Nice attention to detail.

 

Thanks man, I think it's a curse this thing probably could've been done three times over already lol

 

One step closer to getting this thing finished up, all the wiring is complete and working, had a few hiccups on account of myself. The new crossmember with loop is here for the TH400. Need to get the trans back and figure out a stall. Once the trans is back in I can measure for a new driveshaft, most likely just have the stock shaft resized until there's a 9" and four link in the back. Hopefully it's moving under its own power by fall. Need to tidy up a couple wires and get started with a switch for the efans. Need to learn a little more about delay relays and what's necessary to get the switch wired in.

 

Little update, got the shifter pedestal in and finished the trans cooler lines. TCI ended up shipping me the wrong shifter (ordered the Outlaw Blackout w/2 button grip & ended up with a polished shifter and no buttons lol) , should have the correct one in a week or so. Hopefully have the trans back by then and I can get the drive shaft resized.

 

I did a thing today..... Went surprisingly well, this is the result of about 45 minutes worth of work. Talked with the chassis guy about having a cage an 4 link done this winter. Planning for an 8.50 cert and I figured I'm past the point of no return so I'm pulling out all of the HVAC ducting, blower motor, heater core, and and dash controls. Hopefully this will shed some considerable weight and simplify the dash removal when it become time to get the cage done. Unfortunately I had to go to work so this is all I could get done tonight, hopefully I'll be able to finish up tomorrow. Does anyone know of any companies that make a delete plate for the heat/ac controls.. if not I guess I'll just make one.

 

I had to do this one in a hurry so it didn't get painted with fancy switches...

 

That looks great that exactly what I had in mind, when you deleted the wires for the controls did you just run the wires back to their respective plug at the fuse block and pull them?

 

I gutted the entire factory wiring system out of my truck and re-wired it from scratch. It makes it much easier and takes all the headache out of trying to get everything to work with the gm wiring.

I wanted to retain the power windows so I made new door harnesses and my own switch panels for those as well.

You can click on each photo for a full size.

 

Also did a panel for the lights. Retains day time running lamps, low beams, high beams, park lights and fog lights.

 

I've done a complete wire on this on 3 other trucks (one is a member on here I believe), but that one was years ago, a C5 vette which was more complicated and an 02 Trans-Am.

If you are building hot rod......it is the only way to go. You lose a ton of weight and pitfalls and complexity of trying to integrate the factory wiring goes in the trash.

When I'm approached about doing this, 100% of the time, the customers first concern is that wanting to retain the factory gauge cluster. I can totally understand the concern, but my response is always the same:

The factory gauges do nothing but keep in needle in some range of each gauge without any regards to what the actual number would be. For example, the water temp gauge has what???....may 3-4 numbers on it. So when the needle is pointing to something, all it really tells you is if you are in safe zone or not. A project in which you are modding the truck to to this extent (1) needs an accurate gauge to go off of and (2), most of you guys are data logging on lap top now-a-days anyhow. The factory gauges really don't serve much purpose when getting to this level.