"Q" Flight's RB E250 Quigley Build

[cjken]

Awesome!! Looks great. No more orange!
Hope you are enjoying it.
My green one suffered a rusty death. Glad you saved this one!!!

No more ambulance aspirations??

 

[flightcancled]

Have you looked at body swaps/ kit swaps for those old rusty girls? It is something I would be inclined to look into. Some of these old Quigleys can be had for little more than scrap value. Restoring the kit and tossing it under a 2wd sportsmobile or ambo sounds like it would be worth the investment. Pretty much a wax on/wax off job. You'd have to make sure that the front end brackets are solid and aren't welded on, or at least could be plasma cut back off. Worst case Quigley probably still has back stock of those brackets, or could make a set from their jigs.

Life changes on you. That build was for a trip with a girl. Once the relationship ended messing with the ambo was misery.

 

[vintageracer]

Earlier in this thread you spoke of the door lock knobs being accessible from outside the van with the door windows opened and the bug screens in place. Attached are pictures of the power "Deadbolts" that were installed in my van side and rear doors by the ATF for security when the van was in-service.

I have no idea where they came from however they may give you an idea for door security in your van when the window are cracked for ventilation and the bug screens are in place.

 

[flightcancled]

Wwwwwwhhhhaaaaattttt!? That's wild! Seems like forgetting about those and trying to whip the door open would cause some serious body damage.

Parts are starting to appear on my porch for the house battery system. Unfortunately I only just realized that I do not have the bolt holes in the frame for a 2nd battery on the passenger side. The aux battery is mounted squarely in the middle of the space so squeezing it in front looks impossible without drilling new holes. Not sure if I should blame this on being a 2001or an E250.

I'll be mounting on the driver side right where the front of the gas tank used to be before it was chopped at Quigley. I have to give myself a stand-off with spacers to allow the emergency brake clearance, and probably can't drill the bottom mounting holes without disturbing the fuel and evap lines.

Nothing can ever be easy!

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[flightcancled]

And more parts! Working on the van last year during Thanksgiving was the perfevt distraction so I decided to bite off another big project.

Fully functioning F-series signal mirrors with heat and electronic adjustment. I've always wanted a set of these in a van, and the base swap really isn't bad at all. I might get the base swap out of the way and get these mounted with the lights, then sort out the adjustment later

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[flightcancled]

Alrighty so:

Here's everything you should need for the mirror swap project. It's a snowy, rainy mess this weekend so I'll be muddling my way through this project. I'll post updates as I go along. For now I am going to be doing some research to figure out what goes where, building the wiring harnesses, and testing everything with a spare battery in the warmth of my living room.

So:
6 spools of different color 14 gauge wire (16 or 18 would be fine. I believe in overkill)
Pack of butt connectors (I might solder, but I just know I'm going to screw something up at least a couple times and this is faster for now.)
A few feet of larger diameter ground wire
2 butt and 2 end connectors for ground wire
20ft of 1/4" wire loom
14-16 gauge heat shrink
Power Mirror Switch 901319 for 1997-2003 F-series trucks
Motorcraft WPT117 power plug
F-series Superduty towing mirrors with power adjustment, signal (Mine will have heat too)

I've started by making a template of the hole I will need to cut to mount the switch. I've made this painfully tight so I can widen if needed, but (probably) won't go too large and have an ugly gap showing.

This took 3 tries- take your time!

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[flightcancled]

I'm rocking a sweet little migraine, but I think I can see light at the end of the tunnel. Here's what I figured out:

Stealing from (here) but making the pin locations actually accurate and descriptive. I lost an hour because the pins were located backwards in the first post and I forgot to scroll down to the correct version

A. Here are the eight tabs on the mirror control switch

1 - Power (hot at all times)
2 - Instrument illumination (Mine isn't working so idk )
3 - Right side horizontal
4 - Left side horizontal
5 - Ground
6 - Right and left side yellow wire (mirror common ground?)
7 - Left side vertical
8 - Right side vertical

Diagram of mirror switch tab layout (Looking at back of switch with the connector release tab pointed up)
______-------______
|....4....3....2....1.....|
|....8....7....6....5.....|
---------------------

Mirror wire colors:

Yellow- adjustment signal common
Orange-adjustment signal - horizontal
White- adjustment signal - vertical
Grey- heated glass
Black - negative

Red and Blue are the signal and running lights. For some reason they alternate on mine. Red is my left signal and right running, Blue is my right signal and left running. Guess something got mixed up in China.

Now I'll build a wiring harness with as such

Loom 1 (Switch)
Start---------Color-----Connection
Pin 1---------Red---------12v +
Pin 2---------Green-------Illumination
Pin 5---------Black-------Ground


Loom 2 (Right Mirror)
Start------Color-----Connection
Pin 6-----Yellow----Mirror Yellow (signal common)
Pin 8-----White-----Mirror White (vertical signal)
Pin 3------Red------Mirror Orange (horizontal signal)
Door------Black-----Mirror Black (Ground)
Ignition---Purple----Mirror Grey (Heated glass)
Right Signal-----Blue-------Mirror Blue (Signal)
Running Lights---Black----Mirror Red (Running)

Loom 2 (Left Mirror)
Start------Color-----Connection
Pin 6-----Yellow----Mirror Yellow (signal common)
Pin 7-----White-----Mirror White (vertical signal)
Pin 4------Red------Mirror Orange (horizontal signal)
Door------Black-----Mirror Black (Ground)
Ignition---Purple----Mirror Grey (Heated glass)
Left Signal-----Blue-------Mirror Red (Running)
Running Lights---Black----Mirror Blue (Signal)

I will make a single loom with the 6 common signal wires and then split it to make looms 2 and 3. I will then bring wires to the area behind my switch mounting location from the running and signal light fuses. Illumination and Ignition Power I will tap from behind the stereo and bring over.

 

[patoz]

Alex, if that wire is copper clad aluminum, then going a size larger is a good thing. Aluminum is not as good of a conductor as copper is. Theoretically, the electrons flow only around the surface of the strands, but oxygen free pure copper wire is used in critical applications for a reason, even though it cost much more.

Interesting project, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

 

[CaptainBuilt]

I love the power mirror project.

 

[flightcancled]

Well that was a mirror swap from hell! Lesson learned, go get an old school whack it with a hammer type impact if you're doing this swap with knock-offs. The cheap Phillips screws they used were impossible to remove. I had to use a screw extractor on every single one!

Also add C-clip pliers to the tool list. That was another nightmare.

Note: Ford uses much better hardware, and there are some other minor differences like how the arms come apart. However, I am 90% sure you can mate a Ford and a cheapo for this project.

One massive problem was the wiring harness was inserted into a mounting collar in the arm in such a way that I had to break down the mirrors completely. This is done by pulling the main piece of glass out to access 4 screws. If you're really unlucky you'll have to pull the bottom glass out too. I managed to crack one of mine, but I think I have a spare from the last swap. I modified mine so there is a channel for the wires to pass through. No idea why that isn't factory. I couldn't put humpty-dumpty back together without a dremmel. Go figure.

I won't go into much more detail of the base swap. It's pretty much a wax on- wax off process. I did a complete write up last time, maybe I'll add a link later.

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[flightcancled]

So after that ordeal yesterday today I tackled the wiring. Here's a quick look.

I tapped the signals off the tail loom under the driver door kick plate. Pulling the tail lights off showed me that the driver side turn signal wire is green with an orange stripe, and the passenger is orange with a blue stripe.

I combined the glass heaters, running lights, and adjustment power to one wire which I tapped into the ignition key circuit. I did it behind the stereo because I already knew it was there and the dash was apart.

Just a quick note on running wires inside doors: Ford pinches the boot closed with electrical tape, so you'll be there a while wondering what's wrong if you don't pull the boot out on the truck side and cut the tape.

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[flightcancled]

The last steps were mounting the switch, cutting space out behind it so the wires and connector had clearance, and then crimping everything together.

I made the template too tight intentionally, then slowly widened out until the switch fit snugly. This was definitely the way to go.

At this point everything kind of just fell into place. It think it realized I hadn't quit yet, and after the 20 or so hours this somehow took I wasn't quitting now!

Hopefully this is a resource for someone to follow along behind me. I'm exhausted, but being able to finally have mirrors looking where I want and not covered in snow was fantastic in my 15 min ride home.

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[patoz]

Those look awesome on there!

The gears are stripped out on both of the power mirrors on my 2004 F250, so how hard are they going to be for me to replace the mechanisms? And where did you buy your new mirrors from?



BTW, can you see this picture preview?

 

[flightcancled]

Yup. The pic is working.

Pop the glass off and the motors will be right in front of you. 3 little screws hold the unit in place.

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[patoz]

Thanks, but I'll bet it's not as simple as you make it sound!