Greg's 2012 2LS, "Caitlyn"

[bigblockz8]

I bought a 4 pack gauge retrofit kit second hand and ran into difficulties. It didn't work and we found two wires that were poorly crimped into the harness. After a solder job it still did not.

Neither one of us realized that the harness was for a 2013 and not a 2012. While I await the new harness' arrival I installed a $12 LED kit from amazon.

It was cheaper than 95% of what I found and was for the camaro specifically. No finding numbers and matching the comparable LED.

Added: White LED plate lights
Blue LED dome and trunk lights

OH YEAH! The two kickers need an amp and I plan to put blue LEDs in the enclosure.

[edster8912]

Nice car, it's coming along pretty good. It's sounds great as well. I like your interior LED lights. Looks bad ass when you open it. Might do that to mine. I will have to look into how to wire it so it turns on when I open my doors.

[bigblockz8]

Originally Posted by edster8912

Nice car, it's coming along pretty good. It's sounds great as well. I like your interior LED lights. Looks bad ass when you open it. Might do that to mine. I will have to look into how to wire it so it turns on when I open my doors.

Thank you very much! It was a great learning experience and has now turned into a side business. You can tap into the dome light and use that as a switch. I used a 3 position switch for my door lights. On 1 is constantly powered, off, on 2 uses the dome light power and can dim or fade with it. As you know when you unlock the car the dome comes on, as will the door lights.

[edster8912]

Originally Posted by bigblockz8

Thank you very much! It was a great learning experience and has now turned into a side business. You can tap into the dome light and use that as a switch. I used a 3 position switch for my door lights. On 1 is constantly powered, off, on 2 uses the dome light power and can dim or fade with it. As you know when you unlock the car the dome comes on, as will the door lights.

That's good to know. I will see what I can figure out. That's good you are making some money from your ingenuity. That's what it's all about. Mo money for the car

[bigblockz8]

The past month has been a fun time to experiment. I have added LED's under by rear and through trial and error hid them in a suitable place. After compromising location and light and considering heat from the exhaust I mounted them as seen below. I then ran the wires to my switch next to my right leg which controls my grille and under door lighting as well. The grey wire is the horn button wire for my air horn that plays La Cucaracha (for when Civics pull next to me and rev). The red going through the seat goes to my main 12V 2A supply wire for my "illegal" LED's and then to my switch. This completes my spaceship for now.


I also Plastidipped my taili light bezels. In addition I made my own hash marks and made a personal compromise between my love of full and fender length hash marks. One is flat black and full and the other carbon fiber and fender line length.

>>>>On another note, I dynoed my car, 277rwhp!<<<<

A twin car (2012 V6, even victory red) with a similar setup but that has a tune did 263rwhp.

[bigblockz8]

277rwhp! I wonder what would have happened if the speed restriction was removed, that is what stop the run.

Video of the dyno and the sound of my exhaust:




Chart is attached, I had to edit the size and cut the bottom off to fit it in the post. the one below is my second best.

[bigblockz8]

This past weekend I went to GM Nationals at Carlisle and won 3rd place, 2012 Camaro-Stock. I also did my spoiler in matte black. Here are a few images from this weekend:

[bigblockz8]

I bought a BMR V8 2 point strut tower brace (too good of a deal to pass even if it will not just go on) and a Vmax Ported TB. I put the TB on so far. Took 15 mins thanks to my CAI putting up a fight but otherwise would have been 5 mins.

[bigblockz8]

I recently got an excellent deal on a BMR Strut Tower Brace (read bought on a whim without research for cheap) and had to do a little work after finding out it was meant for a 2010-2011 V8 camaro.

Problems:

• Initially the brace was hitting the towers and was no where close to being flush.
• Both of my strut towers had 2 half drilled holes on each tower, I did not want a total of 6 per tower so I had to fit the bar to the misaligned holes.
• My hood's cylinder bracket was in the way of the O-shaped portion on the car's right side.

Solutions:

• After using basic tools to try to hack at the bar I finally bought a Dremel (not worth the time or money for this until the finishing work came) and cut off grinder.
• Shaved the underside of the O portion to be able to get the bar to clear the mounting bracket for the hood cyl.
• Ground down the sides of the bar to give clearance.
• Installed the bar in tension, the misaligned holes seem to add to the resistance (Better than adding new holes that would make the original holes into an oval).

I need to repaint due to some grinding, transport and prior paint damage. I do not have all of the bolts on in some pictures due to an amazing lack of drill bits at my local auto stores and hardware stores. Only 2 need to be put in. As for the bolt above/through the hood mount, I am skipping it.


One pic has the stock retainers and one bolt on each (I cannot work on it at home and have to do it in parking lots) due to needing to drive between progress.

3rd to last is the near final


Here are some pics.

[VTSummit]

I love your enthusiasm for your car. But did you say you were doing a side business wiring up lights etc for other people? I would really do some research on how to do clean installations- your wires are all over the place.
You're learning and loving your car, that's what it's all about.

[bigblockz8]

Originally Posted by VTSummit

I love your enthusiasm for your car. But did you say you were doing a side business wiring up lights etc for other people? I would really do some research on how to do clean installations- your wires are all over the place.
You're learning and loving your car, that's what it's all about.

On other people's cars I take the time to hide them. On mine I haven't really hidden them because I am considering rewiring everything now that I have more experience. I also want to change the gauge of wire and have a safer system of sending power. I honestly haven't felt like tackling it yet, I never have time to either. I will hide them soon and I want to redo my entire grille (the lights were not mounted well when it was -4F out nor was the fascia removed).

I have a lot to do soon and will do all wiring and add new wiring for my speakers. My car will be nude soon giving me the chance.

Thanks for reading!