New non-FE project

[chilly460]

Been looking for something to house a 408W and Performance Automatic C4 that I've had a LONG time.  Was targeting an F100 because I don't mind "patina" trucks and wanted something that wouldn't break the bank and could be built fairly quickly, after a year or so casual search this poppped up 3mi from my house.  Owner is pulling the engine/trans, I'll pick it up in ~2wks.  Front cab mounts and door pillars have already been fixed, I'll be fixing some relatively minor rust in the rear quarters and front of the bed, typical for these trucks.  Compared to others I've looked at in this area, in this price range, it's a solid truck.  Crown Vic frontend already tacked in.  I'm planning to put a 4 link in it and 4whl disks to make a nice little shop truck. 

408W was originally built for a street/strip fox body Capri so it's a bit snottier than what I'd build for the truck, but it's what I have on hand.  242/250* hydro roller, 4500rpm stall...so I'll put 4.10 in the truck and it will be a short run shop truck kind of deal.  Engine made 570hp/535ftlbs, think the truck will come in around 3700lbs so shouldn't be too heavy for the combo. 

No real plans to paint it, repainted with some type of cheapie "thick" paint so it's not a patina truck, just ugly.  Want to run some American Gasser or Rocket Injector wheels so keep it old school appearing.  My Merc was not a full frame off, I'm excited to do a frame off on the truck, much easier as it can be taken apart in pieces.  I've never done a full wiring harness so this will get a Painless/Ron Francis/AAW type deal, which will make it easy to run an in tank electric pump and electric fans, and radio...I'm not a big gadget guy so that's about it. 

[Stangman]

Well FE or not I want one too.

[gregaba]

I really like these trucks.
I had a 65 6 cylinder that blew up on the turnpike and the engine caught fire.
Didn't want to put any money in a 6 cly but I had a 69 caddie with a 500 ci in it.
Put the caddie engine, and tran's in the 65.
This was a great combo and the chevy SS pick ups had just came out. I used to pick on them on the turnpike and drag strip. Never lost to one of them.
Greg

[turbohunter]

Very cool.
That paint looks like it’ll rub out just fine.
Having the T&C front end already tacked in is great. Four link shouldn’t be to much of an issue, then you’ll have a solid truck.
How ‘bout an old style speed shop logo on the door? Chilly’s speed shop, or some such gobbledegook.
Two thumbs up
Edit
Oh yeah the wiring harness. I’ve done a few. I have used Painless and EZ. I’d like to give Ron Francis a try. You’re a talented guy so it won’t be a problem at all for you. Just take your time. Really. Take your time. Buy nice crimpers and wire strippers. When you’re doing connector after connector it matters.
Have fun with it.

[garyv]

great looking ole truck.  It will make a fun ride.
keep us updated

garyv

[machyoung]

Love it and please do keep us updated!

[chilly460]

Very cool.
That paint looks like it’ll rub out just fine.
Having the T&C front end already tacked in is great. Four link shouldn’t be to much of an issue, then you’ll have a solid truck.
How ‘bout an old style speed shop logo on the door? Chilly’s speed shop, or some such gobbledegook.
Two thumbs up
Edit
Oh yeah the wiring harness. I’ve done a few. I have used Painless and EZ. I’d like to give Ron Francis a try. You’re a talented guy so it won’t be a problem at all for you. Just take your time. Really. Take your time. Buy nice crimpers and wire strippers. When you’re doing connector after connector it matters.
Have fun with it.

Thanks for the advice, I will start researching the various wiring vendors.  Always bugged me that even on cars I've sorted out, they had factory wiring and I had to hold my breath on one or another little issue constantly.  The Merc doesn't even have a proper fuse panel, the small number of circuits are housed on the ignition or light switches so it's a pain to diagnose or add circuits. 

[turbohunter]

In your research besides features look up the instructions, that will help you decide.
For instance, Painless’ instructions are ok. Not great but ok. EZ is terrible. But I chose them because it was cheap and I tore there wiring to shreds in order to fall in line with my engine run wiring on the mustang.
I’m about to start looking again myself.

[475fetoploader]

Have had decent luck with American Autowire

[chilly460]

Will do, been catching YouTube installs here and there which helps, but sometimes hard to find them for the generic harnesses and not sponsored by said company. 

I have seen good reviews on AAW and Ron Francis so I was starting there.   

[BattlestarGalactic]

I've used AAW and EZ.  The AAW had awesome diagrams, colorful and very helpful.  The EZ was like someones 8th grader drew it with a crayon, literally.  It really is all hand draw pictures.  EZ also has NO markings on their fuse panel(I used the 22? fuse version).  If you needed to pull a fuse to test a circuit you had NO IDEA which fuse to pull.

They both had the same style markings on the wires(nearly impossible for anyone over 40 yrs old to read), so that was all the same.

Once you get the wires grouped into the areas they need to go, they are pretty easy to install overall.  Just takes some time.  Luckily you are working on METAL vehicles.  Both mine were plastic so throw in 100 extra ground wires everywhere. 

[RustyCrankshaft]

Have had decent luck with American Autowire

I just used an AAW complete harness in my 77 F250 crewcab. Was very nice stuff with mostly the correct connectors for the stock stuff and half the price of what a Painless kit was going to cost me to do the same thing.

[cammerfe]

I used EZ to re-do my '63 Effie ICB. I used part of the glove box to hold the fuse panel. Put it on a set of drawer rails and left enough slack in the wires to be able to pull it out. Sit on the passenger seat to work on it. Control box for the EFI in the same place, and there was still room for all the truck papers and two pair of gloves.

Brother Lon was an electrician at T&C Livonia and my Dad was Division Chief Electrical Engineer so enough rubbed-off on me to be able to muddle through by myself by taking my time. Make your own diagram and glue it to the glovebox door on the inside so it's easy to refer to.

Since you'll be starting from scratch, simply keep in mind that you don't need to completely duplicate the factory runs and bunches. From the factory, the tail lights were somehow tied to the loom that went across the radiator bulkhead to feed the right headlight. Pinching that front wire bundle made the tail lights flicker. Worst mess I ever had to work with. With the re-wire the front and back runs were completely separate. I pulled all the rear wires through a length of Tygon fuel hose and shrink-wrapped both ends for protection. Used Adel hangers to hold the Tygon to the frame. Worked like a charm.

KS

[chilly460]

That's what I'm looking forward to, being able to lay out the wiring neatly and logically, which doesn't seem to be part of the OEM protocol.