Thread: Low-budget/T-Bucket Pickup

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Ohhhhh the wiring. That will be a nice Saturday job that will turn into a week on your back

Originally Posted by 53 Chevy5

Ohhhhh the wiring. That will be a nice Saturday job that will turn into a week on your back

HAHAHAHAHA... so true!

Originally Posted by 53 Chevy5

Ohhhhh the wiring. That will be a nice Saturday job that will turn into a week on your back

LOL. How come every job I think will be easy never is?!

Your T is looking good, should be a fun driver. I'm using the speedway wiring too, it is nice quality and a lot cheaper than most.

I've always kind of enjoyed the wiring part of building a car (I guess I must be a bit masochistic..?). That is, until I built my Track-T...

Working under the dash in such a tight space is pure torture! I had to remove one of the seats and lay down with my head under the dash and my legs over the back of the body. That was tolerable until about the third time I needed a tool or piece I had forgotten to bring under there with me. Then I had to climb out, get whatever, and climb back in again... and my fuse box was under the seat!!! On top of that, I pre-wired the back side of the dash (gauges) so all I had to do was a couple of connections and wire the brake light switch. I can't imagine the Hell I would have gone through if I'd had to do all that wiring under the dash. If you haven't already mounted the fuse panel and started running wires, you might want to think about it a bit more. Even with the fuse panel under the passenger seat, I still had room for a pouch to hold a sweater, rain gear, some shop rags, a zip-lock bag with registration and insurance card, and some spare fuses and ignition module. I got rained on a lot, but none of that stuff ever got wet.

I mounted all my electrics under the cowl, but my dash was removable with 5 10-24 screws. The only thing in the dash were the gauges and they were on a separate wiring harness with a Molex plug. All the switches were on a panel that connected to the steering column mount and were hidden just under the edge of the dash. I could pull the dash in less than 5 minutes with my pocket knife (Leatherman) to access the wiring and relay panel. You could start and drive the car without the dash, if needed. It was a little more work to do it this way, but made access much easier when something went wrong.

Like J.Robinson, wiring is something I enjoy and I have a tendency to go a little overboard. I'm a fan of relays for most circuits since they take the load off the switch and give you a good place to access the circuit for troubleshooting. I think my T had 11 or 12 relays, but then again, it had auto-leveling air suspension on the rear and that took several to pull off, plus a couple of diodes. A little complicated, but man did that air ride good!

That Speedway harness looks a lot like the EasyWire harness I used on my T.

Your T is looking good. Good call on the brake pedal. An overly hard pedal is annoying and dangerous.

FWIW - After all that work on mine to make things easy to service, I don't think I had any electrical trouble in the 10 years that I drove it, and I put a bunch of miles on it. Mostly long trips.

Thanks guys.
Yep, I bought a nice looking piece of walnut board, I’m planning on making a removable dash board, and pre-wiring most of it. My T also has a functional passenger side door. Laying in there and working behind the dash is not bad at all, it’s easier than on a normal car.

I got a good amount of the wiring done in the past couple days. I’m “hoping” that one more good day in the garage might wrap it up. Unfortunately tomorrow is looking more like a “honey do” type of day than a “quality hot rod” kind of day.

I’m using a relay for my headlight/taillight circuit and for my horn. I’m not sure if I’ll need any more. This car has a bare minimum of wiring in it.

Jim,
I’m pretty committed to having the fuse box under the cowl at this point. I recall that you mounted your battery under there. I’m using a full size car battery. It is mounted under the passenger seat, although it’s almost completely below the floor.

Looking really good; nice piece of engineering.

The store bought lakes header mufflers run about $100 each. That’s a bit too pricey for my taste. So a took a couple Cherry Bomb mufflers, cut the outside housing off, wired the insulation in place, and slid them inside the headers. It’s much quieter than it was with open pipes. Hopefully the neighbors and cops will be reasonably satisfied.

57BA3CB4-3FB8-4A2E-93ED-697AE4C43B59.jpeg

I drove the car out of the garage for the first time under its own power. 05D5BF6B-89B4-45A6-A386-31D8EDE1A50C.jpeg3B64F093-4777-48B3-B014-B043F0B4EFD3.jpeg94D8D225-CC3D-47FA-BF65-28739AB1A8E7.jpegA6DA520F-2DB7-4054-B459-3650B130C08F.jpeg0CD4736B-EED6-417D-A7C2-D295FFE33483.jpeg

Always a milestone moment when you drive it out for the first time. Did you sneak it around the block at least once?? 8-)

Originally Posted by 34_40

Always a milestone moment when you drive it out for the first time. Did you sneak it around the block at least once?? 8-)

Not yet, but that’s coming soon.

Congratulations on the first drive! I still remember my first drive in the T. You'll have plenty of good cruising time this year.

Congrats on the first drive! It's really coming along, and under budget I'm sure

Ok maybe not “under budget”, but I’ll call it “within reason”!

On a positive note, I got my car title paperwork approved, after only three trips to the DMV.

My vehicle inspection is scheduled in two weeks. Hopefully that will go well. It’s hard to get a straight answer on what exactly is required.

On a side note, my daily driver Camaro just blew a head gasket, so that’ll give me something to do in my spare time.

Right now I’m on the road for five days for work.