wiring

[Jimi]

wondering if I should get an electrician to fix the bugs in my wiring..or complete rewire. ...does anyone no the cost of a rewire...

[johnb44]

depending on what you want to put in mine costing around 5 grand + 2 for aircon for the full rewire but im getting twin batteries , new stereo,10 gauges , uhf ,cruise control , lights , switches , replace fuse panel ,etc etc most in new positions  worth it after a small fire I had I recon 

[Jimi]

Far out!!! Not cheap...I thought it would only take them a couple of days to rewire an old van..guess im not getting a rewire lol

[cords]

buy a painless wiring loom do it your self not that hard if you follow the instructions ,will cost about $500

[BusyKiwi]

Or if you plan to do an engine conversion ie V6 commodore, use the loom from donor car

The worst bits of the bedford wiring is the ignition (big brown wire), starter motor (same big wire), and the fuse box if has been tampered with.
I mention the fuse box as power goes in one side and out the other but people join on to any wire or spare terminal and if it's on the wrong side it's not being fused.
Plus all the connectors as they are pretty old now.

What you could do, add another fuse box and run anything you add from the new fuse box and leave the old one for only the basics

[Gordon]

I'm with you Busy. My van has an original unmolested Bedford wiring loom. The van never even had a radio fitted. I left the original fuse box and loom alone and ran a brand new feed from the battery to a separate fuse box that I now run all the additional bits and pieces off. Just recently I fitted a second battery which just fits next to the original in the under floor battery box. I've got that charging in parallel from my alternator. Its isolated via a Narva Voltage Sensitive Relay, so my starting battery is isolated from the house battery when not being charged. The second battery is a deep cycle jobbie and it powers my interior lights, sound and DVD system. Works absolutely perfectly.

[taggraphx]

Looking at the donor commodore wagon VS for the same reason, plus there's heaps of other parts I want, going around $500-$600, drivable,

Cheers
Graham

[Gordon]

Graham, you are bang on, a donor vehicle is definitely the way to go. There are so many little bits and pieces in a conversion and buying them individually costs an absolute fortune. I bought a donor Bedford already fitted with a V8 when I did my conversion. Used the van for a year whilst mine was off the road, then grabbed all the bits I needed, sold some bits and eventually flicked on the van complete with my standard running gear at the end of the exercise. I ended up getting all my parts for free and made a few bucks on what I sold. The guy who bought the donor van ended up putting a V8 back in it from a rusted Bedford ute that he had, so everyone ended up happy. 

[Sammy]

definitely agree, I bought a $300 VS Commodore, full wiring loom, sterring column, seats, kenwood stereo, mag wheels, just those things alone would cost me more to get from a wreckers separately!!