For my little single seater project I want to put a vintage style glass fuse style panel in it. I'm running a 12 volt flathead six dodge motor with a generator, headlights and single tail/brake light. I would like to used a Bakelite board that uses glass fuses. Is there anybody out there that has done this?
Mac's has a fuse panel for 30's - 40's Ford's... 4 fuse ... For 15.00 About as easy and traditional as it gets.
Restoration Supply Company...they have them with lesser fuse holders https://www.restorationstuff.com/ecommerce/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=109
Fuse panels are fairly recent on cars... It wasn't until the late '50s/60s that the manufacturers started consolidating fuse locations into one place. Before that, you'd find most fuses in-line on the circuit they served.
I built my own for my sedan. I bent up a steel backer panel which bolted to the inside of the firewall, and it holds the fuse panel like in the pic from Winduptoy, a junction panel, the horn relay, the voltage regulator (never again will I put a VR inside the car under the dash, too hard to work on), and the turn signal flasher canister. I don't recall where I got my fuse panel, but it looks just like that pic. I started with a diagram from a 1960 Ford and eliminated all the circuits I wouldn't need. Then modified a couple colors to match the early 40's Ford wiring colors, and ran all my own wire from there. I would recommend finding a wiring diagram to match your engine and generator, and doing the same as I did.
My 1932 Hupmobile that I have since sold had a fuse panel with all the fuses in one place. Sorry I don't have a picture.
Here’s the one I made. The row of threaded studs on the top right are for grounds; I run a ground wire back from things like lights and ground them at the panel which is directly grounded to the chassis.
For what you need I'd go with how Ford put the fuses in the headlight switch, 50's era? I thought that was very economical engineering wise.
I make my own wiring harness and use this style 50s fuse panel . It’s Bakelite and has a cover to protect the fuses and looks good,plus its small...
I hope I can say this on the hamb with out getting in troubled early VW You can find new replacements from 12 to 19 bucks made by Empi 6 panel fuse box. As you can see the difference in old and new ... a little scotchbrite will take the shine off and brass spark plug knurled knob make it look perfect. I also buy the NOS wire harness that show up on eBay for a few bucks to get the cloth wires and vintage soldered ends
Back in the 70's I made a few using a material called Micarta laminate which was made by a local industry and was ideal for making the fuse panel, I sourced the glass fuse holders from Radio Shack ( Remember that place) and the busbar from the electric supply down the street, I picked up the assorted different color wires and end terminals from NAPA, just the bare essentials were needed for a hot rod. HRP
I do my own wiring , mine looks very similar to the images with the glass fuses . The VW style fuses shown will work fine , but you better have plenty of spares . You will never fine any replacements anywhere in today’s world .
I would agree they can not be found everywhere but I recently bought some assorted Bussmann glass fuses at NAPA, they had a good selection. HRP
Guys in the hand made guitar amp world make their own circuit boards all the time. A common material is the G-7 Garolite fiberglass sheets you can get from McMaster Carr. This is a phenolic material with good resistance to arcing under high voltage, it should handle 12 volts easily. And it has good heat resistance as well. Buy a 12 x 12 sheet and cut to size with a cut off disc (use a mask to avoid breathing the dust!) https://www.mcmaster.com/fiberglass Other guys use "fish paper", which is pretty much the same thing that Fender used in all their vintage hand wired amps from back in the day (this would be period correct for any HAMB era car). This is basically just thick gasket material, but it does have great electrical resistance, as well as great heat resistance. You can find this stuff lot's of places, including Amazon & eBay.
I have not done it since high school. I do have the Bakelite panel copper clad and the copper clips for the older larger diameter fuses (they can still be had) in the garage (if you want). I am a kind of a cheap bastard and snag the fuse panels out of every old car I come across. I can usually lay my hands on a fuse panel if I need one. @continentaljohn those Euro Fuses are cool man. I like those real well.
Here's the one I built for my '28 PU. Pretty darn simple. I even left an extra fuse terminal open in case I wanna add something exotic later like a radio
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