Haven't been working on the car much lately, as I lost my mom last week.
I was able to find a new package tray though from a member of the Torino forum for a reasonable price!

It was nice to meet him and a pleasure doing business with him!

I'm sorry to hear of your mom's passing, that's really sad. Seems like there has been a lot of that lately. Was she living in Mass?

Yes she was Rich, she was 93 but had taken a turn for the worse a couple of weeks ago....

Mine turns 94 this Tuesday.
Sorry to hear about your mom.

Sorry to hear about your Mom!

Joe, I've been down that road with my parents. Regardless of the age, it's never easy to say good bye. Treasure the memories.
John

Thank you all...

So sorry Joe.  Been down that road myself.  No easy way to move on.  Time will make it easier.

Thanks Bill

Well, I had started to get the wiring straightened out but had a few intermittent issues with the taillights.
I found a spot where they wires were bent at  90° going into the rear wheel well, if I moved them I could sometimes get them to work. Not wanting any problems, I opened the harness to find the wire insulation stiff and brittle.

I had most of the dash installed, including the heat and AC, new turn signal stalk, the Dakota Digital gauges, had all the headlights working including the scoop turn signals...



So....





...I decided to rip out the whole factory harness out and ordered a Painless,




I also had decided if I was basically starting over, I gave up on trying to make the factory AC unit work as I couldn't find all the parts needed to make it function.   So...

....out came that too:

Well...at least the paint is really nice, the exhaust is grand and the insulation inside is great, engine should be a screamer and trans will be snappy...
Hate surprises going down the stretch. 

Honestly, with all the work you've done restoring that car to perfection, I'm surprised wiring wasn't first on your list. The Painless will be ok, but Ron Francis is the way to go for Ford guys. Just my 3 cents (inflation).

Quote from: RICH MUISE on 2025-09-22 20:24The Painless will be ok, but Ron Francis is the way to go for Ford guys. Just my 3 cents (inflation).

How big is the difference in pricing? Or was when you bought yours anyhow?

I agree, as I have Ron Francis in my '39, just got a better deal on the Painless.

As far as not replacing it originally, I wanted to keep it somewhat original. I had pulled the whole harness out of the car, with the exception of the taillight harness  because it looked nice and neat and was tucked inside the channel running into the trunk. (I opened it up inside the trunk and cleaned and retaped it figuring I would be okay.)
As far as the rest of the harness goes, I un-taped it, cleaned all the wires with brakeclean, inspected them and then re-taped it all and re-installed it back into the car. I replaced the turn signal harness and figured most of the gauges wires would be replaced with the Dakota Digital stuff.
Oh well, live and learn.   

I ordered a couple of Vintage Air bulkhead fittings so I didn't have to run the heater hoses into the car and could utilize the original holes: