Life gets in the way

  When we last spoke, our forlorn little Chevy was ready to have all of the old wiring stripped out and replaced with new.

  Then life struck. A backed up drain and flooded basement has crimped progress for a couple of weeks. To make things even better, the main drain line may be collapsed. If that is the case, and we can't find a alternative to digging up the entire street to replace the line, we may have to move rather quickly. So, if I disappear for a while, do not believe that the project is stalled and the blog forgotten. It WILL be back, just from a new location.

  But, I did manage to get all of the old wiring stripped out. To keep things as simple as possible, for the time being, I cut the wires a couple of inches from any sockets or plugs. If the sockets are able to be cleaned and reused, they will be.

This is what's left of the original harness and the "work" done by idiot PO's.

  I had worried about what would be the best way to run the wiring to the rear of the car. Running it anywhere along the floorboard on the inside is sketchy, since it could be damaged by being stepped on, even if run underneath carpet and sound deadener. However, I quickly found that Chevrolet had run the wiring up the A pillar, along the roof, and back down into the trunk through the C pillar. Slick and safe. I'll have to pull it all back when we go to chop the roof, but the clean way of hiding the wiring will be great.

  When working on unwiring everything under the dash, I quickly decided that dismantling the dash would make everything much easier. During the process, I found that the cool looking ancient compass on the dash even has a backlight to it. I may have trouble finding a replacement bulb in 12 volt, but if this stuff was easy, everyone would be doing it.

Cleaned out and ready to rewire

  The radio turned out to be really interesting. It actually has the speaker mounted to the top of it. I don't know if it will ever play again, but it will go back into the dash. Whatever I use for tunage will be more modern and less visible (as in not at all)

Various bits and bobs that may or may not get reused. Saving them for now.

  In my last entry, I mentioned how the stock electrical system had only a fusible link and fire as ways of dealing with an overcurrent situation. When I pulled out the multi gauge unit (ammeter, water temp, oil pressure and fuel level) I was rather shocked at what I saw on the wiring to the ammeter- a couple of the wires to it had been so hot they burned off the insulation. I wonder how long they were just sitting back there bare, and I am amazed that they didn't end up torching the whole car.

Toasty!

  The next step will be to mount the new distribution panel and start pulling wire. After that it will be lots of soldering and heat shrink. It's going to be a lot of work, but starting from scratch will be so much easier than trying to repair what was there, it will be a lot better than it was when it was new, and with my pickiness, it will be a trouble free system for many, many years!