slowbert

The spring clip appears to touch the rear of the opening, which would short it out. In fact, the spring clip scratches the inside cavity and there is a gap of maybe 1/8 inch where the screws do not fully seat the unit. Your are right that the spring clips will not be as extended when they have a wire in them, but I have never been able to get the turn signal fully seated even when the spring clip is compressed. I have been thinking of designing a different attachment to replace the spring clip.

I bought a set of MVP aftermarket turn signals. They are beautiful and solidly made. However, the electrical connection on the side sticks out quite a ways and hits the inside of the well in the fender. I tried it on aftermarket plus original fender sheet metal and have the same interference problem, but have not found a solution or ideas for how to overcome the interference. Has anyone solved this problem?

Cleaned up the fuse box. Dunked it in HCl and brushed it up. Thanks to a new card from a forum member, it is ready to start figuring out which wire goes where. Spent a bunch of time repairing miscellaneous wires and starting to get circuits ready for testing. My ‘72 had the left hand switch replaced by the PO 30 years ago and ripped out lots of wires. This was the switch that only dimmed the lights and would be broken accidentally because drivers are not used to it. My plan is to replace that switch with a later model turn signal/dimmer switch, but I need to slice all that in. Maybe next weekend.

That was exactly what I needed to know. I used a bit of heat, then a sharp pry driver and the top popped right out. By the way, a friend turned me on to these gasket tools or hose removers. They have been my best friends.

What is the trick for removing the knob on the fan switch? All the other knobs are screw on, but I don’t know about this one. I don’t want to bugger it up.

+1 Dashes appear to be the highest value part that is impossible to buy. Why focus on a $5 part when you could sell nice dashes for $1500+? $4000+?

Aren't the taillights supposed to be round?

Interesting. I never thought of them as “puny bumper” and “real bumper” cars. I always thought there were just “cool cars” and “square cars.” Learn something new everyday.

If you have the originals, tracing them out on 1/8 hard board from Home Depot and a rattle can of gray paint costs about $25. And you have enough hardboard left over to do the panel in the sunroof.

This might be the “other” color from my 72:

Put the finishing touches on the trunk. Had to adjust the fit of the new plywood panels, added the vinyl to the wheel wells and the panel under the battery. Also added the flexible tabs on the top of the hard board pieces on the sides. Installed the fuel tank and (thankfully) noticed all the sand from sandblasting and powder coat and blew all that out beforehand. Will be frequently changing fuel filters once the car is running. I was hoping to get some wiring done this weekend…

Were you shaving by then?

As the ground/power wires to the engine compartment get bigger, there is a smaller voltage drop during starting. In theory, an enormous cable will have such little voltage drop to be insignificant. This is your option 1 or 3. Both options require a big enough wire that the power drop is "not that much" during starting. I bought 25 feet of cable and had less than 5 feet left with my trunk-to-engine bay routing. Also, remember that your return path needs to be calculated in the voltage drop (so multiply the distance by 2). If you include the 'extra' ground, the calculation is easier than guessing what the return path would be through the chassis. Note that the limiting factor is probably *not* the resistance/current flow capability of the chassis - the limiting factor is probably the current capacity/resistance of the *connections* in the circuit - which are next to impossible to calculate/measure. Alternatively, you can have two power/ground paths: one dedicated to starting and other high-current draws (lights), and a second path for electronics that are sensitive to voltage drops. This is option 2. The tradeoff is whether options 1/3 are less weight/cost than option 2.

You can never be too rich, too thin, or have enough power from your alternator.

Using a separate ground wire addresses my concern for the consistency and reliability of ground connections. With new paint and clear coat, each screw connection to ground is a potential reliability problem - even with the huge star washer assortment I just ordered on Amazon. Comparing this solution to grounding through the chassis: the chassis ground introduces *two* wire-to-ground connections (one near the battery and one at the front of the car). Both of these connections can introduce resistance and unreliability if they are not done well. Both are potential failure points - especially due to corrosion/rust over a multiple of years (or decades). By using a separate ground wire, I replace those possibly-prone-to-failure connections with brand new, strong, reliable, crimped connections from the battery post to a bus in the front. The theory is that we remove two potential points of failure. (I still will put a short ground line to the chassis in the engine bay, plus I have a bit more 2 AWG wire for grounding the engine and power to the starter.) I selected 2 AWG stranded copper (not aluminum) wire to achieve about a 3% voltage drop at 40A and 50 ft length (25 ft per cable). I don't know if 40A is a reasonable assumption for a starter, but it seems in the ballpark. At 120A, it should have a 10% voltage drop. And the larger wire sizes were even more enormous. (2 AWG is about a half inch diameter with insulation.) Over time, I can see adding a 123 distributor and maybe an engine control module or ignition system. Maybe I don't 'need' pure, clean electrical source/ground at this point, but it will hopefully make the whole system more reliable and upgradable in the future. After reading some of the comments, one of the things I may implement is a second set of smaller gauge wires to/from the battery for measuring battery voltage or for supplying stable voltage to an engine control unit. I am planning on adding more instrumentation to the cockpit than a 747. Just because it is overkill.

This is exactly why I did the ground wire. Life is too short.

I don't think I need to do *every* ground to the bus bar, but I like the approach of grounding 'like' components (such as the headlights). Agreed on the lack of sensitive components.

I posted an update showing a new battery in the trunk of the car along with BOTH a positive and negative cable to the engine bay. And I got a few comments about it, so I figured I would get everybody's input. I am doing a full restoration/update of the car, and I pulled all the wiring out and will be untangling the mess over the next couple weeks. As part of that, I mounted the battery in the trunk and ran 2 gauge wire to the front with a couple bus bars. (Is 2 gauge too big? Probably. It is part of my habit of overdoing everything.) My plan is to run all grounds to the bus bar in the engine bay wherever possible. Yes, I could ground everything to the frame using star washers and grinding off paint, but those are always a source of problems over time. Witness *every* post on this forum about electrical problems coming back to grounding issues. I could have kept the bus bar in the engine bay and grounded it to the frame, then added a ground wire in the trunk to complete the circuit. This would have worked well, but it does introduce two extra ground connections to the circuit. Instead, I have a big fat wire. Is this overkill? Definitely. But I just want it to work reliably. My thought is to keep all the grounds clean and centralized to eliminate ground loops or other gremlins. I wanted the instruments, gauges, idiot lights, etc. to be as reliable as possible, and a reliable, central ground eliminates lots of weird problems that are hard to trace. I'm going to keep most of the original wiring but grab many of the grounding points and route them to the bus bar in the engine bay. The existing wiring is somewhat chopped up by the PO, who seemed to like endless 12ga red wire going every direction, so I am going to tidy that up. The original horn button, hazard switch, and high beam switch were 'customized' and needs to be cleaned up, for example. Since I am opening the can of worms, I am thinking of 'doing it right' - whatever that means. The new wiring plan also includes a relay/fuse box for using relays to control high beams, low beams, horn, and maybe taillights, electric engine fan, wiper motor, or whatever. I want the electrical system to be *reliable*. I also ordered a Brother label printer that prints directly on heat shrink tubing. I plan on using that to document/label all the corrections/improvements to the wiring harness. At least so I can figure out what I did 5 years from now. Any suggestions? Comments on the approach? Things I should definitely do or not do?

That flat spot ties into the A pillar and the floor pan, right near the main beam that comes down from the front suspension. It is also doubled up thickness steel. The tab that was used by the factory for pulling down the production line gives that flat spot a lot of stiffness. It would be weaker without the tab. Further, the tab helps locate a jack or a lift point (if I ever buy a two post lift). I’m glad I fabricated a replacement tab for that area. Of course, this area was very rusted out before I started the restoration... Alternatively, you can jack on the main beam that goes under the floor pan, but mine had been banged up severely and had rust. I wound up replacing the bottom of one of those beams.

I agree that the wire is a bit fat, and I probably could have gone with 4 gauge or even smaller. I was worried about voltage drop over the 20 feet of wire. I debated about whether to add the negative wire or to run the grounds through the frame. The cable is heavy. I’m planning on running all (or many) of the engine bay grounds to the bus bar. Since the battery is now in the trunk, this setup better mimics the original configuration. Every thread on this forum that deals with electrical issues comes down to bad ground connections, so I’m overkilling it. The problem with this design is I’ll never know if it was just barely enough or way, way overkill. But at least my wiring looks pretty.

In my restoration, I did a lot of dumb things. But one of the smartest was to get a zinc plating kit from Caswell. As I move on to every new project, I clean the parts and plate them, making reassembly glorious. It may have been cheaper to put all the parts in a huge box and get them plated all at once at a commercial plater, but doing small batches as I need has been ideal.

My biggest worry is that if I stop working on the car, I'll never start again. But it is a good feeling to complete the next step and that the light at the end of the tunnel appears a little brighter.

That's interesting about the assembly line, but it makes sense. There is no purpose of a downward-facing tab for a jack point. Although, the reinforced flat area just behind the tab seems like a good jacking point.

Got the battery in the trunk and routed 2 gauge wire to the front for both positive and negative. Had to fabricate a bracket for the battery disconnect switch. Figured it would be good to disconnect everything when the car needs to sit. The bus bars in the front will be a central point for all grounds. And I have a relay box for lights, horn, etc which should be here after Thanksgiving.

This is a comparison of the original and the Hobby Lobby product. The Hobby Lobby material is not as deeply embossed and has the fabric backing.