Time to knock off another job on my list from the start of the year.

I installed a cheap pair of foglights during December, and because it was cold I didn’t have time to find a proper place to route the wires, so I just stuck them out from the hood and through the door, and set the switch on the dash. It’s time to get that sorted out.

Running the wires

The main problem I’d had was not having a place to stick the wires through the firewall. I looked around, but couldn’t find a spot that I could easily go through. I looked around, and the best spot I could find was under the center console, through the floor. A step drill bit made short work of the sheet metal.

I ran the wires through wire loom and carefully zip tied the wires in place along the bottom of the body, keeping them away from the exhaust and shift linkage.

Because I wanted to do everything as well as I could, I got rubber grommets to stick in the holes and make a good seal around the loom as it entered the car.

Installing the switches

The switches went in very cleanly after I carefully cut holes in the button blanks with a utility knife.

I’m wiring two switches just in case I want to add something else later, so I don’t have to try to run a wires where I already did.

Assembling the fuse box

With the previous setup the switch had all the power running through it, but with the rewiring I’m changing it to a proper relay system. Because I’m wiring an extra relay for future expansion, and for any other things I add later, I assembled a whole box with a mini fuse block inside.

A few holes drilled and a few screws and nuts and it’s all secure.

The box needs to be mounted in the engine compartment, so I made a bracket out off a piece of 3/16″ steel. It’s probably a bit overkill, but I didn’t want something flimsy. A good bit of heat from an acetylene torch made bending it a piece of cake.

I gave it a quick sanding with 150 grit and a quick spray of black spray paint to help it not rust as quickly.

The fuse box is all ready to go in the car.

The best way I could figure out to mount it was to just slot the bracket between the wheel well and another bracket, without any bolts. It doesn’t move too much.

With all the wires connected, it was time to put the top on and put the intake tube back.

Rewiring the lights

The wiring behind the bumper was a mess, so I redid it all and got it neatly zip tied up. I’m planning on replacing the lights with something LED later.

This project was a lot of fun, especially when making the fuse box bracket. So far all the work I’ve done on my car has just been replacing parts, but this was completely just me figuring out how I wanted to do it, and I got spend the time to do a really clean, neat job. I’m looking forward to getting more things wired up.

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-Dan