Google Del-City for all your wiring needs. They have fuse boxes, wire, connecters and terminal and all kinds of wire looms, split and braided sleeve different colors. I have used them a lot over the years.
$1300 for a kit with vintage cloth wires . Yikes . -Adam Sent from my rotary phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Yikes, have them build you a normal low buck wire harness with cloth wires only from the firewall forward. Way cheaper and it looks the same? They make them all in house
I learned to smoke in the back seat in a sedan like yours on the way to high school, I was wishing the back window went down more than half way. Your car is cool and with the flathead you need to have all this in the trunk, extra Carb, Distributor, Fuel pump, Fuel pump rod, Fuel pump housing, electric fuel pump (just in cast), Coil, Ignition switch, right and left water pumps, Set of spark plugs and points and condencer's, upper and lower radiator hoses and clamps and a couple of feet of vaccum hose and wiper motors (often where a vaccum leak is if they are worn out) Now you're flatheaddin' in style, Oh I forgot one thing "A new driveshaft "U" joint. JW
He just sent the link to the American autowire nostalgia 15 circuit kit. Which is the only truly universal kit I've seen. And it's that expensive everywhere I've seen it. Also found a kit from Sacramento vintage ford. That could work .. much cheaper. But it's like the style I've seen guys use in a roadsters that just has a small panel for glass tube fuses. I'll probably end up going with that and finding a fuse block to use with it that I can hide under the dash. We'll see. I do know I want to keep as much if the stock style wiring setup as possible. (Generator, bolt regulator, remote horn relay, stock ignition switch etc.) So I'm going to have to play around with whatever kit I end up with anyway. Just want it to look right you know. Even considered a super cheap (sub $100) amazon kit and use cloth wires loom. To dress it up, but even though I'm planning to sell eventually I still want it to look good and last for the next guy. Basically I don't want the next guy to get a car with a rats best if walmarts best red wire running everything. Like what I inherited. -Adam Sent from my rotary phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Sacramento has some nice looking loom that would work doing it that way too. Know where to get the asphalt stuff so I can check it out? NVM google to the rescue lol -Adam Sent from my rotary phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I always get it at napa or where ever. Put black shrink wrap at the ends and anywhere something branches off
Well got my carb parts and installed. 2 weeks waiting for parts to arrive and about 45 minutes to install including pulling the carbs back off the engine since I had gotten antsy waiting and put the car back together. I replaced the 2 pieces I mentioned earlier, actually I got 2 of each and replaced them in both carbs. I also replaced the power valve plug in the rear carb with a 5.5 PV to match the front carb. Drove it yesterday and it seemed better. We'll see. Ordered my wiring harness and it was here the next day practically. Couldn't justify the price in the vintage wire harness, so I went with the suggested rebel wire kit and will use vintage'y loom to hide the modern looking wires right up to the terminations. Got some metal and bent a super simple fuse panel mount so I can start laying out the new harness and running wires. Never done this before so it should be interesting. I do enjoy wiring though, at least for now. With the left over metal I bent a super cheesy gauge mount for a vacuum gauge I'm going to hang under the dash just left of the column. Still need to locate the hole and cut that out. Could have just bought a mount but I wanted to try it I can always change it out later but it'll work for now. With the carbs fixed, I hope, and this gauge I should be able to dial in the tune and adjustments better and finally get it running properly. -Adam Sent from my rotary phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
It's a Christmas miracle that this thing never caught fire. I've been driving it like this for 5 years now. Yikes. That said any reason I can't just cut this out of the way to pull the new harness through. Wouldn't think I'd need to trace any if it since it's getting replaced. -Adam Sent from my rotary phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
That old wiring looks like it was close to letting the smoke out! Good call on re-wire. Rip it out, and start fresh.
Out with the old In with the new Got some loom on the way from Sacramento Early Ford. Website wasn't working right but I liked the look so I had to wait until the work week to call and order. I tried 4 or 5 local parts houses and only 1 knew what I was looking for but only had the small size barely big enough for 1 wire. -Adam Sent from my rotary phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Well just been plugging away. Shoving wire through loom and then pulling them back out when I realize a made a mistake. Rinse, lather, repeat. But last night I was able to button up the engine bay. Got everything forward of the cowl in loom and everything in the engine bay in loom and terminated. I had a bunch of the cheapo ring terminals and connectors but I didn't want the ugly plastic ends viewable all over the place in the engine bay. So I ended up pulling off the plastic bit. Then I crimped and soldered every connector in the engine bay. The only exceptions were the horns and dinner switch. Both of these devices used wires soldered directly onto the dimmer switch and horn relay. I wanted to be able to disconnect if necessary without cutting so I used bullet connectors and left the ugly plastic ends for protection from shorts and sparking. For the connections out if direct view under the car I will probably stick with just crimping on with the plastic bit still attached. For simplicity. I Tonight I'm planning to loom and route the rear end stuff since that should be pretty easy. Then I get to sort out the gauges, switches, and lights under the dash. I'm waiting in some pigtails for the dash/gauge lights because the cloth and insulation on the stock wiring was crumbling off and I didn't want any issues with it later on. Its going fairly smoothly especially for my first time. I got the harness off eBay from shoebox central I believe. But it was just the standard rebel wire 9 circut+3 kit. And so far I've been very happy with the quality of the harness. Instructions could have a little more detail but I downloaded the instructions for the speedway harness as well as a factory diagram that I redrew in color using my wifes light box she has for her crafting projects. I've had to think on a a few things as I'm sort of combining a new system (fuse panel with homerun circuits instead if the 3 circut breakers for the entire system stock setup) to use what was existing for switches, gauges, dash knobs etc. Nothing major just trying to get it right the first time. -Adam Sent from my rotary phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Man that looks fantastic Adam. I always heat shrink over the plastic but removing it works too. Much much improved!
Yeah I've done that too. But this time I wanted them small and didn't want to be able to see red, blue or yellow at all. -Adam Sent from my rotary phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Would have looked even better with cloth wires but those were just too expensive. Overall I'm pretty happy with it so far. I like the look of the loom I got. And it's laying out ok. I'm not super thrilled with how I joined all the looms under the voltage regulator but I was running out if room in the big look and then there's a bunch of shoot offs right there that makes it kind if ugly. But it'll have to work and there's some improvement to shoot for for the next time I wire a car. Not too shappy for my first attempt IMO though. -Adam Sent from my rotary phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Did you know Summit warehouse and sales are close to you. South on I 35 W to I 20 east to 360 and you are there, they are on the south west corner you would have to be blind to miss it.
I did not know that. Always just used speedway since they were close in IA. Or the niche suppliers for specific cars. -Adam Sent from my rotary phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Didn't get much done last night. For whatever reason I'm more interested in the dash stuff that the tail end wiring. Rear end would be easier so I tried to push on. Got as far back the brake switch and then the fuel pump. Then coiled the wires and wandered around a bit messing with dash stuff lol. I'm a creature of habit I guess once I have something on my mind I can't shake it. Anyway I pulled the gauges off the shelf and started laying them out to start putting the wires together. My plan is to make the gauge wiring plug into the test of the harness. Partially for ease in the future and partially because it will be easier to layout the wiring in the bench rather than on my back with the pedals in places pedals shouldn't be. While messing with the clock i was able to get it to start ticking. But it would only stay running for a few minutes then stop. I thought it was all mechanical and made to wind up. I tried putting some voltage to it to see if it would start up again and nothing. Then I tried giving it power and a manual start. bingo! Stood there watching it rick away the time for 15 minutes or so before calling it a night. cleared the time to 12 o'clock that way if it stopped in the night I'd at least know how long it ran. Well I just went and checked on it... And it's still running. Kinda dumb to be excited like I am but it felt like I accomplished something. To I'm calling it a victory lol Next is check for accuracy so I reset it to current time and will check in a while if it's still correct. -Adam Sent from my rotary phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Brainstorming simple connectors to be able to disconnect gauge wiring and pull gauges easily. Option #1 Bullet connectors x 9 Would work but would be annoying making sure to reconnect wires correctly. I have the supplies already Option #2 Trailer connectors (1-4 pin, 1-5 pin) 2 connections impossible to screw up when reconnecting. Readily available. Made for lighting so should easily handle the amp wire (on these it's similar to an amp probe. The main power wire runs through a ring on the back of the gauge and reads through induction) Option #3 9 pin connector Everything in 1 connector. But looks cheap and easy to break. Also doesn't look like it would handle the amp wire as well. Going with option 2 -Adam Sent from my rotary phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Option 4.... Not cheap, but it doesn't get any better. No splicing onto pigtails, weather-proof, and removing/moving/replacing individual wires is easy... dtm - DTM Series - WireCare.com
So I eventually figures out how to remove the clock completely from the housing. And painted the inside with a chrome silver looking spray paint. If you follow my instagram you've seen these pics already. Did the same for the vitals gauges. Light looks pretty yellow in the pics for some reason. Didn't try lighting them up at the same time to see if it's just a camera trick or there's actually a difference. And was working on the speedometer. Tried separating the face from the housing. Didn't want to come out. Decided to stop while I was ahead. Put it back together and then the mech wasn't working right. Had a lot of drag. In messing with it I broke the needle off. Crap. Ended up finding one on eBay so it's in the way but it's a bit of a gamble on if the mech works. So we'll see I guess. I did notice that the ones I saw for sale in the hamb and ebay were all Stewart warner (supposedly) and the case and how the mech mounts in the case is a little different than mine. My case the mechanism is riveted into the case. Has a date code of May 29 1947 And the mech says Waltham Watch Co. The ebay gauge the case stamping is different and the mechanism bolts in and resides inside the case The screws through the face are also closer to the center than my. The attachment points and all that look to be the same or similar enough to work in the car just thought it was curious. -Adam Sent from my rotary phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
At this point, I would suggest that you paint the insides of your gauge housings either white or a light blue like the plastic housings used in later cars. I painted mine light blue and it really brightens things up. Sent from my SM-T350 using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I painted both the clock and the 4 pack with the same reflective silver paint. And used the same bulbs and bulb holders in both pictures which is why I thought it might just be a camera thing. The new gauge cones apart much easier than the one I broke so I'll do the same with that when it arrives. I went with silver because it was the most reflective paint I had. Would white be even better you think? -Adam Sent from my rotary phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Looking good. However I'd "clock" the left screw on the clock face a wee bit more...could effect accuracy! LOL
Lmao. Well I did take the face back off to clean off the white paint. It's now or never haha -Adam Sent from my rotary phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
I had to use my vacation or lose it at the new year so I'm officially off until 2021. Last night I wired up the dash harness. I also cut out the gauge hole in my mount, luckily cutting out the hole cut out most of the ugly from my so so attempt at beating on metal. Primed, painted, and left to dry over night. So today I mounted it to the dash. Ran across an issue right away when I dropped the gauge in and the straps that help lock it in place weren't long enough. So I grabbed a scrap piece of aluminum laying in the bench and made my own. Was a little off on the hole spacing. But shorter is better and I was able to use my rail "anvil" and stretch the piece and the holes a little further apart. From the driver's seat it's out of the way but easy to see when I want to. After that kid #3 and I went for a walk around the pond and watched the birds for a little while. -Adam Sent from my rotary phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
The Jalopy Journal
