Thread: Project $ 3 K Is Underway

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Don---If your ever working late some night, and you see an old, bald, fat guy with a white beard trying to sneak into your shop---DON'T SHOOT!!!! Its either me or else your working on Christmas eve----Brian

Originally Posted by brianrupnow

Don---If your ever working late some night, and you see an old, bald, fat guy with a white beard trying to sneak into your shop---DON'T SHOOT!!!! Its either me or else your working on Christmas eve----Brian

Good, bring some of that Canadian beer with you.


Charlie, you have a great idea there. I was thinking about maybe a metal screen that was still open to air, but that we could pull across the opening and lock people out, but I like your idea much better. I could even hook it up to an alarm.

Don

Went to the shop about 8:30 tonight, and worked until 3:30 AM, my Son was there working on his '29, so it was nice to have someone else there after the goofiness last night. At least we didn't have to shoot anyone.


Did some more work on the dash wiring. I am really glad I decided to do this while the body is off, there would be no way to do it after it was mounted on the frame. My '27 was bad enough, but the underdash area on that one is huge compared to the '23. There is almost not enough room for the components I need to put there for the electrical system. Most T buckets have the wiring under the seat, but I want my seats to be almost at floor level, so that ruled out putting the components there.

I used a "Riv-nut" tool my Son had bought to fasten the aluminum strip to the underside of the dash. If some of you have never seen one of these, they are very similar to a pop rivet except the pop rivet has threads inside so you can put a machine screw into them. They come in all different sizes (#8. # 10, 1/4 inch, etc.) and I used a # 10 size as this will be strong enough.

Here is a picture of what the riv-nut looks like after you use the tool to install it into a hole you drill. You can use them to mount all kinds of stuff to things like frame rails, and other places where you can't get behind to put on a nut.

After that was done I mounted all of the switches, relays, and fuses to the aluminum strip to see if it would all fit. Luckily it did, but not by much.

Here are a couple of pictures of the components all in place and ready for wiring.

Finally, after all of this it was time to start doing the actual wiring. I am going to use a 30 amp circuit breaker right at the battery to protect the entire main power supply. From this I am using 10 gauge marine grade wiring and crimp on terminals. I know some people say soldering is the only way to do a wiring job, but I like the good crimp on terminals with heat shrink tubing on them. It is all a matter of personal taste in this regard.

That 10 gauge red and black is bringing good 12 volt power to a junction block, and from there I have branched it out to the individual panel mount fuse holders, and then also to the switches and relays. I am color coding the entire system to make future repairs and tracing easier. I am using 12 and 14 gauge for most of the circuits that run the lights, ignition, etc.

In the pictures below I am about 1/2 done with the wiring under the dash. Once I finish up the gauges, lights, and ignition I will loom it all neatly and set the harness aside until the car is all painted and ready to have the engine and lights wired.

But this puts me pretty far ahead, and pretty soon I can start wooding the body.

Thanks for looking,

Don

Don---Nice work. My wiring jobs always start out that neat. They always seem to end up, well,----lets talk about something else.

I agree with Brian, nice work. I actuall enjoy wiring (close the shop doors turn the stereo on and start running circuits.

One of the things I do is start out with a basic list of circuits/componets than will go into the car (lets me figure out how many fuses I'll end up with).

With that I then draw up a working wiring diagram(s) and write in the color coding/guage as I go along. After all is said and done I then go back and do a finished wiring diagram (in the case of the Plymouth, there are actually 4 seperate diagrams that cover various sections of the car. It takes a bit of time but it's a god-send if you ever have to trougble shoot down the line and it's something nice if the car is sold to someone else.

One other little thing I also have started doing is to run an additional 2-3 circuits in the wiring looms under the hood and to the trunk. If I ever decide to add something else the wire is already there already neatly wrapped in the loom and I don't have to figure out how to get the new circuit to where it needs to go.

I always wire my own cars, too, simply because I enjoy doing it. It's kind of a quiet change of pace after welding, grinding, spraying, etc. on the rest of the build.

It wasn't always that way, though. I remember wiring my first hotrod (a C-Cab delivery replica) 30-some years ago. I thought it would be cool and look less cluttered if I used only one color of wire - black! I worked slow, one complete circuit at a time until everything was done. Miraculously, everything worked when I was done, but it looked like a big clump of black spaghetti under the dash and under the seat. I drove the car that way for about a year and then traded a paint job for a re-wire job. I painted a friend's T-bucket and he rewired my C-Cab with me watching and learning.

Don, are you sure about the wisdom of having no turn signals in your roadster? With all the old geezers driving here in Florida, you need all the visibility you can get. I build all my cars with turn signals, brake lights, four-way flashers, and my coupe also has a 3rd brake light/turnsignal lights in the rear window...

Brian: I know exactly what you mean. When you are all done there are wires running around that are hard to get to run the same direction as the rest of them. No matter how you plan it, there are some wires that just screw up the bundle because of how they have to go. I start off wanting the wiring to look all neat and uniform, but it ends up being what it has to be to work.

Mike: I like the idea of putting some extra circuits there that have no purpose today, but may be used in the future. We add something later on, and just run some random wires to make that work, or we modify some existing circuit and find we need another wire or two. I think I will do that also. I know I need to have some wires there to run my tach, even though I don't know yet where it is going to mount, so I will do what you have suggested and just have an empty plug sitting there to tap into. The drawing is another good idea. In fact, I think I will laminate one and keep it in the car for any roadside troubleshooting.

Thanks for the feedback guys.


Don

James: Didn't mean to exclude your comments, you and I must have been typing at the same time. Dan and I just had this same discussion last night about the turnsignals. I have them on my '27, and still supplimented them by always sticking my arm out and using it to indicate I was turning. I just didn't trust those little '47 Chevy taillights to be seen. On this car I am only going to run one taillight.........a huge taillight. I bought one on Ebay a while ago that is about 7 inches in diameter, and it says "STOP" across the face. Having the one light limits me to not having turnsignals, although I could add a couple small ones in the frame corners.

I know what you mean though, and I am still pondering that decision, but the tried and true arm out the window gets their attention because you rarely see that anymore. In fact, if I am making a left handed u turn at a red light, I still hang my arm our the window of my regular car, because I want the car behind me to know I am doing more than just turning left into the next intersection, I am going to go in a U. Saves them climbing up onto your rear bumper sometimes.

What do you mean about Florida drivers? I've never noticed anything bad about them. NOT !!!! I think all the other States have some law where they deport them to Florida.


Good comment though, and I may regret that decision and have to change it down the road.

Don


James: I did exactly the same thing one time. My first wiring job I thought it would look much better not to have all those different colored wires running around, so I did it all in red wire so it would blend in nicely with the red paint. Then I found out why they do it this way when I had to fix a problem and trace the wires. I went crosseyed trying to follow that one wire. lol

Thank God for black electrical tape. It covers up more sin than people will ever know.

In regard to turn signals & hand signals....
I question how many 20/30 somethins know what the hand signals mean.. The younger ones may equate it with a ' drive by ' going down ',.... ( & I don't mean crusin' ). the good thing is you can turn faster , since you don't have a cell phone stuck to your ear. JMO

You are probably right. They may sort of understand the signal for a left turn, but wonder "why the heck does he have his arm stuck up in the air?" when I would be making a right turn.

I see a lot of drivers here with their arms dangling out the window, TOSSING THEIR CIGARETTE BUTTS ON THE ROAD. Don't get me started on THAT one, it is one of my pet peaves. These idiots hear all the time about how Florida is a tinderbox in dry season, and they still keep tossing lit cigarettes out the window. There are times when I would love to be a cop.


Don

" .....I question how many 20/30 somethins know what the hand signals mean......"

I tend to agree fourty1. I built an old Harley bout 10 years ago and elected for a bit cleaner look on the bars and front forks by deleting the turn signals.

About getting nailed a couple of time was enough for me, it got signals. I was courious and have asked some of the 15-25 year old kids over the years (especially when the suject of bikes come up) if Drivers ED teaches arm signals. The answer....NO.

drivers ed here in ny dosn't teach hand signals ither. I do know the signals anyway.