Black Gold 380R's 65 Mustang Build Thread

Nice job on it all. Really digging the way that console is turning out. All I got done this weekend was to cook dinner for all the ladies around the house this weekend.
Then I put my bump stops on my front coilovers.

My little accomplishments look insignificant compared to your leaps and bounds every weekend.

SM94Cobra said:

That console looks really good. Have seen some other custom consoles lately, makes me consider doing something more custom than my stock console.

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Thank you SM94Cobra! The guy I bought mine from is local to me, but he does sell these on Ebay. He has options for several different cars.

biminiLX said:

Looking good.
And I was just talking to a Texas buddy whining about the cold.
We got 14” and it’ll be -7 in the morning, so no sympathy for some icicles
Really like what Aeromotive has been offering.
This car will be sweet when you’re done.
-J

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Thank you J! Really appreciate your comments.

I have no excuse other then I live in the south to avoid the cold LOL. I know this is nothing for those in the north who deal with this every year. So, I'm not looking for or deserving of any sympathy, but it still sucks being in Texas and dealing with 14 degree temperatures LMAO!!!

Grabber70Mach said:

Nice job on it all. Really digging the way that console is turning out. All I got done this weekend was to cook dinner for all the ladies around the house this weekend. My little accomplishments look insignificant compared to your leaps and bounds every weekend.

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Thank you Grabber! Yeah, I'm really happy with how the console is turning out. Can't wait to see it upholstered and with the shifter boot.

Hey, cooking for the ladies can get you some serious brownie points. I did the candy and flowers thing, but no cooking here LMAO.

Okay everyone,

I'm sorry to say this past weekend was not a glorious weekend for my build, but one that dealt with a necessary evil. Wiring...…

I wasn't going to post pictures, but felt wiring is a necessary part of the build and deserves to be shown even if it isn't exciting to look at LOL.

So, the first thing I did was install my back up camera. I was going to try and hide it a little more, but felt if I put it further back on the body the camera might catch some of the body or bumper instead of the view I'm looking for. So, I installed it above the license plate and on the underside of the bumper.

Here is looking straight down on top of the rear bumper and you cant see the camera.



Here is the camera mounted to the underside of the bumper. Obviously it is visible, but I think it's small enough that it will not become an eye sore or distraction.



Here is the shot looking up at the camera. Here you can see how I installed the wiring through the body near the license plate light wiring. I placed a grommet on the body to protect the wiring.



Another thing I did was install a large grommet on the firewall where I was going to pass my factory harness through. I realized I'm going to need to pass more wires through my firewall than just the factory harness. I'm going to rewire my factory harness through here anyway. I purchased 3 of these grommets based on the instructions I received with my Holley Terminator ECU kit. I had to use a 2 inch hole saw and then install the grommet. The other 2 will be mounted on the upper side of my transmission tunnel to pass through my ECU wiring harness and other wires that will be attached to the starter and alternator.

I then removed my electrical panel from under the dash in order to place some padding between the panel and the mounting location to cut down on vibration and rattles. I also got my fuel pump and fan relays wired up. I then got my remote sensor for my door poppers installed.

Here is the overall view of my electrical panel. The top left corner is my major fuse block (Bussmann) and where the main cable from my alternator will attach. The red power distribution block in the bottom center is where my battery cable will attach and the black ground distribution block is for my grounds. You can see the black cable hanging off and it will be grounded to the body/chassis.



Here you can see my wire loom. This houses all the wiring that needs to be attached to the car (i.e. fuel pump trigger from ECU, electric fans, ignition to ECU, neutral safety switch, starter, etc.).


Here you can see my relays for the fuel pump, electric fans and headlights.



Here is my remote sensor for my door poppers. I'm waiting on some new relays for this thing. The guy who installed this for me originally did a real S#!TTY job of wiring it up. I already have it wired to my power/ground distribution blocks. The green wire is the antenna for the remote on my key ring. The intertwined blue and green wires go to the relays.


Here is how the guy wired it up to the relays. Unacceptable. I'll be fixing this and installing them on my electrical panel.

Lastly, I did some wiring on my center console. I still need to get some adhesive backed zip tie anchors in order to attach the wiring to the underside of the center console. Right now the wire just hangs down and gets in the way. So, it needs to be cleaned up. I'll show pictures of the underside once it's cleaned up and presentable LOL.

For now I couldn't resist testing it. And I do find it funny the very first thing I test on the car are cup holders LMAO!!!

Now, before you guys say this looks ghetto or rice (and you're certainly entitled to your opinion) please know these are hard wired to the car. Meaning they are controlled by a remote and will only come on if/when I manually turn them on. Other than that they will not light up

The cup holders I purchased came with LEDs installed in them. I figured what the hell, they have lights might as well wire them up. I think they look cool. I would like to use white, but even on the lowest setting they are still bright to have them on while driving. Red is nice and easier on the eyes.


View with cup holders not light up.




Various views and colors displayed.

Every step is getting a little closer to the goal. Everything's looking good, one observation on the left side of the grommet it appears that you'll need to seal it up. It looks like the hole extends past the metal housing edge. I like the LED cupholders, some LED's are dimmable it might be something to check into.

Grabber70Mach said:

Every step is getting a little closer to the goal. Everything's looking good, one observation on the left side of the grommet it appears that you'll need to seal it up. It looks like the hole extends past the metal housing edge. I like the LED cupholders, some LED's are dimmable it might be something to check into.

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Thanks Grabber! My brother always told me.... "So long as progress is being made, you will reach your end goal." I try to make progress every weekend. Yes, sometimes life, holidays and weather get in the way, but for the most part I have worked on the car every weekend since May 2020.

That's what I love about this site.... All the perfectionist LOL. Yes sir, I did see the gap next to the grommet. That happened for 2 reasons. First I was trying to drill without a pilot hole. So, the hole saw was bouncing around. Second, in order to get the grommet to fit in that area I had to trim the metal sides and make it more of a rectangle shape.

They originally are completely round such as this:

Also, I took the console out last night in order to run the back up camera wire under the carpet and to the front of the car. Was bored and had some spare time LOL.

So, I decided to take pictures of the underside of the console so you could see how the wires need to be cleaned up and attached to the console.

As you can see the wires need to be secured as they just hang everywhere.



The black box is my emergency brake control module. The black and red wires coming out the back get connected to the E-Stopp under the car. The red, black and blue wires coming out of the front connect to the car for power, ground and ignition.



I'm going to make sure I have enough slack in the cup holder wires so I can pull the cup holders out through the top of the console if needed.



Here you can see the connector that goes to the E brake control module and the RCA cable for my back up camera.

Okay everyone a minor update.

Went to talk to my fabricator last night and he just doesn't have the time to do "everything" I want done on my car right now. So, we agreed on him doing the steering heim joint right now. I need this part welded to my frame rail and I "cannot" paint the engine bay without this being done. Therefore, he said he could get this done in a couple of weeks. Then my radiator tubes, radiator cover and exhaust can be completed in June or July of this year.

Also, my zip tie anchors showed up last night. So, I did a quick test. They stick to the underside of the console very well. So, I think these will work great and I'll finish up the underside of my console this weekend.

BTW, my emergency brake bracket came in this week. So, I'll be installing my emergency brake lines this weekend as well.

Have you seen the backup cam that sits in the keyhole?

98 svt said:

Have you seen the backup cam that sits in the keyhole?

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No sir I have not. However, the key hole on my trunk has already been shaved. There is a lever sitting next to my driver's seat and when it is lifted my trunk latch is released.

Black Gold 380R said:

Okay everyone a minor update.

Went to talk to my fabricator last night and he just doesn't have the time to do "everything" I want done on my car right now. So, we agreed on him doing the steering heim joint right now. I need this part welded to my frame rail and I "cannot" paint the engine bay without this being done. Therefore, he said he could get this done in a couple of weeks. Then my radiator tubes, radiator cover and exhaust can be completed in June or July of this year.

Also, my zip tie anchors showed up last night. So, I did a quick test. They stick to the underside of the console very well. So, I think these will work great and I'll finish up the underside of my console this weekend.

BTW, my emergency brake bracket came in this week. So, I'll be installing my emergency brake lines this weekend as well.

View attachment 1691158

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I would recommend cleaning the area with rubbing alcohol before you put those anchors down, there’s also a primer that will help that glue stick much much longer. My buddy that has a glass shop had some of that lying around and it’s worked amazing on stuff that I needed to put zip tie anchors to. They don’t break off a year down the road


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geoffmt said:

I would recommend cleaning the area with rubbing alcohol before you put those anchors down, there’s also a primer that will help that glue stick much much longer. My buddy that has a glass shop had some of that lying around and it’s worked amazing on stuff that I needed to put zip tie anchors to. They don’t break off a year down the road

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Good idea. I just rubbed off the dust. I did pull on them pretty hard to see if they would release, but they stuck well. I will still use the rubbing alcohol to ensure a better adhesion. Thanks geoffmt!

EDIT:

I did not have rubbing alcohol. But noticed on my bottle of acetone it said it could be used to clean fiberglass. So, I used that and it seemed to work very well.

Okay everyone,

It wasn't a glamour's weekend again, but I did manage to get my emergency brake completely installed and I did a little more on the wiring side.

I purchased this Wilwood emergency brake cable kit a couple months ago. Came with the cables and all mounting hardware to attach to the wheels and my emergency brake mechanism.



This is the cable end of my E-Stopp.



This is the E-Stopp bracket that was on backorder and came in last week. The cable end attachments are from the Wilwood kit. The E-Stopp bracket and Wilwood emergency brake cable kit work really well together. Almost like they were made this way on purpose LOL.



Here you can see everything installed together. I was debating on if I should just cut the excess cable, but didn't want the cable ends to fray.



So, I decided to place heat shrink tubing on the cables and then cut them. Worked out great.



Here you can see I routed the cables using the factory designed routing. There is a crevasse in the floor board between the frame rail. I routed the cable through there and it was a straight shot to the emergency brake on the wheel. This really helped keep the cables out of the way of the suspension and driveshaft.



Straight on shot which shows how high above the transmission tail shaft everything is.


Here you can see everything clears the driveshaft with ease.

Then it was time to test it. Sad to say it was way off. After engaging the E-Stopp I could still spin the rear wheels easily. Time to make some adjustments.

Had to verify that the emergency brake was fully engaged and it was (i.e. pulled all the way towards the front of the vehicle).



So, I had to remove the caliper and rotor (Note: NEVER completely install something until you know it is working properly. I placed lock tight on the calipers bolts. It was not fun to take off LMAO).



I had to spread the emergency brake shoes out. After adjusting I would engage the emergency brake and try to pull the rotor off. I kept making these adjustments until the rotor could slip on, but once the emergency brake was engaged they would not budge when I tried to pull them off. Those suckers are locked now .




Check it out. Even the emergency brake switch lights up when activating and deactivating. It shuts off once the engaged or disengaged cycle is completed. Love it when a project is complete and working properly .

Lastly, I did more wiring this weekend. My relays for my door poppers came in. Also, I'm trying to make this electrical system completely removable. So, I'm installing connectors in case I need to remove this from the car one day.

This is the main wiring harness coming off the electrical system and will plug into the ECU harness or various systems on the vehicle (i.e. switched power, electrical fans, neutral safety switch, starter, etc.).



Here are the door popper relays I added. The blue wires will go to the left and right door poppers and the purple wire will go to my fuel pump.



Here you can see the remote for the door poppers is wired up to the relays.

Are you making schematics of your wiring as you go?

01yellercobra said:

Are you making schematics of your wiring as you go?

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Unfortunately I am no expert Bob and I have not made any schematics.

However, although I am changing the location of things the wiring is "generally" wired up the same way it came from the factory. So, the factory wiring schematic and the wiring diagrams from other items such as my ECU, the 3G Alternator and MSD box will show how the car is wired.

I'm also trying to color code everything with the connectors (i.e. the original wire is red with blue stripe, I'm using a red wire with blue stripe. Also, if there is orange and black off the MSD box for the coil, then it is orange and black at the coil). Therefore, if anyone ever needed to get under the dash and disconnect everything they will just need to trace the colored wire to diagnose problems or match the colored wires to the connectors and plug it back in when completed.

I did label the relays. Does that count for something? LMAO!!!

Looks like you're making good progress, wish I could say the same.
My past experience with those zip tie hold downs is they don't last long in an automotive environment, I have had success by adding a small dab of epoxy adhesive when installing them.