2015 Project Thread!

I have a domelight out of a '94 Mustang. It's the same one they used in a whole bunch of other Fords. Looks like a gelatinous blob, haha. It bolted right in place of my old square one. I had to run a new power wire for the map lights though. It uses the same bulb as the square one too. All 3 of them. It looks like an old school tube fuse.

I've settled on SuperbrightLEDs for the dome light, and the colored 194s for side marker lights and such. I'm going with the Putco "plasmas" for the 3157 size exterior bulbs. I'm just not comfortable with the fact that the Cree ones can't be had from a legitimate retailer. Putco claims theirs are "the brightest on the market" and have a lifetime warranty. Diode Dynamics has something similar, but the mid-grade "plasma"-type ones don't come in anything but white, and the top of the line ones are $90/pair!

Thanks for looking for those driveshafts! I'm thinking maybe a company that makes a ton of them like Denny's might be the way to go. We'll see. I'll see what they charge compared to my local place.

I got my seat upholstery from TMI. They have a TON of different options, including '01-04 Cobra, Mach 1 and Pony style! They're not the only game in town either. I can't remember what the other one is, SMS or something.

We're on track for having the tax refund by early March. I can't wait!

I was wondering if they give a cheap price on the bulb, and then stab you with the hidden charges, I don't know. yeah they are expensive!

Putco doesn't seem to sell retail from their own site. They're available a few other places though. I plan to get them from Auto Anything. I can't tell if their "plasmas" really have a projector lens on them. I think maybe they're just made to look like they do. At least the electronics are in a housing, anyway. I don't know. I may change my mind when the time comes, haha.

http://www.latemodelrestoration.com/item/SDT-LHPJMC/SVE-Projector-Headlights-Chrome-Mustang-79-86

these are the headlights I ordered

they certainly are nice looking and cheap as well. are you going with the chrome or black? hard to believe they come with bulbs as well!

Eric, have you taken the headlights out yet to see if there's room behind for bulbs to stick out and stuff? I'm a bit skeptical about that. I think if there isn't, I'll probably just take a hole saw to it, haha.

On the driveshaft front, I found out that a new aluminum one should cost me in the neighborhood of $400. That's not so bad. I was worried it was way more.

Chrome....yes a bulb and also they have a second bulb in them. The Halogen and a small.....like 194 size blue bulb as like and accessory light.
Got them yesterday and they look great. So we will see.

I have not yet taken mine out to test fit. They claim that fit all Fox cars.

Cool, that'll be sweet. You know, it occurs to me I'm going to have a bunch of extra parts after this year's projects, such as my black sport mirrors (I don't know if they'd look right on your car though). Think you might need anything Eric?

We can take a look at what you have left.

Cool.

Well, didn't get the chance to put my LEDs in Tuesday, so now i'm looking at going out in below-zero temps to do it Saturday. I just really want to get out there though. It's been too long.

Oh I know the feeling.....been far too long for me. I look at the car every day!!!

Yeah, me too.

I finally installed the Scott Drake LED instrument cluster bulb set today. I'm happy with it!

Of course, I ended up spending most of the day trying to repair where some jackass previous owner of the dash decided to rip the cluster bezel out and destroy where the two rear screws mount to the dash. I made a new bracket out of metal. Of course I mis-drilled 2 out of the 3 holes in the thing.

Oh, and I broke my headlight switch once and for all. It was a bit of a frustrating day of car work. I'm not taking that cluster bezel out EVER AGAIN. I wanted to do the HVAC control LEDs today too, but f*** that. I have to take the stupid center console out to do that, and I'm tired.

Haha, a little annoyed yesterday. Feeling better today though. Might go out and get that done today. Then I'll be ready to start the surgery on the doors for wiring.

Well, I tried to install the extra LED bulbs I have into the heater control back lighting spots and they don't fit, so I didn't get to do that. I'm going to pull the center console out so I can start wiring the power windows and locks to my switch panel on the console. And then after that, it'll be time for the surgery on the doors! I'd really like to have that done in the next month so I can focus on the more involved stuff in the spring.

On a side note, we put a deposit down on a new Fusion today! It's an SE in White Platinum Tricoat with the 1.6L and manual trans. It's loaded with just about everything I could want except the cooled seats. Those are reserved for the Titanium, I guess. I'd gladly trade that for the chance to drive a manual all the time again. All 3 cars in the garage now will be manuals! That's never happened before! Back when both our DDs were manuals, that was when I still had the AOD in the Zeph.

nice choice of color.

Thanks! It's a little bit of "Lincoln"-ness so we don't miss the Lincoln too much, haha. I did some checking and found out that the Fusion is 8 inches shorter than the G-body Regal I had, but larger in every other dimension. So that makes it pretty much my biggest car ever (not including FS Bronco, and Aviator trucks) coupled with my smallest engine ever, 1.6L. It's also my first turbo, and first 6-speed manual. The Foci are 5-speeds.

It'll be really nice to not have to stand on a ladder to wash the car, too! What can i say, i'm just not a truck guy.

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by the led interior, they can be a pain in the back side to diagnose when they go wrong, but the later ones seem ok. I like the style of the car as well. they are pretty reliable so long as you use the correct oil & filters, beware of cheap stuff, I cant name brands, but i'm certain you are familiar with them. the turbo's like good semi-synthetic or synthetic oil. rumor has it that some cheaper filters block up early due to over filtration which leads to oil starvation, and as you know turbo's like good clean oils to cool them down.we don't see many problems with them at all. good solid car...
I hope you get many years of trouble-free service from it. I'll see if I can find a super-high cowl hood with some racing stripes!!!!!
I just changed almost all the lights in my house over to led, it only cost about $225, yes it may seem like a lot of dough, but the savings will soon recoup the expenditure, and all bulbs have a 3yr warr. they come on instantly with clean warm light.
the weather here sucks, cold in the mornings, hot in the afternoons, or hot most of the day, next week we should be getting some colder weather, but not like you guys get.

Yeah, I always use the recommended Motorcraft part synthetic oil and a Motorcraft filter. I remember hearing something about carbon build-up on the pistons with the EcoBoost engines, so I'll do a little research into that, and then there was the engine fire recall for the 1.6s. Do you know anything about either of those?

Yeah, no thanks on the cowl hood, haha.

The wife wants to change the house to LED gradually and let the bulbs we have burn out on their own. Seems fair.

I pulled my double-din stereo out of the Lincoln yesterday, and test fit it in the Zeph. It's a no go, I think. Just like you said, since they angle upward, the floor interferes. My old stereo in there does work, I was just hoping to use this one for the phone connectivity and all that. Maybe i'll try putting it up for sale and see if it sells. if it doesn't, maybe i'll improvise a way to make it fit.

It's been ridiculously cold here for what seems like forever. Hardly any snow though, which is lame. It snows just enough to be a nuisance, and then all melts within a week. If it's going to be winter, I at least want to see some snowbanks! But, nope, we've got nothing.

Yeah the coolant or oil leaks caused those fires on early models due to overheating I think, I never did that recall myself; but that was the early models.
I never realized there were so many different shapes/sizes of household bulbs, and I can’t afford to make mistakes with wrong sizes/shapes so do your research on them before you buy. For the most part CFL bulbs will do the job, however they do take some time to warm-up. There are advantages to both CFL & LED over halogen; I just said “bollocks” and went LED with the whole house as I could not imagine having those curly bulbs in the bathroom lights above the sink like my friend jay did!
Today I have a meeting with the parts manager to finalize the deal on the LED bulb distributorship from you know who……..This will take the load off of me having to risk my own capitol and time and will also lower the initial cost by 30% to give more room for profit; along with having some nice cool display units. We just need an expert in the parts dept who can take over the job. I’m doing a stage II light upgrade to the 2015 mustang for the show room on Tuesday or Wednesday. Then we have a bunch more to do on some older and newer cars. I’m kinda burned out on them, even after doing the demonstration in the workshop, most people want them, but don’t want to part with the cash just yet and have to save-up, others just buy everything.
There’s a load of stereo’s that will fit your mustang dash, however I don’t need half the crap that comes with them. I just wanted radio, cd, aux & usb, I don’t need Bluetooth GPS, rear camera ETC. I started looking into upgrading mine, then started to freak-out at all the options/components that were needed, like I don’t want to have to run an amplifier to make the system work, and I don’t want to drop a grand into A $250 car that I bought 10 years ago, then I decided to go to Walmart and check them out. Clarity/sobriety go a long way…………

Yeah, my head was really spinning when I was trying to find the right bulbs for the fixture we have over our dining room table. It uses these globe-shaped ones with a candelabra base. it's hard to tell if you're looking at the right ones online because there are so many different sizes of globe-shaped ones. The only LED ones I was able to find for that size are these ones where the bottom half of the globe is the heat sink, so it doesn't shine downward enough to light up the bowl shaped glass part. It just didn't look right, so I gave up on LEDs for those for now. It sucks because the incandescent bulbs that go there only last a year! There's ALWAYS one burnt out!

Your job sounds really cool. I'd love to do the jobs you do in a shop.

I know I have more options in a stereo. It's just too bad because I already had this one. It's sold already, by the way, haha. For many head units, you really don't NEED an amp. I just like to have one/some because I'm a stereo guy. All the speakers but the sub in the Lincoln were powered by the head unit, and it sounded good!

I think i'll wait a while until the ones that use your phone's operating system come down in price. The aftermarket is already producing them, while the OEMs are a good year away.

Our tax refunds showed up yesterday and today! Time to spend some money on the carrrrr!!!!!

I would like to put LET's in my Fairmont.
Brighter dash would be great but I want new gauges any how.
I want to brighten the taillights and make them more evenly light too.
We are getting a huge tax return.....but not sure how it will get spent. We need a new furnace and A.C.for the house and we been remodeling....so new carpet would be great. We also could pay off our new camper we bought last summer or my Mustang.....we have not had our Honeymoon yet either.....
I have lots of choices but none that are for the car.
I did get some cash on a side job finally and have some future side work coming...so I'm hoping I get to use it on the car. Tho I need some tool pouches for work.....those soak up a couple hundred bucks.

LET'S = LEDS ^ .....Damn phone