73 POLARIS E3 BUILD...Slowly..

the only question is whether you need 5 rolls or 10. i bought 5, then i ordered another 5. i am mostly done and i still have a few rolls left. oh, one other thing you should buy - some vinyl tubing from Dave's Volvo Page / Prancing Moose website. i used a fair amount of 3/16" and 1/4". 1/8" is fine for a single wire, as long as its not a long wire ... there is too much friction trying to push a long wire through it. i probably bought / used about 20' of both sizes. i bought some of a few larger sizes as well but didn't use as much of them.

 
Wow, 10 rolls? Did you do a full wrap on the wires or the spaced out wrap to still see the wire colors?
 
Make sure the heat rating of any tape is up to the task of either being in an engine bay or inside the car. Very few things are more terrible than the "goo" that is left on wiring when you have to remove the tape or it starts to melt away. Normal electrical tape and even some of the cloth tapes (like when people use the hockey tape stuff) turns into that goo.
 
Make sure the heat rating of any tape is up to the task of either being in an engine bay or inside the car. Very few things are more terrible than the "goo" that is left on wiring when you have to remove the tape or it starts to melt away. Normal electrical tape and even some of the cloth tapes (like when people use the hockey tape stuff) turns into that goo.
excellent recommendation - yes, x-fasten (in the link) is an automotive wire harness tape. this is the tape our resident professional uses. most things close to the engine block / head, i put in vinyl tubing. completely agree with you about removing the goo left from electrical tape - went through a bottle of 'goo gone' PITA and messy.

Wow, 10 rolls? Did you do a full wrap on the wires or the spaced out wrap to still see the wire colors?
i did the full cover, engine compartment, trunk and inside the car, leaving the ends of the wires (going into connectors) exposed so i can see the colors ... or have a piece of vinyl tube that i can slide over to see (if necessary). the harness going from the battery to the firewall is full wrap the whole way until it is inside and then you have loose wires going into the fusebox. there are, of course, exception - when you have wires connecting to the battery, they are red wires and they might be all covered.
 
If you're comfortable de-pinning connectors, using the braided wire loom with heat shrink at the ends looks really good also.
That would be really slick..What’s the best de-pinning tool for our connectors? There really aren’t many, I guess.. it would be nice to undo them just clean them up completely..
 
I can get you lots of de-pinning tools at work (from Amphenol or Tyco Electronics). If you can send me the wire gauge or pin diameters...

Actually, a close-up photo of the connectors would be useful too.
 
I can get you lots of de-pinning tools at work (from Amphenol or Tyco Electronics). If you can send me the wire gauge or pin diameters...

Actually, a close-up photo of the connectors would be useful too.
Much appreciated! I actually just found a cheap set that’ll probably work..I think it could be useful to at least get the gunk out of the insides of the plugs..:-). I just keep adding projects to the build..lol
 
What’s the speedo cable solution for the 5 spd conversion on our cars? I guess it’s about 4” longer or so?
 
I think I read that a bunch of people were actually able to use the standard cable? Interesting.
 
I'd think the cable for the auto transmission is spec'ed because of concerns that using the 4 speed cable on a longer 5 speed trans may put too sharp a bend in the cable promoting premature failure. I haven't tested that as I haven't installed the Getrag 265/6 yet and when I was buying parts, I went by the list and bought the auto cable.
 
Last of 4 coats of padded dash filler. Light sand and I’ll respray with SEM satin black. I believe I’ll try to use an old piece of vinyl for texture adding... Also got the passenger side doors and glass in! Headliner installed, carpet back in. 0/1 ga wire run from trunk to engine bay for battery relocation. Soon I’ll finish washing the underside (had to replace the pump on my pressure washer), then paint underside and start assembling sub frames. Still need to rebuild the diff..(just ordered seals and bearings for that and the rear wheel hubs)
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Stephen, i used one of the texture pads from SEM - right on the wet paint before it sets up. spray a small area + press the pad on it. i also used the padded dash filler along with the vinyl welding - ground out the cracks, filled it with vinyl welding - then the padded dash filler + sanded smooth.
 
Stephen, i used one of the texture pads from SEM - right on the wet paint before it sets up. spray a small area + press the pad on it. i also used the padded dash filler along with the vinyl welding - ground out the cracks, filled it with vinyl welding - then the padded dash filler + sanded smooth.
Ah, very nice! Yeah, everything is smooth now, but I think I’ll just make a pad from some of the car’s vinyl that came off the under dash pads that I’m rebuilding. That should hopefully get a solid match.

Yeah, that sounds like a good plan for applying it.. I’ll spray each patch lightly to get the texture evened out, then overall spray the dash..
definitely better than spending what I paid for the car to get the dash redone..LOL.
 
the only issue that i see is that you will get a reverse of the vinyl - where the grain is in the vinyl you will get a ridge instead of a recess. in the SEM kit, there are about 6 or so different textures so you can pick one that is closest. i've got them if you want to borrow them. i know which one i used because it has black paint on it.
 
the only issue that i see is that you will get a reverse of the vinyl - where the grain is in the vinyl you will get a ridge instead of a recess. in the SEM kit, there are about 6 or so different textures so you can pick one that is closest. i've got them if you want to borrow them. i know which one i used because it has black paint on it.
Ahhhh, never thought of it that way. Much appreciated! I’m not sure when I could get out to you to pick it up. I’ll do a test piece with the scraps I have and see if it looks goofy..
 
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