Is it just me or have you guys run into things like this creative wiring on the Model A I bought a couple of months ago. Not a fuse anywhere and everything was twisted and taped. Spent days under the dash cleaning it up and putting in some fuse boxes. Took out yards of "extra" wiring. Couple of days ago I went to drain the radiator and there was no pet****, just a plate soldered in where it should have been. I'd be curious to hear some of the creative engineering you have run into. Might be an interesting thread.
My fave was an early Mustang my brother bought. The previous owner had rewired the entire car......in orange. Every wire in the car was orange...... Did I mention all the wiring in the car was orange?
I guy i knew briefly bought his car by for some electrical work. He re-wired the car in clear lamp wire! I almost fell over laughing. My grandfather told him to give us 500 bucks to set the car on fire and his problems will be over. He didn't like that very much. But like i said, briefly knew him.
I bought a 60 Impala and there was a box end wrench around the fuel line. The nut was rounded off so badly that the open end would just slip and I ***ume they did not have a tubing nut wrench, so they just slid the box end over the fuel line, tightened it up and left it that way. I still have the wrench.
i usually wire cars all in one color...usually black. i think it looks nicer. i did a car in all yellow once because the owner wanted it. every wire in the car in my avatar is black
My electrical knowledge ends with changing light bulbs, but I always read these wiring threads, sort of like going to the snake house at the zoo. Hate snakes too.
Any one ever work on a 60s International Scout? All the wires were green from the factory. Each wire has a tiny white number on it, whe you look at the factory wiring diagram it will list the# for the wire. I guess this works good if your color blind, but not if you cant see **** anymore. I do alot of truck wiring at work. Ive seen some ****. This one used truck dealer keeps bringing me trucks that he "fixed" the wiring on. All he ever uses are speednuts(for wiring houses), or twisted wires togeather and taped em. Seen another truck that was in a flood. The truck itself looked great. The only way i knew it was in a flood was seeing the mud caked into the fuse panel. My guess is that the water was 4 feet high, going by the water line ofcourse.
i had a 74 VW someone wired with extension cords.Even left a plug they cut off under one of the seats.
i have to do the "numbered wire" route as i'm color blind. in my daily job using a multimeter is vital and wiring a car knowing how to use one is make the job much simpler.
I recently re-wired a street rod that had all of the following... wire nuts. splice and tape scotch locks crimped fittings. twisted together with complete disreguard. masking tape and twisted. soldered and heat shrunk those neat-o little twist together "emergency connectors" (which are really interesting, as thier guts are made out of ALUMINUM.) it had a total of 36 individual circuits for all of the accessories. previous attempts at wiring included... "This alarm is dead. splice this NEW alarm into the existing alarm wiring and don't remove the old one ( THERE WERE A TOTAL OF 3 ALARMS IN THE VEHICLE.) This controller for the various do-dads is dead-scab a new one in and leave the old one in place (also X3.) extention cord used as wiring. M.C. Cable (armored, no less) used as wiring. about 400 linear feet of red wire. same with black. No rhyme or reason as to which was hot and which was a ground. 2 ignition switches. both worked. I could go on and on......
Same here on the colorblind thing. I've never had too much trouble with it but on occasion it'll screw with me. I think the worst wiring issue I ever had was on a 67 Mustang I had that someone decided to spray "expanding foam" under the dash of "because it had a bunch of rattles under there"......digging threw foam to find wires is a f*cking blast.
How about 1/2" plywood with household lampcord stapled to it (non-insulated, of course) sandwiched to the steel firewall on an e-bay '34 Ford? How long do you think it would have been until it shorted out? Hidden like that, it was an absolute recipe for disaster. Those staples would have cut through that wire in no time...
I started to install the parking lites in my freshly painted truck today and found out some idiot SOLDERED the bulbs in!
So many people will tell you they hate or are no good at wiring.... but it never seems to deter them from having a go at it regardless!
Ok, this one is one of the best i've seen^^^^^..A light switch?!?! Unreal! My truck was a MESS! It had a race switch panel under the dash...that's about the only thing that didn't scare me.....and that was because it was prewired when they got it. EVERYTHING was removed..i sold the switch panel and started from scratch. No pics though...Not something i wanted to ever see again.........
I enjoy dripping solder onto wires at my splices.I usually try to make a Mt. Rushmore appearence, then I know I got a good connection.
I have a 55 Ford that I bought 3 years ago and decided to hook up some gauges and a 8 track . Well after I looked under the dash for about 15 min I gave up ! I have never seen such a **** ball of wires all over the place and about 6 of them are just the wire with scotch tape on the end . There are even some cheap thin speaker wire that is hooked up to the radio for power that someone cut the wire and wrapped it all around the harness and left it there ! Some of these peoples wiring jobs are a real fire hazard waiting to happen . I am going to be doing a wiring job this winter when I do the other work on the interior ! I will take some pictures to save for another time when another wiring post come up !
I have a ton of doo dads in my car and lots of harness, but at least i make sure it's done right and everything in the car is fused properly, LOL at the light switch under the dash.
The Jalopy Journal
