Less Power Wired Used Than I Originally Thought

Right on, I only ended up using about 6.5 Feet of 10 AWG Power wire for my Fused Power Distribution block which was much less that I thought I was going to use, and best of all it gives me some slack to be able to pull the Hush panel out far enough to be able to install wires onto the block easily. That's awesome, especially considering that the entire block is rated to handle 105 Amps Max. I'm going to be extra conservative and say 100 Amps even, forget the extra 5 it can handle also. According to the wiring selection chart at my 6.5' (Feet) of wire I am well within the tolerances of the wire for that distance.

Installing My Fused Power Distribution Block Into My Lower Right Hush Panel

The first step in installing my Fused 12 Position Power Distribution Block was to figure out a good location for the block where it will be easily accessible. I cut out a rectangular hole in the Hush Panel bigger than my fuse block. Filed the edges down all nice and smooth.

Next I would need to come up with some way of mounting the fuse block to the inside of my Hush Panel. I figured the best way would be to make up some Aluminum mounting brackets to secure onto the inside back of the Hush Panel, and then I could mount my fuse block onto that. 

First I would just simply hold the fuse block in behind the hole I had made in the Hush Panel just to give myself a better idea of where and how my fuse panel is going to be situated and see how its going to look.

I used some thin card stock I had kicking about to cut out a template for my Aluminum brackets. It's always better to try something out with some rigid thin cardboard first to see if something is going to fit right before cutting it out of your final material, this way you don't make a mistake and waste any metal. Once satisfied with the fit of my cardboard template I marked out my template onto some Aluminum, cut out the pieces and bent them into shape on my vice with a small hammer.

From here on my installation is pretty simple. I just placed my mounting brackets onto the back of the Hush Panel and held them in place with some masking tape while I drilled in my holes for the bolts. I drilled first my holes into the ends of the Aluminum brackets, and then into the plastic of the Hush Panel. Once secured the next step was to mark onto my brackets where to drill the holes for bolting on my fuse block. I wanted to make sure I mount it far enough over to one side so as I can get my fingers in there to pinch the release tabs for the plastic cover on the fuse block. Easily done, I drilled my holes and then bolted on my fuse block with some bolts that were long enough and used washers, on the back side of the Aluminum brackets I made sure I used locking washers that way the bolts will not come loose any time soon. You can use a little "Lock Tight" on the ends of your bolts too and this also helps prevent the nuts from working loose over time.

Here you can see my install into my Hush Panel. It's recessed in far enough that I can make a nice cover plate that I can screw on in the corners using 4 screws. I may make some kind of label to identify what the panel is for or even put the "Knight Logo" on it or something just to make it look cool, I don't know, I'll decide later. But I will definitely make a warning label for the inside back of the cover plate warning to NOT exceed 100 Amps for the entire fuse block or 30 Amps per circuit.

Voice Projection Unit Diagram Modified To Include Fused Power Distribution Block

I modified my wiring diagram for the Power Button for K.I.T.T.s Voice Projection Unit. This new diagram includes both the in-line fuse holder at the battery to protect the Fused Power Distribution Block and Fused Power Distribution Block. The block I am using takes "Blade" type fuses but any type of fuse block will work. For now I will be just using a 10 Gauge (AWG) Power Wire from the battery to my 12 Position Fused Distribution Block as I don't really see the stuff I will hook into it being too heavy on Amps. If at a later time it looks like I will need to beef up the power cable then I can swap it out for something like a nice fat 4 Gauge (AWG) but for now with ONLY the Voice Projection Unit hooked up the 10 Gauge is plenty for now. But I do have some 4 Gauge on order just in case ;)

On an additional note one of the reasons I have placed, or I should say "will be placing" an in-line fused breaker at the battery rated for 100 Amps is that for one thing it's just shy of the 105 Amps Max. that the Fused Distribution Block can handle, plus I will be able to use it's breaker switch to cut off power going to that Fuse Block. So essentially any things that I have that are run by that particular fuse block I can enable or disable right at the battery. My thought is that this would be good for car shows where let's say I wanted some of K.I.T.T.s functions to be disabled, like sirens, smoke screens, grappling hook.... just for arguments sake lets say, you know the kind of stuff that you would not want anyone at a car show to trigger accidentally. ;)

Power Distribution Block

I picked up a Bussmann Ganged Fuse Panel with 12 Positions for all the extra gadgets that are being added into my K.I.T.T. I figured this extra Power Distribution Block will be good inside of the car on the passenger side under the dash, preferably somewhere convenient to get to unlike the "Convenience Centre" on the drivers side lol. I've never hooked up one of these before so I'm looking into what gauge wire is best to use for this type of thing, the fatter the better is my guess. I think it also needs and in line fuse close to the battery as well just to protect the panel, not sure though as I say I've never done this before so I'm trying to find some good information on the best and proper way to install this panel into the car, gotta be safe with power so information is a good thing. ;)