I bought an electrical harness from American Wire. Would anyone have any tips in hiding and making a clean install before I start putting holes in the fire wall? The battery will be located behind the cab umder pick up floor with access . Thanks in advance
mounting battery under bed floor - might want to install a heavy duty kill switch under cab/frame to make it easier to cut power when working on electrical stuff, or have a wire problem. as for routing wires, take it slow and really think out were wires need to go, and how to get them there. use lots of the small wire ties. hopefully someone will post pics. Cool project, post more details/plans.
I know it's a little time consuming, but if you want a really nice install, clean hidden look I make "mock up" harnesses out of string to figure out where I wanna run everything. Than drill all the holes, mounting etc. Install harness.
Some guy's tag line is "Begin with the end in mind". Every solution has its own problems. Hiding the wires too good may cause big headaches down (or on the side of) the road. If it's done neatly, wiring doesn't have to be an eyesore. That said, I like most of it out of sight. Be sure hot wires are safe and still accessible, would be my advice.
Plan everything out, and lay your wires BEFORE you start to cut and install! That will give you a sense of where things need to be routed and placed for a clean look. On my 60 F100, the glovebox was the stock cardboard type, which worked fine for holding license and registration, but was also removable. I installed my fuse panel behind the glovebox. That way I could run wires directly out the firewall to my starter relay/battery/ignition, and run wires inside the firewall behind the dash for my gauges and switches. Take your time and think before you cut.
@summersshow has a good idea, another thing you can do is lay the harness out starting at your gauges and working your way out from their. You will find that you probably have about a mile too much wire and need to shorten everything up.
One thing I've learned the hard way. Be absolutely sure you DO this. Most aftermarket harnesses have way too many unused circuits (wires) tied together with the wires you will be using. Cut each bundle apart after figuring out what you will need and remove the unused circuits leaving one or two of them in case you want to use it for an unplanned connection. This will make bundling and routing much much easier.
I have wired two of these, one with individual wires and the most recent one with a kit. On both of them the first thing was to decide where the fuse box was being mounted. From there lay out your wires as marked. Don't cut anything. Next figure out how the harnesses will be routed. Under the floor is the cleanest (no holes in the firewall) but you may have to cut a hole in the frame to p*** the wires through from the body. Then the wires are hidden in the frame rails. Remember to add your mechanical gauge lines (oil and water) into the harness.
I did my Ford harness on a harness board. Mocked up the whole dash layout in scale, worked with the steering column as my center line. Took out some of what wasn't needed, rolled up spare circuits in case I want to add something later.
Wayne, When I built my Model A I installed everything that the car was going to have, lights, dash, switches and all. Figured what I needed and didn't need then laid out my harness and then I used the asphalt covered wire loom to run it through the car and friction tape for all the junctions and exits. I made sure everything is secured well and placed the fuse block somewhere easy to get at. Use an ohm meter to prove it all out and then fire it up. I used all crimp and solder ends and shrink tube, no cheap crimp ends that can cause you problems. Car quest had 50 rolls of the cover in different sizes, I bought 4 rolls and got quality friction tape from a local sports place, they use it for hockey stick handles, 3/4" wide and big rolls. Cliff
I used bread wrapper ties since they can be un-twisted, then went back with zip-ties after everything was cut to length & in place.
I'm about to start a similar thing here. I'm planning to use lacing tape (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_lacing) instead of the usual zip ties. In addition to layout and routing, think about how you're going to attach the harness to the car. Support the harness so it's not hanging on the connectors.
You should be able to run all the wires out one large hole in fire wall. Don't included speedo cable in same hole as the wires like I did. Wire one circuit at a time. I still ended up with a bit of ugly behind instrument cluster. I put my battery in permanent tool box in truck bed. I should have put my fuse box in the battery box access in my floor, there was not room for battery because of a transmission crossmember but still room for a fuse panel
Wire ties, wire ties and more wire ties. I just finished wiring and I actually pulled everything back out and did it twice. Another thing I learned is blue paint tape is easy to rip off the wires when you don't need them grouped for a very long time.
Saw a nice trick, put the fuse box on a hinged plate with a dzus tab or screw to secure it. If you need to service it, swing it down, otherwise it sits horizontal on the raised plate. A lot easier than twisting sideways with a flash light under the steering wheel.
I mounted my fuse panel above my pedals towards the top of the fire wall. Ran the wires across the firewall towards the p***enger side and out the cab where the floor meets the firewall and down to the frame. No hole visible in the firewall. The wires that needed to go to the motor I tried to hide as much as possible. Just keep it simple and it'll be easy.
When I wired the cluster on my F100, I kept everything neat and tucked together. That way it didn't interfere with installing the speedometer cable, working under the dash, and was easy to pull the cluster without anything getting caught.
I would wire up the dash cluster to a plug to plug into the rest of the harness. That way when you need to fix a gauge or speedo, just pull the plug instead of disconnecting each gauge.
Put your fuse block where you can see it and access it easily - I mounted mine high above the pedals and steering column so it wouldn't be seen 'hanging down'. It looked good in the pictures but truth is it would be a lot easier to access if it was a little lower .
American auto wire has great instructions and if you have any questions there tech support is great. As my paw used to say "when all else fails read the instructions, If you still fail follow them"
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