Packard Forum Index » Project Blogs

Yes Howard - I'm a 'nutter' about getting my car completed (albeit very slowly). I don't think even WW3 would stop me now!

It would be a great shame if your friend doesn't get his Club Sedan finished. There are many cars I like - Tbirds, Corvettes, even (dare I say it - 57 Chevs) but my passion lies with Packards.

The fellow who sold me my '51 visited a week ago and made the comment (- when I bought it from him back then - around 1999) that he had feared I would never get the rusty hulk completed, and would give up on it. He was so happy to see it in an advanced state of repair. It was his thwarted ambition from 40 years ago, to get it on the road again, but in the 70's he bought a vehicle repair shop and by the time he had repaired smashes all day his last desire was to work on another 'wreck' when he got home!

Rewiring the Car

Started what I think is the last of the big tasks on my car, and that's re-wiring it. The old wiring is in very bad shape and even the 'good' sections that have been covered with tape are brittle so bending them leads to the insulation breaking.

Because I have a complete harness to copy I thought: 'I'll make a new harness myself' and I bought all the proper cloth-covered wire a few years ago, from Rhode Island Wire. Also bought a lot of connectors and bits and pieces like new flasher, proper rubber wrapping tape and splice tape (which are a match for correct original), terminal blocks, replacement bulb holders and just about everything to make the electrics like new.

Thought it was a reasonable idea to save the expense but since I started working on it I can see the cost of harnesses is pretty reasonable considering the time involved! However it's really good to have a detailed idea of the '51 wiring and I am enjoying the job as well, so no regrets . . . . .

Spent a lot of time buzzing out and labeling every wire in the old harness so now I know exactly where each wire terminates. Photos show a type of former that I'm using which is just a piece of 2inch PVC water pipe, split in half.

With the old 'main' (dashboard to engine bay) harness placed into this PVC former I was able to mark out all the exit points of the loom tributaries. Then the new wires were run to/from the marked entry and exit points easily, and will be (hopefully) the correct length.

Check-sheets for each loom and tributary were used to make sure that I did't forget any wire. I've used string tags on the old harness to label wires and make any notes about them.

When buzzing out wires I found a difference in the way the wiring has been done compared to the circuit diagrams. There's a splice used to mate two heavy (10g) battery feed wires instead of running them as per the diagram.

Guess I spent a week or more doing all the prep work without even running the first new wire. It will be a long job by the time I've crimped and soldered every terminal and splice etc. One advantage of DIY is being able to add a couple of necessary extra wires that are needed. I'll be mounting two speakers in the rear parcel shelf so wiring for those from the original radio (- already reconditioned and working well -) is to be added. Also there's a plan to place a hidden FM tuner in the cab which will be operated by a remote when the old original AM radio is not in use. Other extra wires are for a heater if/when I can fit one, power antenna and an electric fuel pump already bought
.

RHD cars like mine didn't have a heater available so I have an under-floor heater on its way. Hoping that it can be fitted ok.

A few pics show progress so far. I'm planning to take a movie or two as well in case anyone wants to make their own wiring harnesses sometime.

Using loads of cable ties keeps things in order, tight for wrapping and able to be managed without too much confusion.

If anyone has helpful comments or good ideas - they would be appreciated thanks. I'm sure others will have discovered a few tricks of the trade when doing their re-wiring.


Old wiring - what a mess. It's sobering to look back on how bad the car was before work was started on it




Radio was restored some time ago. It worked after all caps and the vibrator was replaced. Same thing with a second radio I have!


The wires into the engine bay were cut long ago but fortunately I have the complete harness



Different to the wiring diagram



Loads of diagrams and documentation



Wires labelled
2inch PVC former for laying out the new wiring

Loom tributaries are set out so as to get the wire lengths correct



Need to remove the cloth before the wire strippers will work, which takes extra time and effort, Wire Strippers will slip when the cloth is present so it is removed with a blade



New wires into the Signal socket

Coming along ok



Wrapping the Loom



Final stages

Very impressive work! I don't believe I could muster up the patience to tackle the wiring. Kudos!

Been there, done that! Was a nice winter distraction for me. I like your PVC idea. That will help keep the main harness in order.

I approached it a little different. I disassembled my old harness as I traced the new wires along it. I used cheap electrical tape to keep things together and tight. Easy to undo and add more wires as I went along.

I also found differences in my harness compared to the wire diagram. Can't remember all of them but I think I noted them in my blog.

The main reason I made my own harness is because I am cheap and my car was not worth putting a correct fabric covered wire set in it. I opted for modern wire. I figure if it really bothers me down the road, I can open the loom, cut and splice in the fabric wire in the places it will be seen. Most of the harness is covered anyway. For your project, I am glad you went all out on the proper wires. Your restoration is to a much higher standard than mine.

If I was to do it again, I would put extra length on the wires and wait until the harness is in the car to terminate the components in the engine compartment. Even though I tried to add extra, some of my wires are tad short when I connect it to it's component. If I had waited until it was in the car, I could make a nice clean install with perfectly run wires.

Longer wires going from the harness to the dash will make it's removal easier if repairs are needed. You could pull the dash oval out without removing any wires depending how long you make them. It is all out of sight so no one would know.

Anyway that's my 2 cents. You will have an intimate knowledge of your car's electrical system when you are done!

Thanks for your 2 cents worth Charles, I'm going to do what you suggested with a lot of the wiring, and terminate the connectors with the harness in the car. There is always that nagging doubt the wires are too short, and while it's a lot easier to terminate lugs and solder etc on the bench, it'll be a pain if any wires are cut short.

I already left the instrument cluster wires a lot longer so it can be pulled clear without having to disconnect wires

Thanks Mark for the kind comment. Doing the resto is very enjoyable for me and I look forward to it every day but progress is very slow.

Very handsome '49 you have there, it appears to be straight and original. Not like mine when I 'saved' it.

Thank you for that, Larry! Unfortunately my car is "good from far, but far from good" and "photographs well". But you are correct in that it is very complete and original, so I should not complain. I intend to keep it this way as long as I can; we'll see how long that is. I admire your patience and craftsmanship, and hope that one day my car will be the work of art yours is.

Having been away for a couple of months then doing home renovations not much has been done on the 51 for a long while. But gladly I'm back to it now. My blog is retrospective, some of the stuff done was from earlier, before I went off. I'll try and do some catch-up blogging! Not my strongest point, keeping up with the paperwork. When I read some of the great and very helpful posts others have put up it makes me realize it is worthwhile to keep the stories going.

My list of things to get done has now become just a couple of pages instead of a daunting list of hundreds of tasks, so that is encouraging. I plan to have it on the road in a month or two. Most important things to get done for driving it are

- Complete exhaust fitted
- Seats reupholstered and all trim fitted
- Fit petrol tank
- Rubber seals all round
- Bumper bars and brackets on
- Windscreen in, wipers fitted

But there's also a lot of minor stuff like making kick panels, fitting under-seat heater, fitting stainless trim on, plus much more.

Just before I left on the trip the internal door trim panels arrived with broadcloth and vinyl from SMS upholstery. Luckily I ordered these a year ago so in a way they're just in time! Very nice job and they are exact copies of the originals, which I still have.

Meanwhile, I'm off to the upholsterer with a trailer-full of coupe seats, to get a quote on the job of recovering them.

Lee,

Good to hear things are progressing and that you "plan to have it on the road in a month or two". Be good to see it once it is, I'm looking forward to that!

Such a slow process Mal, even the smallest things take a day to do. But I'm not telling you something you don't already know!

Thought I'd mention that my father had a Graham Page and told me it was huge. Had seating capacity for 9 adults. I have a photo of it, with three people sitting on the running board.