WITW - Barn-find Final Edition

[MikkiJayne]

Not yet as I don't have any spares. I'll have one coming from Prestige in the next month or so though so once this and the PF are out of the way I'll get one done for stock. Probably early '22 by the time I'll have time to start building them up to exchange.

[The_Laird]

Originally Posted by MikkiJayne

Not yet as I don't have any spares. I'll have one coming from Prestige in the next month or so though so once this and the PF are out of the way I'll get one done for stock. Probably early '22 by the time I'll have time to start building them up to exchange.

Don’t forget a front and back one for me please 😉

[MikkiJayne]

Back on this one, on a final push to get it sorted so it can go to its new home

The new owner requested an auto-dimming interior mirror, which requires this bundle of wires



to be extracted from this lot







Its then added as a sub-harness and tied in to the rest of the car, mostly to original junctions. The new harness is in the middle here with brown, blue and red wires



Following the original routing, through the original clips



Most of the original clips can be opened up and re-used



Down at the base of the passenger B-pillar



The first wire ties in to the 'interior light signal' underneath the back seat. This junction is here regardless of whether the dimming mirrors are fitted or not so I can just crimp the new wire to the two originals



Covered up with the original boot, and re-taped in to the harness



We pick up the earth also under the back seat using this white connector. The original earth junction is in the boot which would mean too much dismantling but this earth for the side airbag goes to the same junction so we can share it.



Crimped and heat-shrunk



Wrapped up again



Other side of the back seat we have the reverse light signal. Again, the junction for this is in the boot so we'll pick it up in this bundle instead



There it is



Same type of crimp



Buttoned up again



Up to the fusebox next where we pick up Terminal 15 switched ignition. This lot is all wrapped up so needs unpicking very carefully so as not to damage any of the tiny wires





Its right underneath the fusebox. Quite a few circuits join here so I've added an extra crimp for the new wire rather than touching the originals



These two wires are for the door mirrors, which we aren't fitting as they are so hard to acquire. The're wrapped up and tucked away should the new owner want the door mirrors fitting in the future.



On to the aluminium trim round the doors as both of these are damaged.



There's a rubber strip pressed in to them



Which reveals a bunch of screws holding the trim to the body





With the screws out (and B pillar trim removed) the aluminium trim can be removed





I polished the replacement trim in the vice before putting it back on to the car as its much easier like this



The original headlining went in the bin as it was a bit grim, as will the sunroof lining (left). I have nice clean replacements for both



Headlining back in shortly

[Ronin]

[ainarssems]

That's a lot of work for dimming mirror. Must be someone who is happy to pay extra for close to OEM integration. Would have been easier just to tap in wires by the sunroof control/interior lights

[tc4332]

Originally Posted by ainarssems

That's a lot of work for dimming mirror. Must be someone who is happy to pay extra for close to OEM integration. Would have been easier just to tap in wires by the sunroof control/interior lights

That highlights the difference between mere males and "MJ".

[MikkiJayne]

It didn't occur to me to do it any other way tbh, since I had an OE harness to use, and there's no reverse light signal up in the roof. The headlining was already down from doing the dents so actually it was pretty easy.

The headlining is held in above the rear doors with some extremely fragile clips which appear to be made from some sort of resin. Its almost impossible to get them out without them either shattering, or breaking off the headlining. So of course I 3D printed some new ones.



Hot-glued on to the headlining



Fitting a headlining single-handed is not the easiest of tasks so I contrived an arrangement to hold the front of it up in the air while I put the rear up



The printed clips worked perfectly



Headlining in place



I had a dig through my oddly plentiful collection of platinum bits and picked out the best bits, and then cleaned them all up which is considerably easier on the bench than in the car!



New single-use pillar trim clips



Driver's side A-pillar back in place. I replaced the door seal too since that was quite scruffy.

[HPsauce]

Amazing work as ever.
Personally, having fitted auto-dim mirrors in a number of cars over the years I find the "un-dim in reverse" totally irrelevant so ignored it every time, the last being on my PF S8, but serious brownie points for doing it right!

I guess the nearest reverse signal is the long (red/blue?) wire that runs all the way from (I don't know where) via the F125 then the RNS to the back of the car, so yes hardly convenient.

As for dimming mirrors being difficult to get, is it the units, wiring (surely you can fix that) or the actual mirrors glass that is the problem?
My current S8 was fitted with them at the factory but by the time I got it had standard external glass. I found a nearside glass fairly easily but my drivers side is actually a US nearside one, complete with inane printed warnings!

[Ronin]

So those c pillar clips are single use? I spend ages trying to figure out how they work and why they are there.. very mysterious things especially with that pull cord to release them.

[MikkiJayne]

The clips are there to stop the pillar trim flying off when the airbags inflate. They are designed to not pull out of the sheet metal even under considerable force, and they have to be destroyed to get them out. I did spend a while working out how to remove them without destroying them, until I learned that Tradition still sold them. Now I have enough for plenty of projects

The S8 mirrors are already pre-wired for the dimming function, so all it would need to get them working from an electrical perspective is to run the two wires in to the door harness on each side and up to the mirror connectors. The problem is the dimming mirror glass which is extremely hard to get hold of, very expensive when you can find it, and guaranteed to fail again eventually. Not worth the hassle.