Thread: You guys are the worst

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I consider a proper printed circuit board to be made of something more durable than mylar. I certainly don't like them when they de-laminate.

Does anyone have a recommendation for dash restoration?

Take lots of pictures, even with little titles of what you're looking at in that picture. And are you removing the dash completely? ( or as much as allowed?) And are you doing this to repair/replace wires and components? A Trans Am will be a bear to do in car I'd think. I wouldn't look forward to that task!

Originally Posted by firebird77clone

Does anyone have a recommendation for dash restoration?

If you Google "Firebird Dash Restoration" you'll find a bunch of sites offering full restoration services or restoration parts. I can't vouch for or criticize any of them, as I've never owned a Firebird. The closest I've come is buying parts for Fiero seats.

Ok, today I went on a ground hunt. I started in the trunk, I knew there were two in there. They were both painted, so out came the Dremel, and I stripped to bare steel.

Under the hood, found a ground front driver side, same thing. Then, I believe I found the culprit. Just behind the air cleaner, just below the main chassy ground which I already did, is a double-wire ground, same same.
Now the volts Guage started working, very nice. Fuel guage still inop, pegged past full. A quick check with a 9V battery shows the Guage good, so the sending unit is now suspect. A light spray of clear matt enameling the ground lugs so nothing rusts, and the ground issues should be gone for good.

I fully disassembled the Guage cluster, cleaned everything. For the clock I alternated blasts of contact cleaner and some quality spray lube. Cleaned the solenoid contacts with fine emery cloth. For the speedometer, just a couple drops of turbine oil in the input shaft.

It appears the mylar "circuit board" suffered failure due to lube leaking from the speedometer or the rotary shaft. Cleaned it up with contact cleaner and Qtips. If I can remember to get some superglue I'll adhere the traces back into position, and reassemble.

It's interesting how these were made. Cardboard tubes for the indicator lamps, some is screwed together, some has metal tabs bent over. It is rather prominently stamped with 1126 74. Late 74 manufacture? Probably correct for the 75. Not much sign of previous hands in the dash other than the radio, whose installation is on par with the half assed work which is becoming more and more evident in the interior.

I hope the major mechanical was done to a higher standard.

So tonight I completed the speedometer assembly. Glued traces back to mylar using my 4X jewlers goggles, amozon chineezium specials with a 6" focal length, but it came out good.

Only thing is: when I was done, sitting on the desk was an old bulb package purchased many moons ago. NOT the bulb package I picked up on the way home today.

I wish those guys at CERN would stop messing with my reality.

Originally Posted by firebird77clone

I wish those guys at CERN would stop messing with my reality.

What is CERN? The European Organizatin for Nuclear Research (French "Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire") ?

Not being a smart a$$ - I have no idea what CERN is other than the nuke guys!

Thank God someone asked.

Ok, CERN refers to the supercolleider. The official mission statement is that they are trying to see just how small particles get by smashing them.

Now, put on the tinfoil cap.

The alternate discourse states that the true purpose is to merge this dimension with the next higher dimension.

Load of hooey right?

Enter the tinfoil cap theory of the Mandela effect. It states that our reality is changing.

Proof:

Do you remember Mandela dying in prison? I do. I remember it clearly because as a young teen, it didn't pertain to me, didn't affect me, and I didn't care. I remember it well.

Except he didn't die in prison. Nor did his (late) wife get into litigation over his posthumous book deals.

More: Curious George never had a tail. Except I remember clearly he was not animated as antromophic, he anatomically correct as a monkey with fully functional tail.

More: The children's book about antromophic German bears. I had all the books. Reading was important to my parents. Spelling also. Their name was a reference to their being German. Bearenstein. Get it, STEIN, as in a German bier mug? Nope. Thd author, who is still alive says it was Berenstain the whole time.

The song by Queen: We are the Champions should end with words "of the world!" Except it doesn't. So why do so many remember it as such?

What does any of this have to do with the Firdbird's Guage cluster?

Ok, I'll explain.

In final reassembly, the cluster was short one blade style bulb and plastic socket. No problem, I went to the shop and grabbed the little bucket with the blue lid where I've kept them for 30 years now. On the top, should have been a card with single bulb in it. Its been there on top of the pile, lid barely closing, for at least a decade now. Well, I didn't see it, so I dug through the whole bucket. No blade-sthle bulbs at all, but lots of sockets. So I grabbed a socket, and went to the truck. You see, on the way home, I had stopped by O'Reilly and grabbed a pack of the blade-type bulbs, and a pack of the little round bayonet-style bulbs, and put them in the pocket of the door. I grabbed the blade-style pack and proceeded to the work bench, tearing the pack open. (Normally I would cut the plastic, so the other bulb stays in the pack for safe keeping) So, I finish the assembly, using fine emery cloth to clean all bulb contacts and bulb socket contact's.

Long winded, I know, but remember I told you to put on the tinfoil cap? Here it comes:

When I'm done, there on the corner of the bench is the bulb pack I couldn't find. One bulb cut out, the other missing. Faded, edges curled, victim of a decade in a shed exposed to Georgia summer heat.

The new pack, which I CLEARLY remember getting from the truck and tearing open, nowhere to be seen.

This got my attention. I went to the truck and checked the door pocket. No new bulb packets. BUT, the receipt was crumpled up in the passenger floor board just where I put it.

The next morning at work, I opened the console, and there the bulb packets were. Unopened.

YOU choose what elements of your reality are true. Did the doo-whatsis really walk into the other room? Did someone else move the widget that YOU KNOW you left exactly there?

I'm telling you true:

Curious George has a tail.
The children's story books are properly spelled Bearenstein.
We Are the Champions ends with "of the world"
Mandela died in jail.
And I DID NOT find and use that old bulb.

I also have a good story involving a "third spring" it shouldn't have been there, then it literally disappeared before my eyes.

Anyway, thanks for asking.

Ok, go to the kitchen and take your meds! LOL, good story, I swear he's been to my place....

Well, if your shop is like mine - then you know about the black hole that resides just above the floor. Now , I've never actually seen it, but, it has to be there... well.. sometimes it's under the lathe and sometimes it is under the mill and I know this 'cause when I drop the most innocent little part it just vanishes into nothing! Never to be seen again!! Once in a while it'll get a screwdriver, but it isn't strong enough to get say a 1/2" wrench but maybe an ignition wrench I think.

Now I've talked with others and they also have this mysterious hole in their shops too. So I wonder if it is at your place too!

The black hole could explain the third spring disappearing (but not its APPEARING)

But


It doesn't come close to explaining the bulb pack.

It's not a black hole. it's a SHOP hole and I know I have one too. I believe it's linked to all the holes they've drilled on Oak Island..

Originally Posted by firebird77clone

Thank God someone asked.

Ok, CERN refers to the supercolleider. The official mission statement is that they are trying to see just how small particles get by smashing them.

Now, put on the tinfoil cap.........

Anyway, thanks for asking.

I'm truly sorry that I asked.

You need to move to Colorado, I hear they have some really good weed there.

the lungs won't tolerate it. Sadly so.

Ok, so I know some of ya had some fun with my post. And that is fine.

BUT.

I didn't post a joke.

And, I don't have many meds.

So how did you know they are in the kitchen!