and throw out the day I realised that the flamed professionals we often hand out our cash to should not be allowed to eat with much more than a spoon.



Testing to ensure it all came together correctly.

Works



Then soldered and sealed up.



Then on to the second one, passenger side.

Look at all the damage where some genius cut the wires to add in the side repeaters, just incredible that two,cuts were needed.



Why an inch long extension?

Seriously.



Next up, I tried to figure what was up with the passenger side repeater that had stopped working previously.

Unravelling this lot, 3 random joins from,side repeaters to front of the truck where I was tidying up the wiring.

Again...... why?



Back to this mess on the passenger,front setup.

To see if I could figure the side repeaters out.



While I was disassembling the historical fixes, the side repeaters started to work again.

Dry joint?

I also opened and checked both rear lights, disassembled and reassembled it all.

The passenger side rear indicator bulb started to work after I pulled and refitted it.

Another mess to disassemble another day and rebuild more tidily



At this point I had tidied up, soldered and shrinked the second bulb fitting, and just wound it all together to test.

FAIL !

Now everything blinked too fast, there are small side markers in the headlights that also blinked, and inside the cab, the radio display blinked along with the indicators when the headlights were off.
If I turned on the headlights, the radio display blacked out.

Note the side light in the headlights.



ALSO.......

We now had one LED showing white and one Amber if you look closely.



Electronics are a dark art, and I just don’t get it.

So in the phone to @rider51 Henry, a long conversation, videos and him writing notes furiously.

I also tried to get hold of craigrk and mate Martin.

Martin went off on his typical explanation, he lives and breathes micro circuitry, and assumes, wrongly, I understand. Anyway, he tried bravely and I offered to kiss his butt if what he said was true. Seems I have a butt to kiss some time.

After 4 hours of working on this job from hell, I managed to get it sorted.

Martin had told me that these lamps actually have defined polarity, I disagreed, as it fits any way, and looks the same both sides.

Wrong.



The crazy thing is, over the lat few weeks these have gone in and out of my pockets many many times, and me as it seems, 99% of the time I managed to fit them correctly to create white light at rest and Amber when activated.

Randomly, after speaking with Henry and Martin, I tried the one lamp, removing and switching through 180 degrees, and believe it, the colour changed.

Then I switched the passenger side lamp around and everything changed,



Once established, I soldered and heat shrunk all the joints.

The breeze all day messed with soldering outside and also the lighter flame to do the heat shrink, maybe time to buy a little blow flame.

So in order to make it all work, I threw my painting groundsheet over my head, swore like a sailor and carried on.



Much better.



Lastly, a quick video of it all working.




Really happy that the weekend is over and actually delivered an outcome I wanted.

.

Brilliant reply and illustration Phil,

Thank you.

Yes, some people......

And the worst thing is that they take moeny for jobs that have no comeback.

I was just going to say, use a hot air gun for the heat-shrink. Much easier than burning your thumb with a lighter.