Good aftermarket wiring kits? 66 Chevelle.

[cactuss4]

My chevelle is not torn apart and if it ever becomes so, I would like to reuse whatever I buy now and install. I'm wondering if there is a good aftermarket wiring kit that folks like for my 66 chevelle. I would like to get rid of the glass fuses and go blade as well as clean up the wiring as much as I can.

Now I will attempt to do this on my back with the dash in place, so that may be a consideration, of "don't do it", or this is a better kit for that type of application.

Thanks
Tory

[dontlifttoshift]

http://www.americanautowire.com/shop/complete-wiring-kit-1964-67-chevelle/

[jwatts]

Check out the American Autowire Classic Update kit. It upgrades your fuses to modern blade fuses. It also adds extra circuits for modern equipment your car didn't come equipped with (fuel pump, electric fans, even power windows and doors). It also has provisions for VSS for electronic speedometers and power under the hood for a PCM if you are going fuel injected. The wires come log so you can route them how you want. It comes with all new sockets for all lights. All in all it is a very good kit to install and will cover pretty much anything you can imagine unless you are going with something wild and custom.

As far as doing it with the dash in the car, don't do it. The dash is too easy to remove. There is a row of screws at the top of the dash. Remove those, remove 2 bolts on the bottom of the dash (one on each corner), and all of the dash metal except the very ends will drop out. It will make it 100 times easier to work on. Besides, trying to wire up the gauge cluster in the car will be almost impossible to do.

Here is a picture of mine with the dash removed. It took about 15 minutes to strip it down to this point.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2015/05/IMAG0818_zpsg1utju9g-1.jpg (http://s342.photobucket.com/user/josh_watts39191/media/Chevelle/IMAG0818_zpsg1utju9g.jpg.html)

[bmbrzmn101]

These are the two I am looking at using on mine and my sons cars. Just have to decide which one myself.

Chris

http://www.ronfrancis.com/prodinfo.asp?number=XP-66
or
http://www.americanautowire.com/view-product/highway-22-complete-wiring-system/

Both offer excellent options for modified cars.

[cactuss4]

Check out the American Autowire Classic Update kit. It upgrades your fuses to modern blade fuses. It also adds extra circuits for modern equipment your car didn't come equipped with (fuel pump, electric fans, even power windows and doors). It also has provisions for VSS for electronic speedometers and power under the hood for a PCM if you are going fuel injected. The wires come log so you can route them how you want. It comes with all new sockets for all lights. All in all it is a very good kit to install and will cover pretty much anything you can imagine unless you are going with something wild and custom.

As far as doing it with the dash in the car, don't do it. The dash is too easy to remove. There is a row of screws at the top of the dash. Remove those, remove 2 bolts on the bottom of the dash (one on each corner), and all of the dash metal except the very ends will drop out. It will make it 100 times easier to work on. Besides, trying to wire up the gauge cluster in the car will be almost impossible to do.

Here is a picture of mine with the dash removed. It took about 15 minutes to strip it down to this point.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/pt/2015/05/IMAG0818_zpsg1utju9g-1.jpg (http://s342.photobucket.com/user/josh_watts39191/media/Chevelle/IMAG0818_zpsg1utju9g.jpg.html)

Thanks mang, I had heard the dash was easy but had not spent the time to look at how to do it.. Good stuff

Thanks
Tory

[jwatts]

Thanks mang, I had heard the dash was easy but had not spent the time to look at how to do it.. Good stuff

Thanks
Tory

It really is. Yours will be a little tougher since the gauges are still hard wired. The Classic Update kit has a gauge harness with a disconnect unlike the factory setup that has each gauge and light wired individually. You remove those few screws and bolts, drop the column (2 nuts), remove the gauge wires and speedo cable, and you are good to go.

[sweet motion]

American auto wire! I just did my 69 Camaro and I know next to nothing about electrical it basically walks you through hand-in-hand it is excellent!!!!!!!summit racing was a good price

[MuscleRodz]

American Autowire is the only way to go to get everything your looking for in one box.

[cactuss4]

Good deal thanks all. And Electrical is something i'm good at, soldering, building boards etc. Do a lot with christmas lighting controllers. Which I was as comfortable with body work, welding, painting, fabrication (list could go on and on and on) as I am with voltage and circuits :)

Tory

[Schwartz Performance]

I'll add to it, American Autowire!

I heard Schwartz Performance is a dealer and also uses them on their builds.....

-Dale

[nats68]

American auto wire! I just did my 69 Camaro and I know next to nothing about electrical it basically walks you through hand-in-hand it is excellent!!!!!!!summit racing was a good price
I second that. Put one in my '68 Camaro. Very simple and straight forward.

[67 455 Bird ragtop]

I prefer http://www.wiringharness.com/ for my 67 'Bird.

[minendrews68]

I used ezwiring, from ezwiring.com great product, exceptional customer service, and price is right.

[H2Ogbodies]

http://rs975.pbsrc.com/albums/ae232/gbodycrazy/unique%20projects/P1010037.jpg~320x480

Hopefully this link works....its a gauge bezel I designed on CAD and cut on a water jet-it houses AutoMeter Nexus gauges and 100% replaces the Chevelle front gauge bezel on 66-67 cars. It uses the OEM back housing to mount gauges in a factory "appearing" way. I built a harness specifically for the gauges and the module that controls them. Has play back/storage features, etc. I also built a console for additional gauges but you get the idea. I have templates for many layouts and can design to suit.

[H2Ogbodies]

Some gauge you can't use generic harnesses for....depends on the application a this Jaguar bezel I made has a metal backing/reinforcement which is also a ground source. I CNC routered this piece from a single source of Maple, cut the matching grain glovebox door and then stained/polyurethane coated the entire panel before cutting/buffing it. Then added some simple Ultra Lite gauges to it.

So if you take your time, IMO a custom dash treatment can really set off the interior.

[PRRC]

I will chime in here as well. AAW we are a dealer also.

[ilikeike]

I've used M&H they are nice,
and I just installed an AAW update kit on my 68 Camaro,super nice, the crimpers are a little pricey but you won't regret just buying them from the start.

[chpr1972]

I would not recommend AAW. If I knew how to do it I would reference my posts on the problems I had. First tail lite sockets came apart and I had to modify them to get electrical connection. I have dual fans, Dakota Digital Dash, Vintage air[most of their harness is already wired] amps. They do not make a accessory wiring harness for 1966 a body convertibles and all it is is 2 12 guage wires that run from the switch plug-in to the motor plug-in. All the accessories I had to wire. The large wire going for the fans could be a 16/18 guage wire instead of a 12 guage wire. All it does is energize the relays. The ignition switch gave me fits. every normal car ignition switch is acc,lock, run and start. Their switch is cc, lock,off, run and start. I spent somewhere in the neighbor hood of 2 hours trying to get power to the dash controller and until my wife came out to help me and accidently turned the key too far[past off position] When I talked to guy at aaw it was like oh well no body else ever had a problem with it. DO YOUR HOME WORK and find some one that has built in relays with igniter wires and power wires for the fans and ect. To make the fans work You need a large power wire fused from the battery to a relay. Then a key on wire to turn/off the relay, and a igniter wire to make the relay turn on the fans when it need to be turned on. There wire is only to turn on relay when key is on. These are things you need to research.

[H2Ogbodies]

I will say more people should focus more on the wiring aspect of their vehicles...aftermarket kits-even the "update kits" merely mirror what GM has done but, ideally it would be a good idea to work with a shop whose specialty is wiring-not just throwing an aftermarket harness in either....(I've re-wired plenty of tri 5s with crappy copycat GM designs) and the aftermarket kits in general I would say are adequate but there are a lot of areas that should be improved upon.

The AAW and Painless kits are nice but it goes much further than those.....proper looming, loom ends/clips, soldering, custom circuit integrations, late model additions (not just "hot leads"), etc. I could go on but realize those kits can only offer a basic layout for most people, custom work requires a dedicated person/shop who has plenty of experience with all aspects of vehicle wiring and creation.

[H2Ogbodies]

I found the gauge cluster I made for the '66 I did...its basically a CNC steel face panel designed to fit the oem gauge housing so it all installs like stock-I built the gauge harness which also served a gauge set in a custom console I built for it as well.

[H2Ogbodies]

I dont have pics of the final leatherwrapped steel console but the left was my first wood mockup before having the steel panels cut for the final design....

[H2Ogbodies]

Console mounted and the wire routing had begun! I added other switches like master arming for NOS, purge button, trans brake, line lock and an ignition kill switch. I wired the factory floor dimmer to act as the trans brake set/release so the driver can keep both hands on the steering wheel at launch-customer initially wanted to have a slight delay on the nitrous off the shifter button while releasing the trans brake....I didnt like the idea of launching with one hand on the wheel....lol and neither did the customer after I sat him in the seat to go through the motions in his street/strip Chevelle.

[MikeJ67]

Wow, great thread. I've got to do my '67 Camaro and was looking at Painless & Ron Francis. I totally forgot about AAW and the rest. I'm looking to replace my whole harness. Nothing fancy, just new and easy to install. I don't have a lot of extras on my car and not looking to put any on at this time.

Thanks for the great information - I've got some reading to do fellas.