Welcome, diaballikl!

[GrooveNerd]

So as not to thread-jack my own thread, I'll issue a WELCOME! to dyaballikl here instead.

What model Contour or Mystique do you have? Color? Mods? Plans for the car?

Marty

 

[dyaballikl]

Wow, thankyou, I feel so welcome! I've just recently upgraded from a Mercury Tracer, and got my Contour on the 8th of July. It's a white '97 GL, 4cyl, mtx. Within hours of getting it, I had the intake system pulled and my sound system put into the car, I'm really into modding, mostly electronics.

To date, I've put in cold air intake, speakers and deck, red led's behind the clock, crank case breather filter, red floor illum. led's, and i filed down the stock shifter knob and fiberglassed over it and painted it black. But this is just because I'm a little short on cash. I definitely have huge lighting plans for the car. I'm going to take out the stock floor lighting setup and put in led strips, light up the gauges, fabricate sequential taillights, and put lights in wherever else i can.

i wasn't hugely excited about the contour immediately, but i soon learned that it is fun to drive, and has a lot of potential, a great project car. I'll get pics of the current work later. thanks again for the welcome!

 

[Woogieman]

Welcome dyaballikl. I would like to see pictures of your ride & some of the work you've done. I've never messed with LED's or any lighting really & I'd like to see this shift knob too. This might be a really good alternative for others with beat down shifter knobs. Keep up the good work man.

-Aaron

 

[dyaballikl]

my good, 7.2mp camera has a dead battery now, and i can't find the charger, but i snapped these with my cell. kinda sucks since low light, but i'll replace these images with better quality ones when i can:
illuminated clock (it actually looks much better in real life, especially in the dark.)

floor lighting and mat (definitely a work in progress)

homemade shift knob, painted, but not finished

broken plastics are a common theme in this car (previous owners were f'ing idiots, every one of these panels are broken, as well as left sail panel, and two dash vents. also that crappy cupholder)

for the cold air intake, i took the parts from my mercury tracer. they weren't at all meant for this car, but i arranged them in such a way that it worked out well and sounds great at mid-high rpm's (unfortunately, the chrome is barely visible!). crank case breather filter also visible here.

corner shot. doesn't look bad, kinda plain, with ugly broken windshield.

 

[dyaballikl]

Welcome dyaballikl. I would like to see pictures of your ride & some of the work you've done. I've never messed with LED's or any lighting really & I'd like to see this shift knob too. This might be a really good alternative for others with beat down shifter knobs. Keep up the good work man.

-Aaron

i'd be glad to help you out with any led project you have. i love messing with these, they have so much potential for such little price. i would recommend getting a voltage meter (preferably digital, about $30 at radioshack), or there are other resources online, such as myself, who can check voltages for you. if you're working on a project, definitely check this page out. go down to the guru calculator near the bottom, it will explain how you should lay out your led's based on your power supply. the led's you buy will tell you the voltage drop (how much voltage is lost on each one), and current. if it doesn't tell the current, 20mA is typically a safe bet. let me know if you want more help!

 

[Woogieman]

So far the LED work looks good. The shift knob is a cool idea, but how much has it cost you so far & how much more time & money do you need to complete it. If it's cheap I think this could be a cool way to get a unique shifter knob.
As far as LED's in my car. If I really feel like I need to change up the lighting in my car you'll be one of the first people I talk to. However, the thought of messing with the wiring in my car makes me cringe. I haven't even done the basic fog light mod because of my "phobia" I wonder if there's an actual phobia like that?:blackeye:
I bet you can find a lot of the plastic pieces you need at the junk yard. We could even make a NW Region "parts needed" list so everyone could be looking for parts on the list to help each other out. What do you think?

-Aaron

 

[dyaballikl]

i actually have about 3 gallons of resin mix, as well as a lot of extra fiber glass material, so that doesn't really cost me anything. sand paper is cheap, and so it the krylon fusion paint i use (which rocks, btw).

i totally hear you about being afraid of messing with the wiring, so i did a lot of research before starting on stuff like this. i'd never blindly put it new wiring and not worry about it, but you do have to have some confidence in your work. what i do is put my stuff in, and regularly check it by feel for heat, as well as make sure the fuses don't blow.

with plastics, on the bright side (but kinda not), there are quite a few contours and mystiques (mistakes, as they call them in the junk yard!) in the junk yards, and the plastics are fiarly cheap and easy to pull off, so i'll definitely be getting to that once i get a bit more money.

 

[GrooveNerd]

Wow -- you've got a good start in the mods department already! That sucks the previous owners trashed so many parts inside your car. I hate that at the junkyard too -- someone wants some part, and they just rip the crap outta anything that's in their way. If they'd use even two brain cells to stop and think, that even though their ignorant self doesn't need a certain part, the next person might actually be looking for that one! Grrrr.

In looking at the picture of your clock, if you can find a thin, frosted piece of plastic and place it between the LEDs and the clock display, you can get rid of most of the "hot-spot" look of the LEDs showing through. Looking good, though! Keep up the modding, and enjoy your car!

We could even make a NW Region "parts needed" list so everyone could be looking for parts on the list to help each other out. What do you think?

-Aaron

That's a good idea. I'll start a thread for that.

Marty

 

[dyaballikl]

Wow -- you've got a good start in the mods department already! That sucks the previous owners trashed so many parts inside your car. I hate that at the junkyard too -- someone wants some part, and they just rip the crap outta anything that's in their way. If they'd use even two brain cells to stop and think, that even though their ignorant self doesn't need a certain part, the next person might actually be looking for that one! Grrrr.

In looking at the picture of your clock, if you can find a thin, frosted piece of plastic and place it between the LEDs and the clock display, you can get rid of most of the "hot-spot" look of the LEDs showing through. Looking good, though! Keep up the modding, and enjoy your car!



That's a good idea. I'll start a thread for that.

Marty

great idea on the led's. i really didn't do it right. i hot glued the led's into place, which is good, but they're too damn close to the clock. i need to cut the glue out and try again. i'm actually getting a few weird little dots in my clock, not sure if there's a problem with the clock screen itself, since the led's are actually pressed up against it. the lcd could be leaking a little
[edit] actually, i realize now that you can see the dots in that picture. i wonder if it's just a factory imperfection because the stock light is not meant to shine through quite as intensely.

 

[dyaballikl]

shifter's looking dramatically better now. I cut the shifter down about 2 inches (i do wanna go more, though), and i'm going to get the shifter bent towards me more and rethreaded by a machine shop. as per that ugly ass shifter up there, i wound up filing the whole thing down and restarting with just one good layer of bondo, worked out WAY better. here's how it worked:

[edit] just got back from the junkyard. got almost all the plastics that were broken on my car for $40. multi colors, though, gotta paint them. things i couldn't get: cup holder and far right vent. they had good vents, but i think i have to remove the whole dash to get it off. more than i was prepared to do in the rain today.

 

[dyaballikl]

just started a reupholstering project. got nice black vinyl and got one door panel off. i took the fabric off and i'm going to put the vinyl on over the panel. i think it's going to look really good once it's finished. pics to come.