Part 20 – Wiring

[RJacobsen]

One major job yet to be done on the car was the wiring or should I say rewiring. What I had to work with seemed to be quite a mess as illustrated by the following photos.





I was able to get my hands on a wiring manual for a 2003 Unique 427 (thanks Phil) and was glad to find out that the wiring in my car matched (for the most part) the wiring in the manual. I still had some differences to deal with (MSD box, dual fans with relays, oil pressure light, etc.) but the manual made most everything make sense. I discovered early on that the harness had plenty of wire included and decided to custom tailor it to my car. I shortened wires and replaced connectors and reworked pretty much everything. Here is the result for the dash area.



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To get to the rear of the car I decided not to go through the tunnel. I ran a conduit under the passenger side door, through the wheel well and into the trunk.

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All wiring to the engine and cooling fans is through one hole in the front right of the tunnel and along the frame rail.





Headlights, turn signals, brake wiring and horns are concealed on the left side and across the front.


To be continued…

[Aggressor]

Time well spent. Very much improved.

- Geary

[Slither]

Nice work Rod... love the heat shields, too.

[pgermond]

Looks really good!

BTW - EUROSunday at Nugget Market this Sunday, if you are interested - http://eurosunday.net/sacramento/index.html

[mkassab]

You're sure giving me many ideas for my upcoming build. I've gone through all your posts and they are very helpful and inspiring! I do have a few questions .... you have a gauge or something on the far right side of your dash.... what is that? Also, do you think it would be easy to replace the vinyl on the dash with aluminum? Thanks Mark

[weaver]

Rod is rebuilding a older 289 FIA car that had been altered into a race car, his build is totally different than a new kit build. The original FIA cars had the speedo on the passenger side so the driver wouldn't look at it, the 427 cars and 289 street cars didn't have that option. The problem with a aluminum dash is when the sun hits it you go blind, I had a customer go with aluminum but later painted it black.

[RJacobsen]

You're sure giving me many ideas for my upcoming build. I've gone through all your posts and they are very helpful and inspiring! I do have a few questions .... you have a gauge or something on the far right side of your dash.... what is that? Also, do you think it would be easy to replace the vinyl on the dash with aluminum? Thanks Mark

As Allan said the gauge you see is the speedo. As to the dash it would not be hard at all to overlay it with aluminum but Allan has a good point, the scotch brite would probably help but I think a bigger problem comes with keeping it looking good. Raw aluminum starts to oxidize almost immediately after you polish or scotch brite it, and with all the switches, gauges, lights, ect it would be difficult to maintain without a protective coating on it.