39 Ford Project

[Custer55]

Hi Brian,
Nice, orderly wiring work and progress! I remember the joy (ha!) of removing the original insulation from the roof of my 57 - but, a joy to have it gone. Thanks for posting your continued progress!
Thanks, Doug

Thanks, sure glad all that old insulation is gone!!

[Custer55]

Orderly and methodical. That's the hot ticket for new wiring. Looking good!

Thanks, trying to keep neat and organized as possible. Hopefully easier to work on in the future than way.

[Custer55]

Work continues on the wiring harness project. Just taking my time to try and do things right as wiring is not one of my favorite things to do. Not so much figuring it all out as tying to neatly route all the wires as much of it is working under and around things. Not nearly as easy at 66 years old as it was when I was in my 20's to 40's!!

So I wouldn't need as many wires going all the way back to the fuse block which will be under the passenger seat I made up an aluminum plate to hold a couple of terminal strips that will go under the dash. I numbered the strips #1 and #2 and each strip is numbered 1 thru 6 so I have been making a list based on that as I wire things up for future reference and possibly making labels to go on the terminal strip covers.

Here is a view from the back side with magnets screwed on the plate to hold it in place under the dash. The magnets seem like overkill but are actually just right with the sound/heat mat on the firewall.

At this point I have most of the wires routed to where they need to be trying to keep the bundles as flat as possible where it will eventually be under the carpeting. I re-did some of it as it got to be kind or a mess taping things down as I ran all the different wires.

All the needed wires routed to the back of the car. I put down the sound/heat mat only in the areas that will be under the wires for now, as I will need to order more to finish everything.

View from in the trunk. At this point I have the tail lights, turn signals, and brake light hooked up and tested to make sure they all work. For the connections to the tail light I bought a kit with the Deutsch style connectors and crimping tool. These work very well and are easy to use so i will use them anywhere wires will need to be disconnected for assembly and dis-assembly. The loose wires that are not connected yet are for a high mount stop light, trunk light, and back up lights.

View of the wires that run front to back along the drivers side. The wires that come from the fuse block over the driveshaft tunnel and under the front seat feed power to the headlight switch and brake light switch, and the trunk light and back up lights to the rear via the back up light switch (to be added later). The loose green wires on the tunnel will go to the back up light switch and the purple wire on the tunnel will go to a neutral safety switch eventually.

Here is a view of the fuse block with the passenger seat bolted back in place. Plenty of room and should be easy to get at it since I will be able move it as needed with just magnets holding it in place.

I made up this little harness for the dash and gauge lights. The round terminal will hook up to the headlight switch dimmer, and the bulb sockets go into the original dash gages and speedometer. The longer wire will hook up to the terminal block made up earlier to feed any other dash or gauge lights.

These parts are for the license plate light which mounts to the trunk lid. Unlike the dash light bulbs sockets that just need a good clean up this one was not in great shape being on the outside of the car where water can get inside when the seals fail. I was able to repair it though be making the round plastic discs on the upper right to replace the original fiber ones. The original spring was almost completely rusted away but I had a spring from my mini lathe chuck key that was perfect when shortened up (below the new plastic discs that were made on the lathe)

And here is the repaired socket with a new wire spliced on ready to re-install in the housing above once I get it sandblasted and re-painted. The end of the wire will have a connector added for hook up to the rear tail light wires so the trunk lid can be removed without having to cut the wire. Still lots left to do but making progress and everything is working as it should as I have been testing circuits with a small trickle charger as I go to I don't have to keep connecting and disconnecting the battery.
Brian

[bigblock]

Did you consider using led's for those circuits? That's some nice wiring for someone who doesn't like doing it.

[Custer55]

Did you consider using led's for those circuits? That's some nice wiring for someone who doesn't like doing it.

Thanks, The indicator lights I added are led, for all the original 6 volt bulbs there are several different wattage options in 12 volt bulbs that fit the same sockets so an easy conversion on those.

[Custer55]

Work continued on the wiring project this week. At this point I am about as far as I can go without ordering more parts, specifically front turn signal / park lights and back up lights. That will get all the basic functions taken care of and just leaves the radio, wipers, cigarette lighter, etc. that will be easier to do later as most will just hook into one of the terminal strips added under the dash.

Here is the trunk latch housing re-assembled with a quickie spray can paint job ready to bolt back on the trunk lid.

Mounted on the trunk with a battery charger hooked up to test the light function. Looks like it will do the intended job just fine.

And with the latch handle back in place.

I then bolted the front inner fenders in place to start routing the wires to the front of the car. I am using black nylon split loom for most of the wiring that will be outside of the interior of the body.
The loom on the inner fender is for the horn relay wires and the right front turn signal wire. The loom between the valve cover and the intake manifold feed the alternator and the electric choke.

This loom on the drivers side is for the headlights, left turn signal, and park lights. If I had to do it again I would have run the right hand turn signal in this loom as well, as with the right signal wire and the right park light wire on opposite sides I will need 2 single wire connectors to turn/park light on that side vs being able to use one 2 wire connector. Either that or I should have run the right hand park light wire with the right hand turn signal wire but didn't think of it until changing it would have been a big pain.

Here the drivers side wires split into three to feed the left headlight, left turn signal/park light and the right hand headlight and park light.

For the headlights I made up these pigtails which were provided in the wiring harness. The headlight kit from Speedway Motors came with headlight pigtails as well but these were much nicer as they are bigger gauge wire (14 gauge) and color coded correctly and labeled wires. The Speedway kit all wires were black and on the small side of a 16 gauge wire (more like 17 gauge)
In this picture I have one done with wire loom and Deutsch connector installed and one with just the pins crimped in place. At the top is the crimp tool for the solid style connector pins which makes pretty bullet proof crimps. The Deutsch connectors are very easy to use as they are easy to pin and de-pin if needed and easy to connect and disconnect in service.

Here are the headlight buckets all set up with the pigtails. I ended up drilling the holes in the buckets bigger so either end of the pigtail will fit through by removing the grommets which are split for easy removal. I used 2 different size grommets I had on hand to make them.

With the front fenders and bumper bolted back in place I finished the wire connections to the headlights. For the headlight ground wires I drilled and tapped the frame for a 10-32 machine screw close to where the wire looms are routed. Wires to the right hand side I routed under the radiator crossmember and the wires for the turn signal and park light will be determined when I figure out what those will be and where they will be.

And the right hand headlight wiring routed and hooked up. At this point I hooked the battery back up to test the head lights and the work just like they should, yea!! I also fired up the engine for a few seconds to test that all that wiring works as it should, which it did. So I think It will be ok to just leave the battery hooked up as anything left to wire will be on a switch other than the cigarette lighter. So I think the only things needed for this thing to move under it's own power is a transmission, shifter and drive shaft. Lots more than that to be roadworthy but for sure getting closer.
Brian

[Belair-o]

Hey Brian,
Wow! Looks so neat, clean, and orderly! Great progress. I had to do a search on the crimper you used, hadn't seen those before, and had never used those type of connectors. Great pics and documentation!
Thanks, Doug

[Custer55]

Hey Brian,
Wow! Looks so neat, clean, and orderly! Great progress. I had to do a search on the crimper you used, hadn't seen those before, and had never used those type of connectors. Great pics and documentation!
Thanks, Doug

Thanks Doug, I searched waterproof wire connectors on you tube and Deutcsh style came up among others. After watching a few videos I decided to go that route.