1978 Bay Window
This vehicles story shows just what it means to a lot of people to own a classic VW. After being in the same ownership for over 13 years and having spent the last 10 years or so on and off the road due to multiple situations the owners still have the passion and drive to get this 4 wheeled member of the family back on the road and in regular use again.
The owners contacted us at Electrical Bug's to see if we could help them with the wiring side of things, yes we can this is what we do. We asked the customer to take a few pictures of what we needed to tackle along with a short video too, this was with us promptly and was a huge help for us, thank you. Several jobs were needed so the customer prioritised them and we worked our way through the list.
We started at the steering column, where the multi plug for the indicator switch would no longer stay in place and just kept falling away. Some of the terminals in the plug had gone brittle over the years meaning the locking tabs had broken away allowing the terminals to come out of the plug. We replaced any of the terminals that we damaged and reconnected the switch, first job done.
What looked like multiple previous repairs, wiring extensions and additional wires had been added to the dash panel over the years. We decided for the best end result we would cut all the none standard wiring out and then repair as required with correct gauge wire and new terminals where needed. All our repairs are carried out to VW's current wiring repair standards using the same methods as the factory.
The customers had reported to us that the main fuse box was damaged and a terminal had broken away, this looked to be the case in the video they sent over to us. We advised the customer to supply a replacement fuse box for when we arrived, which was sat waiting for us on the day. As we removed the fuse box to carryout the replacement we noticed that the terminal had actually just become unclipped and was not broken at all, we passed the good news onto the customer and they were able to return the fuse box for a refund. Whilst the fuse box was loose we inspected the wiring behind, again we found previous poor repairs which we rectified.
The moment of truth, battery refitted and test time. All dash lights now working along with warning lights, fuel gauge and rev counter, that's the first stage of the repairs now complete.
We are back with the customer again soon to hopefully complete all their required repairs, check back for our next update......
1979 Bay Window 'Daisy'
The customer had an intermittent fault on their Bay Window camper causing it to occasionally cut out whilst driving. We diagnosed this to be the electrical switch contact on the base of the ignition switch, being able to 'make it happen' everytime by moving the switch with the key. The customer ordered their own part and once it arrive we returned and fitted the new part, testing proved successful as we were no longer able to reproduce the customers concern.
1955 Ford F100 'Mona'
This lovely 1955 Ford F100 was imported from the States in 2015 by myself, at the time it was an original truck with no modifications on it at all. After it sitting for over a year and me never getting round to doing anything with it I agreed a sale on it with a very good friend who has built it into the stunning truck you now see.
Being a highly skilled fabricator the truck now sits on a full custom air ride setup, has a 'trick' flip bonnet, a custom truck bed that can be raised and so much more....
We helped the project along by removing the old knackered brittle wiring loom and fitting a brand new hot rod generic wiring loom which the owner supplied. Adding additional loom sections for new gauges and the air ride controls and 'hiding' as much of the engine bay loom as we could to help give the engine bay that nice clean smooth look.
1957 Chevrolet 210 'BelAir' Wagon
A general wiring loom 'tidy up' was needed on the beautiful Chevy, both under the dash area and in the engine bay. Removing years and years of amateur wiring repairs (chock-blocks, nuts/bolts to hold ring terminals together, wires just twisted, bad soldering etc) took some time along with finding original wiring diagrams to follow so we were able to put the wiring back as it would of been when it was new. This Chevy now has a nicely presented and safe wiring loom which will help keep another classic vehicle on the roads.
Autograss Class 7 R1 powered Mini
Full custom built classic Mini class 7 Autograss race car built from scratch by it's owner being powered by not 1 but 2 Yamaha 1000cc R1 engines, our job was to make it run. 2 original Yamaha wiring looms were stripped right back and un picked so everything that was not needed for the race car was removed. Both wiring looms were joined where needed, the rollover sensors mounted (so it would cut out if it should ever roll) and all required warning lights and gauges wired up in the cockpit for the driver. Once the owner completed the project I was lucky enough to be offered a test drive in the car whilst it was being run in and setup, WOW!! what a machine, such good fun to drive and car I'd want to show not race it was that good.
1932 Ford Hotrod
This '32 Ford 'all steel' Hotrod is a thing of beauty, and we can't wait to see the finished item.
This custom built Hotrod is the creation of our customer, being built from scratch by himself. All the panel work and metal fabrication is all done 'in house' by our customer and the attention to detail is amazing. We were contacted and asked if we could help out by supplying a bespoke wiring harness for the vehicle, which we quickly replied, "we sure can".
A visit to the customer was arranged so we could see the vehicle and talk more about what exactly the customer wanted or needed, it was clear from the start that this was to be a rather 'fluid' build that would change along the way but one thing that wouldn't change was the end result and that had to be show worthy just like the rest of the build.
The customer had already bought a universal accessory wiring harness that they wanted to use so this was planned into the bespoke harness build. Routing of the harness so it would be hidden as much as possible was a key point for the end look along with the use of period style wiring where it matters. An original, maybe 1920's, brass automotive light and ignition switch was to be used along with a NOS Lucas bakerlite indicator switch. With the location of the fuseboards decided it was left to the customer to fabricate some mounts for both up under the dash whilst we started to create the harness.
To be continued......
