It doesn't look like much stuff, but this is everything necessary to wire a custom with a little extra.
Unbinding the wire and stretching it out as flat as possible in the sun will help loosen the wires, making it much easier to divide and route.
Next we separated the loom into sections depending on their final
destinations.
After we had individual looms, we grouped them together with zip-ties about every 4-5 inches.
Building a full custom ride to some people means creating most of the masterpiece from your imagination and what cool parts you have been able to collect from all those swap meet trips. This, for the most part, describes the scenario very well, until you get to things like glass, upholstery, chrome, and wiring. For most of us, those first three items are usually left to the pros for obvious reasons--except when it comes to wiring. Everyone can relate to installing some sort of electronics in an old ride and finding a hacked-up pile of spaghetti that who knows how many people have had their hands in cutting, splicing, and simply destroying anyone else's ability to troubleshoot any type of electrical problem that may come up. The moral to all this is to leave the wiring to the pros, or simply tear the entire mess out and toss it all in the trash. Being a do-it-yourselfer, the latter should already be making sense... besides, have you checked into how much shops charge for a complete wiring job these days? It's not pretty, but luckily for all of us, there are a few companies out there that were started by do-it-yourselfers just like us--and have taken all the headaches out of wiring. These kits are nothing like factory wire looms, and for good reason. In today's custom car world, we can employ all the creature comforts of late-model cars into our old rides. In fact, trying to splice some of these comforts into an original wire loom that has been hacked to any extent is just simply out of the question. One of the best (and when we say best, we mean ease of installation and all necessary circuitry to hook up what ever we want) looms on the market comes from a name that best describes the very product they offer--Painless Performance Products. For our needs, we chose the custom 12-circuit wire kit--mostly for the ability to hook up remote doors, power windows, an electric cooling fan, and so on. Some of that stuff will have to wait to install in another story, but for now we will go over the basic installation and some of the benefits of saving a little cash to have a complete, versatile, and easy-to-use wire loom.
Finding a good place to mount the fuse box isn't a problem, when you consider it has to be somewhere accessible--not too visible--and protected from the outside elements. For obvious reasons, we mounted ours as you see it here.
From the fuse box we sent the headlight section--which includes the turn
signals, running lights, and electric fan leads--straight through the firewall, just over the fuse box (sending it out through the driver-side inner fenderwell), then under the driver-side fender. This is a custom so we are trying our best to hide as much of the wiring as possible. Forget about where the original loom went, just be creative with a good dose of common sense.
From here we separated the wires and tied-up any that would not be used at this time. Painless included the headlight plugs that only need to be spliced onto the correct wires...
...If you are unsure about which wire(s) to use, they have all been marked with the location it starts and the location it needs to end up at, as well as issuing a number to each wire with a corresponding diagram in the instruction book. The passenger-side wiring and electric fan leads are routed under the hood latch flashing.
As for the engine wiring, we wanted the loom to enter the engine compartment from behind the distributor, as low as possible.
As you can see here, once the wires are all terminated in the appropriate places, the wiring will mostly disappear from sight. This section of the loom includes everything to start and run the engine and relative components.
Like we said, this kit gives you a few different ways of finding the appropriate wire for each component by marking each wire and supplying you with easy-to-read diagrams.
Painless has gone to great lengths to make these kits as versatile as possible, even including the correct electrical plugs for the type of drivetrain you requested. Painless will integrate what you need for many different types of applications--including turn signal switch plugs, alternator plugs, and so on--depending on if it's Ford or GM.
The rear loom was routed much like the original--only because it's a smart way to go--keeping the loom safe from seats and feet. This pile of wire has taillights, a fuel sender lead, a third brake light lead, and the leads for hooking up a dome light. We chose to run the dome light wire all the way back into the trunk for no good reason other than this is where Jay (the owner of the shoebox) wanted it. It's nice to have long leads to be able to move this kind of stuff whereever you desire. The battery will also be relocated to the trunk for visual reasons.
For the taillights, we needed to run to the parts store for a couple of new bulb receptacles...
...These units worked perfectly, and only needed an external ground lead to work as well as the originals.
Wiring the dashboard is no different than anything else. We separated groups of wires going to the headlight switch, ignition switch, dimmer switch, and gauges.
This section is for the gauges that normally would be hooked up straight to the back of the original gauge pod, but as this is a custom, a set of manual gauges will be mounted under the dash and utilized. We did, however, terminate each appropriate wire to the corresponding gauge in the original pod, just in case the next owner wants to use original gauges.
We also picked up some new bulb receptacles to replace the originals in the gauge pod so that all the gauges would still light up when the headlights are turned on.
As for the switches, they could not have been more straightforward to hook up--as we utilized universal switches for the headlights and ignition...
...The dimmer switch was mounted into the recessed portion of floor, close to the original mounting area, but now will be under the carpet for a cleaner look.
Last, but not least, was one of the most important steps in hooking up this kit. Painless includes this 50amp Maxi-fuse to protect the entire system...
...The fuse can be mounted anywhere along the main power lead to the starter, but we figured, why not place it next to the other fuses for ease. That pretty much wraps up the basics, but stay tuned for more electrical add-ons as we finish Jay's ride.
SOURCES
Painless Performance Parts 9505 Santa Paula Dr., Dept CRM
Fort Worth, TX
76116
(800) 423-9696
www.painlessperformance.com
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