Project Mutt, the SE transmformation update 9-14-14

[00Beast]

Got a link to the product you used? I'd like to clean the G8's seats more than Lexol can do...

http://www.lastotallyawesome.com/html/P ... easer.html I believe you can get it at Dollar Tree, Dollar General, and also Walmart.

Ohhh! I think there's some of that laying around at home, lol. Good to know.

[crash93ssei]

Uptdate time!

Body harness is completely installed from the battery forward. Pulled the dash out of the GXP and swapped dash harnesses then I noticed that there were some wires missing or added from one harness to the other, got that all figured out thanks to some FSM scans from bobgto65 and some harness excavation on the GXP body harness. Once I got the wiring figured out for the dash harness and HUD swap I was able to install the dash, only to have to pull it right back out so I could swap the HVAC unit control harness as the connectors were completely different. Dash is now installed and progress can continue


C200, SLE body harness


C200, GXP dash harness installed in the SLE dash sitting in the SE


C200, GXP body harness


C201, GXP dash harness


C201, SLE body harness


C201 comparison between SLE on the left and GXP on the right. Pin B10 is for the low coolant warning on the GXP, not needed for me. Pins D1 and D2 were required for me as they are for the right front speaker. The GXP harness did not have the right front speaker here because all speakers are low level out and travel through C200. I had to remove the wires for this from the SLE harness and install in the GXP harness.


C200 comparison, SLE on left, GXP on right. This is where the HUD had two additional wires that the SLE without HUD did not have. A8 - pink wire - 14 volt reference and D4 - bare wire - ground. I found that the pink wire goes back and connects to the Monsoon amp and the bare ground wire travels with the low level speaker outs which are bundled together and wrapped in foil then tape and travel through the main harness in their own mini harness. The ground wire ends a few inches short of the connector to the amp and looks to make contact with the foil which basically shields everything from interference. In the dash harness, both of these wires go to the stereo, I had a thought that they wouldn't be needed for me and to confirm I unplugged that connector on the Monsoon amp in our SSEi and the HUD still worked.


Brought the dash in last night to sort through the harness issue and get it all figured out with the FSM scans that bobgto65 provided


Pulling the right front speaker outputs out of the SLE harness to install in the GXP harness.



At this point I had everything figured out... or so I thought Dash back in the car and HUD sitting there nice and comfy!


Nevermind... dash had to come back out because the connector from the HVAC unit to the dash harness was different between the SLE HVAC unit and the GXP dash harness. I had to pull the HVAC unit harness from the GXP to install on the SLE part to match with the installed GXP dash harness...


AND.... NOW, the dash is all set and installed!






Have to use the GXP dash pad for now until I can get a tan pad with HUD, but it will be fine for a bit. Another change in the dash harness between the GXP and SLE is that the left front and both rear speakers, while still go to and from the same spots in their own connectors (stereo connector and C200) the wires are different colors depending on if you have the Monsoon stereo or not. From what I see so far, if you already have the Monsoon (and likely Bose is the same but can't confirm) then HUD install is simple, all you would need is the dash harness, HUD unit, bracket, and dash pad, defroster vent lines for HUD as they are different and the HUD dimmer / angle control switch, that should get you rolling no problem. If you are trying to install HUD in a car without the amplified stereo then you will have to add in the right front speaker wires to D1 and D2 on connector C201 and run them to the stereo connector and swap them with the wires that go to D1 and D2 on connector C200.

There is likely some stuff I left out or might have not been really clear on, feel free to ask any questions as always. From this point forward the rest of everything should go pretty easy!

[Zeik75]

Why SLE dash and not the GXP?

[crash93ssei]

SLE dash matches the rest of the SLE interior I am putting in, the tan color. The GXP has the charcoal interior.

[zuper8]

Wow, lot of headaches it seems but what a transformation this will be! Just now seeing the work you did on the seats, that's awesome! Gonna have to try that out on my Suburban's leather.

[crash93ssei]

It has been a while since I had a chance to update this!

Interior is now about 90% complete and looks great! I lost all my pics of it though and have to get some more :(

The drivetrain swap has begun too!

The '04 SLE organ donor


Almost out!


Lifting the body redneck style Dang good thing this is getting scrapped!


Drivetrain out!


This is how you pull heavy stuff around on dirt! Drop it on an old hood and pull it haha!


The Mutt is next!


Getting ready to drop and lift


We have liftoff!


Old and busted out


New hotness after some powerwashing


The brake lines were pretty rusted on the donor, not horrible but the original lines on the SE were much nicer. I didn't snap a pic, but they were swapped.



Donor ready to slide in and be bolted up


Not so fast though!!! Cleaning the engine bay really good first.



This is how it sits now, all of the work you see here completed after I got out of work at 6 am Sunday morning to roughly 4 PM Sunday evening! I plan to get some paint and repaint the engine bay and make it look really nice before the install, hope to have it running soon!!!

[myfirstbonnie]

Looking good. I can see the better brake lines in the other pic. Good progress, keep it up.

[crash93ssei]

I could not find any touch up spray paint that matches the color, so I just left it as is for now and started on the drivetrain install. Yes, as always there is some redneck engineering going on here, you do what you have to do when working on a dirt driveway without the "proper" tools

Slid back under and getting ready to drop the body down, thanks to Heather for driving the Suburban to pull it under!


Back home


All bolted back up, subframe and side drivetrain mounts all bolted in and tight.


What is left to do, in no particular order
Bolt master cylinder to booster
Bleed brakes
Bolt exhaust up
Electrical connections
Strut bolts
Find one more 235/50/18 for the Mustang wheels


Hoping to have most of this stuff done today and fire it up!

[crash93ssei]

Well, it lives!!!

The security issue that I thought I had was nothing more then a lack of communication due to me not swapping in the harness and modules under the rear deck! I actually swapped that in about two weeks or so ago but the battery had died so I just left it. Sunday during the meet I aired up a flat tire and we pushed it up towards the house and put it on the charger, half hour later I tried to start it just to see and it fired right up and ran perfect

The issue now however is I have to bleed the brakes, and it sounds as though I may need a Tech II to do this but I have also found some posts stating that I can lock the brakes up and get the pump going to bleed it, is this realistic or totally not true? It now runs and drives around the yard fine just a little sketchy with hardly any brakes, but if I pump them they are there.

Still unsure as to when it will actually be on the road again, but overall just need to slap together the rest of the interior and figure out what I want to do with the headliner as the SLE didn't have a sunroof but the SE has an aftermarket one. I think I may just recover the one in the SE to keep it simple but we will see when it actually gets to that point.

[tytotheler92]

In my experiance, locking the brakes a few times then rebleeding works.

[1oldman]

Great work Ryan! Had you considered painting the engine bay black since the body color wasn't available? - BC
EDIT: or maybe, a contrasting body color? - BC

[samples08]

X2 on locking the breaks find some gravel get a little speed slam them suckers and the bleed em to perfection!

[crash93ssei]

Things got quite busy for me after the meet, we moved and are now finally getting settled in enough to finish this project up!

The interior is all set and looks great now! I really like the tan with the Maple Red paint. I know I still have gray bezels for some of the window switches, somehow I misplaced the tan ones, if I don't find them I will get a set from Andrew. I ended up snagging a Tech 2 from the site linked in Harofreaks thread, I am very happy with it, you can see it sitting on the seat here




Cleaned up a set of GXP headlights and installed.







HUD works, thought it is a slight double image as expected with a non HUD windshield. ECC works as well, basically everything works perfect just like it should from the factory, I am very happy! The brakes still need to be bled and I need to find one more 235/50/18 tire for the Mustang wheels and then it will be on the road

This has been a long time coming so I am quite anxious to have it back on the road

[Zeik75]

Should be a pretty sweet project coming up! Glad you got everything moved and seem to be setteled in. How you liking the actual driveway?

[crash93ssei]

Should be a pretty sweet project coming up! Glad you got everything moved and seem to be setteled in. How you liking the actual driveway?

It is SOOOO nice!

Took the Mutt out for a test drive today after bleeding the brakes, it runs really nice! There are a few things I need to tweak yet, but overall it is ready go to

[1oldman]

From here it looks like a new car. - BC

[zuper8]

Wow congratulations! Must have been so nice to be able to just turn it on and have everything function properly after all that intricate interior work!

[tytotheler92]

God that interior is clean!

Color combo is great!