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Daytona Coupe, 289 and 427 Cobras
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Daytona Coupe Cobra -
Electrical System
With the majority of the fabrication completed, it was time to start the electrical system. Although I did not have the opportunity to look at the details of any of the original coupes wiring harness, the electrical system itself is relatively straightforward considering the basic race car nature of the coupe. Photos gave the obvious type and placement of the electrical system components (e.g. the lights, switches, etc) and the rest was common sense electrical wiring practice. Keeping with the basic authenticity theme, the proper Lucas and Ford pieces were obtained. The basic approach that I followed in constructing the wiring harness was to mount all of the electrical components in the car and then route the wiring between the pieces. The routing of the harness followed the original coupe layout. Other than changing to a more modern wire insulation type (with better heat and abrasion resistance) the electrical system was as close as I could come to the original without access to an original harness. The following photos shows the wiring in progress.
All six of the coupes had slight variations (surprise) in the layout of the various switches for controlling the system, however they all had a small panel located below the dash that held the majority of the switches. An earlier photo showed this panel mounted below before it was wired into the system. The following photos shows the beginning of the connection of this switch panel and fuse boxes into the system.
The circuit protection was provided by fuses mounted in a pair of Lucas fuses boxes. Again the physical location of these fuse boxes varies depending on the car, but in my car, I've located them below the dash on the passenger side footbox. The next photo shows the almost completed wiring and gauges mounted on the dash, the terminal area behind the switch panel and the mounted fuse blocks.
The wiring of the taillights and marker lights as well as the spare tire mounted in its hold down bracket is shown in the following photo.
