Oh why do I do this to myself shop projects

[LXCam]

Well I've finally decided to just stick all the stupid little general **** that lands on my plate in one thread.

This weeks journey starts off with a call from my BIL last week. He knew I was getting rid of one project and needed a hand on his truck with a half dozen issues. Had I had any idea I'd have told my wife to tell him I passed away

So here you have his families truck that's been handed down a couple times. A 54 3100 five window. Sometime in the late 80's it got a 350 and a camaro front end. And it's as jacked up a job as it gets.





But the primary thing is if he has the headlights on and turns left it blows the fuse. Mind you there's only two fuses and after crawling around it today found every single once of wiring is as jacked up as the camaro clip job

Nudder words, this is going to be ugly

And so the journey begins. First thing on my plate was the light switch nut stripped out. So you could pull the switch out for the on position but in order to turn them off you had to reach under the dash and hold the switch in place. At first I thought he was just too lazy to tighten the thing. But soon found out the bezel / male thread was plastic and it was stripped. So I made him a billet one.






Oh this is going to be soooo much fun.

 

[Dumber than lumber]

maybe you could get a custom wire harness made. Or are you planning on doing your own.?
Don't forget to document the re-work with photos, etc.

 

[pamike]

If the BIL did the wiring slap him upside the head for me...that's some ugly stuff there

 

[jhn9840]

Sweet looking 5 window despite its wiring issues.

jhn9840
John

 

[LXCam]

maybe you could get a custom wire harness made. Or are you planning on doing your own.?
Don't forget to document the re-work with photos, etc.

I'll probably just make one since there's just nothing to this truck. It's so hacked up I could spend hours just fixing stuff or just be done with it in a day.

If the BIL did the wiring slap him upside the head for me...that's some ugly stuff there

He's a bit of a wheeler dealer type. I'm sure he swung a deal with someone that did this. Talks a game but I've yet to ever see him actually pick up a wrench and do anything.

Sweet looking 5 window despite its wiring issues.

jhn9840
John

.

Ya it is actually a cool ride and has some for real vintage hard to get parts on it.

 

[Lwel9226]

Good looking truck.... Outside
Looks like Fibber Magees closet inside...

LynnW

 

[dcs13]

Get a harness from AmericanAutowire. THey're just awesome fit. Its all we use at our shop.

 

[gofastwclass]

Cool truck.

I'll probably just make one since there's just nothing to this truck. It's so hacked up I could spend hours just fixing stuff or just be done with it in a day.

Good plan. I can't even count the number of cool classic vehicles I've seen and sometimes repaired buggered wiring on.

 

[LXCam]

Good looking truck.... Outside
Looks like Fibber Magees closet inside...

LynnW

That pretty much sums it up.

Get a harness from AmericanAutowire. THey're just awesome fit. Its all we use at our shop.

Thanks for the info and review, I'll take a look.

Cool truck.



Good plan. I can't even count the number of cool classic vehicles I've seen and sometimes repaired buggered wiring on.

I'll grab a few pics of some of the routing, I almost can't believe it has burned to the ground. I knew I was in trouble when he went with me to the parts store as I needed a couple lug nuts for the jeep project and he bought me a package of 30amp fuses

 

[joe49]

Thinking you just really like cans of worms. I'll be following. Makes it easier for me to eat my worms.

 

[Ohmthis]

I actually like wiring repair jobs, but in this case my process would be to rip it all out and start over. At least there was a relay used! Thanks for posting this cool truck.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Electrical wiring is one thing I hate after someone else has been there before.

 

[manwithtools]

I'll grab a few pics of some of the routing, I almost can't believe it has burned to the ground. I knew I was in trouble when he went with me to the parts store as I needed a couple lug nuts for the jeep project and he bought me a package of 30amp fuses

Oh ****, I just spit my beer all over the keyboard

He thought you could use some 30 amp fuses for his project? What a pal....

 

[mda2000]

I can't stand trying to figure out what someone else did on a bad wiring job. I like to rip it out and start fresh. Helped my friend on a boat and he was the third owner. The wires looked like this truck. I think I pulled out half a mile and only put in like 20 feet of wire total. Good luck on this.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

 

[bonneyman]

My dad had a 1953 Chevy pickup with those curved corner windows that he made a flatbed and converted to propane. Used it for work. It wouldn't go much above 50 mph and would rattle your teeth out due to the a stiff suspension, but it was indestructible.

 

[casmurbax]

Electrical wiring is one thing I hate after someone else has been there before.

I am with you on that.

Nice billet bezel.

 

[rharman]

Showed this to my wife and she laughed. She told me about her best friend who had a Comet passed down through family (this is ~45 years ago) and she says that every time you turned right, the horn would honk. Said it was interesting driving to school and going through the parking lot.

BTW... that wiring i pic #5? Yikes!

 

[LXCam]

Thinking you just really like cans of worms. I'll be following. Makes it easier for me to eat my worms.

I seem to be a magnet for them.

I actually like wiring repair jobs, but in this case my process would be to rip it all out and start over. At least there was a relay used! Thanks for posting this cool truck.

Wiring I'm fine with. This, not so much. And you'll just dig what I share at the end.

Electrical wiring is one thing I hate after someone else has been there before.

I'm with ya E but it totally depends on if it was done correctly or this.

Oh ****, I just spit my beer all over the keyboard

He thought you could use some 30 amp fuses for his project? What a pal....

Right?! I was in tears yesterday laughing when I opened the tool box and found duct tape and a few feet of bailing wire.

I can't stand trying to figure out what someone else did on a bad wiring job. I like to rip it out and start fresh. Helped my friend on a boat and he was the third owner. The wires looked like this truck. I think I pulled out half a mile and only put in like 20 feet of wire total. Good luck on this.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

Thankfully this is as simple as it gets. It doesn't even have turn signals.

My dad had a 1953 Chevy pickup with those curved corner windows that he made a flatbed and converted to propane. Used it for work. It wouldn't go much above 50 mph and would rattle your teeth out due to the a stiff suspension, but it was indestructible.

Trust me, this one is destructible

I am with you on that.

Nice billet bezel.

Thanks, I put a few more minutes into detailing it waiting on him to call me back. Sad to say I'm kinda of proud of that silly 20 minute piece.

Showed this to my wife and she laughed. She told me about her best friend who had a Comet passed down through family (this is ~45 years ago) and she says that every time you turned right, the horn would honk. Said it was interesting driving to school and going through the parking lot.

BTW... that wiring i pic #5? Yikes!

Ha, I've been there before on my own ride. But just to add to the story here's a couple more. However I forgot to take a picture of a 12 gauge all by its lonesome running from under the cab wrapped around anything it could find for a home over the motor and then disappeared around the radiator. After removing the grill and shroud found out it's the supply to the electric fan and it goes straight to the battery.....oh yea!

But get this. I called him up and said bud, time to get a complete harness before this thing burns to the ground. And he tells me he wants to wait until he can swing a roadster shop chassis and then completely restore the truck.

If I could have reached thru the phone and I would have. So now I find myself in a pickle.....and this pickle stinks like rotten eggs. I was so irritated I walked away from it for the day to sleep on it.







Now I know the size of those bundles would normally appear to be the average for most cars. But all that needs to be in these locations are the headlight leads and a couple for the scabbed on electric fan.

After sleeping on it I'm going to still replace all the lighting stuff from front to back. Luckily the engine wiring is in its own location and not shared with any of this mess. And the only reason I'm doing it for free is to save myself from a potential Hatfield's n McCoys ordeal in the future. I'm a super easy going guy , I'll give in and go the extra mile just to stave off a headache. But back me into a corner and it's game on and right now I feel like I'm pushed there.

 

[ScottsGT]

Get a harness from AmericanAutowire. THey're just awesome fit. Its all we use at our shop.

Bet me to it. I used one in my '66 Mustang. Damn, they are nice harnesses.

But get this. I called him up and said bud, time to get a complete harness before this thing burns to the ground. And he tells me he wants to wait until he can swing a roadster shop chassis and then completely restore the truck.

If I could have reached thru the phone and I would have. So now I find myself in a pickle.....and this pickle stinks like rotten eggs. I was so irritated I walked away from it for the day to sleep on it.

Sorry Bud, already ripped out all the old wiring.

 

[LXCam]

Sorry Bud, already ripped out all the old wiring.

Ya know the term right? Blood from a turnip. And now that I've touched it, I'm pretty well screwed. If this were a customers car it'd be slam dunk, come get yur' ****. Unfortunately I've got a wife I gotta live with.

 

[ScottsGT]

Honestly, it would be easier on you even if you had to pay for it!

 

[LXCam]

Honestly, it would be easier on you even if you had to pay for it!

You nailed it. So I'm going middle of the road. I'll show my solution later after a run by the parts store.

 

[ilovevocs]

You nailed it. So I'm going middle of the road. I'll show my solution later after a run by the parts store.

Cam this is exactly why my dad acts like he can’t fix anything at all. Not even my mom expects him to fix things for her.

 

[LXCam]

Cam this is exactly why my dad acts like he can’t fix anything at all. Not even my mom expects him to fix things for her.

Now that's a smart man.

After years of telling my wife "I don't know", she lost her mind with me not long back. So I then started unloading the answer with both barrels like I would document something that could go to litigation at some point.

She no longer gives me **** when I say "I dunt know hun"


So a $50 trip to Orielly's and pulling out the last bit of stock netted this. I normally keep a fair supply of wire and good covering in stock but have eaten it up since my last bulk order, the cupboard is almost dry. I hate those thousand dollar orders just to have it here but it looks like it's past time to open my wallet. But I'll be damned if I'm doing it for this project. To me there's nothing more aggravating then dealing with someone who will trip over a dollar to pick up a penny.

We'll start here and supplement my shortage with multi conductor tray rated control cable. I've still got a fair collection of various gauges in multi conductor configurations left over from my contracting business. A bit overkill, but I got it.

 

[casmurbax]

if I tell the spouse, "I don't know", she either says google it or go ask your GJ buddis, surely someone there knows how to do it or point you to where to learn about it.

by the way $50 in plus your time will make your spouse happy that you are helping out the family..

 

[LXCam]

Guess we'll see if she's happy or not, ya never know with that woman.

Oh gawd, you guys are gonna love this. I didn't even notice until I went to start cutting stuff out.

Check out the color swap



And look at the conduit that protects the starter wires, it's completely smashed against the header. I'm sure those don't get warm.



And follow the yellar wire. This is the one straight off the battery for the fan.



This was what went to just the lights.





Little better, but not much. I have no idea what a couple of those are yet, but I'm sure to find out after it doesn't work. I think the relay came off what should have been the neutral safety switch. But the wiring under there wasn't connected to anything and there's no switch to attach them too anyhow.



And normally I wouldn't do this but I just gave up and ran multiple sets up front. This way it's covered if he decides he ever wants working turn signals.

 

[aka Larry]

I hate to say it Cam, but the wiring on the Hot Rod Lincoln doesn't look a whole lot better than what you started with here. Plenty of color switching along a circuit too. This car is actually an improvement over the old 580SX if you can believe it because every wire he added was the same color! Yep, all power and ground were both orange!

I'm kind of obsessive over the way my wiring looks, if for nothing else so I can back track and find a problem if needed.

I'm sure you'll get it sorted out and it will look and function great.

 

[LXCam]

Gezzis larry. I don't mind dealing with one color as long as the ground is right, that's gonna be a lotta fun hunting issues down. Good luck bro.


As for doing clean work, it's a big deal with me too.....just not in this case. Its cuul and legit but nowhere near what I would usually do. At least all the joints are soldered and heat shrunk and it's all in the cheapest sheathing I've ever used (thanks Oriellys). Thankfully nothing to the front end is individual conductors so there's twice the protection I suppose.

Well some headway. Had it not been for a couple hours worth of business to deal with I might have finished everything into the cab. But at least the front is 100%. I really wish I had taken pictures of how dim the lights were before. I also ran independent grounds all the way back into the cab. That made all the difference in the world. I set up the orange lights to be the turn signals if he ever goes there. He should also be happy as those were never wired in, they were just bolted on. I also had to rebuild the clear running lights as the sockets were junk in them so I used what I had laying around.

The first two are one of the places the original wiring was routed. I opened up one for the front end harness and then installed grommets





Earlier I showed the disaster under the fender, all gone.



This one is comical. The running light had a 1/2" hole in the back where the old socket was supposed to go. With the new sockets I used I didn't want them back lighting the inside of the grill. So I siliconed some aluminum foil in place, figured it went with the whole half assed theme





I had some plastic insert strain reliefs that fit the stock hole in the headlight buckets. So those got snapped in and do a fine job of gripping the sheathing.

 

[casmurbax]

nice job.

How many people did you make happy?

 

[LXCam]

nice job.

How many people did you make happy?

The only true answer would be NOT ME


Other then a couple mystery wires I need to figure out under the dash and weld one exhaust hanger that broke off. This ones done. It now has working high n low beams, everything is grounded properly and at least the wiring is now got fuses protecting everything I touched. The funny part is here I was talking **** about him grabbing 30amp fuses and guess what, that's all I had in stock


I set the fuse holder up so there were three circuits that come straight off battery power. Basically I drilled out three of the stabs then soldered in a #8 wire across the terminals. And since the light switch had its own built in circuit breaker after the switch I routed the headlights and also the running lights thru there own dedicated fuses. So if something were to happen to the running lights he'd have headlights.





I just have to say something about this mess. It's nothing remotely close to how I would normally do a project, it's actually embarrassing. But he got what he paid for

At least everything is set up to easily wire in real turn signals. The two switches I added, one is for the fog lamps and the other is the cooling fan. It never had a thermostat control and honestly I haven't a clue how it worked before unless it just ran constantly. I did set it up so one could be added at the radiator without tearing up anything and the switch can then be easily removed.



I've seen this truck at night and you could barely tell the lights were on. The improvement is really substantial.



Well I guess my little break is over, time to figure out the mystery wires and label the fuse cover.

 

[ScottsGT]

 

[Ohmthis]

Cam, considering the time frame and the use of what ever materials that you had “just laying around”, I’d say it looks great. It will be much easier to troubleshoot I can guarantee that!

 

[Boosted1]

Like Ohmthis said, that's a significant improvement over where you started.

 

[driftpin]

Did he ask you for the remaining spools of wire, and any left-over parts? Geez, I hope he takes the wife & you to a really-nice dinner. And, don't offer to pay the tip! I hope it doesn't become an "eva-since" thing!

 

[LXCam]

Thanks guys. Ohmthis reminded me (troubleshooting) I need the draw up the schematic / terminal layout before it gets erased off the top of my bench. There something about a sharpie on stainless that doesn't last forever

Maybe about an hour before I was ready to start terminating I thought I'd print up some ole school wire sleeves. So I pulled out my badass Brady and collection of labels to do so. Problem was it's been several years since I last used it and even with in plugged in for an hour it didn't want to read the label or even feed them. I was pretty bummed thinking all that had gone to **** as it's not cheap.





But! After 24hrs on the charger she came back to life. Good news for me, but not so much for this project. I'll be damned if my back can handle even one more hour twisted up hanging thru the door to label the wiring. Looks like a sheet of paper in the tool box is gonna need to suffice

 

[chaosracing]

Holy **** what a rats nest you had to deal with. I can totally relate though. Before the snow flew this year, my boss finally let me replace the burnt out (and by burnt out, I mean the sockets had melted) Meyers snow plow head lights. I was already planning on rewiring the headlight set up since the previous owner really butchered it up (lets just say that when you put on the left turn signal, the truck head light and the plow headlight would wig wag like police lights). When he got back with the kit, he tells me I had to rewire for the new change over modules that Meyers now uses. So after ripping out a rats nest and 2 switches and other unnecessary junk, it got rewired and now works great.

I have been burned numerous times by other peoples wiring and electrical diagnosis. It ***** and makes me want to wrap people in bare wire and plug it in. In fact, I am now picking up a power probe for electrical problems now. I have seen a few guys use them and the work better than the standard probes that tell you if there is power of not.

Are those blackout headlight covers on the headlights? Never seen anything like that before.

 

[LXCam]

Did he ask you for the remaining spools of wire, and any left-over parts? Geez, I hope he takes the wife & you to a really-nice dinner. And, don't offer to pay the tip! I hope it doesn't become an "eva-since" thing!

Ya know it wouldn't surprise me if he thought he was doing me a favor "letting" me do this. Guess we'll see who grabs for the check the next time we go out

Holy **** what a rats nest you had to deal with. I can totally relate though. Before the snow flew this year, my boss finally let me replace the burnt out (and by burnt out, I mean the sockets had melted) Meyers snow plow head lights. I was already planning on rewiring the headlight set up since the previous owner really butchered it up (lets just say that when you put on the left turn signal, the truck head light and the plow headlight would wig wag like police lights). When he got back with the kit, he tells me I had to rewire for the new change over modules that Meyers now uses. So after ripping out a rats nest and 2 switches and other unnecessary junk, it got rewired and now works great.

I have been burned numerous times by other peoples wiring and electrical diagnosis. It ***** and makes me want to wrap people in bare wire and plug it in. In fact, I am now picking up a power probe for electrical problems now. I have seen a few guys use them and the work better than the standard probes that tell you if there is power of not.

Are those blackout headlight covers on the headlights? Never seen anything like that before.

I bought a power probe III a while back and only used it a couple times. But I'm happy to report I used it for this project. The one feature that really came in handy was the immediate current reading. It was cool not having to also hook am a multimeter in series for sizing the wire.

Those covers are chromed sheet metal. And like the rest of the truck the chrome share plenty of space with its pal rust.

 

[wasfast]

Given the irony of the fuse size, perhaps your user name should be "30A Fuse"

 

[Lwel9226]

Are those blackout headlight covers on the headlights? Never seen anything like that before.

Those covers block the top half of the headlight beam for driving in fog.... Very old school... They do work but might not be legal in some parts of the country.... (Comiefornia)

LynnW

 

[LXCam]

great cars and their design

When mounting the two switches I was reminded of how these things were built like a tank. That area of the dash was double layered either 16 gauge or some combo that was just a tick thicker then 1/8". I had to drill and tap those for 8/32 screws. Pretty damn impressive

Given the irony of the fuse size, perhaps your user name should be "30A Fuse"

No ****. I'll be going over to get the right ones and change these out this morning. I was hoping this thing would be out of my possession today but it's raining and the forecast is saying more for the next 5 days. Without windshield wipers I know I'm stuck with it for now

Those covers block the top half of the headlight beam for driving in fog.... Very old school... They do work but might not be legal in some parts of the country.... (Comiefornia)

LynnW

That makes sense. I figured they were just ole school cat eyes for the cool factor but I have no doubt they do a great job of eliminating fog glare. Good info thanks L.