I don’t know where to start on this one. Do I buy a wiring harness and start from scratch? Should I make my own harness or buy a premade one? I just have the front lights, turn signals, and gauges to deal with and maybe a radio. Any help would be great!!

P.S. don’t ask me how I burnt up the original wiring it was real stupid..... (I reversed polarities on the battery) FIRE!!!

thanks

Sterling

 

I recommend a kit from Painless Performance. I used one on my 56 and it was pretty simple. Great instructions and helpful techline. I had never rewired an entire vehicle before. This was after an electrical fire too.

 

I just finished putting a mostly stock harness into my 56. I got it from Midfifty. It was very straight forward up to where I was hooking up the GM (!!!!!!) one wire alternator. That wasn't so hard to do though. Everything works now. What I found interesting was how hard it was to find a heavy duty flasher unit for the turn signals. They used to be all over the place, but darned if I could find one. I ended up getting one of the new electronic type for $12.

But I digress...

What you intend to do with your truck should determine how you rewire it. I'm collecting the tools to do all the crimps and such and will attack a "from scratch" harness later on. For now the stock approach made more sense to me as I have no radio and the steering column is stock. If you are going to put in AC, a big <PG13> stereo and all the other modern stuff, by all means go with a multi-circuit, fused setup. There are many on the market priced anywhere between $330 to $700. I personally like the harness from Ron Francis, it has everything done right, but it ain't cheap. Otherwise, go simple. The harness from Midfifty includes a simple added fuse block and costs about $170 plus delivery.

And don't be too embarrassed about smoking the wires a bit, I'd be willing to bet that we've done that at least once under the dash board. I had the new turn signal switch I just installed doing that! It's why I ripped the old wires out

Enjoy the ride!
Craig

 

When I rewired my 55 I did part with wire I got from Sacto Vintage Ford and used a fuse block from Painless. If I had to do it over I would just go ahead and buy a new harness all ready made up. I am not sure if painless sells the wiring harness, but I know Ron Francis sells the whold kit.

Don't feel bad about the wiring, got my high tech new fuse box all wired up and it wouldn't work. Had to take it to a auto electrics shop so he could move two wires.

Dennis
55F100

 

I spent a year planning out in fine detail the rewire of my '52 F1. It was a lot of fun for me.
A '56 is 12 volt, isn't it? So that makes it a lot easier. I converted from 6 volt positive ground to 12 volt negative ground. That was interesting. I stayed with a generator. A local shop converted my generator to 12 volt and installed a smaller pulley. Works great and puts out lots of amps!
If you want to do it yourself, let me know. I'll be glad to advise you as much as possible.

 

For what you are replacing, I would do it myself.

I am guessing you are not creating a d'elegance competitor, so why not run new wires yourself and shop around for some attractive split conduit to dress it up later? If you look at the original stuff, it was all just pairs of heavy guage wires run through (cotton?) sleeves. You can certainly create something more attractive than that yourself.

Save your $$ for a paintjob, headers, a tilt-hood, green tinted glass, oak for the bed, whitewalls, a motorcycle ...you get the idea.

Good luck!
/Kris
1950 F-47 (For Sale)
1977 XS650
1997 F-150XL

 

I would have to agree, I just rewired my '48 and it cost me a total of $40 bucks - compare that to even the moderate $300 and you can obviously see the difference. If you take your time make things fit well, in addition to using some conduits as was stated before, it should look as good as a professional harness. I'm very proud of my work, and don't think it looks tacky at all. My suggestion would be to pocket your hundreads and pull out some twenties at Home Depot.