I drive a Demon (and not the other way around)

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Got it in the garage just in time to miss the first frost of the season. I'll start be removing the front bench seat, so it can be re-upholstered. Since this is the first time I have had everything under one roof, every day I tackle a box is like Christmas.
And the surplus is really showing up (I now have 4 soldering pens.? ? ?)
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5 Inches to spere (whew!)
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Into a stack of moving boxes in front.
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Enough room to open door. Can get in car this way if glass is rolled down.
 
Sidelined for the near future. I had brain surgery towards the end of December. I am just able to get around on my own. Naturally, no driving while taking opiods. Have thoroughly researched how to change out the ignition lock cylinder in the car and made out an exhaustive 'to do' list on the car. I have identified a few thinga I still need to purchase to finish off the project. Hoping to have inspected by April 15, 2020. I may have it ready earlier, but am not betting the farm on it.
 
Getting bored sitting around. Speech therapy is needed and helpful, but it doesn't solve my need for getting something done on the Demon. The steering wheel came off a week ago and front seat came out this past week. The steering wheel was pulled in preparation for a new lock cylinder to be installed. Egads! What a trial that turned out to be. The front bench went in to a shop in Austin for recovery with OEM black and white houndstooth inserts on Legendary kit much as I did with the rear seat years ago back in Dallas. Presently, the interior looks as bad as it ever has. Not even the new paint, refurbished package shelf, and brightwork on the dash make it look better.




I

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The trunk wasn't much better.

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It will NEVER ever look this bad again.
I am uplifted by the fact that it is for a short time. Immediate tasks are to clean-up the floor, install the sound system and rear "air" unit and attending wiring.
 
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Since last posting, the seat has returned from the upholstery shop. What a deal, it came back in less than a week and under budget yee haa! ! !. While it was out I tackled the interior, completing the lock swap. Finally !
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It took two other FABO members explanations to get the idea that I needed to drive out a roll pin that is very neatly concealed in the column. The pin is straight, but the hole it goes into has a slight taper. Hint: Drive the pin out towards the glass side. The floor of the car looks much better than I thought it was. Celebration at the BK Lounge.
Begin assembly mode: I am getting a bit impatient with waiting, however, I have learned from personal experience that this is not going to be a Press-On-Regardless type of project. It is time to take some of the advice I have been giving. " It is not about seeing how fast I can finish off the car., it is how well I am able to finish it."
Completely cleaned the passenger compartment and trunk. I made and have put in place new moisture barrier. Someone had been there ahead of me. the door barriers used what appeared to be household caulk from a gun. The newer caulk was also found along the seam across the top of the floor pans where they mate up at the base of the cowl.
I gave the floor a thorough inspection. The repairs I had made to the floor were hardly noticeable. The tell the fact that I had applied red primer with a brush. The photos don't really show this very well. One of continuing surprises is about a half inch of buckling in the floor of the car. I am presuming it is the result of an accident somewhere between 1972 and 1993 when it began its sabbatical from road work. In the last photo, the area circled in blue is where and what I am talking about. An example of the caulk towards the front of the right front splash pan. Next on the to do list, Take a wire bush to the floor and lift the rust patina off. Cover the entire floor of the car with primer.
(NOTE: TWO DIFFERENT CAMERAS WERE USED. One is a Nikon Coolpix 775, the other a Canon 6D with an external flash. The Nikon is rated at 2.4 MegaPixels , the other is is rated at 24 MegaPixels. The Nikon produces a file that is approximately 400KB in size, the Canon produces a file that runs from 4.5-5.5 MB in size. Feel free to comment and guess which camera do you think I used on which photos?

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A question was put to me. "How do I find where all the holes are in the floorboards?" first, the floor needs to be free of the seats, and floor covering that includes all carpeting and floor mats. I put covers in every drain hole in the floorboards and put a bolt in every seat belt hole. That leaves the 4 seat mount holes (bench seat cars only, bucket seat vehicles have 8) that are accounted for. I take two flashlights, one I put a photo diffuser on it, place it under the car, the other is used as a dark garage navigation aid. Turn on the second flashlight, turn out the light in the garage, then get in the car. Once safely inside, turn off the second flashlight. Give your eyes about 20-30 seconds to have your "Night vision" become fully functional. In the event I missed a factory intended hole, I always take roll of blue masking tape inside the car with me. When one of the offending holes is found, I put a small piece of tape over the hole(a chalk mark or a bright colored grease pencil will do), until there is no more light visible coming into the passenger compartment from the flashlight underneath the car. It is better practice to move the flashlight under the car to the floorboard of each seating position so that the brightest rays will be more readily identified. I was very glad I did this. I found 2 previously undetected pin holes, that I will need to address with a structural adhesive such as the two-part JB Weld. I don't recommend using flex-seal or like product because it won't produce as strong of a bond and it isn't flame retardant. Once you use either product, you are at least two days away from applying anything over top of it.
You will need to use the flashlight you brought in the car as a light to make your way back to the light switch in the garage. I don't want to hear of anyone who has heard a bump in the night and awoke to figure out it was them.
 
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A question was put to me. "How do I find where all the holes are in the floorboards?" first, the floor needs to be free of the seats, and floor covering that includes all carpeting and floor mats. I put covers in every drain hole in the floorboards and put a bolt in every seat belt hole. That leaves the 4 seat mount holes (bench seat cars only, bucket seat vehicles have 8) that are accounted for. I take two flashlights, one I put a photo diffuser on it, place it under the car, the other is used as a dark garage navigation aid. Turn on the second flashlight, turn out the light in the garage, then get in the car. Once safely inside, turn off the second flashlight. Give your eyes about 20-30 seconds to have your "Night vision" become fully functional. In the event I missed a factory intended hole, I always take roll of blue masking tape inside the car with me. When one of the offending holes is found, I put a small piece of tape over the hole(a chalk mark or a bright colored grease pencil will do), until there is no more light visible coming into the passenger compartment from the flashlight underneath the car. It is better practice to move the flashlight under the car to the floorboard of each seating position so that the brightest rays will be more readily identified. I was very glad I did this. I found 2 previously undetected pin holes, that I will need to address with a structural adhesive such as the two-part JB Weld. I don't recommend using flex-seal or like product because it won't produce as strong of a bond and it isn't flame retardant. Once you use either product, you are at least two days away from applying anything over top of it.
You will need to use the flashlight you brought in the car as a light to make your way back to the light switch in the garage. I don't want to hear of anyone who has heard a bump in the night and awoke to figure out it was them.
I am very glad I went through the drill of checking for holes in the floorboards again after I went over them with a wire brush. I found a colony near the buckle on the passenger side and a few more on the drivers' side towards the front of the car. Looks like I will be making up a bunch of JB Weld tonight. YEE HAH ! ! !

"I love it when a plan comes together." John 'Hannibal' Smith played by actor George Peppard on the A-Team.
 
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Man I feel the same way. Hope with my sons help I can get some where. After 10 years of on and off you are much farther then I am. I have been piecing it part at a time, Just finally got the back sway bar welded in and one fender almost ready for primer need to get after the other one soon. Covid 19 seems to have my sons at home but not me. Got to keep the electrical grid going to keep the TV's on and the intranet going for sure. Just ordered up some blue LED bulbs for the dash. Need to paint the dash and the list goes on. Like your color wish mine would have come in that color instead of baby blue. The wife changed the color to Plum Pearl. The motor bay is done the motor 318 with 302 heads 67 block out of my late father in laws Polara. Heavy duty three speed. all in header to tail tips. Hope to get the frame ties welded in next week if I can get home. I am 325 miles from the house and Minnesota is stay home state. I guess I'm not at home LOL. Work get in the way I guess at least I'm still at work. I have a New DUI dist ready to get the motor up and running. We can dream. Take care in this changing times we are in.
 
Looking good 2 Darts, love the detailed write-ups. A huge milestone in the cars that I have done, is just about where you are approaching. Once you have cleaned up the floor and you drop the carpet in, it is amazing how much better and complete it looks. Of course by that point you will have already had to have tended to some of the wiring leading from front to back, that will reside under carpet. Good luck with your health recovery and continued resto progress.
 
.... The motor bay is done the motor 318 with 302 heads 67 block out of my late father in laws Polara. Heavy duty three speed. all in header to tail tips. Hope to get the frame ties welded in next week if I can get home. I am 325 miles from the house and Minnesota is stay home state. I guess I'm not at home LOL. Work get in the way I guess at least I'm still at work. I have a New DUI dist ready to get the motor up and running. We can dream. Take care in this changing times we are in.

Thanks for you comments. I have a block out of a 68 Coronetin the Demon. I am sort of wishing I had spent a little more time on the heads. The 73 340 used a 1.88 intake and a 1.60 exhaust valve. The stock 318 valves, and the ones in a 302 head, are 0.010 smaller.
For the time being, I am running a single point set distributor. I have a Mopar electronic that i will install later on. Right now, I want to get it far enough along to get it inspected. That's the dream for now.

These are indeed strange times. It will be interesting how history will regard them as well as how well we deal with them.
 
Looking good 2 Darts, love the detailed write-ups. A huge milestone in the cars that I have done, is just about where you are approaching. Once you have cleaned up the floor and you drop the carpet in, it is amazing how much better and complete it looks. Of course by that point you will have already had to have tended to some of the wiring leading from front to back, that will reside under carpet. Good luck with your health recovery and continued resto progress.

Thanks for your kind words. I am in the process of laying carpet. I got some foam insulation that I put in the floor boards after the JB Weld had cured a few days. Now that the insulation is stuck down, the carpet is going in. The rear set carpet in in place. I am having difficulty finding the strength I need to shift the front seat carpeting around to where I want it. The insulation in the front of the interior makes it not fit quite the way the carpet manufacturer intended.

Right on about the wiring. I followed the factory's practice of running power along the chase on the driver's side. All of the audio leads are utilizing the chase on the passenger's side. I have a 1000 Watt Amplifier that is going in the trunk. I am prepared to do without tunes when I need to run the "Rear Air". Hopefully, I can ground the blower motor well enough that there will be no inductive noise in the audio.

I am looking at the underdash wiring. It has been hacked up, mostly for a complex aftermarket cruise control that had been in the car. A running change to the interior harness was made in October of 72. The earlier cars use the same harness that the 71 models have. Anyone happen to know if the later cars use the same harness as the 73s or later year models? This particular car was built in February of 1972. I am not sure, but I think the change in the harness was made to accommodate the EGR service light. I am not crazy about the outlay for a new dash harness, but even less so about repairs after a fire.

The radio, or more correctly receiver head unit, that I will install, is a Clarion DB285USB. I have an Owners Guide, but no installation manual. The guide is great for explaining all of the features of the radio, but lacks instructions on how to wire it up so that it works as explained. All of the input to the unit is through a block with wires running out of it. I have determinded what some of the wires are for, but not all.
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The photo is of the block that attaches to the back of the Clarion head unit. The eight wires that are on the left are (what I think) are the speaker output leads. One of each pair has a stripe on it. I do not know which wire of the pair is + and which is - , nor do I know which pair goes to a particular speaker. The blue pair has female electrical connectors crimped on, They may be leads for a center channel, which would cause them to be replaced by the gray pair as one of the left/right-fore/aft pairs. I don't think it matters too much which lead gets connected to which pin on the speaker, but I will need to be consistent, i.e. Connect the striped wire of a pair to the red terminal on a pair of speakers. I can trial and error which pair goes to what speaker.

The wires on the right are more troublesome. Here is what I know. The two wires with in-line fuses are electrical leads. One has a 3 amp fuse, the other one has a 10 amp fuse. The 3 amp line needs to go to an un-switched power source because it controls volatile memory of the radio, in particular the station presets and the date/time function. The lead with the 10 amp fuse is the main power for the radio which means it needs to be connected through the ignition switch. The black wire with the claw connector crimped to it is the ground for the radio. Here is what I think. There is another pair of gray wires that maybe for one of the speakers, a center channel possibly. This leaves three wires that I do not have a clue what they do. They are not matched or distinguished with a fuse holder. They are a long red wire, a long yellow wire, and a short brown wire with a female electrical connector crimped to it. One of these will operate remote accessories such as a powered radio antenna or an amplifier. You now know as much as I do, or suspect that I know.

If a FABO member has an installation manual for a Clarion DB285 radio and would be willing to post an explanation of what each of the leads is for, please do so or PM me with your findings. If a FABO member has a DB285 radio installed and is able to determine what each of the wires works, same thing. Post an explanation or PM me. In the event a posting or PM is made, please let me know if you have the manual or are looking at a properly functioning system. In advance, thanks for any assistance you are able to provide.

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May not be possible at this time of year with the lack of sun/warmth outside, but if not, I usually use a heat gun at a distance on the backside to soften the carpet as I am working it, especially around the tunnel area and even more so for cars with 4 speed hump.

Regarding the radio wiring, I found these two articles, don’t know if they might help, but may be worth a look.

WIRING DIAGRAM FOR CLARION DB285USB - Fixya

Clarion db285usb wiring diagram - Fixya
 
May not be possible at this time of year with the lack of sun/warmth outside, but if not, I usually use a heat gun at a distance on the backside to soften the carpet as I am working it, especially around the tunnel area and even more so for cars with 4 speed hump.

Regarding the radio wiring, I found these two articles, don’t know if they might help, but may be worth a look.

WIRING DIAGRAM FOR CLARION DB285USB - Fixya

Clarion db285usb wiring diagram - Fixya
Merci beau coups. Both were very helpful. My original thoughts were close to right.

SPEAKERS
+White -White/black Front left
+Grey -Grey/black Front right
+Green -Green/black Rear left
+Purple -Purple/black Rear right

POWER
+12v Con Yellow
+12v Ign Red
+12v Antenna Blue
-12v Return Black
Tele mute brown *
Illumination Orange

* Note: The brown wire may be for an optional Bluetooth module I have seen. It would be nice to have the radio lose about 25 db when the phone is being used. At least, I now know where to go to find the answers I seek.
 
Carpet was going in, suddenly, the horn began to blow. Got out of car to disconnect battery, closed door horn quit. Opened door horn sounded. Very strange. This happened about a week ago. I began chasing circuits with a wiring diagram. As I got under the dash, I was surprised to find a bunch of wires had been cut for the installation of a non-factory cruise control that look like a factory job and the installation of an aftermarket radio (8-track in-dash). Have to replace the wires. Repair not feasible. Dilemma: Do I try a factory-like dash harness or do I go with a Painless tip to toe deal? Does the Painless system have provisions for the NY state required rear defroster. (REAR AIR in Mopar-speak)? grumble, grumble, razzlefratz.
 
Since I found
.....a bunch of wires had been cut for the installation of a non-factory cruise control that look like a factory job and the installation of an aftermarket radio (8-track in-dash). Have to replace the wires. Repair not feasible. Dilemma: Do I try a factory-like dash harness or do I go with a Painless tip to toe deal? Does the Painless system have provisions for the NY state required rear defroster. (REAR AIR in Mopar-speak)?
I decided to try the lower cost Painless route. Brought in a Mopar harness. It comprehesively rewires the car and offers a neat solution to the bulkhead oonnectors through the use of plates. It also has a modern fuse panel with Mini and ATO fuses in it. It also provides for the installation of a modern radio. It does not have connections for remote turn signal lamps nor for side marker lamps, and no REAR AIR or map light switch provisions. While some sleeves for the wires is provided, it is something the user applies after the fact. Because of the variety of models the kit will fit, the end user must cut wires and terminate the ends. I could not see a happy ending to this, so now I have to go find an OM-style dash harness. I will find out how well Summit Racing's return policy works. But wait, there were two harnesses used in 72 Dart/Demon dashboards. I now have to find when the running change was made, when the Demon was built, and is the stock cluster PC board on the cluster in the car?
I have not deficit financed any work on the car, so for now, I await news from my bank that Summit accepted my return and credited the card. Not to worry, I still will need to do a bit of interior work that is stictly mechanical in nature.
 
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Since I found
I decided to try the lower cost Painless route. Brought in a Mopar harness. It comprehesively rewires the car and offers a neat solution to the bulkhead oonnectors through the use of plates. It also has a modern fuse panel with Mini and ATO fuses in it. It also provides for the installation of a modern radio. It does not have connections for remote turn signal lamps nor for side marker lamps, and no REAR AIR or map light switch provisions. While some sleeves for the wires is provided, it is something the user applies after the fact. Because of the variety of models the kit will fit, the end user must cut wires and terminate the ends. I could not see a happy ending to this, so now I have to go find an OM-style dash harness. I will find out how well Summit Racing's return policy works. But wait, there were two harnesses used in 72 Dart/Demon dashboards. I now have to find when the running change was made, when the Demon was built, and is the stock cluster PC board on the cluster in the car?
I have not deficit financed any work on the car, so for now, I await news from my bank that Summit accepted my return and credited the card. Not to worry, I still will need to do a bit of interior work that is stictly mechanical in nature.

Feel your pain, electrical systems is always one of the biggest challenges, Summit has always been great with returns in my experience. Keep at it, like you said, plenty of other things to keep you busy in the meantime.
 
Finally got the dimmer switch grommet in the carpet and the driver side sill plate re-installed today. Still waiting on Summit for the return credit on the Painless kit. Car is an early 72 for the purposes of ordering a wiring harness. Mopar used the same PC board panel from from Nov 71 until the end of production in 76. Part number for the I have for that board is 3588 452. For the earlier board I have 3588 068 for the part number for the scheduled production date of 1 October 1971. Two steps forward, one step back. Yippie, i get to lower the steering column and pull the instrument cluster to check it out. Hopefully, I have the correct one in serviceable condition; also hoping that Ma Mopar tagged the PC board with a legible part number. As long as the steering wheel is still off, I can replace the turn signal cam that lost its ability to cancel on left turns. Oh boy, soldering in tight areas with PD shakes.
 
Drat and double drat. The switch plate behind the cam has a broken off leg. At least Summit has credited :thumbsup: the harness back to the card.:thankyou:I'll look at it more closely, tomorrow. Two steps backwards, one step forward.
 
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I went through the entire electrical system. The goal was to identify and all potential electrical gremlins that were needing to be exorcised. ( I guess I have become an exorcist.) There was a running change made in November 1971 on the dash harnesses installed in the Dart and Valiant lines, for no apparent reason. I took a while for me to interpret my build sheet which later translated to "1 October". I later found the decal on the end of the driver's side door that read "9 - 71". Regardless of which is the more reliable indicator, it established that I was dealing with an early production model. I went to the only folks that had listings for both early and late 72 models, I also got the turn signal switch. I had suspected a problem with the circuit board, I checked it for a part number. I didn't find one but I was able to locate a crack in the circuit board behind the instrument cluster that was causing a need for greater current on the circuit. Since the crack involved an area near the fuel gauge, it seems prudent to change it out as well. Cha Ching ! (Stop the blood letting,! dumb car.) Thankfully, I qualified for the current promotion being run by Classic Industries of 20% off all items on orders over $159.00. The discount is good through tomorrow 6/14. Czech it out here . (sic)

Meanwhile, I have been crawling around in the trunk to install the "rear air" and the amplifier for the sound system. It is good I made a spare tire well cover out of 3/4-inch plywood rather than the flimsy piece of particle board that Mopar put in originally. The trunk is not intended for guys who are 69-inches tall weighing 190 pounds with gimpy right shoulders and a pair of electrodes in their head. The HD tire well cover works well for me. The Fifth Avenue that supplied the 302 heads for the engine also yielded a very serviceable mini spare, which conveniently fills the well due to its circumference, not height.

I am not about to install a spare without the ability to lift. I modified a Nissan scissor jack by grinding down the ring that their handle would hook into and had a friend weld a 3/4-inch nut on the end so I can use my battery powered impact wrench to raise and lower the car. It works like a champ. I suggest adding four pieces of 2 x 4 lumber to the tire well. Two of the pieces can be placed under the jack for additional lift, the other two may be used to chock the wheel on the opposite corner to keep the car from rolling off of the jack.
 
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