Zack Graber’s City frame #239 - 08 2.2 supercharged auto

[Goblin Graber]

Anybody want to try and talk me out of ditching the factory Cobalt gauges in favor of a full sheet metal dash full of these? It’s almost $700 and a ton of work, but I’m leaning this direction.

 

[Ark :D]

If you're capable to doing the metal fab, then more power to you. I'd probably have a dash full of these if I had the fab skills.

 

[Goblin Graber]

If you're capable to doing the metal fab, then more power to you. I'd probably have a dash full of these if I had the fab skills.

Metal fab skills I definitely have. Now being able to use the 3D printer this forum has convinced me to buy...that’s going to be a challenge.

Come to Montana and we can knockout two dashes at once!

 

[Ark :D]

Haha, my wife would KILL me if I dumped more money into this car. So, nope, it's gotta be called "done" now.

 

[Goblin Graber]

Here’s a couple other projects my Dad is modeling for me. The one started life as an 02 RK Classic before it went down to a frame. The other is a 29 model A with an air bagged 4 link 9”, rack and pinion, a 727 and a dual quad 440 mopar.

 

[Desert Sasqwatch]

Anybody want to try and talk me out of ditching the factory Cobalt gauges in favor of a full sheet metal dash full of these? It’s almost $700 and a ton of work, but I’m leaning this direction.
View attachment 18399View attachment 18398

Does this gauge package 'talk' to the Cobalt ECU and BCM LAN? Unless you are going to pull hard signals from sensors and bypass the stock signals.

 

[Goblin Graber]

Does this gauge package 'talk' to the Cobalt ECU and BCM LAN? Unless you are going to pull hard signals from sensors and bypass the stock signals.

If I go this route I would use the sensors that come with the gauges and run new signals for most of them. Here’s what I’m thinking.

Speedo- go GPS to make it easy
Tach- use a tach signal converter and get a signal from the car
Oil Pressure- use their sending unit
Fuel Guage- hookup to factory signal
Coolant Temp- use their sending unit
Volt Guage- simple
Wideband- need to weld in a bung when I make my exhaust
Boost/Vac- Tie into a vacuum line

I plan on running a wideband and a boost guage either way. The rest of it seems pretty simple electrical wise to me.

 

[Ross]

Does the fuel gauge connect to the ECM? Then send it's signal over the high speed canbus to the BCM, then over the low speed GMLAN to the stock instrument cluster? It does on my Cobalt donor.

With more hacking of the low speed canbus, we should be able to program an arduino to catch this signal, and convert it for a gauge. Either that, or keep the circuit board out of the Cobalt instrument cluster, and send the fuel gauge signal to your new gauge.

 

[Goblin Graber]

Does the fuel gauge connect to the ECM? Then send it's signal over the high speed canbus to the BCM, then over the low speed GMLAN to the stock instrument cluster? It does on my Cobalt donor.

With more hacking of the low speed canbus, we should be able to program an arduino to catch this signal, and convert it for a gauge. Either that, or keep the circuit board out of the Cobalt instrument cluster, and send the fuel gauge signal to your new gauge.

What’s stopping me from taking the signal right from the fuel sending unit? Bypass the whole signal path going through the car.

 

[Goblin Graber]

I’ll have to check the resistance on my stock sending unit later but I read online it’s somewhere around 40 ohms E 240 ohms F. If that’s the case these gauges won’t work. There’s no setting close to that, but I did find this solution for $20.
It sure doesn’t seem like I’m talking myself out of it very well.

 

[Ross]

You have the right idea.... use their sending unit.
Hooking up to the factory signal might be a bit more work. Maybe a can bus gauge would work. Not sure how standardized the fuel level
signal is on a can bus.

 

[Goblin Graber]

Still waiting on my kit to ship, but I figured I would show off some goodies in my garage.

I went with Avid.1 SL02 wheels in a 17x8 and 18x9.5. They’re getting wrapped up with a 225/275 set of Nitto NT 555 G2s. I think my son approves.

I also have a bunch of NRG stuff all over the place including a quick release, steering wheel, harnesses, and a pair of these bad boys.

I can’t wait to get my kit and start building this beast. Watch out for Grimace on the road this spring!

 

[Goblin Graber]

Got a box of goodies from Ruff Stuff yesterday. I ordered some miscellaneous tabs to weld on the frame.

While I was at it I bought four rod ends and a bottle of Tri Flow to “fix” the front end. Seems like a lot of members complain of the factory nylon race ones getting noisy. If you’ve never used a rod end from Ruff Stuff you have to try them. They are cheap and bullet proof. Cost me $80 for the four 3/4x5/8 rod ends and the lube.

 

[Goblin Graber]

Got a bunch of Prismatic powder samples today and got a color combo locked down. I ordered a bunch of bronze, black, and purple samples.

I really like everyone’s colored frames but none of the bronze or purples were close enough to me. Frame will be Satin Black Metallic Prismatic powder, Bronze Avid.1 wheels, and VVivid Matte Purple Ghost Metallic vinyl. All the donor parts are getting satin black spray paint. The motor will get the satin black treatment with a bronze valve cover, timing cover, and oil pan. My local Oreillys has a paint store that can custom mix me some spray cans to match the wheels.

 

[Goblin Graber]

There was a Black Friday deal so I ordered the boosts gauge and wide band last night. I’ll order the set of 6 dash gauges today.

I wish my kit was here so I can see if there is room for these speakers. I want to run a 3 way component set. I think the 6.5s will have to go under the dash if I can make some pods for them to fit. A 3 way kit will let me crossover the woofer at a low frequency to help compensate for the horrible off axis position I’m going to have to put them in

I’ll just have to wait on that stuff til my kit gets here. Crutchfield always seems to have sales going on. Not just this weekend.

PS. Brian74 is a bad influence on me. Lol

 

[Goblin Graber]

Here’s also a tease of what I plan on doing to my hood. My wife is getting me a 3D printer for Christmas, so hopefully I can make the heat extractor scoop out of ABS and share it with anybody else who has the guts to cut up their $800 hood. If not I’ll go old school and fab a one off piece out of sheet metal.

I haven’t decided whether to do a C7 Jake skull like this yellow vette or do the new C8 version like this. Thoughts?

 

[Brian74]

I wanted 6.5 speakers up front, but even with pods, its a rather tight fit. Ended up with 5 1/4’s. Did you order an extended frame? That’s my only regret as the extended frame offers enough space to build an adequate sub box behind the seats. I would also shop around for speakers. Crutchfield tends to be priced on the high side.

For the oil psi gauge, you will need a transducer/sending unit as well. The factory engine only provides an oil pressure switch. You can install a threaded tee fitting to add the sending unit and retain the switch. I bought a VDO sending unit.

 

[Goblin Graber]

I wanted 6.5 speakers up front, but even with pods, its a rather tight fit. Ended up with 5 1/4’s. Did you order an extended frame? That’s my only regret as the extended frame offers enough space to build an adequate sub box behind the seats. I would also shop around for speakers. Crutchfield tends to be priced on the high side.

For the oil psi gauge, you will need a transducer/sending unit as well. The factory engine only provides an oil pressure switch. You can install a threaded tee fitting to add the sending unit and retain the switch. I bought a VDO sending unit.

I know the 6.5s are probably a pipe dream but I have some 6.5s laying around for mockup. I did not order an extended frame and now wish I wouldn’t have been so cheap. I’m building this thing to drive to work in the spring and summer and a sub box behind the seats would be too easy.

The gauges I bought came with new coolant temp and oil pressure sensors. I bought the GPS upgrade for the speedo. I’ll need to grab a cheap universal fuel sender-$20 and put it in the tank. The stock resistance won’t work.

The only thing left to figure out is a tach signal. Looks like the guys on the cobalt forum say an autometer 9117 box is required and those are almost $100. Hopefully I can get by without it.

 

[Goblin Graber]

Got an update on my kit. It’s crated up. They’re just waiting on some parts. Lonny said it would hopefully go out the end of next week.

I haven’t even seen a Goblin in person so I’m chomping at the bit over here!

 

[Rttoys]

I bet I know what your first comment will be.