Dutch '59 Fleetside Longbed

[Kim57]

Nice lights.
More sound deaden-er can't be a bad thing.
Kim

[oldman3]

I agree with Kim, never hurts to cover everything...Jim

[RockinKees]

Yeah, that's what I thought too...
Thanks!

Maybe this is a better pic, it goes all the way up, till under the "dashcover".



Also put in the switches and gauges, because I wanted to see how it looked
I think it's not too bad..

[ptc]

Nice!

[Kim57]

Very nice.
Kim

[RockinKees]

Well, grill is ready

[oldman3]

Looks good...Jim

[RockinKees]

Thanks Jim!!

Over the past week I was thinking about a new fusebox panel.
One that was a bit better than the first one I made.
I came up with this:



Made a template out of cardboard, testfitted it in the truck. It's going to be at the same place, drivers side, under the dash.

I had a piece of aluminum which I could use, so I made it flat and made the hole in it for the relays and drilled it for the fuseboxes.





Next I wired it as far as I could out of the the truck.
The plan is to use 22 circuits and 15 relays (!).
I have seperate lowbeam and highbeam and seperate left and rightsides, that alone are 4 relays...I always had trouble with my Chevy Van lights, I want to be ahead of that!



So maybe it's overkill, but it's much easier to locate failures in the future
I did this the same way with my old '67 Volvo at the time, and also do the same when I wire Harley's (not so much circuits thou )

I make partial diagrams of all circuits, that way I can always find it back, should I need it...

[Kim57]

That looks good.
Kim

[Advanced Design]

Well that is pretty trick! Intimidating and cool all at the same time.

[oldman3]

Well done Kees, nice job...Jim

[lower50's]

That should work nice.

[RockinKees]

Got a few hours at the truck today

Painted the doors black, that can dry until I put the red on, big steps for me


Sorry for the crappy pic...

Also bolted the new fusepanel in to see how it would work out...



Here you can see that the relays are somewhat bent, so that they're more horizontal:


If you look out of the driverseat, you can hardly see the fusebox (please don't mind the rest of the mess, there's work going on )

[reaper71]

Nice and clean..

[Kim57]

Very nice.
Kim

[ptc]

Looking Good!!! ----- I hope you are going to move the "RED-LINE" on that tach up to about 6500 RPM.... FLOOR IT!!!!

[RockinKees]

Originally Posted by ptc

Looking Good!!! ----- I hope you are going to move the "RED-LINE" on that tach up to about 6500 RPM.... FLOOR IT!!!!

In my mind I don't have a RED line....
But the engine might think otherwise

[RockinKees]

Doors are ready for built-up, at least when the paint is dry



After the red was done:



There's going to be a small white pinstripe between the black and red, but just after the doors are hanged.



In the meantime I've been busy with the electrics:



This is how it looks when you do your own wiring
Don't worry, everything is gonna be just allright!!

[Kim57]

Looks real nice.
Kim

[RockinKees]

Question:

When I bought the truck and looked at the wiring then, which was a mess, I noticed that the ground wire from the battery only went to the engineblock.
And from the block to the cab with a ground strap.

Is it not better to wire the ground wire to the block AND to the cab??
I don't know how it was originally?
Please explain?
Thanks!

[Advanced Design]

From the block to the cab with a good grounding strap of sufficient size and good connections will be fine. I would have a good ground to the frame as well.

Heaviest electrical load is when cranking the engine over, so the negative battery cable is on the block to handle the heavy amp load. Amp flow from everything in the cab isn't near as much so a heavy cable isn't needed.

I hope that helps answer your question.

[RockinKees]

Yes, that sure helps!
Thanks Doug!!

There wasn't a ground wire to the chassis as well. I never thought of that too, I must say.

I know my old Chevy Van had a big wire (35 square) to the engine and a small (6 gauge) to the cab from the battery.
And ofcourse a real ground strap from block to cab.
Thats why I asked.

[reaper71]

When me and Dad do wiring we always use a grounding block.
You run your main ground to it and it has multiple connections that you can now run all of your grounds to it rather than running grounds to the body etc.helps prevent a "bad ground" situation.
The 1st pic is of a ground stud (main ground mounted to frame)
the 2nd is the ground block or strap run the wire from this to the stud making it a ground and then simply run All grounds to the strip.

Mark...

[reaper71]

Usually from Ron Francis wiring

[RockinKees]

Thanks for the tip Mark!

I do something similar, only I make studs on the sheetmetal inside the cab. First the paint has been removed, then a bold with those washers with teeth (don't know the word...) at both ends, then a nut.
The groundwires bolts then right on.