Another build thread? Yep, my track-style T

[J. Robinson]

As long as one gets what he or she wants honestly and enjoys it, it is not foolish. I like what I see of your cars in the pictures and if you guys are happy with your rides, I would be the last one to condemn you for what you spent on them. There are a lot of folks who think we're all nuts for spending our time and money on "obsolete old cars" when we could have a "pretty new one" with modern accessories.

As for me, I couldn't cough up the cash for one of those engines or a Brookville body if my life depended on it, but that doesn't mean it's foolish. It simply means I don't have expendable income in large enough sums. I have a few bucks here and there occasionally and I make do with it. It's been that way all my life and that's OK. My lifelong financial status forced me to learn to make the things I couldn't afford to buy and I discovered that I enjoy fabrication! In my 65 years I have truly become a "Jack of all trades" and I frequently trade fabrication skills (automotive or household) for something I need. My favorite part of building a car is chassis and suspension fabrication. Everything else is just necessary to finish the vehicle...

I was going to skip the wiring phase in this thread, but if you think it's noteworthy I'll post some pics and updates soon.

[Whiplash23T]

So does that mean you aren't using wire on your build Jim ? Have one developed something new to get the electricity ( lick-a- tres- tee ) from the tomato sauce to the candle sticks ?

[johnboy]

So does that mean you aren't using wire on your build Jim ? Have one developed something new to get the electricity ( lick-a- tres- tee ) from the tomato sauce to the candle sticks ?

Whip: you put me in mind of this wee story I read in a magazine many years ago.
I don't know who wrote it or what magazine it was in, but I liked it!

Everything you wanted to know about auto electricals.

I will now reveal to you everything you wanted to know about electricity. Forget all that nonsense about magnetic fields and the flow of electrons along a conductor, for it is just that, nonsense…….a myth put about by Auto Electricians to support their lavish lifestyles at your expense. The reality is…….Smoke!

When you think about it, it all becomes startlingly obvious. Smoke makes all electrical things function, and if the smoke escapes the component stops working. For example, the last time you had to grovel under your car to replace the starter motor, didn’t it start smoking before it stopped working? Of course it did!

The wiring loom in your car carries smoke from one device to another, pumped around the system by the dynamo, and when a wire springs a leak it lets all the smoke out and everything stops. The starter motor requires lots of smoke to work properly, so it has a very thick wire going to it.

The battery stores up lots of smoke dissolved in the battery acid, which is why they were once called accumulators, until it became apparent that we unwashed home mechanics would twig to the secret. Naturally, if you try to store too much smoke in your battery it will escape through those little holes in the top, which is why those newfangled batteries with sealed tops explode when they get too much smoke in them.

With regard to Joseph Lucas and his wrongfully sullied reputation, why is he so maligned? Why are Lucas components more likely to leak smoke than, say, Bosch or Marrelli? It’s because Lucas is British, and British things always leak. British motorcycles leak oil, British sports cars leak rain, British hydrolastic units leak fluid, and British Governments leak military secrets.

So, naturally, British electrical components leak smoke.

.

[J. Robinson]

So does that mean you aren't using wire on your build Jim ? Have one developed something new to get the electricity ( lick-a- tres- tee ) from the tomato sauce to the candle sticks ?

Good one! Actually I thought there has been so much written about wiring that no one would be interested in that part, but if you all want to see it I'll post it. For the first time, I am using a partial pre-fabbed kit (it was a gift); all my previous wiring jobs have been scratch-built one-wire-at-a-time. They all worked (and most still are), but weren't always pretty. Each one gets a little better, though, so we'll see...

[J. Robinson]

Whip: you put me in mind of this wee story I read in a magazine many years ago.
I don't know who wrote it or what magazine it was in, but I liked it!

Everything you wanted to know about auto electricals.

I will now reveal to you everything you wanted to know about electricity. Forget all that nonsense about magnetic fields and the flow of electrons along a conductor, for it is just that, nonsense…….a myth put about by Auto Electricians to support their lavish lifestyles at your expense. The reality is…….Smoke! ...

Johnboy - I saw that article somewhere before, too. It pretty much expresses how I felt about wiring when I delved into my first wiring job and sometimes I wonder if maybe it is correct after all. I had a problem with the ballast resistor on my coupe one time... Nah, long story... Anyway, suffice it to say that the lessons learned through mistakes sometimes make the most lasting impressions.

[J. Robinson]

OK. As I said, I mounted the light and ignition switches in the dash panel and put some indicator lights between them. The light switch is a GM piece that I liberated from a wreck in the local salvage yard. The ignition switch is a generic piece from Autozone. The indicator lights came from Radio Shack. They didn't have green or blue in this small style, so I am using yellow for the turn signal indicators and red for the bright light indicator. If I don't like them or they don't show up good enough, I'll hog out the holes and replace them with the the larger ones like I have in my coupe.

Sorry I have to do this in multiple installments; I've tried everything I know to do, but this stupid program will not load the pictures in order if I do more than one at a time. Roger - I tried to drag & drop; it doesn't work, at least not on either of my computers.

[Dave Severson]

Good looking panel, Jim!!!! The black background in the gauges really stands out nicely against the turned aluminum panel!!!! Very well done!

[Hot Rod Nick]

Definitely a great looking instrument panel, Jim. I hope there are no smoke leaks

[Whiplash23T]

Very good and as mentioned, hopefully no smoke yet. I too like the black face on the gauges against the metal turned alloy panel. I need to find some small little lights to for my dash panel and I have been told about these new LED lights to look for.

[J. Robinson]

Thanks, guys. I bought those gauges a few years ago because I thought the black faces and curved glass lenses were remeniscent of old-time S-W's. Turns out that they DO go very nicely with the brushed aluminum panel.

Here is a look at the back side with the wires attached to just the gauges and instrument lights. The larger "pigtail" of wires will go to the right end of the dash, down the inside of the cowl. Some go from there, back along the channel at the edge of the floor to the fuse panel which will be mounted under the passenger seat and the sending unit wires will go to the engine bay. The other smaller pigtail will connect to turn signal wires from the steering column and the dimmer switch on the left side.

[J. Robinson]

This last pic is of the finished wiring on the dash panel. It is now ready to go into the car. The big thick (10 ga) red wire in the coil of wires at lower left is the power wire from the battery to the ignition switch. The 12 ga yellow wire will power the accessory side of the fuse panel when the key is "ON". The 12 ga red wire is power to the headlights (I like to keep it separate from the ignition switch power) and the 14 ga black wire (substituted for 14 ga dark green) will be power from the fuse panel to the taillight side of the light switch.

On the right side, in addition to the wires that were there in the last picture, there is the 16 ga brown wire that will go to the taillights and the 12 ga light blue wire that goes from the light switch to the dimmer switch. Also in that coil of wires at the top right are the green and yellow rear turn signal/brake light wires. They are not connected to the dash panel and will go directly to the steering column, but I bundled them in with the taillight wire.

Before I put the panel in the car I need to mount the brake light switch. When I re-install the steering column, I will attach to it the wires for the front turn signals and the flasher/brake switch inputs. That should be all the wires; I'll just need to connect them to all the components and the wiring will be done.

[J. Robinson]

The brake light switch I'm using is the common GM style. This particular one is for a mid-70s Camaro without cruise control, but GM has used this same part for many years and so have I. The '87 Chevy S-10 pedal assembly that I am using originally had a switch like this, but I had to remove it (and the bracket that held it) to make room for the cowl-mounted steering box. All that's required is a simple bracket to hold the switch where it will be actuated by movement of the brake pedal.

I fabricated the switch bracket from a piece of 3/16" x 1 1/4" flat stock. It is held in place by one of the steering box mounting bolts. Since the switch is in a new location, I had to attach something to the pedal to actuate the switch. There were already a couple of factory-drilled holes in the pedal's arm, so I just cut a small piece of thinwall angle iron (old bedrail material), drilled a hole, and bolted it in place.

Of course, they're out of order, but here are the pics:

[34_40]

Simple and effective! Love it!

[dlotraf33]

Looks like you should be ready for a test ride soon. That switch looks faamillyar ( said in Peter Sellers as Dr Foo Man Chu). I used the same switch in both the 48 and 28. Probably alot of other good choices, in my case it's the switch in my 66 Chevy, so I knew what to get at the local Auto Zone.

[J. Robinson]

Yep. I've been using this same model of brakelight switch in a bunch of cars since 1975. Also, whenever I need motor mounts for a small block Chevy, I always ask for '69 Camaro mounts. I guess we're creatures of habit. When ya find something that works, why change?