Lighting circuit, or rewiring from scratch

[hg1027]

I have a 69 beetle that was stripped to be a race car. I have the ignition circuit working fine, and now I'd like to add back the minimum required to be road legal. Lights and wipers, basically.

So, question is, do I buy random switches and relays and cobble together what I need, or is it worth making the oem turn signal stalk and flasher module work, or is there a painless/other off the shelf kit for this?

The dash is just flat sheet metal at this point, so I'll be cutting in whatever switches I use. Using the oem blinker stalk would save a couple toggle switches, and feel more like a car, which might be nice.

[Dale M.]

IN my mind, since wiring is not a problem for me (technically) one can cobble together from loose parts and misc switches.... And that is what you have, potential spaghetti night mare...

Other option may be get minimalist kit from Rebel Wire.... Simple and probably easiest, just a bit more expensive, but one time expense and worth it.... VW rail kit may get you buy.... Depending on how minimalist you want...

http://rebelwire.com/rebel-wire-product ... ire%20Kits

I really like the idea of wires labeled every 6 inches or so....

Dale

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I like what Dale said: it depends on just how minimalistic you want to/can be.

Lights properly fused and switched (high and low beam) s/b relatively (assuming your relatives' know anything about wiring ) easy (depending on how you approach it that is as that can get complicated too) and the same for braking and tail lights. Turn signal lights get a bit more complicated and then there is the required wipers issue as you brought up.

Waving your arm out of the window to point where you are going is still legal in most states (but depending on the year of the vehicle they are secondary behind the turn signal light) but now days they are so miss-understood as it is infrequent you see anyone doing them correctly other than having a visual fit; then the signals have nothing to do with direction change indicated or stopping signal arm position; now days it is just "attitude directions".

Do you get lost at night then maybe a dome light is needed as well as head banging tunes and here we go. Kind of easy to go from gotcha to OMG!

I know I am being silly but there is some truth in it also.

Lee

[sideshow]

If you intend to use the OEM wiper motor, I suggest a OEM'ish switch
Long version viewtopic.php?f=54&t=146554
There are universal stalk turn signal switches, your call. Same for lights, I would choose the packaging first.

[hg1027]

Thanks for the replies.

The kit from rebel is interesting I guess, seems like a lot to pay for wires and relays, but knowing they are the right relays and that the wires are marked is worth something. I'll call them to see what else I would need to supply.

[Clonebug]

The 67 bug is the first year of 12 volt and pretty well the simplest wiring system you could do.
I used the VW headlight dimmer relay along with the 67 steering turn signal stalk and the turn signal relay black box. The rest I wired myself.
I used some of the same colored wires to build the harness but it's basically a homemade setup. It has work flawlessly for 14 years now.

Here's my latest version of the stock headlight, tail light connection setup including the headlight relay in order to use the momentary ground switch on the turn signal switch.



Here is the blackbox I speak of. You can kind of see it at the end of the cluster of wires.



Pushing the wires through the original holes might be the hardest part.
If you use 16 gauge wire you can keep the harness size down and fit it in the original holes easier.
There is some nice PET expandable sleeve material that will keep each bunch nicely together if you want it to look professional. It's available in different sizes and if you use heat shrink tubing on the ends it seals it all up nicely.
It expands a LOT so the 1/8 or 1/4 inch would probably fit most any harness up to 5 or more wires.

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view ... ist=0&vt=0

I used 3 wire extension cord for my headlights since it had the covering on it and protected the wires.
I'd probably do it different now.
The rear lights are just a five wire system so you need to make a harness with the correct wires and pick a color combo...if you use the stock lights. I had to run a ground since mine is a fiberglass buggy but you could ground at the lights if wanted.
This is before I found the PET sheathing and I also added a set of tow lights for when I pull the buggy behind the Motorhome.



If you use an American style with a four wire system you can build everything from scratch and simplify it even more.

It would probably depend on which light socket you want to use.

As stated above ....get the switch for the year wipers you want to run....it makes it much easier.

My apologies for the rambling and picture saturation but it's blowing cold outside along with snow and I have nothing else to do.....