This is an update as of November 2021 as the car comes together for the last time.

Link to tail-lights here

Headlights had orange globes so had to change to clear for parkers. I bought USA reflectors and had thought using the orange park and turn in the headlight might be a good idea but really it looks dodgy.

When I took the headlights apart, after restoring them and wrapping them in bubble wrap 10 years ago I was surprised to find them full of cockroach shit.

Those headlight brackets are extremely hard to find as they snapped off when driven on currugated roads. New studs are truck exhaust studs.

I was lucky to find an old bloke Cecil Nuxall who made these trumpets. He lived in Seattle and was 83 at the time. When I had the 90 deg bend chromed they filled the thread. It was a wierd size so I shipped them both to Cecil who had the tap and die required and he fixed the threads and sent them back. That was more than 10 years ago. The bracket that holds the horn was bent and rusted so I drew them up in CAD and had new ones lasercut in stainless, then polished and assembled them. Very time consuming.

I bought these 2 bike headlights of DX.com and bypassed the switches. I am using them as reversing lights by installing a USB connector wired into the reverse circuit. They are really small and will hide up underneath the rear panel.

Battery box and switch made to fit. It has a hole in corner to vent under car.

This looks messy. I started with a Holden Statesman harness when I first built this car as I was using the supercharged V6 in that carnation. Since the Hemi update I kept this and added the Dodge PCM, plus a lot of extras like suicide lock pins, rear A/C, auto cowl vent circuit, variable power steering and more. This is all located behind the drivers seat. The middle seat faces rearward and the battery and wiring is between the seats.

I cut out the dash and made it tilt to make it easier to work on and service. The upper dash is CNC cut from 20 mm aluminium and contains all the A/C and heater controls, radio, rear view video screen and warning lights, and more. This would otherwise have cluttered up the dash. Anodising it black makes it dissappear. The CNC programming and cutting cost $853 10 years ago, and I had spent many hours on the design in CAD before that !!

The rear A/C is behind the rear seat and I have reversed the function of the switch which is way up front in the upper panel. I didn't want to run 4 fat wires down to the rear. Instead of supplying power in each of the 4 speeds I ran a hot wire to the rear from the fuse panel behind the seat and a built a bank of 4 relays and then used the switch to earth out each relay to control fan speed. This saves the switch and also votage drop over 5 metres. I had a problem getting the wires across the back floor and under the seat so I dropped them under the car and back up again. I made these clamps to allow all the connectors to fit through and also to seal it all. There are a lot of wires here, fuel pump and guage, rear lights, rear speakers and amp, rear door locks and power windows, and purge solonoid.

With the dash folded back up and the top panel in place I can see the final product for the first time. Red switch near centre switches from rear camera to LHS camera. Blue switch raises and lowers cowl vent with Toyota Supra headlight motor. It will open anytime automatically when the A/C is turned on.

The original car did not have RH glovebox so I made one. This hides these controls which are for speed control of central locking and suicide pins, speedo signal conversion for cruise control and power steering, and also the digital readout for the gearshift. 3 of the 4 buttons are for manual engine fan, cruise on-off and trans overdrive lockout. Still looking for a use for the 4th one. I had to solder all the wires to each switch before installing them so I used a plugable connector so I can remove the assembly without rewiring. The LED lights around the outside were super-bright so I scrounged these resistors from my parts box and found that 3 of them gave me a softer light.

Hiding up top are buzzers for suicide lock pins and fuel pump disabling circuit. Screws look untidy but life is short.

This is the 81 Toyota Crown power steering controller. Very primitive circuitry that was easy to trace as I had no instructions.

Click here for tail-lamps

Below dates to about 2012.

I bought some Harley aftermarket turn signal lamps, stupid things had double contact globes in them so had to change all of that to fit

the single pin LED globes.

Also had to make pedestals and then re-route the wire. It originally came out way at the back of the light so I drilled another hole,

now it goes down the pedestal.

I also added these tubes to the bottom of the bumper irons to hide the wires. Look good now that they are black.

I reckon the lights match up really well.

I wanted to keep my dashboard clean so decided to put all the A/C and heater controls, headlight switch, radio, reverse camera display and warning lights etc up above the windscreen. I chose common switches that click into place and then drew a layout in CAD. It was then CNC machined in a router at Miles Plastics Caloundra.

Here are a few pics:

Test fitted a few of the parts today. It will be anodised black so it will all dissappear.

Left to right, the round hole is for a Chrysler emblem stolen from a 300 hubcap. Toyota radio is shallow, only about 1.1/2 in deep. Hazard sw, rear heater fan and temp control, video camera display, red switch toggles between the LH side camera and the rear camera. Above are two panels for warning lights, you can see the decals sitting just above. Then front A/C - heater control, then rear A/C control with climate return air temp controller. Blue switch is for cowl vent (Celica headlight motor), then headlight switch. 3 leds above are for A/C clutch and solonoids.

Fits neatly above and in easy view from drivers seat.

Mistake in what I thought happened when the headlight switch was fitted. Obvious with hindsight but it is the only error. In reality it is actually better as the bottom of the switch would have hit the retaining screw otherwise. The LEDS are snug.

Rear is where the hard work was done, getting all the recesses correct took a lot of time.

Today (Aug 5th 2013) I got the rest of the CNC parts. These are a light boxes to hold the globes for the warning lights.

Decals from a Statesman dash have been cut up and go in the slot first, the light box holds them in place. Holden dash globe holders fit each.

Remember, the alloy will all be anodised black.

The single hole light box is for the fan switch decal (x 3), shown fitted in place.

Also got a cover made for the 6 way power seat switch

Got my dash annodised black. Partly assembled it to see how it looks.

The rear side showing the light boxes annodised silver for reflection. The fan decal is from commodore cut to suit.

This is the final asseembly ready to install. The wiring harness is ready to go, just have to add the bulb holders to the ends of the wires.

This is the window switch and equaliser panel that goes on the front edge of the bench seat.

Talights