I started to wire the additional Fuse Block that I have installed onto the back of the passenger side Hush Panel. Right now I just have the once circuit for the Annunciator External Loudspeaker wired. I have a 10 Amp Blade Fuse in the block for this circuit which should be good enough for the 100W Annunciator Loudspeaker as it's only drawing around just shy of 8 Amps. I still have to install that into the nose of the car though.
I have my wire running from the fuse block into a four terminal block that I can mount the wires to using Ring Terminals crimped onto the ends of the wires from the fuse block and then screwed onto the Terminal Block, this way the install should be easier if I ever need to change something later on down the road as this projects gains complexity. I ran the Red 10 AWG wire through the same hole that the old Antenna wire went through just behind the side Air Extractor Vent, up inside the fender and across to where it will eventually be hooked to the battery through an in-line fused circuit breaker rated at 100 Amps, this will protect the entire block and as mentioned in previous posts it will allow me to disable that entire block right at the battery by tripping the breaker. Very handy for any car shows I may do. Here is a little video I made earlier today showing a little more about what I have done here, Enjoy. ;)
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.
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.
