Thread: Project $ 3 K Is Underway

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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