83 Mondial QV - EV conversion project using Tesla LDU

Ok, so I took the rear light housings off so I can reverse its position. I may just leave them off and put them in storage (after I confirm my migration from the stock 12V wiring to the new fuse panel is complete) because they will have to come off again when I get this car painted.

On the bracket for the light sockets for the Amber housings, I see where the reverse light comes in.
This still doesn't explain why for the Red light housings, two bulbs are pointed rearwards (and fit into the housing, for illumination and brakes) and a THIRD light is aimed forwards.
- The red taillight housing itself only has two holes for the top and bottom bulbs.
- No light from the forward facing bulb should shine though.
- Each bulb that fits inside the red housing has 2 levels of illumination (so you have your night mode + braking).

Q: What's the middle/forward bulb for then?

 

Thanks Urs.

Another silly question: I was testing my 1156 and 1157 bulbs as they came in and am about to reassemble my front lights.
I did notice something: when you send 12V to the front turn signal light (behind an amber lens so I used an amber bulb), the middle parking light (white) also comes on.
Q: Is this normal?

Here's my complete front turn signal/fog assembly. I tested every bulb (and compared it to the stock with the covers on and they are nice and bright compared to stock. I'll publish my full bulb replacement list once the side/parking marker lights come in and I test them.

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Urs
My lens covers are amber just at the outer end and clear on the center and innermost position. I found that odd and even more so after applying power to them.
I plan to just swap out the middle position with 1157 Amber LED bulbs.
They are cheap enough.

 

Urs,
Yeah, I've noticed a bit of frankencar with this Mondial... which means no authenticity was lost as I modify it further.

Q: Do you by any chance have any pics of the three plugs coming off the wiper stalks?
I have several pictures but a few weren't at the best angles and I want to double check that I have the wiring right.
Its two white plugs and one red plug coming from two harnesses on the stalk.

 

Thanks Urs!

 

The summer is upon us and between taking a little minibreak and a gap week where my son didn't have any summer camps scheduled, I haven't been able to devote as much time as I had wanted to this car.

- One side benefit of taking a few days in LA was that I was able to visit my supplier for EV components and check out their build. I opted for a cheap rental for this trip (we planned to spend most of our mini-break at the pool in the AirBnB vs driving around LA) and given the price of gas, all the "cheap" cars were V8s. Its incredible how fast, yet how terrible, the Mustang GT is as a vehicle. It can run a quarter mile in 12.4sec for $40K-ish, throws tacky mustang logos at night on the ground, yet cant be bothered to use real stitching or real metal trim (embossed stitching on the plastic dash + metal looking plastic). Incredibly fast, terrible car. I learned quite a bit about what tools they recommended, and some thoughts on component placement (got my first crate of parts already)... and then found that their 911 shop car, which runs the same VCU, batteries, and LDU as my kit but will carry around 300LB less weight and runs on Hoosier slicks, will absolutely stomp this Mustang. EV is the way of the future and I think we'll get used to spaceship noises vs. a singing V8 noises soon enough.

- When I came home, I did some testing and realized that there are some weird wiring issues I encountered when adapting the existing 12V wiring. I think some circuits are "linked" so when turning on the high beams, I had some weird issues with the high beam relay.
- I also realized that the stock ICE engine wiring (which there is a good deal of) is completely wrapped up with the wiring harness for the tail lights.
- The solution is to simplify things: instead of having the tail lights go through the Check Control "computer", I would run power for the brake/reverse/etc lights straight from my new 12V panel.

Steps:
- Remove interior: this was surprisingly simple. I dunno if this is stock, but whomever redid my stock carpet did it in sections so I could easily pull it off without having to remove one piece.
- Seats were also easy to remove so i got them out. While I was in here, I removed the radio antenna/control wiring and some coolant and A/C cables that ran from the engine back to the front of the car. When I rebuid/reinstall A/C, I'll build the system in the front of the car.
- I then cut all the plastic sheathing from the wiring looms and separated out the wires I wasn't going to need (engine stuff, all the extra diag connectors in the engine bay, etc). I will re-sleeve the wiring with TechFlex split braided sleeving wrap. Most of the EV stuff will run through the center tunnels under the car so I don't anticipate any issues. If I do need more wires, I can always use the holes in the bod
- Those wires are now rolled up but the wires I care most about: reverse, brake, gascap, trunk, engine lid release all run from the back of the car, into the cabin on the LH side, across the bottom of the rear seats, and forward down the centerline of the car under the center console. After splitting the loop and removing these wires from the plug that would normally go into the check control 'computer', there's plenty of stock wiring (in good condition) to run from the back of the far down the LH side, and forward to the front of the car.

My next step is I need to remove the dash. I wasn't planning on doing it so soon but I need to do so to pull the mess of wires I don't need out of the harness and finish up my 12v rewiring. From what i've read here, pulling the dash is not bad. As an added bonus, I can also get the old blower/HVAC system out (I'll decide how to fix that later) and I will also have the opportunity to modify the gauge cluster and mount my race dash (in the spot to the RIGHT of the tach -- replacing the odometer and temp gauges). At some point, I'll figure out CANBUS to analog signal conversion and get the speedometer/tach working) but that's a future task (just like HVAC).

The second pic shows the wires that originally went to the RH front passenger footwell which will now be rerouted along the LH side of the car.
In my third pic, you can see a whole pile of the wires I no longer need in the LH footwell.
By my count, I really only need ~14 wires going to the rear of the car.
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Thanks for your kind words, Jay.
As far as the car is coming along, well, I try to do a little bit everyday. One thing that held me up was that I was trying to keep the interior intact as much as possible... and that probably slowed me down. Biting the bullet last week and pulling off all the parts, packing them up, and storing them away was NOT very hard and made a lot more of the car accessible.

- I found minor items I would have fixed anyway eventually (my hosing for the sprayers was degraded and the pump assembly was entirely missing) and its probably better to send my car to the body shop to be repainted WITHOUT an interior so its better that I gutted things NOW vs
- I also plan to just go ahead and remove some underdash components items (like the blower assembly) because if I do reinstall it, I'm likely to modify it anyway (both the heater and the A/C compressor need to be electric) or replace it with a restomod setup entirely -- they now come with bluetooth(!).
- Finally, it gives me the chance to integrate the AEM CD5 digital dash display into the instrument cluster.

---
As far as the exhaust is concerned, feel free to send me a private message with your wishlist of items.
While I will certainly be happy to defray my EV conversion expenses, maximizing my profit isn't my 100% goal. Perhaps there are cheaper options to get the parts to you and if I can get your wishlist delivered at a price that still makes sense for me, I'm all about a win-win here. For example, you may want my downpipes + the exhaust for something to play with. Or maybe some of your coolant pipes aren't looking so good.
LMK what you want and a fair price and I can explore shipping options.

I've sold lots of random stuff so far but I still have plenty of ICE stuff left.
Regaards,
-g

 

Made a ton of progress this weekend.

* After pulling the dash last night, I went in this morning, traced all the wires I didn't need for an ICE engine and removed them from the harness that goes across the top of the dash and down towards the passenger wheel well from the two connectors. You can see how much this removed.
* I also removed the blower; it was held in by nuts and was super lightweight. I'll replace it later.
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I also ran the wires from the rear to the front fuse panel and sleeved everything in 1/2" TechFlex.
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* Some of the wires ran across the dash and down back into the hole behind the blower. Those I pulled straight out.
* A small number of wires ran into the instrument cluster. I took them out of the harness plugs on the left hand side but wrapped them and tucked them near their connectors behind the gauge cluster. At some point, I will likely use them as the output from a CANBUS-Analog conversion for the Tachometer/Speedometer (the only two gauges I might ever keep).

I'm happy with the result. Wiring wise, the only wires I may still want to traceback/remove are:
- the original speaker wires (they were already cut and replacement run from the doors anyway)
- the wiring from the actual check control display (since that's going to be removed). I need to doublecheck Urs's wiring diagrams before I cut those out though just in case.
- Any wiring from the modules that sat in the passenger footwell (need to check those wires).

Some Questions
Q: What are these two items?
First one was underneath the driver's side
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Second one seems to be a coolant valve/sensor before the HVAC.
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I need to confirm the switches still work so I've reattached that harness (ran down the center console and to the three plugs).

Q: How do I remove the gauges from the dash?
- I think I can just remove these 3 nuts on the bottom below the gauges (vs the ones near the face of the dash) but one is covered by the vent duct
. Do I need to remove the duct first (kinda annoying)?
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Thanks in advance for any tips.
-g

 

Made a ton of progress this weekend.

* After pulling the dash last night, I went in this morning, traced all the wires I didn't need for an ICE engine and removed them from the harness that goes across the top of the dash and down towards the passenger wheel well from the two connectors. You can see how much this removed.
* I also removed the blower; it was held in by nuts and was super lightweight. I'll replace it later.
View attachment 3364318
View attachment 3364320 View attachment 3364322

I also ran the wires from the rear to the front fuse panel and sleeved everything in 1/2" TechFlex.
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* Some of the wires ran across the dash and down back into the hole behind the blower. Those I pulled straight out.
* A small number of wires ran into the instrument cluster. I took them out of the harness plugs on the left hand side but wrapped them and tucked them near their connectors behind the gauge cluster. At some point, I will likely use them as the output from a CANBUS-Analog conversion for the Tachometer/Speedometer (the only two gauges I might ever keep).

I'm happy with the result. Wiring wise, the only wires I may still want to traceback/remove are:
- the original speaker wires (they were already cut and replacement run from the doors anyway)
- the wiring from the actual check control display (since that's going to be removed). I need to doublecheck Urs's wiring diagrams before I cut those out though just in case.
- Any wiring from the modules that sat in the passenger footwell (need to check those wires).

Some Questions
Q: What are these two items?
First one was underneath the driver's side
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Second one seems to be a coolant valve/sensor before the HVAC.
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I need to confirm the switches still work so I've reattached that harness (ran down the center console and to the three plugs).

Q: How do I remove the gauges from the dash?
- I think I can just remove these 3 nuts on the bottom below the gauges (vs the ones near the face of the dash) but one is covered by the vent duct
. Do I need to remove the duct first (kinda annoying)?
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Thanks in advance for any tips.
-g

 

Hrm. You mentioned under dash relays. I see a few. I may need help identifying them if I can't figure them out by the wiring colors

In an ideal world, no vestigial wiring should remain on the car.

 

Yup I need zero of 3 of those relays. Yay. More wires to trace/remove.

 

Urs. I took a quick look underneath my dash and on the firewall this evening and only found 1 relay. I think according to my wiring diagram its the Blinker Relay (page 11/13).

Does that sound right?
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I found the relays you pointed out, Urs. I pulled them along with the entire blower assembly.
- After rerouting all of the light related rear wiring and running them through the firewall to the new 12v fuse+relay panel in the frunk, my plan is to trace back and remove all unnecessary wiring.
- For starters, I started out at the plugs going into the check control display and traced them through the Check Control ECU and out to the sensors (brake sensors, sensors for the bonnets, etc.
- I've traced back and removed most/all of the excess wiring now from the 3 sockets in the passenger footwell and connecting to the segment of the harness going into the side
- I intend to leave all the wiring related to the actual switches (from the center console, the dash buttons, and the wiper/light stalks) in place as they will then be used to control/trigger circuits for the 12v fuse+relay panel
- All the HVAC wiring has been separated out from my vehicle harness now. When I install a HVAC system, I will most likely go with an aftermarket/restomod setup.
- I've left some of the extra wiring at the sockets behind the gauge cluster as I haven't removed the gauges yet and figured out what plugs will remain and which ones will go. Once I do, I will trace all those wires out and remove them as necessary

Some Curiosities/Questions
Q: What is this plug? 3x3 plug w/ female pins. I don't see its counterpart on the removed dashboard NOR do I see it on the blower assembly or the segment of the harness that goes down the center channel. Maybe I'm missing something; I haven't gone from plug to plug yet on the wiring diagrams but I figure one of you guys can ID it on sight.
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Q: What kind of 12V socket is this in the glove box on the RH side of the glove box? It seems narrower than a 12V cigarette adapter. I will likely replace this with a 12V

Q: What are the wires going up the A pillars on the driver's and passenger side? I suspect one or the other is for the dome light, the sunroof, and the rear defroster. I haven't pulled the headliner yet but I may just do so to repair the sunroof panel with that $400 kit from etsy but any guidance you an offer here would be nice to know.

Q: Is there anything special I should know about pulling the headliner to do the sunroof repair? Now is probably the best time for me to do this work as the car is as disassembled as possible.