Hot Rod Wiring: A Detailed How-To Guide

The one job that even the most knowledgeable DIY guys farm out is the wiring. No more. Today you can pick the best components, the appropriate harness kit, and install everything yourself - with help from this book from Wolfgang Publications. Whether yours is an old skool '32 Ford with a flathead for power, or a modern kustom with fuel injected V-8 and a set of airbags, the information you need to wire that hot rod can be found in Hot Rod Wiringfrom Wolfgang Publications.

Like everything automotive, the electrical components used on modern hot rods have changed over the years. The stereo systems draw more power, and the number of accessories goes up and up. Alternator output is easily three times what it was just a few years ago. Hot Rod Wiring reflects these changes, and helps the reader determine how to pick the best components and design the best electrical system.

Dennis Overholser has designed hot rod wiring harnesses and components for Painless Wiring for over 20 years. After putting in eight hours a day designing components, Dennis often goes home and helps friends install the wiring in their hot rods. On weekends, Dennis becomes the point man for Painless Wiring at various NSRA and competition events.

Covering 144 pages, this book includes a theory chapter on direct current electricity, another on choosing the best components, a discussion of the various harness kits, three start-to-finish installations, and a troubleshooting chapter. In addition, the book provides a number of schematics that show typical starting, lighting, and charging circuits; and the complete schematic you need to wire a basic hot rod.

Dennis Overholser purchased his first hot rod during high school, a 1933 Ford three-window coupe with no engine or transmission. After high school Dennis attended Nashville Auto Diesel College, and it wasn't long before he was in school again, this time for electronics, paid for by the U.S. Air Force. In 1970 Dennis started as a mechanic at the Clemons Tractor Company. Twenty years later he left the Clemons Tractor Company to work for Painless Wiring, engineering wiring systems for the street rod market. In addition to his work designing street rod components and building hot rods for his friends and himself, Dennis is active in a variety of hot rod and street rod organizations, including NSRA, KKOA, and SEMA. Between designing and building, Dennis holds seminars on automotive electrical systems for customers and organizations across the country, at events like the Street Rod Nationals and The Rod & Custom Americruise.