Rufus: New wiring harness

(06/24/06) This is what the underside of the cowl looked like.

And this was the transmission and bellhousing encrusted with crud.

It got cleaned up a bit. We had to soak the crud with PB Blaster, then scrape it, blast it with carb cleaner and then wash it with soap and water just to get to this state.

This had to be done before we could even decide where to put the Painless Wiring fuse box.

(06/25/06) We had to thin out the Rust Encapsulator and give it a thin coat, but most of it's covered. There's more of the stuff on order, so we can give it another coat when it arrives.

Looks like the floorboards are gonna need a little fitting before they sit just right.

One more shot from the other side.

We got the floorboards fitted...mainly we had to enlarge the opening for the clutch pedal. And a battery magically appeared. (Sure. A long time spent at AutoZone measuring to ensure that it would fit.)

The battery hold-down had to be notched to prevent it contacting the posts.

Finally it got wired in. We thought we were gonna regret not having a red cable for the positive side, but we had so swap them because of length issues. It worked out better to have both cables black.

We hooked up the other end and added a fuse for the primary circuits. Model As had no overcurrent protection at all. This is a little safer.

The floorboards went back in and we let the ol' man get in and stomp on the starter button. The most amazing thing happened. The motor turned over!!! And it even stopped turning when he released the button. Wow!

Here's a redneck ignition switch. It just switches voltage to the coil. Nothing fancy, but it works and Rufus runs!!!

At long last, the Painless fuse box is test fitted. I think this will be its permanent home. It's mounted right over a big old hole in the firewall that's just perfect for running the individual wiring bundles through. I'm guessing that the hole was for a manifold-mounted heater.

I'll continue this on another page. In the meantime, enjoy the motor work stuff.

Next page: More motor work.

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