1954 Chevy Pickup | Rewire Project

April 25th, 2003 : EZ-Wire Project -- Day 1

After 49 years of modifications ... new tail lights, specialty gauges, sound systems and speakers, Air Conditioning , plus who knows how many changes under the hood ... the wires in, under and within my truck were pretty hellish looking!

Splices and taped joints were all over the place, and the wires were all hard, brittle and corroded - plus, there were many wires under the dash that didn't go to anything at all; potential fire hazards, to say the least!
Old Wiring Harness Removed

My solution was to completely rewire the entire vehicle, and the most inexpensive high quality kit I could find anywhere came from a company called EZ-Wire ... the kit I bought was the 18 Fuse - 21 Circuit Harness for $165 -- see HARNESSES > EZ-21. I also bought a new headlight switch and dimmer switch (that's the good old-fashioned floor button for switching to highbeams), a new glovebox light, some interior lights and door switches (my truck had no interior lights at all). The EZ-Wire kit doesn't come with any grounding wires, so I went to Home Depot and purchased a 100-foot roll of 12-gauge stranded Machine Tool Wire (black) -- this stuff is gasoline & oil resistant -- perfect to use anywhere.

P.S. -- If you're getting ready to do this yourself, be sure to check out my Rewiring Project Checklist before you begin.

The EZ-Wire company is sister to another company called Dolphin Gauges and since they offer custom dash inserts for my truck, I added them to my order as well - here's a link to my page about that install: Dolphin Dash Inserts
Dolphin Gauges and Dash Inserts

Today, after weeks of very carefully comparing the kit to my truck's components ... considering each and every wire and where it was going to ... relocating certain wires from one section to another - according to the location of things in my truck ... and after thoroughly familiarizing myself with what I was going to do ... I started this monster of a project.

First, after disconnecting the battery cables, I removed the fuse box from under the dash on the driver side and made the mess you see in the first photo at the top of this page ... here's a shot under the dash, after I excavated:
Removal of the Breaker Box

And here's a shot from the other side:
Firewall / Engine Compartment

Before you start installing all your new wiring, completely strip out all the old stuff. Those old wires aren't going to do anything but confuse you. And your new wires tell you all you need to know, because each wire is marked/labeled every six inches or so, defining where each wire goes.

NOTE: With all your wiring stripped out of the truck, now is a great time to do anything under the dash that you may have been thinking of doing later! For example, if you plan on insulating your floor, or putting in a new electric wiper motor, you'll never have an easier time getting to this area! After you're finished wiring everything in the dash/interior area, you won't have such easy access as you do now.

[ Click Here to Continue to Day 2 ]