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Neil's '41 Super Model 51


neil morse

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Aren't those fresh, bright wires awesome? I almost feel like wearing gloves when I'm working with new wires like that just so they don't get dirty. My Limited has a new harness in it, but some hack with greasy fingers (not me, amazingly enough) not only made it filthy but chopped and cut it so it would fit the way HE decided it should. Ugh.

 

Good wiring is one of the single most important things on an old car, both in terms of function and safety. If there's ever a problem in the future, this is going to make your life (or someone down the line) a lot easier.

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Haha -- that is so funny because earlier today I was upset with myself because I had handled some of the beautiful yellow wires of my new harness with my grubby hands and put some smudges on them.  I wanted to clean them off, and then I thought -- wait a minute, what?  This wiring is going to be under the dash and no one will ever see it.  But it was the defilement of the sacred new wire that upset me!

 

I totally agree on the safety factor.  A few days after I bought this car, I took some photos by sticking my phone camera under the dash.  I was so appalled by what I saw that I immediately went out and bought a cut-out switch for the battery.  I wasn't about to leave that car in the garage (under my house) with the battery hooked up.  That's what has been the essential driving force behind my rewiring project.  Doing it with an authentic harness like the one produced by RI Wire is just the icing on the cake to me.

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 Your work is looking good, Neil. I put a new harness in mine at the end of the restoration. The original was patched, spliced, and disconnected in various places, and I would of been afraid to actually drive it!

 I got mine from Harnesses Unlimited, and it too, seemed to be a quality repro.

 Keith

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Thanks, Keith and Bloo.  I did the 6-pin connector today.  It was a bit trickier than the 3-pin because the contacts are close together, and there's a lot to stuff back in the housing when you're done, but it was basically the same job times two.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

It doesn't even look like the same part! That's how my Century's headlight buckets looked--more like a rock than a metal bucket. It'll be reassuring to have all that fresh wiring in there so you know things will just work like they should. When I burned out a front turn signal bulb, my actual first thought was, "Oh nuts, now the turn signals are broken." Just a bulb, but it shows you how much I trust the wiring work some hack did on my car. Nice job!

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New Parking Light/Turn Signal sockets

 

Rhode Island Wiring provides the wires and the guts for a rebuild of the sockets.  Here's what you get for each side (plus one of my sockets):

 

plights1.jpg.f3e7a0d7ef98902b6cde124ffb3b98e3.jpg

 

These little pieces have "ears" which fit in the slots in the sides of the socket and keep the two wires in the right place:

 

plights2.jpg.946a9f7656f2d48aa289ead95a48570c.jpg

 

The spring goes in the bottom of the socket under the two "ear" pieces:

 

plights3.jpg.3245e88a31bfde7b29ebb70952b3a4d0.jpg

 

Then you strip a little bit off the end of each wire, put them through the little grommets on the other round piece, and solder them in:

 

plights4.jpg.9114b99b8c907f55075503fe06876ce4.jpg

 

Snip off the ends, and use a small, flat file to file down the contacts:

 

plights5.jpg.e80fd1e92706bf4ddecd927b698419a8.jpg

 

Push everything back down into the socket, being careful to get the "ears" into the slots on both sides:

 

plights6.jpg.dc74c8f0c06585672c8ac308011d8eaa.jpg

 

Insert bulb, and bench test.  Yay, it works!  You have to test both the turn signal (brighter filament) and the parking light (dimmer filament).

 

plights7.jpg.1f8a35032fe4fe816fdb52b014bd2809.jpg

 

Then the socket goes back on the car.  (And by the way, if you're going to do headlights at the same time, you can really save yourself some trouble.  The nut securing the parking light housing from the bottom -- which has to be removed in order to remove the socket -- is a real pain in the butt to get to with the headlights in place.  With that huge opening, piece of cake!)

 

plights8.jpg.ee9c721ca32ebb81206af2afddefe77d.jpg

 

plights10.thumb.jpg.8537fb324659bd70548a53ad3fe8da6d.jpg

 

Everything back together, hook up the wires at the junction block, and time to test it in the car.  (This is probably overkill, but I like to check things at every stage I can.  I want to minimize bad surprises as much as I can!)

 

plights11.jpg.330470e3e72c8dd0cc6031314ea33c46.jpg

 

Again, I'm a happy camper.  Both the parking light and the turn signal light up just as they should when I run a wire from the battery to the terminals on the junction block for each one.  This, of course, also means my ground is fine.  An excellent day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by neil morse (see edit history)
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Interesting how you made the bulb terminals and sockets--I didn't realize you could assemble terminals like that. I tracked down some brass terminal buttons and installed them when I was rewiring my fog lights, but it was a serious pain in the butt because they weren't made for the 12-gauge wire I was using. Yours seems like a very elegant solution. Nice!

 

What bulbs are you using in the parking lights? My car has 1154s, which are the same as the dual-filament taillight bulbs. That makes it easier to carry spares. I'm not sure what the original bulbs were supposed to be.

 

21U492_AS01?$mdmain$

 

359177785_NewBulb.jpg.e48c99b1b64616b894fa6ca4e1fb8de3.jpg

 

I do like that you have the inner lenses, which are missing from my car. I keep thinking I should add them--do your parking lights look yellow from head-on? I kind of like mine being bright white so they're easy to see, but maybe the lens helps focus the light head-on? 

 

I also note that you aligned the screw heads on the parking light housing front-rear. A man after my own heart!

 

 

Edited by Matt Harwood (see edit history)
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I had never seen this type of socket before I got these from RI Wire, so I agree that is a "very elegant solution" as far as creating a socket using old school wire, but I certainly can't claim credit for it.

 

Those are halogen bulbs that I got from Hirsch.  My car also had 1154 bulbs front and rear when I bought it, but I went to the halogen bulbs to get something brighter.  I later stopped using the halogens in the back because I was concerned about heat (and switched to the LED's that you recommended).  But I kept the halogens in front because I figure they are never illuminated long enough to create any concerns about heat.  I never drive with the parking lights on, and the turn signals are obviously just illuminated intermittently.  Ultimately, an LED solution may be better for the fronts as well.

 

I got the inner lenses (diffusers?) from Bob's.  You may recall that I started a thread about them when I discovered them, and there was some discussion about the incorrect amber color.  I honestly can't say that they make much difference -- the lights do not appear yellow or amber from head on, and they are plenty bright with the halogen bulbs.

 

On the screw heads, I have to admit you really got a laugh out of me on that one.  I may be a man after your own heart, but I assure you it was purely coincidental!  But now that you've pointed it out, I agree that it looks cool! 

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Headlights

 

I got my headlights reinstalled today.  Hooked everything up and tested them by running a wire from the positive battery pole and then touching it to the different terminals on the junction block.  High beams and low beams working fine!

 

headlight4.jpg.409d0eb2bd065af5a941c1f908b282b6.jpg

 

junctionblock.jpg.c4835260c086731f3a06f13d0196d6a5.jpg

 

headlight6.jpg.2974d1ad5209aa16be407ddf23931181.jpg

 

I also got my revulcanized gas pedal back from Steele today.  Looking good, as you can see from this before and after comparison.

 

20170411_092002.thumb.jpg.c2edd16bbc6ad20b6753b512bac6e782.jpg

 

gas_pedal3.thumb.jpg.3c1a3e947a4545e6496242d79d0805a6.jpg

 

 

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 Neil, I am following your every move. I truly appreciate you taking the time to post all the details of the project here. I just started the install of my wiring harness a couple of days ago. I am still taking things apart. I’m on the light switches now (cramped in there). 

Keep it coming.  Thanks!

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Hi Ken:

 

That's great.  I thought you had already done yours.  Yes, it's cramped, but you will be surprised at how much space opens up once you start pulling stuff apart.  If you haven't already done it, I strongly advise that you remove the front seat like I did, put down a nice soft blanket and get a good pillow!  Then disassemble everything you possibly can from the dash.  Once the radio supports and the big chrome piece in the center are out of the way, you have much better access to the back of the instrument panel.

 

Also, I'm not really posting "all the details," so please feel free to send me a PM if you run into any problems that I might be able to help you with.

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Checking Dimmer Switch

 

Here's a little video of me checking the operation of the headlights and dimmer switch after I hooked up the wiring to the switch.  

 

 

 

When I embarked on this project, I was nervous about whether I was going to be able to do it.  I kept imagining laboriously hooking everything up and waiting for the "big day" when I connected the battery to see if everything worked.  Now that I'm into it, I am so glad to find that there are plenty of ways to check on your work as you go along.  It's really pretty damn simple when it comes down to it! 

Edited by neil morse (see edit history)
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Wiper Towers

 

A post by Matt Harwood about the rubber seals around the wiper towers made me realize that I needed to do something about the ones on my car. I didn't even know that the seals were supposed to be there.  No wonder water leaked down from the cowl to the floor mat when I washed the car!  Also, the rare times when I tested my wipers (since I very rarely drive my car in the rain), I could see that the towers were loose and moved a bit from side to side.  I figured that if there was ever a time to try to do something about this, it was now when I had everything under the dash taken apart.

 

First thing was to remove the defroster ducts.  As far as I can tell, the position of these ducts makes it absolutely impossible to reach the nuts holding the wiper towers in place.  (I'm saying this in a qualified way since Matt says that he was able to access these nuts with the defroster ducts in place -- all I can say is that Matt must have a very skinny wrench!)  Unfortunately, I do not have a photo of the ducts -- I find "under dash" photography to be a bit too challenging.  But anyhow, I was able to remove both ducts, which are each secured by two sheet metal screws.

 

Here's what the wiper towers looked like when I removed them:

 

wipertowers.jpg.6f23e855b7a15da477073a5976f170e7.jpg

 

wipertowers2.jpg.47a3204852ad5e98936184e9bae2d0e8.jpg

 

You can see the calcified remains of the rubber seals stuck to the base of each tower.  After some concerted effort with a screwdriver and some acetone (plus removing and wire brushing the nuts and lock washers that secure the bottom shaft) they looked like this.  (I also cleaned a re-lubricated the "chain drive" as best I could -- I had no interest in disassembling it!)

 

wipertowers3.thumb.jpg.736c95cd888c4d773f8d51d812b4b679.jpg

 

I got new seals from Steele.  Here's a pic showing the new seal on one of the towers, plus the bracket and bolt that holds the tower in place:

 

wipertowers4.jpg.966a4643f8c64bf1f4d6deb4fd63bacd.jpg

 

Tower back in place with the new seal.  My towers are now secure and hopefully leak proof.

 

wipertowers5.jpg.a2f8a3267c01da5d855eb58ba49b759e.jpg

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Ammeter/Temperature Gauge

 

Part of my rewiring project involves also rebuilding my ammeter/temp. gauge, which as you can see had been completely cooked from years of exposure to the sun.

 

Temp_Ammeter.thumb.jpg.ab9d3747ad5e222a8cc1e11568a07e9a.jpg

 

I found NOS gauge heads on Ebay for both parts.  As I have discussed previously in this thread, the temp. gauge appeared to be DOA, but after sending it to an expert I was happy to find that it just needed to calibrated.  I tested it in boiling water when I got it back, and the needle moved all the way, so I was happy with it.  However, in getting it ready to put into the car, I realized that I hadn't checked it against a thermometer so I really didn't know how accurate it was.  So I got out a saucepan of water again, but this time I put a thermometer in the pan to check it.

 

As before, boiling water sent the needle all the way to the right:

 

220.thumb.jpg.3d65c3f96d184d98ae34221076b15873.jpg

 

At 180 degrees, it was just about dead center, right on the money.

 

180.thumb.jpg.b4b6abcf775701d94fe132eecf8a8a79.jpg

 

Today, I checked the ammeter by putting it in a circuit with the headlights.  It worked great!  (After I made this little video, I tweaked the needle a tiny bit because it wasn't quite lining up to zero with no current.)

 

 

Ever onward and upward!

 

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Neil,

The work that you are doing looks great. I know there was quite a discussion about the engine turning of the dash. What is the plan in that regards? Also, can you tell me (now that your dash is mostly disassembled) how is the dash secured to the car?

Thanks,

 

Mike 

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Thanks, Mike.  I'm not planning on doing anything to fix my dash panels other than clean them thoroughly (and carefully).  My glove box door is almost perfect, and my instrument panel has the areas you can see in the photo above where someone polished off the pattern with overly-aggressive attempts at cleaning.  As I've said before, my goal here is just to end up with a strong and reliable driver, and I don't feel it's worth it to spend a big chunk of money getting the panels refinished.

 

The instrument panel is held onto the dashboard with five nuts that go onto studs in the panel.  This pic is not the panel from my car, but it shows how the panel is attached:

 

dashpanel4.thumb.jpeg.064a82d4846524e7f981b2a0ac683e64.jpeg

 

The gauges are then held onto the back of the panel by the smaller studs.  Getting to the nuts that hold the panel on is a bit of a challenge, but nowhere near as hard as I thought it was going to be.  Once you get the radio supports and the big chrome piece off, access to the area behind the panel is much better.  The trickiest nut is the one in the upper left-hand corner, but a deep socket and a U-joint got the job done.

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A banner day today.  I got enough hooked up to run the car, so I was able to fire it up and check out all my work.  Here she is out of the garage for the first time in a month.

 

startup3.thumb.jpg.492f3169fbae6936714deb6db8013426.jpg

 

New charge indicator/temp. gauge working:

 

startup1.thumb.jpg.c080de6617b4a974dd21136f767690b8.jpg

 

Gas/oil pressure gauge working:

 

startup2.thumb.jpg.b92301926edeb3543ba0e32829b12a2c.jpg

 

Dash still not together, but enough to test everything:

 

startup6.thumb.jpg.159ae612786bbeb6dd98c0b3bcad78d7.jpg

 

Special seat -- cinder blocks and an old silk pillow -- the lap of luxury!

 

startup4.thumb.jpg.ae53c28572e23404cf96d1d2784d5702.jpg

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What Started it All

 

When I bought this car, I knew that I couldn't live with the charge indicator/temp. gauge in its current condition:

 

1505548013_Temp_Ammeter(2).thumb.jpg.0194fa0b2dfe51cc67bbd467ac06e29f.jpg

 

That's what led me to start looking under the dash and figuring out what I needed to do to replace this.  When I looked under the dash, it was immediately evident that the forward wiring harness had to be replaced.  As we all know, the most dangerous six words in the old car hobby are, "As long as I'm in there." But in my case, there really wasn't any choice.  The wiring looked so scary that I wasn't comfortable leaving my car in the garage without disconnecting the battery.

 

So I was very happy today to replace my old charge indicator/temp. gauge with this:

 

startup1.jpg.7a4fa1cd7265c729cb7ee86b8bec76b7.jpg

 

Notice that the fonts are different.  I haven't figured this out -- maybe there were different fonts for 1940 and 1941, but now the font on my charge indicator/temp gauge matches the font for the gas/oil pressure gauge.

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Great news, Neil!

All you have to do is button it up.

 

I am probably a week behind you. I am still removing

wires from under the hood. I identify and label as I go.

 

Your postings are truly helpful and encouraging!

Thanks for all your help.

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Nice work Neil.  Having the car off the road for a month doesn't seem so bad, but then you've got a nice driver there.  I've got a project on one car that at every turn of progress a new unforeseen problem becomes manifest and delays me until the next part shipment.

 

I'm curious about the font difference as well.  It seems that our listed 1940-41 Buick expert(s) do not participate in the forum so our search for details on authenticity takes a little more time.  I've started another thread seeking information on this detail. Thanks for noting the detail.  After some recent '40/'41 authenticity questions, I'd submit that we've begun to raise a new crop of experts.

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  • 1 month later...

Speedometer

 

This is what my speedo looked like when I bought my car:

 

1910620645_IMG_1513(2).thumb.jpg.9c9a3e9a88cfb3fc839143161cc6f6db.jpg

 

I had it rebuilt and recalibrated by a local speedometer shop, and did a cosmetic restoration that involved using a reproduction part for the plastic face.  It was okay, but the ivory plastic piece had a greenish tinge that I wasn't too happy about.  Then, just when I was getting ready to put it back in the car, I felt very fortunate to find this NOS face for sale online:

 

speedo_face.thumb.jpg.135da5ad9b3416e265f4110776124e51.jpg

 

I substituted the new face for the reproduction, and I'm very happy with the result:

 

speedo_done2.thumb.jpg.dba3206099def9333c68d3a3a8820c85.jpg

 

I'm just about ready to reinstall the instrument panel, and then I have to put the rest of the dash back together.  All in all, this has been a very satisfying project!

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1 hour ago, neil morse said:

Speedometer

 

This is what my speedo looked like when I bought my car:

 

1910620645_IMG_1513(2).thumb.jpg.9c9a3e9a88cfb3fc839143161cc6f6db.jpg

 

I had it rebuilt and recalibrated by a local speedometer shop, and did a cosmetic restoration that involved using a reproduction part for the plastic face.  It was okay, but the ivory plastic piece had a greenish tinge that I wasn't too happy about.  Then, just when I was getting ready to put it back in the car, I felt very fortunate to find this NOS face for sale online:

 

speedo_face.thumb.jpg.135da5ad9b3416e265f4110776124e51.jpg

 

I substituted the new face for the reproduction, and I'm very happy with the result:

 

speedo_done2.thumb.jpg.dba3206099def9333c68d3a3a8820c85.jpg

 

I'm just about ready to reinstall the instrument panel, and then I have to put the rest of the dash back together.  All in all, this has been a very satisfying project!

It looks great, Neil.  I like your attention to detail!

I have a way to go with the wiring. The harness is ‘in place’. Connections come next.

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Another banner day here for this project -- everything back in the instrument panel, and the panel back in the dash.  Getting the gauges back in the panel and the panel back in the dash was the most challenging part of the project, no question about it.  I'm hoping it will all pretty much be downhill from here on -- I just have to put the rest of the dash back together, install the switches, radio, glove box, etc.

 

dashpanel5.thumb.jpg.c472a5307021257c512d160d4088c3ad.jpg

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Touch Up Paint

 

I wanted to post some information that might be helpful to others who are looking for touch up paint to match the color of their car.  My car has an "older" paint job that's in pretty good shape, but there were a bunch of chips and dings that I wanted to take care of.  Also, as I posted earlier, the cowl vent was never properly repainted and had a stripe of primer right across the middle.

 

We have very strict environmental laws in California that made it pretty much impossible (as far as I could figure out) to find any oil-based paint locally.  I'm pretty sure that paint on my car is lacquer.  I went online and located an outfit in Florida called "Dr. ColorChip."  https://www.drcolorchip.com/  I sent them one of the door jamb switches from my car, and they used it to do a color match.

 

I bought a one oz. bottle of touch up for starters, and was very happy with the color match.  I then ordered an additional spray can ($30.00) so I could take care of the cowl vent problem.

 

Here's are before and after photos on the cowl vent:

 

cowlvent2.thumb.jpg.9b5326e1415b1a2d9c548a9944bd2255.jpg

 

cowlvent7.thumb.jpg.d498b659c4d1256ba32243a833502151.jpg

 

Here's what the paint looks like:

 

paint3.jpg.2ab0d3e533cab598221513551c140515.jpg

 

The spray can actually came from a company in Wisconsin even thought it was supplied through Dr. ColorChip:

 

paint2.jpg.077efdb0f73b530595382871a4a1206c.jpg

 

I was very pleased with the results, and would recommend the good doctor to anyone looking for a good paint match.  The people were very nice on the phone, and the orders were handled very efficiently.

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On 10/17/2019 at 7:36 PM, neil morse said:

Another banner day here for this project -- everything back in the instrument panel, and the panel back in the dash.  Getting the gauges back in the panel and the panel back in the dash was the most challenging part of the project, no question about it.  I'm hoping it will all pretty much be downhill from here on -- I just have to put the rest of the dash back together, install the switches, radio, glove box, etc.

 

dashpanel5.thumb.jpg.c472a5307021257c512d160d4088c3ad.jpg

 

 

 

 I like those a lot better than the 1950.

 

  Ben

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4 hours ago, Ben Bruce aka First Born said:

 I like those a lot better than the 1950.

 

In my modest, completely unbiased, opinion 😁, the '40 and '41 Buick dash is one of the most attractive of any mass-produced car.  One of the reasons I ended up with my '41.

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On 9/12/2019 at 4:38 PM, neil morse said:

A banner day today.  I got enough hooked up to run the car, so I was able to fire it up and check out all my work.  Here she is out of the garage for the first time in a month.

 

startup3.thumb.jpg.492f3169fbae6936714deb6db8013426.jpg

 

New charge indicator/temp. gauge working:

 

startup1.thumb.jpg.c080de6617b4a974dd21136f767690b8.jpg

 

Gas/oil pressure gauge working:

 

startup2.thumb.jpg.b92301926edeb3543ba0e32829b12a2c.jpg

 

Dash still not together, but enough to test everything:

 

startup6.thumb.jpg.159ae612786bbeb6dd98c0b3bcad78d7.jpg

 

Special seat -- cinder blocks and an old silk pillow -- the lap of luxury!

 

startup4.thumb.jpg.ae53c28572e23404cf96d1d2784d5702.jpg

Always nice to see the work of a professional upolstery/block layer person. 

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9 minutes ago, 2carb40 said:

Always nice to see the work of a professional upolstery/block layer person.

 

Why thank you, Greg.  I also thought I did a pretty good job with those cinder blocks. 😜

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Back on the road

 

Everything is back together, and I've had a successful shake down cruise.  Here she is today after a good wash:

 

washed.jpg.d79f07cec59c5a54e5c7c646741f4f88.jpg

 

The dash is all back together and looks great -- I also added a new horn button I got off eBay (but now my steering wheel looks more shabby than ever -- typical problem!).

 

dash3.thumb.jpg.1ffe479b1a271e2c83cf77acf5f171ea.jpg

 

LED's in my instrument lights (Thank you, @Matt Harwood for the idea) make everything sparkle at night.

 

Instlights.jpg.47a34ebac3daa6fd2c246d8b3d8cafbd.jpg

 

Also, thanks to Matt's suggestion, my directional signal arrows are nice and green.

 

greenarrow.jpg.8e7fad55fa3ba1a6424e9cf7ba71a393.jpg

 

So I'm very happy with my rewiring job.  By the way, the harness from Rhode Island Wire Services was perfect in every way (as were their charts and instructions), and I would recommend them without reservation to anyone looking for a new harness.

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