Cruzen2.0 - Part 1 (Initial Build)

Then rip the dash out to get to the pedal box and the body harness firewall passthrough (dash stayed out for a long time while the car was rewired). 3 pedals are a must!

Then all the exhaust, heatshilds, fuel lines, rear brake residual pressure valves/blanks, fuel tank, rear suspension, and shifter cables got transferred over to the Cruze. Exhaust tips were changed twice from original, and may yet be changed again...

THE WIRING NIGHTMARE BEGINS IN EARNEST. Left is Buick, Right is Cruze.

And after a bit of trimming and fishing the engine side of the harness through the firewall, the engine could go in!

First round of exterior parts purchased.

Cruze Cluster vs Cruze cluster body with buick guts.

Quote from 6/12/18:
"Spent most of the time working on it today modifying the wire harnesses to make up for the "small" diffrences between the cars. Mostly that involved relocating some of the connections behind the dash and figuring out how to make the lights actually plug in to the verano harness. There are quite a few "minor" differences between the "sister" cars, mostly where and how things are wired, hooked up, attached, mounted, or shaped.

TLDR; Cars not identical, problems ensue, fix problem, scream, fix next problem, car should drive by end of week. (fingers crossed)"


6/14/18 saw another pile of parts acquired as well as some excitement.

Quote from 6/14/18:
"IT'S ALIVE !!!!

D*mn near every possible warning light and error message is on right now, and the exhaust isn't connected, but all these things shall be taken care of in time."

"MOVEMENT!

Moved under its own power, still needs driver headlight and rear lights wired, and the brakes need re-bleeding, and then theres the problem of at least 2 broken fittings for the vacuum lines to the power brakes.... But Movement!"


Quote from 6/16/18:
"As of right now all four doors on the cruze have modified verano harnesses and the following is the status of their functionality.
Drivers window goes up and down properly
Rear driver window goes up and down but backwards
Neither passenger windows work
Only rear door speakers work
Have yet to test power mirrors
Need to take lock and latch from verano driver door and install in cruze so I have a key to it, this has been done to the other 3 doors already

Other things
Need to wire up driver headlight
Need to wire rear lights +camera
Bleed brakes again
Mount rear deck speakers
Finish reassembly of interior
Change park brake cables
And the rest is just cosmetic and reassembling the front end"
-Electrical gremlin was partly caused by a missed ground.


And on the 16th, that marked the end of the major parts of the swap and also NINE DAYS from when I had the shell sitting next to the Buick. The red upper radiator support was bent and later replaced.

Many complaints were made about the subtle differences between the cars as the project progressed


Quote from 6/22/18:
"Park brake cables are in and working
the rear lights and decklid wiring is finalized
repaired brake booster vacuum line fitting
installed T for boost gague if/when I get that far
married the buick shifter and boot to the cruze boot trim and bezel
bled rear brakes AGAIN
replaced busted battery tray from buick with a good one from the junkyard
fixed some of the wire routing
started looking at how to install/rewire cruze start button"


More complaining about differences

Front end on, hood (came off my ECO) painting, exhaust heat shield brackets, and start button installed (note dented fender)

Down the street, first wide shots with the front fully together. Last pic is after it got back in the garage.

Then the proof of life vid (accidentally deleted original recently and just re-uploaded it)


The fitting of the Buick radio controls into the cruze dash, and the badging

Wiring up wipers for multiple speeds

Exhaust tips, first and second replacements

Beauty Shots, Plated and daily driven as of 8/2/18