1959 Chevy Kingswood project

By the way, the carpet set arrived from SMS Auto Fabrics yesterday. It looks very dark in the pics but it's the correct teal color.

 

The samples from SMS are perfect reproductions of the original materials.

 

Also ordered the insert for the tailgate emblem yesterday.

 

EZ WIRING 386-437-1077 sales@ezwiring.com

Or pick up most hotrod type magazines and check their full page adds. There are more expensive and maybe better kits. But this one does a good job and is complete except switches.
We also use their gauges.
I am in no way connected to this company but my son and I have been using their wiring kits for years. Their headquarters are in Bunnell, Fl north of Daytona. We met them at several large car events at Daytona Speedway when the kits would go on sale.
My son has been doing complete rewire jobs on everything from a 1939 Ford truck to his 1976 El Camino and many old and new in between since his early teens. He recently completed my 1955 Chevy wagon and 1948 Chevy panel truck.
He can rip out the old original wiring and switches and install all new kit in a weekend. Dave can do it too. I'm thinking it is somewhere just under $200 complete with directions for a universal kit.
I'd suggest doing the wiring after the body work and welding but before the enterior.

Forgot to mention, it comes GM color coded with wires marked every few inches....

 

i agree with cat both my wagons have an ez harness but remember there is a lot of wiring for your car which the kit wont have, ie power window wiring, rear tailgate window wiring, power locks plus all the various connectors you will need to adapt to the various lights and switches. i think american autowire may make an exact reproduction harness

 

I'm doing an AAW wiring kit now on my 56 Chevy. Really nice kit. I'm slow. Wish CAT's son would come over for a weekend..............

 

From what I remember there is a wire for the third brake light. That could be used for tailgate hot wire. I do believe if you get the larger kit the wires are there for door locks. Not sure about power windows. Mine for the panel truck was in my power window kit.
Even the GM column large connector is there.

 

there will be a wire that says power door lock but that will just give you the power to both doors,now if you want the drivers side switch to work the pass door you have to run that wire, same thing for the windows, the ac compressor wire in the ez harness wont be used if you go with a vintage air kit as all the wiring for the a/c would be in the vintage air harness all you would use from the ez harness would be the a/c fan power wire for the 12 v to the vintage air kit . almost every aftermarket thing has its own harness for instance i have an ez wire harness but had to run the pwr windows and door lock harnesses , vintage air,harness,msd harness, air ride harness ,fast fuel injection harness etc. i agree with cat the ez harness worked well they are a little cheaper then a painless harness ,and they are a good foundation to build on. a little tip for the wiring if you never have done it before is a little comic type book called how to wire your hotrod, it's about $10 and explains a lot of basic wiring in simple drawings. i found this extremely helpful and still refer to once in a while

 

Thanks, guys, for all the information. When we're ready to get started on the electrical stuff I'll have a better idea of what's going on.

 

Lisa get your foot off the brake pedal before you run the battery down.

 

Ha!

I have another question about tires... I want to order some whitewalls for those 14 inch wheels. I've looked at the specs and don't really understand what the numbers mean - the GM Heritage Center website info says the Kingswood tires are "8.00-14-4" and "8.50-14-4" as an option on the sedan delivery vehicle.

What does the 8 mean, and what does the 4 mean? How wide a tire can I put on these original wheels?

Coker Tire has radials that look just like the oldies, but I'm getting hung up on exactly what size to order. Also, I'm liking the 2 1/2' to 2 3/4' whitewalls. Is 1/4 inch a noticeable difference in the whitewall width once the tires are in place?

 

8 was the width the 4 i do not think really matters but 14 tires will severly limit the size of any upgraded brake package , so once again its back to the old question of your realistic future plans . i have the new coker classic radials and they seem ok but be carful of the weight rating on the tires you get

 

The last number (4) is the "Ply rating".
IIRC, most passenger car tires were 4 ply rated.

 

Lisa - just some info. In 1957 GM switched to 14" wheels from 15". A downside to this was less air movement, thus brake fade was suddenly more of an issue. I can speak from experience, having your brakes get suddenly weak after coming off a big hill or after needing to do an emergency stop in traffic is quite unnerving. I switched soon after to 15" rims, but ultimately out of concern for safety (ours and anything around us ) I put disc brakes on the front and a dual master cylinder. Just sayin.......

 

Wow, you guys know your stuff. Brake fade on a two-ton car doesn't sound very tasty. Are there any issues with installing 15" rims? My Falcon originally had 13" wheels, and a previous owner switched to 14" because it "was too hard to find tires that size." However, now the speedometer isn't accurate. Can the old speedometers be adjusted for the different tire size?