Hi everyone! It's been a while since I've contributed something to this awesome community so I thought I would share my most recent modification to my '68 Barracuda. The problem started when I bought a Holley 650 with an electric choke and I needed to add a relay to power it. I had a temporary solution that worked (read: I just let it dangle in the engine bay like an idiot), but when I bought CrackedBack's headlight relay kit I decided to add a budget-friendly engine bay fuse/relay panel similar to what most modern cars have.
For $20, I found this unit on amazon and so far it's pretty skookum! Link here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MR64XK1/?tag=joeychgo-20
I thought it was going to be cheap and not that great in the quality department, but it turned out to be rather beefy. The plastic feels nice and is glass-fiber reinforced, so I'm not worried about it getting damaged by the elements or my environmental hazard of an engine. It comes with nice weatherpack gaskets for the relay and fuse terminals, as well as enough terminal connectors for everything plus spares.
Mounting the sucker was another matter. It comes with the hardware and brackets shown above in the photo, including nylock nuts, but the last thing I wanted to do was to drill holes in my original inner fenders. So, I came up with a bit of a redneck-engineering solution.
Using a random bar of sheet metal I had laying around, I bent a bracket that holds two of the four mounting points. Said bar uses one of the existing fender bolts, bends down to the two bolts on the relay box, and bends down again to a screw I've installed into a broken plastic clip on the vertical part of the inner fender, just above the inner wheel tub. The third mounting point simply shares a screw that holds the washer fluid tank in place, and the fourth mounting point, well... doesn't exist. It's a tripod situation since I didn't want to have two fender bolts not fully tightened, but the relay box is in there pretty solid. I'm not concerned about vibrations or it moving, as I've installed small rubber washers between every bolted connection to reduce vibrations transmitted from the car.
As of last week I have the headlight relays and the relay box installed, and I'm currently working on the choke/USB charger relay. CrackedBack, if you're reading this, your relay kit is awesome! I bought it with some assembly required because I'm a cheapskate, and even then the kit was still extremely simple to put together once I stared at it for long enough. All of the hardware, wires, and shrink wrap is really good stuff, and I can actually see the road at night now! I'll post more pictures and updates as the install progresses. I've tried to keep this upgrade as simple and budget-friendly as possible, in typical student fashion. The bracket I made used scrap steel, and I made it with cheap tools -- no sheetmetal brakes or fancy cutters -- just a drill, an unsecured vice, a sharpie, and a hacksaw. More on that later!
For $20, I found this unit on amazon and so far it's pretty skookum! Link here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07MR64XK1/?tag=joeychgo-20
I thought it was going to be cheap and not that great in the quality department, but it turned out to be rather beefy. The plastic feels nice and is glass-fiber reinforced, so I'm not worried about it getting damaged by the elements or my environmental hazard of an engine. It comes with nice weatherpack gaskets for the relay and fuse terminals, as well as enough terminal connectors for everything plus spares.
Mounting the sucker was another matter. It comes with the hardware and brackets shown above in the photo, including nylock nuts, but the last thing I wanted to do was to drill holes in my original inner fenders. So, I came up with a bit of a redneck-engineering solution.
Using a random bar of sheet metal I had laying around, I bent a bracket that holds two of the four mounting points. Said bar uses one of the existing fender bolts, bends down to the two bolts on the relay box, and bends down again to a screw I've installed into a broken plastic clip on the vertical part of the inner fender, just above the inner wheel tub. The third mounting point simply shares a screw that holds the washer fluid tank in place, and the fourth mounting point, well... doesn't exist. It's a tripod situation since I didn't want to have two fender bolts not fully tightened, but the relay box is in there pretty solid. I'm not concerned about vibrations or it moving, as I've installed small rubber washers between every bolted connection to reduce vibrations transmitted from the car.
As of last week I have the headlight relays and the relay box installed, and I'm currently working on the choke/USB charger relay. CrackedBack, if you're reading this, your relay kit is awesome! I bought it with some assembly required because I'm a cheapskate, and even then the kit was still extremely simple to put together once I stared at it for long enough. All of the hardware, wires, and shrink wrap is really good stuff, and I can actually see the road at night now! I'll post more pictures and updates as the install progresses. I've tried to keep this upgrade as simple and budget-friendly as possible, in typical student fashion. The bracket I made used scrap steel, and I made it with cheap tools -- no sheetmetal brakes or fancy cutters -- just a drill, an unsecured vice, a sharpie, and a hacksaw. More on that later!
