Good morning, I have all stock wiring in my 49' from 1949.... with the exception of some hack job shit. I plan on getting the engine bay dustless blasted and painting it with POR15. Wiring being operational but shot.... I was thinking I want to but the O.G. harness for the engine bay. I want to eventually swap from 6v Positive GND to 12v Negitive GND Does anyone see an issue with this wiring or an issue I may run into with the swap later?
If you're blasting it, why would you use POR instead of real paint? But as for the wiring...if the wires are 60 years old, and you disturb them by removing them, the insulation is likely to crack. I suggest you plan on rewiring the car, after you clean up the engine bay.
My advice is parallel to Squirrel. Just go new and dodge future issues. You can stay with all stock gauges and switches, no problem.
I'm sorry. I mean I was going to use a new O.G. style engine bar harness. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Main-Engine-Wiring-Harness-1949-Ford-Car-8-cylinder/143224771126
Well, at least we know it's a Ford, now.... You can use a reproduction harness to work with 12v neg ground, you'll need to make a few minor wiring changes. What those changes are depends on what other changes you are making to the charging system, ignition system, etc.
For wiring conversion, I bought "the official 12v conversion guide" (by randy rundle). Its only 12 bucks on speedway, amazon, or wherever you wanna but it, but I had good luck with it when I upgraded my 1950 ford to 12V.
Are you going to use a 12v generator, or switch to an alternator? What about the ignition ballast resistor, and bypass? These are the main issues I can think of right now.
Then don't worry about it, just do the clean and paint work, and get it put back together with the new harness. That should keep you busy for a while!
If all you want to do is make the motor run and your under Dash harness is a mess you can totally disconnect it and still make the motor run as well as move the car, Right?
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