The angry pig

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Looks great, the individual letters are stick on?
 
This is going painfully slow, last of the parts showed up this afternoon so I popped out to the shop to finish the dash wiring.

I found some lights that fit the switch holes and used them as indicators for the headlights and light bar, I can pull them out and add switches if needed later for an accessory, rock light or whatever I think I need at the time.

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All the Speed Hut plugs are kind of a debacle but once the dash is installed I’ll forget about how much they bother me.

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I was going to wrap all the wires in a loom but decided to just tie them up with a few zipties to make it easier to trouble shoot an issue or add a circuit later.
 
I started with the wiring the car had when I bought it and cut everything out I didn’t need or want then started adding the new circuits branching out to the proper locations on my car.


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Mostly done now, I added two EATON/ Bussmann Mini Fuse/Relay Power Distribution Modules, a mini RTMR in the rear with relays for the fans and fuel pump and a larger RFMR on the firewall for everything else. I’m trying something different on this for harness wrap and I’m double wrapping it with Elliott ETN1000E PVC Wire Harness tape then going over the top with Elliott ET935 Automotive Engine Wire Harness Tape High Abrasion OEM Wrap, the ET935 compares to the Tesa Wire Loom Harness Tape I used on my other pig wiring and is very difficult to cut. Time will tell but this appears to be a good system to protect the wires.
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I hit a bit of a road block due to my lack of knowledge and not taking the time to fully research the proper parts. The plan is to make this a street legal “FJ55 race car” and working DOT lights, blinkers and brake lights will help me plead my case that it’s “street legal” and fits the “Idaho Classic” criteria every time I get pulled over. (Yes it’s a grey area and no I’m not building this to be a daily driver, but it does and will continue to be driven short distances on public roads)

DOT headlights and brake lights seemed to be straight forward and easy but without a steering column I had to use some form of electronic self-canceling module. With a bit of searching I found the Signal Dynamics Self-Canceling Turn Signal Module and it seemed like it would work for my needs so I ordered one and wired everything to accommodate it. The issue came when I was bench testing the dash and unfortunately I realized tying running lights, brake lights, and blinkers into this module wasn’t an option after the harness & dash was completed. Self Canceling Turn Signal Module™

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I was forced to take the time to learn what I didn’t know and luckily it was a fairly simple fix, I ordered a Signal Dynamics Penta-Star XP Module and only needed to remove about 120 of the 500 zip ties to add the three extra wires to separate the front running/blinkers from the rear running/blinker/brake lights. The reason I’m rambling on about this debacle is I wish I would have known about this slick little module when I was fighting with the factory wiring harness on my other PIG as this would have solved 90% of my issues at the time and I hope someone might find it useful.

Penta-Star™ XP Module

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Getting close now, dash is stuck in its hole, engine starts so another day or two buttoning things up and I can start tearing the front end apart to replace the broken axle.
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Replaced both front axles with new Spidertrax 300M shafts, machined new bushings for the CTM U-Joints and added an air locker to the front end. Finished up a few lose ends and took it for a quick test drive with one of the grandbabies, I believe mechanically I’m in pretty good shape now and hope to start on adding the pig sheet metal in the next month or so.
 
Were you having problems with the old axles?



Kind of……

This car had GearWorks spools front and rear when I bought it. Super cool for a race car but suck for driving around like I do with this car so I wanted to add air lockers front and rear, the axles need to be shorter for an air locker than a spool and with the expense of the new axles and the low priority of this car I decided wait until I broke them before putting the lockers in.

Last year I broke the rear axle doing monster truck donuts in my back yard and made the changes then, this year I broke the front axle driving like Tim Cameron up a big rocky section so it kind of forced my hand to get this done.
axle.jpg
 
Toyota purest might want to look away now.











OK if you’re still with me I had a few minutes of free time today so I decided to start fitting some pig skin.

I had to remove 7” from the rear and 11” from the front of the hood.
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Chop off the old bumper to make room.
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Test fit hood and start making plans to mount the side panels.

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Looks like you're in the "if some is good, more is better and too much is just about right" school rather than "measure twice, cut once."
 
Looks like you're in the "if some is good, more is better and too much is just about right" school rather than "measure twice, cut once."

Basically I’m lazy don’t have enough time or care to do it right and know the first time I yard sale it down the side of a mountain it’s going to get beat up so I’m in just get it done mode and I’ll deal with making it pretty later. Who knows I might even have it wrapped in a Nebula green/ White shiny wrap and start driving it responsibly.

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