Loud & Low 8th Gen Civic - UBL #3 - The Final Chapter - Up to date

[scooter99]

So with that settled, I decided to make another mount. Obviously I didn't want to go with wood.

Got it all put together, and then the rivets in the middle are simply for spacers. Otherwise the fuse holders were tilting toward the middle on each other.

Quick view.

The bottom of the angle metal had to be removed. It was in the way. Even with it gone, it's still pretty stout.

Side view before removing the bottom.

After removing the bottom, I got it mounted to the front cross member metal, via taping holes and screws.

Then I marked the holes on the holders, and drilled and tapped those.

Holders mounted. For now. I'll remove them later to paint.

Temporarily in place.

Time for the other side holder.

Drilled and tapped those.

And mounted it.

Here it is in place. Again, the holder will be removed when I paint.

Down on the bottom right of the holder, you can see where I used the old stock air intake mount. Worked out well!

So that's what I got done the last two days. I'm about ready to start running cable tomorrow. I'll start cutting cable and making them look good, etc, and then I'll be pulling the aluminum pieces and getting them painted. My hope is to have the cable run, pieces painted, and power to the back of the car and the car started by end of day tomorrow.

Much much more to come! Thanks for checking in!

[scooter99]

Ok let's get this party started.

Today's supplies. 1 spool of SHCA OFC 2/0, 1 Spool of SHCA OFC 1/0, 1 spool of SHCA OFC 4ga, lots of 2/0, 1/0, 4ga lugs, SHCA Shrink, Techflex, SHCA fuse holders, 250a fuses, 300a fuses and some soldering goods. Not pictured, are the SHCA 2/0 sexiness fuse holders.

First things first I decided to go ahead and make a buss bar to come right off the alt. There just isn't a ton of room in the engine bay and I figure this would clean things up quite a bit. So I cut one to the length I needed after marking where each lug will go. 1 2/0 to the front battery fuse holder, 1 2/0 to the passenger side rear battery bank fuse holder, 1 2/0 to the driver side rear battery bank fuse holder, 1 4ga to the starter, and 2 4ga to the oem fuse box. Then I drilled out the hole for the post on the alt. I was able to get it on there, but it was difficult.

So I decided to use this and put a little 45* edge on the hole. This will allow for the socket to get in there and stay on it to tighten the nut.

Now that will buy me some room for tightening.

Then I got it on and tightened up nicely. Next order of business is to drill out the holes.

Keeping in mind I only have a drill press I bought for $20 at Harbor Freight, I don't have toolmaker tools or project db tools to do this with. So it's obviously not going to be as nice as theirs. But it'll work. I started drilling out each hole with a pilot hole. Why? So that when I go to put the right sized bit in there, it has a hole to center off of which is in the right spot not trying to guess or have to get down and look really close as to where the big bit is supposed to hit.

Then I go back with the bigger bit, and it's smooth and quick work. Centers itself on the pilot hole, and bam, done!

Then I took it over to my bench grinder with the wire brush wheel and cleaned it up a bit. I like this brushed look personally. I could polish it up probably, but when it's going ot be covered by the beautiful copper lugs, and also get filthy under the hood, I don't want to put all that effort in for that.

Next I grabbed my tap, 1/4-20, and tapped all the holes.

The ridges of the 45 I did on the main post hole, weren't sitting well with me. So I grabbed my dremel with a grinding stone and cleaned her up.

After

Put her back on, and now it's time to get to wiring. This should be fun!!

[scooter99]

First of the big 3. Old 1/0 Tsunami Comp cable on top. New 2/0 SHCA OFC cable on the bottom. Little bit of a difference huh! LOL

Then dressed it up with some techflex and heat shrink. Now I did not get any orange SHCA shrink. So I decided I had some orange here in the shop. I'll just use it instead. Doesn't say SHCA, but that's ok. The rest of the shrink will.

Cable #2

Oh did I mention that i'm putting all the ends on the bench grinder? Yes, giving all the ends a brushed look to them. Cleans them up nicely.

So the first cable is on, up on the upper left there, and that goes to the back of the engine bay (THAT WAS FUN, EFF YOU HONDA), and the second goes from that same mounting spot on the block, to the alt you can see on the bottom right there.

Closer look.

Both cables closer look.

Here's the effed up spot in the back. I couldn't get my big arm in there and see where I was trying to screw it in at the same time. Plus hold that heavy wire. So I dropped the screw about 6 times before I finally got it, and then yelled out EFF YOU I WIN!!! BITCH!

Then it was time to start on the positive cable runs. Since I was on that side of the bay, I just went that route. Got the fuse holders back on and the front cross member bar. Then I got the first positive 2/0 cable ran from the buss bar to the fuse holder.

You can see how well this SHCA 2/0 bends. Very very well. I'm impressed. That Tsunami 1/0 wouldn't bend like this, and it was smaller.

The view from behind the blocks, and straight down on the buss bar. 1 down, 5 to go.

Got the second one put on. Why are they going in different directions you may ask? Well because the one on the top goes to the front battery which is across the bay. The one on the bottom goes to the rear passenger side battery bank in the trunk.

Got the front battery cable made up and on.

Connection to the front battery. Should only be two connections on this terminal. This 2/0 connection, and then the headlight connection, which you'll not really see because it will be under this.

[scooter99]

Next I got the cable for the third fuse holder put on. You may also notice that I swapped the positions on the other holders. It just worked out better for the front battery holder to be up front. it looks cleaner and routing was much easier.

Close up. Now this fuse holder is for the driver side rear battery bank.

These are not attached yet. That bar needs to be painted so I wanted to wait to zip tie these on it until that's done. But this is close to what it will look like.

3 down, 3 to go.

Next I had to address the fuse box. pull the holder off, and this exposes the screws for the power to the box. One for the alt, and the other is for the box, I guess, to power the vehicle components.

Old cables. I could have tried to save those ends, that screw to the box, but they had already been soldered and bent before. So I made it so I could just use new copper lugs on this one.

I can't remember who suggested this, taking the thinner solder and winding it up to make a bigger solder, but thanks. I saw it on one of the build threads and asked about it, I just can't remember which one it was. Good tip. It worked well.

Got the 4 ga cables on, and routed across the top cowl. I wasn't really wanting to run any more across the front of the motor on the cross member and this makes it look really good I think.

Got them installed on the box.

5 down 1 to go. Last is the starter.

This is what I took out. I soldered a piece of 4ga Tsunami on to it last time. If I could honestly get to the starter, I'd just replace it all the way back there. But the starter is an absolute pain to get to, and I don't have time for that right now. Maybe in the future.

So I soldered some new SHCA OFC 4ga on and dressed it up.

Then added it to the top 4ga I already put up.

6 out of 6 done.

Got the grounds done on the other side, turns it into the Big 4. 2 grounds on the other side, and 2 on this side.

This one for the battery had to be done under the tray. It was a biotch to do. Also lost a bolt to the tray so I'll have to locate that. But the other ground goes directly under this one on the bottom leg mounts of the tray. Then to the block.

[scooter99]

Cleaned up a bit and finished look at the wiring.

Resting at 12.84v

Started her up, and she's at 14.58v with the lights on and the ac blowing. Much better. I don't have anything to put more load on it. But I'll get that taken care of here very soon.

Daytime shots.

So that's it. Today I need to pull the aluminum pieces and the battery tray and get them painted. Once that's done, I can get this stuff installed in it's final spot and all tied down.

Not sure if I'll get my runs to the back done today or not. I doubt it. I'll have more soon.

I go back to work on Thursday, so things are going to slow down a bit unfortunately. But I'm going to try and do a little bit every afternoon. I'll be getting off work earlier (2:30pm) so I may have an hour or two to work on it at night. My goal still stands of playing by Autorama in February.

Thanks for tuning in!

[scooter99]

So I did some looking and testing and searching on the runs to the back. Sorry I didn't take many pics leading up to this, but it finally hit me that this was presumably going to work, so I decided to start off with the pics here. While I had dropped the front of the car, only to lift the passenger side of it, to get the front to back runs done, it just wasn't setting well with me that they were going to be exposed. When I got under the vehicle, yes I fit shut it, I thought to myself, "I wonder if I could go through the inside of the frame rail instead of next to it. Then I wouldn't need conduit to protect it. Then I looked down the edge of the car, and low and behold I found about 15 grommets that went all the way down. So this that you're seeing, is a "fish stick". It's like a fish tape for electrical except its straight and fiberglass and flexible. I use it all the time and love this thing.

I managed to get it all the way through with minimal turning, which was the point because if this could fit through pretty straight, then the cable could do the same. It was a challenge because there are a few walls in through the middle there, like under the door jamb, etc. So I had drilled out a hole in front, which you saw the red flash light, and I drilled the hole on the left side there you see next to the stick. I also drilled that hole because there is a pretty significant turn there to get to the back hole, and the stick just wouldn't turn that hard. However I knew there was enough room for the cable to.

So next I took some roamex, and taped it to the end of the stick.

Then fed it through the hole

And out the other end. Then I took the stick off, and pushed the roamex back into that small hole, and then fished it over to the larger hole. Now I have a make shift "fish tape" to pull the cable through. May not seem like much, but this took the better part of 2 hours to get done.

Next, at the front of the car, i taped up the roamex, which I stripped out down to one single strand of wire, to make less bulk, to the 2/0 cable. This was going to take an extra hand.

My extra hand. Isn't she beautiful! That's my daughter back off assholes!!!!

With the help of my daughter, we got it fed through! SUCCESS!!!!!

The entry point. Flash light there on the right.

Not the greatest pic but this is how it will route.

Up around the wheel well, and then through the front frame.

And into the fuse holder.

[scooter99]

It kind of hit me when I was looking at the oem grommet, That if i cut the middle out, it'd be a tight fit, but it may just work! So I did it.

And it worked!!! Now unfortunately, if I'd have used a little smaller bit for the other holes, like you see on the right there, I'd have been able to use it in the front and back. But because this is the oem hole, where the grommet came from, it fits here, but not in the back. I'll have to get creative.

So I techflexed it, and added some shrink, which I need more of. Now it's time to attach it.

I have these metal holders, but I didn't want the metal on the cable. So I had a thought.

Metal bracket, meet heatshrink.

Heatshrink and metal bracket hook up

Heat was added and now they're one! This will do me nicely!

So I routed the cable up and around.

Finding a spot to screw to was a biotch. I was having all sorts of problems. Turns out, the corner was the best place to go. None of this will be seen, but i'll go ahead an fill it with silicone and clean it up before I cover it up.

Here it is, shrinked up and in the holder.

Got the holes cleaned up, and painted the new hole to prevent rust. I'm going to have to see if I can find a grommet of some sort to fill it.

Front of the well. Now I had to remove the top of the wheel well because of how the tires sit, with it lowered, and big wheels. I had some rubbing issues up front. So I cut them out. I had the intention of fiberglassing a new one up there that I could screw to the metal, but I never did it. So you can see a bit of the cable on the upper right. But it's all good and out of the way. NO chance of getting hit by the wheel, and is sitting behind metal all the way around so it's pretty blocked and protected.

[scooter99]

Moving on to the back. I had to get creative. I didn't have a grommet, nothing soft that I could use anyway. Although I may redo this, and use some carlon flex tubing. A piece of 3/4" pvc fits nice and snug around the cable and flex. Not shrink on top though. SO I shrinked behind it, so it wouldn't slide back, and then over shrinked in front in case it did slide in the hole. Although I don't anticipate it being able to once the bracket is on it.

Then I slide a longer one on, and more shrink in front of it to prevent sliding.

Bent it up into place through the hole, and then secured it with another bracket.

Painted it black to hide it a bit.

Here's where it comes through. The PVC sticks up about a half inch. Protected from each hole. This side is covered up with the deadener.

Then back to the back where it will go on the buss bar for the battery rack.

So there it is. Passenger side all done, and as you can see, the 4" in the back where it goes up into the cabin, is the only spot where it's exposed. I can live with that. Now, I have to tackle the driver side tomorrow. This was a bear!!

Next I stripped everything out that needed to be painted. I did remove that one on the right there, cable, and I think I'll go ahead and replace that one. I tried to solder that one, and not thinking, with it soldered, the set screw doesn't sink all the way down beyond flush, so the top cover won't go on now. SO I'll probably just make a new one and call it good.

Got all the aluminum pieces set up and ready to primer.

For this I'm using some self etching primer. Partly because it's what I have, but it's made to stick to metal.

First of a few coats.

Battery tray.

Oem battery tray

Cross member rail, and fuse holders. So I'll let these dry tonight, then I'll paint them in the morning. I don't need them in the car now to do the driver side. I know where that cable goes, and quite frankly, I can't get the cable in there with that holder in place anyway.

So that's about it today. More tomorrow. I still have grounds to do in the back, and the driver side front to back run.

I also got in the dash kit for the tablet install. Not sure when I'll start that.

I also took that last part out today, the radiator part that was cracked. They sent me the wrong damn gasket, so I'm gonna have to figure something out. This car has to be on the road no later than Wednesday night.

Tomorrow is going to be a full day I think. We'll see what it brings.

[scooter99]

First things first, Happy New Year to everyone! I hope 2014 brings joy, happiness and db's to everyone!

Ok onto the work!!

Today started off with painting the parts. Primed them with 3 coats of self etching last night. Today everything was dry, so I hit it with a coat of color match (to my car exterior) first thing this morning.

New battery tray

Oem Tray

Fuse holders and brackets.

Also did a couple of other pieces too. Just to dress things up a bit.

No, I didn't put hydraulics in, I got the driver side jacked up and ready for the front to back run.

She's sittin pretty high.

Got the wheels off.

Then pulled all the grommets.

I didn't have my daughter today, so I had to do this on my own. Driver side was trickier than the passenger side I did yesterday. But at the end, I managed.

I did have to drill one extra hole. Oh well, i can fill that in. I had to because there's a brace in there that wasn't on the other side. I was going off of what I did on the passenger side. Looked in the grommet hole, the one on the bottom left, and it was solid so I couldnt see anything. So I drilled the right side, only to see a bracket there. Then I had to drill the upper left side to get a good view. I'll figure out how to fix it all up. No worries.

Instead of the roamex, i decided to use some Paracord today. It's thin, slick, and should work out much better. For $3, why not.

So I taped that to the stick.

And pulled it through. It slid through sooooo much easier than the roamex. Thankfully cause like I said I didn't have any extra hands.

I got so busy with getting it ready, I didn't take a before pic of the cable. But you get the idea. I taped it up a bit differently this time. I stripped about 3" of outer shield off, and then put the cord through the middle of the strands. So it was centered on the cable. Then taped it really tight, and then wrapped the left overs on the end around the area that I stripped and taped it. This made it 10000 x's better because where the cord went, the cable went. One of the issues I had yesterday pulling the cable through, was that the roamex was taped on one side of the outside shield. Not in the middle. SO it got hung up on the insides of the rail. This went so smoothly I can't even tell you.

Here's the front.

[scooter99]

This is the spot under the rear seat, on the sides. There's a ton of room under there, so I knew that I could have some slack through and make a good bend without being too sharp.

Got my hole drilled.

I went to Depot this morning before I got started, and picked up some carlon flex tubing. I'm considering changing the other side to this instead of what I made with the PVC. But I'll have to see if I have time for that. I think the pvc will work fine, but I think this will work so much better and protect it better. This is thick stuff.

So in order to get the cable through this, it's 3/4" and almost an exact ID width, I sprayed some lubricant in there. Slid right through.

Here you can see there's quite a bit inside the rail so there's plenty of protection.

There's also about 1/2" sticking through the cabin.

Bought this little organizer this morning as well for the lugs and shrink etc. This makes life so much easier.

Got the cable all flexed up and shrunk at the entrance point. The end I taped up because I'm not 100% sure where I need it to be just yet.

Flexed and shrunk and ready to go.

Put a couple brackets on it to secure it.

And like the other side, I painted it black.