Wiring

In this section I'll describe what I'm doing for an electrical system. It will be added to as things progress so if the site has been updated and you don't see anything obvious then chances are I've added something to this section.

OK, so the first order of business is to mount the battery. I suppose I could have mounted it behind the seat but the seat in this car doesn't fold forward which would make it a little difficult to get to. The obvious choice was in the trunk. Now, this isn't rocket science in a deuce as most glass cars have the battery in the trunk and very few, unless they were made by Henry have it mounted in the stock location (under the floor on the passenger's side).

You could just use a couple store bought battery clamps and mount the battery to the floor and be done with it but I wanted something with a little more class so I built a battery box. Below you can see the finished box with the lid off. It has basically just three sides to facilitate running the cables but with the cover on you can't tell its only three sided.

Now you're probably asking yourself why is there a Ford starter solenoid mounted to this box. In this case I'm using a Ford solenoid, which is really just a big relay, to energize the starter instead of the starter solenoid. This means there will be no heavy gauge wire to the starter that is hot all the time. This is more or less a safety issue. At the starter there will be a jumper wire that goes from the battery post to the solenoid post and when the Ford solenoid in the trunk is tripped the starter will crank.

Here you can see the solenoid mounting. The large post on the left is the battery hot lead while the large post on the right is the cable that runs to the starter. The two small posts are an "I" ignition post and a "S" start post. The ignition post won't be used here but the start post will be used to energize the solenoid. There will also be a heavy gauge wire attached to left side battery post which will be used to charge the battery from the alternator. More on that in a later update.

You can see in this picture the green negative battery disconnect knob. This is another safety issue. By disconnecting the negative side of the battery from the frame when the car is parked or stored for any length of time the chance of an electrical fire is almost nil. This car, like many other deuces will be driven mostly on nice days and on weekends. So it will sit for several days unattended and disconnecting the battery this way will keep things safe as well as keep the battery charged when its not in use. I will have no electronics that need power all the time to keep memory going so this will not be an issue for this car.

Here's the finished battery box with the lid installed. The battery disconnect knob was extended to make it easier to disconnect the negative battery post. All this will be removed to install sound deadening material, carpet and the trunk upholstery when the time comes.

With the battery box done the next order of business is to construct a "faux" firewall. This will allow the wiring to be run behind it and remain hidden. In the picture above you can see that 1/2" plywood has been cut and installed over the steel framework I installed earlier. Insulation has been installed behind the black piece and it has been drilled in strategic locations to allow the coil wire and throttle cable to pass through. There is also a 1 1/2" hole that will allow the rest of the wiring to run from the fuse panel behind the firewall on its route to various locations. The mechanical connections for the oil pressure and water temperature gauges will also run through this hole on their way to the engine compartment.

Well, I'm no expert on automotive wiring but I try to get a little better with each car I build. This one is better than my last even though this wiring does look a little bit "busy". There just isn't that much room behind a deuce dash so things do get a bit crowded when everything is finally in place. In this picture you see that I have mounted the coil inside. Because this is an open hooded car I like to keep the coil out of harm's way and protected from moisture. The wiring kit is a seven circuit Haywire kit I purchased a couple years ago. If you were doing a car with AC and other power accessories you would want something larger than just seven circuits but since this is a "hot rod" and no AC, heater, or any of that stuff will be used this kit was sufficient.

This gives you a better look at the hole in the plywood where the oil pressure and water temperature lines make their way down behind the plywood and then through grommet into the engine compartment. The red wire is the alternator output and the green and tan wires are from the dimmer switch. You can also see the mechanical speedometer wire as well. On the right side you can see the two relays for the headlights, the horn relay in the upper right corner, and next to it a small in-line fuse. This fuse protects a dedicated circuit for the electric fuel pump which gets its power directly from the ignition switch.

Again this shot is a little busy but you can see the distribution block I'm using and the large black 50 amp fuse that protects the entire fuse panel. You can also see the MOPAR electronic ignition module in the background. Things get really busy in that area as the ignition, light, and wiper switches are mounted on a small panel just to the left of the steering column.

Here is a better shot of the switch panel I built. It doesn't totally hide these switches but they are out of the way but still easy to reach.

Here's another shot of this little panel. With only those three switches you can tell this is an old school kind of car.

I had a hard time trying to decide if I wanted a radio in this car, but I finally decided that I really did need my tunes. Not wanting to mount a radio in the dash or somewhere in the headliner I decided to build a small box that would mount the radio on the firewall. This is a Kenwood unit that can be operated using an IR remote control and it will also accept a USB flash drive which can hold a thousand songs or more and that's what I'll use to play all my "oldies".

This wider shot shows that the radio box is pretty unobtrusive and doesn't really interfere with the passenger's foot area at all.

I had this antenna kit sitting on the shelf for at least 10 years and decided now was a good time to use it. I have no clue how "good" it is but most of my listening will be prerecorded songs on a flash drive anyway.

Here you can see the three separate wiring bundles that had to go to the rear of the car. Actually there are four but we'll get the the fourth one later. This wiring is all held in place with aluminum tape. This will in turn be covered with sound insulation and carpet. The wire in the foreground goes to the horn which is mounted directly under the driver's knee area. The one in the center runs all the rear lighting to the tail lights, license plate light and brake lights. The one on the far side is the rear speakers and the ground for the radio which will be attached to the negative post on the battery. Because I'm using a battery disconnect that basically removes the ground side of the battery it is necessary to ground the radio directly to the battery so the memory circuit will receive power when the negative side of the battery is disconnected.

Once the wiring reaches the rear bulkhead it is run either back to the battery, to the lights or in the case of the blue stereo wires to the speakers that will be mounted in the bulkhead behind the seat.

Here you can see the fourth set of wires that runs back to the battery. There are two wires here. One is the wire that charges the battery and the other is the one that trips the Ford solenoid and activates the starter motor. These wires make their way from behind the dash up through the "A" pillar along with the radio antenna wires and then run through the wood roof bowes on their way back to the battery box. The rest of the roof will have the heat shield installed before the headliner goes in for the final time.

On the driver's side the wiring for the windshield wiper motor also comes up through the "A" pillar.

Finally, here is a shot of the completed dash with all the instruments and lights installed. The only remaining instrument not yet installed is the Sun Super Tach that will be mounted on the steering column. That will be covered a little later.

I should mention before completing this section that all electrical connections, that means EVERY SINGLE CONNECTION was crimped, soldered, and protected with shrink tubing. This takes a bit of time but it is well worth the effort. Don't skimp on your electrical system, it WILL come back to bite you in the ass if you do.

That's it for this update. Next I'll be making some of the interior panels. Now the real fun begins.

Check back often for more updates...

Back to
Project 32 Home Page