I'm mounting my headlights on the '32 and would like pics or ideas on what to do with the wiring. How did you guys do it--- run it out the mounting stud, drill a new hole in the housing for flex conduit, braided line, or ???
Also, they're currently mounted on top of the shock mounts with the wires hanging out of the mounting studs.
Wish I could help but I,ve got the same damn problem with the Speedway drilled stands I bought. The hollow bolt angle is all wrong for hiding the wires in the stands!!
I have a buddy with a 32 that has socal headlight mounts. He used his tig welder, and welded a tube to the headlight stand. Once it was welded, filled and repolished, you couldn't tell he didn't buy them that way. then he ran the wires through the tube and down the frame rail. He was at GG Des Moines and overheard 1 guy telling another that his car must be a trailer queen, since it doesn't have any headlight wires! He showed the guy the stands, and the odometer, and that shut him up! I know they were alot of work, but they sure look nice.
The cool part about hot rods is you don't have to hide the wires. Just make them look good. I've got some braided cloth wire cover I've been using on the cars I build. Not sure if they still make it. Clark
Here's what I did. In one respect I like it, but in another it adds a vertical line to the front end of the almost too many vertical lines Deuce front view. It's a short piece of #6 Earls braided line. An aluminum adapter was made that was JB Welded to the braided line and screwed onto the headlight stud. Under the frame is an Earls 90 degree bulkhead fitting with the longish threads cut down a bit. Before the braided line bit, I ran a temporary chunk of clear PVC tubing from headlight bucket via a factory drilled hole in bucket proper. (The first set of headlight buckets were black with chrome trim rings. The next set didn't have the hole drilled in the bucket. Dietz buckets both times.) The PVC tubing was a tight fit in the grommet that went into the bucket. The PVC was then run through a hole drilled in the frame. Said hole being where the small stainless button is on top of frame rail just behind the turn signal. In retrospect I should have run the braided line to the hole in the frame top and made an adapter or converted an Earls fitting to work. Next time....
On the trike I built, I hid most of the wiring in steel brake line. Probably not the best way to do it, but it works, and doesn't look too bad.
I like that idea. Terminated with some small and subtle aluminum ends would look good to my eye. You may be able to get some black braided nylon - 3000 psi rated - hydraulic line and use that. I think you can get a couple of 14 gage wires through a #4 size line and do the ground return at the bucket. I've bought the braided line at hydraulic supply houses and oil field supply houses. Tractor and farm stores may have it as well. Check the Yellow Pages, one source of hydraulic stuff - when I lived in Central California - was a machine shop that also supplied some farm and industry oriented stuff. For the braided stuff by itself, you may be able to find some at Allied Electronics. A big electronic/electric supply outfit that does mail order in small quantities. I got a stack of quality DC rated toggle switches from them. All the way from SPST for basic on-off to 3PDT that were used for turn signals. Hot rod stuff is where you find it....
One more comment and I'll shut up. The flex line supplied by most of, if not all, of the hot rod supply outfits is chrome plated plastic. I ordered some and when I found it to be plastic I gave it away. To be fair, it's still working ok on the car it was installed on about ten years ago. Even so, it's more of a decoration than it is a protective device. To that end you may want to look in the plumbing dept. of your local hardware store. They carry stainless and chrome plated toilet water line flex connectors that are large enough to carry two and maybe three 14 gage wires. They're easily bent to shape and ought to hang in there pretty good. (There are also braided stainless toilet water line connectors that have a finer braid than does the Earls lines. A bulkhead fitting on the frame to screw the line down and either adapting a fitting for the upper end at the headlight bucket stud or into the bucket proper would be easy.) 'Course, if someone calls your headlight/toilet line, "the shits" I hope you'll understand....
I'm with clark (in post #5 above)... Here's a pic of an awards winner: Jim and Jason Smith at the hot rod garage. Pretty simple, just run the dang wires to the shell.
I used the plumbing supply line from the hardware store, as C-9 has suggested, adapted it to the headlight bucket stud with a connector I found at the hardware store and ran it to the frame rail, then adapted a fitting to use at the frame. The wires all run through the boxed frame then. The supply line is easy to bend holds 2-3 wires and is pretty cheap. I used chrome lines, but they also sell braided. Just my $.02.
C9 got me thinkin with his post. How about some copper tubing. Commonly used in plumbing. Bends easily and would add a bit of color contrast into the mix. Clark
Bzzzt - no detective badge today grandpa... The picture was taken at Tulsa drag strip. 151 degrees on the track, 110 in the shade, followed by a monsoon rain and lightning bolts from hell. The trailer is a drag racers trailer. That car was driven everywhere. I hear he sold it, which means he probably needs money for another project... These people were there too...
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