The wife bought me an early XMAS present which was a new chrome grill for my 56. I took the old one off. The previous owner had a different screw and bolt everywhere. Gotta love those previous owners. Anyways, when I removed the old grill, the headlight wiring fell to floor as well. The headlight wiring is the only wiring I haven't replaced and I will now. Several of you have replaced your grills. Where is the best way to route the headlight wiring so it's not in the way. I think the previous owner simply laid the wires on the inside of the grill. I want to clean it all up before putting the new grill on. Oh, I'm replacing all the different sized bolts with stainless too.

 

If you want a nice neat job, you can get peel and stick little standoffs for zip ties, I think I got them at Radio Sucks. Stick 2-3 of them to the inside of the grill and ziptie the wires in place. They should stick real well to that fresh new grill. Congrats!

 

You could just drill a few holes right thru the middle of that pretty brand new chrome grill and then use all of those different size left-over bolts and some baling wire to hold the wires up !!!!
Congrats and Merry Christmas!

 

Hey man, I saw your truck on the Christmas pic post, and it looks AWESOME!!! I love that old gas station in the pic. It looks right at home. The only thing that makes it look bad is the late model junk in the background!


COOL truck. Congrats on the new grille. PEGYSU needs one too!! LOL

 

Thanks for the nice comments on the truck guys, so I'm hearing that the wires are suppose to go along the inside of the grill?

 

...Radio Sucks...thats funny...

 

Ed, since my wiring to the headlights was running along the drivers side frame I went all the way to the air deflector and came up inside the frame to the hole right under the headlight indentation. I used a grommet large enough to accept the wiring loom covering. I then ran the wiring for the passenger side headlight back out through the same loom back to the frame and ran it along the front of the front crossmember to the other side and did the same through the deflector. About 12" of wire loom shows in the fender well on each side. My mistake was in not putting any disconnect in the wires by the frame so that I could remove the bumper without cutting the wires, so I will do that when the time comes to remove it.

 

Ed, I took a bit different approach since all my wiring is hidden. My front loom comes out the floor, up along the left front fenderwell in conduit. From there it goes through the 1" hole (stock) at the front of the inner fender but near the header panel. At this point is becomes modular at a small junction box under the header panel next to the radiator saddle. I left extra wiring so I can work it before mounting it and none of it is seen. At his point the head and turn/park light wires run up under the header panel stuck to the radio sucks 3/4" square zip tie mounts. I used the Tremco emblem mounting tape since it wont ever let go in heat or solvents. From the header panel, the wires go through the top of the headlight bucket where the turn wires continue on through to the bottom hole in the bucket to the turn/park socket. All of my wiring is modular as I used quick connect plugs so I can take any part of the truck apart at a mumber of locations. My grill will come off intact with the wires. No 2 wires are the same color so that helps. May be too much for a replacemaent job, but it seemed right for a new build. Your job should be easy if you use the nylon zip mounts behind the grill where they were originally. Sorry the long post.
Jon

 

Thanks for the advise. It gives me a good idea which way to go with the wires and using the quick disconnects. My main thing is to hide the wiring so you don't see them. Makes for a clean install.

 

This may seem like a dumb question, but what is wrong with the current grill? It looks straighter than mine in the pics.

 

IMLOWR do u have wide fenders on that?

 

Brian, the grill is straight, the chrome is worn thin and nickel plate is showing. It needs to be rechromed. The new one I got also doesn't have the center V8 emblem on it which I like. "less is more".

Keisha- The rear fenders are widen by 1.5 inches. Front are stock.

 

Mine has the V8 emblem...it is trying to hide the huge dent in the middle of it. LOL