Well i am back. Thought I was gone for good? (lol who the hell is VRstato64?)
Anyway. SOOOOOO much has happened and I just did not have the time to post anything.
2014 was my final year of University. I studied Industrial Design, which is really anything 3 dimensional. Look around the room every single thing is Industrial design, TV, phone, chairs, tables, pens, cups, drink bottles, clocks, light switches, and yoru car is also Industrial design. Of course you have the engineering side of things, running gear, engine etc. But industrial designers work next to the engineers. Anyway the field is easily the most broad of all design disciplines.
It was a big year. I finished without going into a melt down. My final project was a military level tech Autonomous Drone for Monitoring bushfires, it is a concept and not intended to be a production ready product. I didnt make it spaced aged and everything about it is based on real world tech and physics. With a healthy dose of artistic licence, it had to look cool. Anyway I am a finalist in a very prestigious design competition and you can get a snap shot of my design below.
Phoenix Autonomous Fire Drone « Hills Young Australian Design Awards
After Christmas I travelled to india todo whats call 'The Rickshaw Run' a charity race across india in a 3 wheeled 7 horsepower tuk tuk.
The What?
We drove 4000km in that thing. From Jailsamer in far east of India to Shillong in far west India. In the Himalayas, through desert, cities, you name in we drove through it.
And errrmmm, maybe we pushed the little bugger a little hard hahahaha, the stories are endless for this trip. I recommend doing it!!!!! but it was the most demanding thing I have ever done, body, mind and spirit.
Before I left I landed my first REAL big man job in my chosen field. The design team at a big automotive name! you guessed it FORD!!! haha
Thats right I have turned to the darkside, the holden kid is now a Designer for Ford Australia and Asia pacific. WHich is a dream come true! For anyone that doesnt know, despite the closing of the factories the design centre is growing. Australia is actually a leader in Automotive design.
I also graduated this week.
OPPPS forgot to mention!!!! See a ring on DAT finger??? Yerp I got Engaged, Maria and I have been together 8 years. And now I have a good job, finished uni and nothing but possibilities in front of me, it was time!
SO yeah been super busy. But enough of that, whats happening with the SS?
Finally after over a year driving around with the gauges unwired and not working I took the time and tried my hand at fitting them. I had put it off for a number of reasons but also because I was scared todo it on my own, I have never done any wiring or pulled a dash apart. Not even a headunit install. Needless to say pulling everything apart took longer than it should. It ended up being an easy plug and play thing and I barely did anything other than run the harness through the dash.
These screws were hard to get to with the windscreen in the way. Inefficient way to undo a screw but you gotta make things work.
The entire console has to be taken out to run the wiring.
The wiring harness gets fed behind the center console, I really damaged the air foam seal I hope that doesnt create issues.
You basically run the wires down next to the climate control and stereo to where the cigarette lighter plug is (which is there even if you dont have one like me)
There was a perfect gap in front of the shifter boot to slip my phone in to give me some light pro tip.
The harness has a male and female plug on the end. Took me ages to figure out that you just plug the male connector into the factory cigarette plug and the female plug is left unused UNLESS you have a factory cig lighter installed, in which case you plug the male plug into the gauges female connector.
There is a single wire that is ment for the oil pressure sender, which has to be feed through the fire wall. Funnily enough the instruction told me to run it through a passenger side grommet not drivers side. The purple wire off the gauges harness plugs into the protected oil pressure sender cable.
There is a grommet in the firewall that has nothing running through it, So you just run the gauge cable through and put the supplied grommet in its place. I assume this is how they do it from the factory for the VY HSVs and beyond which is why the instructions tell you todo it this way.
I ran out of light and didnt have time to jack the car up and fit the oil pressure sensor. But they work!!!
I have one issue though. You can either use the factory oil sensor spot and use a T piece adapter OR you can use an plate and tap into the block via a spot next to the oil filter.
Anyway know the Advantages or disadvantages or either option?? I have a T piece but not the plate. Either one looks like a pain to get to.
Thoughts?
