Gents,

I know this is probably more personal preference, but as I plan on laying out the underhood wiring and wiring to the rear of my 55, is there a preferred exit point out of the cab other than the stock one. I ask this since I see many very clean almost no wires visible on some builds.

I plan on closing that one off and putting one lower on the firewall closer to the left frame rail, while keeping it away from the foot area. I believe that this will clean it up by running closer to the frame and low on the inner fenders. Any wiring for the engine will enter a hole directly behind the engine, ie ignition, gauges and such.

Any suggestions will be appreciated. While I won't have a completely clean firewall because of the booster/master cylinder and heater I want it to be as clean as I can get and leave the fuse box in the cab.

Thanks
Pat

 

Pat,

On my 49 the original wiring harness exited the cab up high on the driver'd side of the firewall. Like you I wanted to keep the firewall pretty clean. I'm running a 500 Caddy engine and the main power connections come from the starter (lower passenger side of my engine). I mounted my fuse block to the left of the steering column and then ran the main wiring over to the passenger side and out an existing hole in my foot board just to the right of the transmission tunner.
It brought the harness out right near the starter. From there I was able to hide the harness along the frame. I could bring the engine wires up from the bottom and not have to have them exposed and insite laying on the intake manifold. I routed the rear part of the harness down the frame rail.

The only drawback to the way I did it was that the EZ Wirirng harness was designed to be routed down the driver's side which means that the color coded harness for the turn signals were not long enough so I had to decide to splice on a length of correct color for the lamps or reverse the colors....no big deal.

Another little piece of advice when laying out your harness. Do not cut any wire or make any terminations until you get it completely laid out exactly how you like it, all sections; front, engine, rear, interior, dash, etc. I know I ended up going back and rerouting my harness several times. If I would have cut it or made terminations I would have had to make numerous splices...ugh.

Good luck, take your time, have fun
Bobby

 

on my 55, I exited in the top of the tranny tunnel, and routed the non engine wires under the cab (tied to a small angle iron welded to the floor), to the chassis rail and forward and back .

the engine wires come up thru a polished stainless tube across the manifold, and fan out in front of the distributor/ thermostat housing.
there are a couple small holes in the tube to allow the oil sender and the carb choke wires out where they belong.
the relay control for the electric fan also comes thru the tube

Sam

 

Thanks guys, I am still a ways away from this, but need to figure out what remaining holes to patch and what to leave. Both offered good suggetions to consider when I get there.

 

Thats a slick deal, looks great too.

 

The cleanest setup that I have seen so far is one that a fellow club member did on his truck. He used flexible coated conduit and ran it under the lower door hinge pocket and out through the rocker panel extension. He ran the same setup on both sides so that he didn't have to make any crossovers on the chassis. Sorry, no pics.
I like Sam's setup too.

 

I didn't mention that at the tranny cover, and the front chassis area
I used waterproof Weather Pack connectors to support quick unplug
of the front clip and engine from the body, without wire disconnect.
because all my heavy power draws are direct feed from the battery,
no major load runs thru the main harness and connector at the tranny cover.

Sam