Rainbow Spaghetti: scrapping the stock wiring and installing an 8 circuit race car kit

The lack of headlights, turn signals, and anything that wasn't the starter or ignition system left me with a choice: spend countless hours trying to decipher the hieroglyphics that are the the shop manual of a 1979 Porsche and eliminate all unnecessary wires, or spend $1500 and buy a stand alone race car wiring kit with new gauges.

After seeing this clusterf*ck that is the stock wiring, guess which option I picked...


They say a picture is worth 1000 words, this one is worth 1000 profanities



Using the time traveling power of Evan Williams, the 20lbs of old, crunchy, stock wiring was dispensed with quickly




After sacrificing 2 paychecks to the car gods, I was rewarded with a big brown box of dials, switches, and many wires (also some brake duct hardware but we'll get to that later)



$800 of the $1500 was spent on this Painless Wiring 8 circuit race car kit. Worth every penny.



Switch panel


Mounting all the electrics on one panel makes install and removal simple and fast



New gauge panel made from 3/8" lexan left over from the windshield



Making sure everything fits



A few coats of paint and it's finished.

Gauges are: Oil pressure, Coolant temp, Volts, Fuel, Tach, Speedo, and Fuel pressure (not pictured)



Installed:







Engine bay is much less cluttered with no EFI wires



Start up procedure:




Parting words:

This whole process was time consuming but extremely simple with the included instruction manual from Painless Wiring. If you plan on installing on of their kits, don't be afraid to call and ask for help, they are all super nice and will spend as much time as needed to help you solve whatever conundrum has you stuck. Their tech support line is open on weekends as well!