Gauge set up and wiring

In addition to this post being a regular "How I did it" post, it's also a "How do you want it done" - for the cars owner. With this gauge and panel set-up, the gauges will fit from the top and bottom of the beveled aluminum instrument plate, both ways taking some custom work to fit and each method of fitment giving a different look to the cluster - and therefore the dash. Of course one way looks best to me (and of course will take the most custom work....) - but it's not MY car to decide.

Here are the gauges inserted from the backside:

....and here they are fitted from the top-side:

Backside....

 Topside.....

Backside.............

...Topside

You can guess by these two which way I prefer them!

Whenever someone does a job for you, especially if you're not an expert in the field, you have to accept that the work has been done right. I have often seen work done by people - from professionals to friends - that is so shoddy it's down-right embarrassing when you tell someone you paid to have it done! I don't want to do work like that....

Which is why I spend the time I do to get it done right:

 Each gauge in the cluster needs a ground wire. My plan to keep it all clean and well-grounded was to attach pigtails to each to each ground lug and run them all to a single soldered connection on a main frame component behind the dash.
I started by stripping a small amount of the plastic insulation off five 10" lengths of wire, crimping on 5 ring ends and also cutting 5 pieces of shrink tubing.

Each crimped end was them soldered so as to give a fail-proof connection and ground:

Finally, a length heat-shrink tubing was slipped over the wire:

....and heated to a tight seal.

I'll use this same method for the other ends, as well as every other wire in the vehicle. In addition to being the right way to connect wires, it looks good too - which is the mark of a professional! :)

 

Don't forget to check out my website at www.E-tekRestorations.com !

Getting ready to roll!

The owner of the 1967 Cougar came over today with all the suspension pieces that he has sand blasted and painted with POR15 and Chassis Black. The most exciting (OK, scariest - LOL!!) part was compressing the springs to mount them into their respective spring perches.

Also managed to get started on wiring up the gauges on the 40 Ford Rod. The owner purchased these cool "Analog-faced, full electronic" gauges, to be mounted in the original dash' gauge location:

These are gonna look great in the Rod. Five of them will go in a bezel that fits the main hole in the original gauge location. The tach will get mounted into the custom console I'll be building.

Don't forget to check out my website at 

www.E-tekRestorations.com !

What's in a name?

It's a universal kit called "It's a Snap" and came with the Rod I'm currently working on. Seems pretty good to me, though in doing some research on these kits it would seem "Painless" is the Cadillac of aftermarket harnesses and this one is a mid-line brand. Having said that, I'm not sure what else you'd need: it has a full fuse box, wires for each vehicle section (dash, interior, engine and front end and rear end). All the wires are labelled every foot with where they go. It even has a couple different clips that mate up to either a GM, Ford or Mopar steering column. This rod has a GM column, so I just had to use the male connector that came with and line up the same color wires to mate up with the functions coming from the column (lights, blinkers, horn, etc). It also has a horn relay and blinker (flasher) diodes.

The time consuming part is going to be cutting and connection the wire ends to all the things they control on the front end - from the engine management system harness, head lights, taillights, alternator and gauges - which will take the most work for sure. I was thinking I'll cut a foot or two of the correctly labelled wires, wire the gauges on the bench and then match the pigtails together in the car.

In this case I have to match up the engine management harness with the aftermarket one:

Today I also got the passenger side window powered up and even though still in the "Mock Up" stage I like to clean up what I can as I go, including polishing the window chrome before putting it all together:

With this project though, the aftermarket harness install is just one piece of the puzzle. As I said above, it al has to be married to the 5.0L EFI harness, a somewhat complicated Vintage Air set-up, as well as power windows, power locks and electric wipers! Here's what some of that looks like today:

Don't forget to check out my website at www.E-tekRestorations.com !

Working on the 40 Ford Rod aftermarket wiring harness and power window mechanisms this week.....

When manufacturers name something "Painless", or as in this case "It's a Snap", ya gotta wonder what the ulterior is!  Actually kidding because -  although wiring a car from scratch is quite the process, these kits sure do get you off to a good start. The fuse box has a couple tabs to drill and screw the unit to the firewall, then has looms of wire for each section of the vehicle: engine and front end (form blinkers to alternator), the dash, interior items and rear end (fuel pump to brake lights). Each wire is labelled every foot, making it easy to trace it's source from the fuse box to its terminal end.

Above: The fuse box is mounted under the dash and each loom is routed to it's specified location.

In order to get the front end wires located, a hole needs to be drilled in the firewall and all the wires need to passed through in order to connect them all to the factory engine and front-end harnesses.

The power window mechanisms that came with the car came without instructions. Thank God once again for the Internet. After struggling with them yesterday for a bit, I spent last night researching forums and YouTube video's and found a couple sources containing partial instructions and - along with a lot of trail and error - managed to cut the rails correctly, bolt them up in the right way and successfully test the drivers side:



Tomorrow it's more of the same: I'll get the passenger side window done and then begin the arduous task of splicing in the "It's a Snap" harness into the engine management harness.

Don't forget to check out my website at www.E-tekRestorations.com !

Power Window Mechanisms

Setting up the power window mechanisms in the 40 Ford:

Cut this plate to mount the body on:

....and the upper section is secured with a single bolt. Of course the entire bit has to be tested with the window in the runners and attached to the armature. Stay tuned!

To cut the support plate I used a new handheld electric metal shear from Princess Auto - like butta baby!!

Power Fist Metal Shear

Don't forget to check out my website at www.E-tekRestorations.com !

Wiring to wipers

Got a start on the wiring system today, which included some web-research to see how others have gone about running these systems and how they have interfaced them with the Ford EFI system.

On the seat are the systems for the lights, Vintage Air AC system and the shaved handle door opening kit:

The "modern" Ford Alternator has six (6!) wires feeding it! The generator on my flathead engine has 3. Is that progress? ;)

Unlike doing a restoration - where every part is original and was engineered to fit and work together, a rod takes the mock up of everything, sometimes several times, well before it gets painted. You can't be jacking around a newly painted vehicle trying to get pieces to fit for the first time!

Here the original vacuum controlled wipers are being mated to the aftermarket electric wiper motor:

There's also a of working ahead involved - such as getting the vent window and integral side window surrounds rebuilt in order to fit the power windows.

The Cougar rear end was re-installed yesterday - here's how it looks painted with Por15's Chassis Black, with a primer-orange pumpkin:

Don't forget to check out my website at www.E-tekRestorations.com !

Roll up the windows and turn on the AC!

Finally got back to working on the 40 Ford Rod!

Power window regulators need to be set up before being wired in:

Then I tried several ways of mounting the Vintage Air tubes - it's like wrangling slinkies!

The very first part I started working on finally got done when I lucked out and bought the right length belts the first try!

The trickiest part was getting the right pivot and sweep for the tensioner wheel

This weekend all the suspension parts for the 1967 Cougar will be ready so we'll get it all installed so we can get it to the paint shop. A few months over there and it'll be fun-time!

Don't forget to check out my website at 

www.E-tekRestorations.com !