It shouldn't be hard to add a fuse box under the dash where it will never be seen and leave the rest of the wiring stock. I've used an auxiliary panel from Centech for the past 3 years. My new harness will be by Centech. They are the panels we use on the motorcycles at work. I like Centech over Ron Francis because the fuse panel is much more compact. Otherwise, they seem to be about the same.


Lawrenceville, GA

Thanks all for the info. A previous owner has added a power seat which I believe to be the source of some of the issues. I think I will stay w/the original style harness, although the addition of a fuse box would be nice. I don't plan to add any heavy juice drawing items and I plan to unwire the seat.  The car has some ignition issues, (it has a toggle switch that must be on for starting) so I'm hoping a new engine harness will take care of that. The electrical assy manual sounds like a must!

    Thanks again, James Q

As mentioned earlier, taking out the front seat is the bulk of the disassembly other than removing the wires. The wires should come fairly easily. Basically it is unhooking them from the instrument panel as well as the radio and other accessories and unhooking them from any clamps. The light bulb sockets will have to pulled rom their respective locations .If you use the stock type harness, they probably will come with new sockets. The generic type harness usually do not come with new light bulb sockets so you will have to reuse yours by splicing them into the lead in the harness.



If the wires coming directly from the steering column are in good shape there is no need to disconnect anything from the switch in the column.

54 Victoria 312;  48 Ford Conv 302, 56 Bird 312
Forever Ford
Midland Park, NJ

If you are looking for a stock type harness there are two that comes to mind - Rhode island Wiring and Tyree Harris. Both are supposed to make very good stock harnesses. Do a google search although i will look up both and edit this if I can find the information.



If you want to run items like air, CD/DVD's and other newer equipment then go with the more generic harnesses like American Autowire, Ron Francis, Painless or a slew of others that will more than do the job. Most of the better known brands are very good, although the Ron Francis is probably the best. Some cost less than 200.00.



If doing the rewire with the dash in, remove the front seat so you have all kinds of room to work. When everything is removed, get some white paint and paint the back of the dash. This makes it 100 times easier to see under there.



See if there is a Electrical Assembly Manual for your car. This will show how everything is run under the dash and all the color codes. When I did my TBird, this manual was just about indispensable. I was able to connect the wires correctly the first time with zero problems.

54 Victoria 312;  48 Ford Conv 302, 56 Bird 312
Forever Ford
Midland Park, NJ

I usually look for harnesses in mid model luxury cars (I recently gutted a '74 mercedes for seats and electronics to go in a 64 F-100 and a 63 Fairlane, and plus the gauges are almost identical to the Fairlanes...), just because they have a lot of electronic parts, and plus they are usually new enough to not be totally rotted.

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People should not be afraid of their government, a government should be afraid of the people.

--Alan Moore

How big a job is the harness replacement? I am fairly handy, but how much disassembly of the car is needed to run all the wiring?

James Q

I bought all the harnesses associated with headlights for a 56 Ford from Dennis Carpenter. They fit, the quality is fine even though they are from Asia. I'm not into showing for points, but they would stick out like a sore thumb if I were a judge, and they weren't cheap.

Kenneth

Fredricksburg, Texas

If you are going to the trouble to rewire your truck, I would use a harness package that includes a fuse block. This will allow you to add newer electronic components as well as being safer. I used an "EZ Wiring" harness for my '56 Customline, but there are others like "Painless" and "Ron Francis" that are also good (more expensive) and all are labelled with fuse blocks. You just tell them what you have and they make up a harness for you.

  Ron Lane,  Meridian, ID

I have a 58 Ranchero w/292. I bought it in 06/2009. The wiring harness has been cut & spliced many times and is a mess. Can anyone help w/a good source for dash and engine harnesses for this car. I prefer original style if possible! Thanks for the help!

James Q - Ruston, LA