91 Shadow R/T Convertible

[jonnyb]

That's option 3 in my list...LOL! Or am I misunderstanding what you're saying?

[DOHCRT]

but I'm going to wait and rewire the O2 sensor plug once I have the harness installed in the car. I want to extend that wiring and run it up around on the firewall instead of in the factory location behind the back valve cover, and I figure it will be easier to get the length right with the harness in the car.

Jon

I use an 02 sensor from a 94ish Dakota, the pigtail is significantly longer than the stock sensor. I then reroute the harness side of the sensor up around the firewall just like the factory should have done in the first place.

[86Shelby]

I use an 02 sensor from a 94ish Dakota, the pigtail is significantly longer than the stock sensor. I then reroute the harness side of the sensor up around the firewall just like the factory should have done in the first place.

That's the way my R/T is done as well, not sure the application for the sensor as it was already done when I bought the car.

[Dodge Aries K]

Get a "base model" Shadow center console which is smaller and doesn't attach to the dashboard. It should have a spot for where the window controls can still go. Also, get the ash tray/cupholder thing out of a Spirit with a bench seat to close up the dashboard area where the console would attach. That might work out well for what you're trying to accomplish.

[jonnyb]

Get a "base model" Shadow center console which is smaller and doesn't attach to the dashboard. It should have a spot for where the window controls can still go. Also, get the ash tray/cupholder thing out of a Spirit with a bench seat to close up the dashboard area where the console would attach. That might work out well for what you're trying to accomplish.

Now that's an interesting idea. I already have the center console/armrest from an 87 csx in my stash (those got the base model center console) so that's the easy part. The bench seat spirit dash part could also probably be found, but what I'm wondering is how the shifter would play into all of that. I doubt any spirits with bench seat came with a stickshift!

I'll have to take a look at my 87 CSX and see if it creates any ideas. The only downside to this is that one of the reasons I like the spirit interior better is the fold down armrest in the center console, and the drink cup holders vs. the cheesy shadow ones.

Thanks for the ideas!

Jon

[jonnyb]

Well, scratch that idea. I just looked at some pics of my 87 csx that I have on my phone and I forgot that the center console on them (the base console) has the shifter incorporated into it. So I thought that was good, until I took a closer look at the pic.

Base model didn't have a power window option, so there's no provision for power windows on the base console! If I'm going to modify the center console to keep the controls there, I think I'd just try to do it on the spirit one. However, I'm really leaning towards the custom door panel idea and using the entire spirit harness.

I'll tinker with other stuff on the car and mull over the wiring ideas for a few more days, and then I'll make my decision.

Jon

[Pat]

That's option 3 in my list...LOL! Or am I misunderstanding what you're saying?

I meant build a seperate jumper harness that plugs into an unmodified t3 engine harness to an unmodified shadow dash harness so you could swap stuff around in the future.

[jonnyb]

Glass guy just came and installed the new windshield...looks sweet! Now I can start to put interior stuff back in without it getting rained on!

I played around with the shadow window switch and I think I can make it work with the spirit center console. I'll lose a cupholder, but oh well! So, it looks like my next task will be repinning/cutting/soldering wires to make the spirit dash harness work with the shadow body harness. My current plan is to do a hybrid of Pat's idea. I'm going to cut and leave 3 inch long pigtails on the shadow wiring connectors from the original shadow dash. Then pull the pins from the spirit dash connectors, and solder and shrink wrap them to the pigtails. That way I can plug the spirit harness into the stock shadow body harness and only have a few inches of extra wire to tuck away and no extra bulky connectors. Also, if for some reason I ever want to put the spirit or shadow harness back together, I should be able to easily unsolder the pigtails from the pins.

Wiring is usually a slow process, so there probably won't be any updates to this thread for a while...

[jonnyb]

OK, after I looked at it a couple more times, I decided it might be easier to just use the entire spirit wiring system. So far, so good!

No real splicing required at all yet, and I have the entire dash and engine compartment wiring strung up in the right places. Since I'm using the Spirit dash and ac/heater system, the spirit wiring is all plug and play there. For the doors, the spirit doors are shorter, so I had to extend the power lock wires by about 6 inches. I also had to pull the pins from the power window motor connectors and swap them into the shadow style connectors, but that was no big deal. Other than that all connectors were the same between both cars.

The power windows still need work, but I can get the car running and driving and worry about those later. It looks like the passenger side power window plug is a direct fit/part number to the power door lock switch on the shadow armrest, and the wiring for it is the perfect length, so I'm planning on making the power lock switch the power window switch on the passenger side. On the drivers side, I'll fabricate either the spirit switch, or the stock shadow switch into the armrest where the power door lock switch is. Then I'm going to try to use the spot on the door panels where manual window cranks go through to mount the power door lock switches on the door panels. That will all definitely be something I do near the end of the project though. For now, I'll just plug the spirit window switch in, and let it dangle out of the door panel and probably forgo power door locks. LOL!

The only other mods required to the harness are on the taillights. The 3 plugs are different and the spirit ones don't fit into the shadow taillights, so I have to splice the shadow sockets onto the spirit harness. Not too bad - in total I only had the 2 cut/splices to lengthen the power door lock wires, and 6 cut and splices to swap the taillight sockets!

Next up is to install the power brake booster and clutch/brake pedals. Then I think I'll be done with everything under the dash area and I can install the dash! I'm hoping to have that all buttoned up by next weekend. Then I can move on to the engine.

Jon

[wheming]

Sounds like some steady progress Jon.

[jonnyb]

Forgot to mention the fun I had with the AC/Heater box - it was rodent infested and filled just like most of the rest of the car! I disassembled it and soaked everything in a bleach solution and scrubbed it all clean. The blower motor fan was all chewed up and I remembered that the Spirit this came out of never circulated air very well, so I replaced that while I had everything apart. I also put in a new heater core.

Here's some pics of that fun:




All disassembled and ready for bleach solution:



Once that was cleaned, I started to install the wiring. Here's a shot of the spirit harness laid out inside the car alongside the shadow harness:



Next I pulled the shadow harness out of each door and installed the spirit harness in its place, and then I removed the shadow harness all the way to the back seat area. After that, I ran the spirit harness along the dash and got the heater/ac box installed. Of course it's never any fun unless you have to redo something (especially when your working in 100 degree humid heat...LOL). As I stood back and admired how well it all fit, I realized I had to pull it all back out to install the firewall heat/sound deadening material!

So I pulled it all back out and pulled the shadow pad out of storage and what a mess it was! Chewed everywhere! I grabbed the spirit firewall pad, and what do you know, same part number, same exact pad! After I installed that, I got everything all lined up again to get ready to install it. Here's a shot of that:



Then I got it all buttoned up again. Here's a shot of the heater box installed and the wiring strung back up on the dash:



After that, I started closing up all the other things that go under the dash (steering rack firewall rubber shroud, accelerator pedal, 60 way bulkhead support, etc.). The shadow had a different connector on the dash support bar so I swapped in the spirit support bar. It looked really close to the cowl area and I wasn't sure the bulkhead would be able to snap in, so I ran inside and grabbed the restored engine harness to see if it fits. Sure enough-it fit and snapped in like it belonged there!

I wasn't planning on installing the engine harness just yet, but since I had it snapped in, I figured why not just keep it in. So I strung it around the engine bay and got it partially tacked in place for now. I need to go through the engine compartment and clean the whole thing and sand/buff the clear coat in a few places before I completely install the harness, but it still feels good to have it snapped in and out of my kitchen. LOL!

Here's a quick shot of it in the engine bay with the heater hoses and wiring poking through the firewall:



Going to work on getting the power brake booster cleaned up and installed tonight, and then I'll work on the clutch and brake pedal install.

Jon

[jonnyb]

Well, that wasn't fun. What was it I said about getting to do things twice? Well, how about 3 times...LOL!

I went out to work on the car after work and when I opened up the door the stench that hit me was unbearable. Apparently the bleach solution wasn't strong enough to take the odor out of the foam on all of the doors in the heater box. I caught a faint smell of it when I was installing it yesterday, but once it was installed and the car was closed up for a day, the smell was more than faint!

There was no way I was going to redo the entire car and chance having that smell lingering, so I went to my storage stash and pulled out the original heater box. I took it apart to make sure it was clean inside (just dusty, but I cleaned it all up inside anyway), and then I swapped the new and other necessary parts off the spirit heater box. Once I was sure it was good to go, I installed it for the 3rd time!

So zero forward progress tonight, but the 2 hours of extra time was worth it!

Jon

[jonnyb]

OK, how about 4 times! LOL! I was figuring out what to do to for dash insulation and then I realized I had the fancy, smancy dash pad from the spirit r/t. So I grabbed it out of storage and and after seeing that it fit perfectly, I had to go ahead and pull the heater/ac unit out to install it.

Then I had the pleasure of trying to convert the car over to stick. The dimples for the shifter and clutch cables were already in all the right spots, so drilling them out with a hole saw was a piece of cake. However, getting the pedal setup was a real pain! I started with the spirit clutch/brake assembly and the entire dash mount, but it didn't fit the shadow cowl/dash. Then I tried a p-body assembly I had, but the steering column mount sat too high up in the dash. So after playing with the spirit assembly for a while, I was able to modify it to work in the shadow.

After that, I slid the dash into place. I still have to tilt the dash back down and hook up all of wiring, so I'm not as far as I hoped, but it's starting to get there.

A pic of the dash insulation installed and attempting to get the clutch pedal mounted:



A pic of dash in place:



Jon

[2.216VTurbo]

Now you're just R&R'ing the HVAC for fun...

[Pat]

I like it with the Spirit dash in there.

[Reaper1]

Besides the travel limiter for the clutch pedal, you should have been able to just take the nut off the one side, slide the whole pivot bolt out and us the one from the manual pedal assembly...keeping the original bracket.

[karlak]

How many dashes and models are interchangeable?

[jonnyb]

I like it with the Spirit dash in there.

I have to say, out of all the 80's/90's fwd cars that I've owned/driven, the spirit and the minivan are my two favorites for layout and comfort, with an honorable mention to the omni seats (super comfy, but the ride isn't close to a spirit or nicely set up van).

That's why this car will be mostly spirit r/t with shelby csx inspired seating and exterior. I'll run the spirit seats at first too, so this will most likely feel like a miniaturized spirit r/t for a bit...LOL.

Besides the travel limiter for the clutch pedal, you should have been able to just take the nut off the one side, slide the whole pivot bolt out and us the one from the manual pedal assembly...keeping the original bracket.

As I mentioned in my post, I tried the spare p-body clutch assembly that I had, but the steering column mount sat too high up in the spirit dash and wouldn't easily work. Plus, if you look at the first pic, you can see the main part of the spirit harness runs both behind the pedal/steering wheel assembly, and above it. The p-body harness only runs above the assembly, and the p-body pedal assembly doesn't have a large enough gap to allow the spirit harness to pass in behind it.

The easy solution (after playing with it), was to adjust the spirit assembly to fit the shadow cowl and add a missing mount bolt to the cowl. So that's what I went with.

But for sure, yes, the easiest solution would have been if the darn p-body clutch assembly I had put aside for this project would have worked...LOL!

How many dashes and models are interchangeable?

From what I'm seeing so far, the p-body and a-body are pretty darn close from the back of the drivers seat forward. Based on all of the fwd cars of this era that I've owned/worked on, I would guess the g-body and j-body might also be very interchangeable. The S and L bodies are definitely beasts of their own. Those are the 6 platforms I'm most familiar with.

[CoolV300C]

Nice work. Impressed with the dash conversion.

[2.216VTurbo]

Not to clutter your build thread too much Johnny but did you ever see the dash in the LeRampage my brother built? Everything worked, travelor, digital gauges etc. What a ton of hours that was!