Hello Everyone, My name is Frankie and after slinking through your guys forums off and on over the years I decided to join the group. . .. and I need help haha. My first ever car which I still own but havent driven in some time is a 1964 CountrySquire. My dad bought it for me when i was a junior in high school for 150 bucks and told me that this was my car, all I had to do was get it running. I wasn't in great shape and its long standing problems stem from this. Somewhere along the line the entirety of the dash wiring was cut out from the car and in the 20 now years that I have owned it I have not been able to get a year correct complete wiring replacement. I was able to snag the wiring from a 63 galaxie and had it spliced in and got it up and running but that was the best I could do. Im now at a point in my life where I can actually focus a little more on my wagon and give it the attention it deserves. This brings me to my next question. Would I be better off swapping out the electrical system for a complete 63 Galaxie harness, as I have surprisingly come across several complete dashes with all components included, or something I'm even more excited about because I prefer the look of it, swap out the bulk of the interior, complete dash included, with that of a 1963 Mercury Monterrey as I might be able to pick up a complete 4door this weekend for a reasonable price? As far as Galaxies go I know the 64 wiring is slightly different from the 63, mainly from what I have been able to see is the lack of a fuse box in the 63 Galaxie wiring. I've resigned myself to the idea that I will never find a complete 64 harness and that is part of the reason I'm willing to do a complete 63 Galaxie/Monterrey swap. That and I think the Merc interior is way sexier haha Any help and input would be greatly appreciated, Thank you for your time Frankie
Not sure about the 63 Mercury but for a fact 64 Mercury used an alternator instead of a generator like Ford did. Remember with the Mercury you will have to change the sending units for the temperature and oil from indicator lights to gauge sending units because the Mercury had four gauges on the cluster vs. two on the Fords, this went for both 63 and 64. Fuse block on the 63 Ford check on the headlight switch, 64 was on the firewall behind the brake pedal if memory is correct
I second this suggestion, having suffered an electrical fire behind the dash with my Mercury's stock, original harness.
Whatever you decide on the harness I think the merc dash is a great idea.As far as 64 fords while most had generators some did have alternators,it was optional on galaxies,and they were common on thunderbirds if not standard.
With all that you are planning on doing, I would suggest a complete rewire rather than messing with transplanting a near 50 year old wiring harness from one car to another. It's going to need some repairs and changes here and there. I believe your time would be better spent rewiring, and the end result would be an upgrade that ultimately will make for a more dependable car.
Thank you all for all your input. I've bought a ford manual for full size 64 galaxies and mercs to try and figure out the wiring and I've wondered if the 64 light switch had an attached fuse box as well. When I first got the car it originally had a generator, I remember having to get the right voltage regulator but I eventually scrapped all that for a later model alternator setup I snagged out of a late model ranchero from a local junkyard. My current situation as it stands right now is as follows: I am missing the engine management harness I am missing the front end running light/headlight harness The dash and dash wiring could go any way(63/64 ford/merc as right now everything electric and dash related is stripped from the car) I have complete sets of switches/conponents and wiring for a 63 model year galaxie, but as I could possibly get this Monterrey I'm willing to do this as well I'm working essentially with a blank slate electrically
The 63 and 64 Galaxie do not interchange. The ignition switch is on the far left on the 63 and on 64 it is to the right of the steering column . There may be other changes, but that one for sure. Have you tried Turner's Auto Wrecking in Fresno, Ca.? Jerry has at least one of almost everything ever made. Plus his memory can tell you what will interchange with the 64, probably a 64 Mercury full size would. Someone mentioned alternators. I believe early 64s had generators as mine did. But the dash wiring terminates at the firewall I believe. If not, changing the wiring from generator to alternator ain't brain surgery.
The only original dash wiring I have from the 64 is the fuse box and the lights that light the gauge cluster. I have a complete 63 dash with all the components in pieces and lastly I have the opportunity to buy a complete Monterrey Im also kind of intrigued by the possibility of using the wiring setup used for the breezeway window in the merc to power the rear window in my wagon I will definitely check out the places all of you mentioned for wiring
I stand corrected on the 64 Ford, I thought all them were built with generators. At least all that I have seen including the one I owned had generators. Mercury for 64, all the full size cars were alternator equipped, had one of those also.
X2. I used a Speedway Motors universal 26 circuit on my car, much easier to start from scratch with all new wire and a good fuse panel that try to fool with faded, hard and brittle old wires. Being you have a wagon, you might need to lengthen the wires going to the back of the car, but a few rolls of colored wire in the proper gauge won't set you back much more. Most of the kits have wire that is well marked every so often so you don't have to rely on just color codes, too, making the job much easier. www.kwikwire.com is a source for printed wire also if you want to just do a complete custom harness. With a pre- made kit, a book on wiring a car, and a little time, you can have a first rate wiring job with properly protected circuits and not have to worry about your car becoming a car-b-que on the side of a dark rainy road one night....
Even if you were to find a '63 harness complete that was an exact replacement, 57 year old wires would be very brittle. As suggested above, get a kit and rewire the entire car is your best solution.
Yeah, so a total rewire sounds like the right way to go. I definitely don't want to burn my wagon up. Does anyone have any input on my possibly rewiring it to 1963 specs as I have complete set of knobs switches and components for that and not a 64, and in my Mercury interior fantasy, besides the extra inputs for the engine management side is there any real difference in fitment for the dash structurally? I am currently under the assumption that there is not as all I've read about the 60s fords and mercurys leads me to believe that as far as the full size line up is concerned the main differences are sheet metal and trim levels not so much major structural differences.
Here are some shots of my wagon I have all the paneling and the luggage rack and most fortunate of all my uncle to help me with the whole project
Can't really tell from the photo, but the rear bumper doesn't look all rotted out. The rear bumper seems to be one of the 1st things to go on the '64. -Dave
What I have done on my 63 and another 64 I did in the past is used the underhood and taillight feeds,all available from Auto Krafters and Dennis Carpenter. I then had a few parts cars to make up all the under dash stuff.
Frank if you make the rear window power,wire it for a relay,ford used a non relay system on the rear windows clear up into the 80's or 90's.If you've ever watched one of those go up like in Bronco's you use a sundial to time it.The culprit is running full power thru the switch in the dash,those switches get old and limited on how much current they can pass putting in a relay back there and using the switch for control power to the relay and a separate big wire for the motor power to the relay will make that window go up much quicker.Shovel,the alternator was an option on 63&64 Galaxies but most people didn't spend the extra money,The transistor ignition 427 cars got them also,they even had a super rare large diameter pulley specific to that alternator.The 427 Mercs used the same alternator/pulley setup.The non alternator option 427 cars used a generator with a slightly less rare large diameter pulley,the same as the the earlier HP cars.
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