If your project looks like this, welcome to the club. Follow along as we write from the loony bin. This may help you maintain your sanity while making sense of electricity and fluids--and how to keep from electrocuting yourself!Yesterday's classics were rarely available with the creature comforts we all enjoy in our modern vehicles. Thanks to Auto Meter, Covan's, Custom Autosound, Baer Brakes, Be Cool, Classic Tube, Detroit Speed, Electric-Life, Painless Performance, Powermaster, Rick's First Gen Camaros, Street & Performance, Year One, and Vintage Air, we can outfit them with systems that are much more efficient, compact, and reliable than the old stuff we used to call modern.As with all parts of your project, planning is the key to successful installation and joining of wires, tubing, and hoses that carry the lifeblood of the cars we are restoring. Most of the 30-plus-year-old wiring harnesses we remove are obviously past their prime. What may not be so evident is corrosion in the interior wiring bundles and fuel and brake lines, and mouse nests in the air and heat ducts.
Once again, you must be ruthless when evaluating old parts, and replace them now rather than having a short circuit or broken brake line when you are headed for the weekend cruise. The aftermarket companies sourced for this story produce high-quality replacement components that are already labeled, bent, or adjusted for your specific application.
We were hoping to cover the Vintage Air A/C, Flowmaster exhaust, Be Cool radiator/fan, and brake hydraulics installations this month, but there are so many details that we're going to form the second segment of it in Part 6. We'll get the bodywork and painting done in a special CHP paint and body issue next month (Part 5). We'll see you in the April issue for the HVAC and exhaust system, two very different ways of shoving air--plus brakes and radiators, two very different ways of pushing fluid. We'll detail the interior build-up in May and then wrap it in June with the modifications we have made since the car was "finished."
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 Detroit Speed's battery relocation...  Detroit Speed's battery relocation kit moves the Optima cell to the trunk, where the weight will help with balance. The kit includes the proper cable for carrying 12 volts, plus all the cable- attachment hardware and a trick billet battery mount... |
 ...Kyle Tucker gladly shared...  ...Kyle Tucker gladly shared his tip for routing the positive and negative cables through the floor pan just above the passenger's foot-well for easy access for starter and accessory power and ground. Note the heavy-gauge ground wire is attached directly to the engine block... |
 ...In addition, you will need...  ...In addition, you will need braided copper ground wires from Year One or Rick's First Gen connecting the passenger-side firewall to frame, motor mount to frame, and block to motor mount, to ensure a good ground to all systems. |
 Painless Performance provides...  Painless Performance provides a complete 18-circuit wiring system that will handle the demands of the electronics we installed... |
 ...This Camaro has an LS2...  ...This Camaro has an LS2 engine and a 120-amp alternator, plus all the extras that make driving a pleasure: Electric-Life power windows, a Vintage Air system, and a 200-watt Custom Autosound stereo system. |
 This spaghetti is really OK....  This spaghetti is really OK. Painless Performance labels all its wires, and the GM computer harness from Street & Performance has tags on all its wires... |
 ...All the systems we installed...  ...All the systems we installed had detailed instructions, and we availed ourselves of the toll-free tech lines only two or three times! Most of these calls were to confirm what we thought we were looking at, but marrying the wiring harness for a stock small-block and the computer outputs from the modern LS2 had us reaching for the phone.... |
 ...The folks we spoke with...  ...The folks we spoke with were very helpful and seemed to have a thorough grasp on what we were doing. They quickly disentangled our feeble brains! And hey, this is a great excuse for a new tool or three...a Craftsman digital multi-meter, and an AutoXray OBD II scanner, and some neat wire-tie cutting pliers added to our stash. |
 Replacement headlight switches...  Replacement headlight switches may or may not power the parking lights correctly. Don't assume they do. Compare your switch to the new headlight harness connector to ensure all tabs are powered as per the diagram. |
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 14-17 This series illustrates...  14-17
This series illustrates how to set your work apart from the run-of-the-mill restoration. Take your time and go to great lengths to hide the wiring--it does take longer, but the result is that virtually no wiring is visible and all the connections are reliable. (Remember the projects fraught with bare wires and gummy electrical tape?) |
 So we have all these wires...  So we have all these wires and these two plugs...this can be a very scary time. This Street & Performance-supplied GM harness came with detailed instructions... |
 ...The first question: Where...  ...The first question: Where will the computer be installed? Never having done this, we spoke with Mark Campbell at S&P and discovered that most installations place the computer over one of the inner fenders or the driver side of the firewall... |
 ...Now you must route the...  ...Now you must route the wires from the computer to various instruments or controls in the passenger compartment... |
 ...Also, we were using S&P's...  ...Also, we were using S&P's fly-by-wire throttle/accelerator pedal setup, requiring more wires be routed into the passenger compartment... |
 ...Since we knew we would...  ...Since we knew we would have to cut the transmission tunnel for the best fit, it made sense to plumb the entire wiring bundle behind the engine in the passenger compartment... |