cab swap or dash replacement

the painless wiring bundles, are they any good? i cant afford the 1600 american wiring ones

I have used painless kits and I have been happy with them. however, the wire gauge seems rather thin so whenever I'm running an accessory that might need any increase in power, I use a relay. fuel pump, choke, electric fan, blower motor etc.

Hold on there Skippy.
This parts truck has a good cab & wiring but no paper work so cant get tags right?
You truck is tagged but cab is rusty and wiring a mess right?
If you are not going to sell your truck and no one needs to look at the VIN of the cab, frame VIN would still match your paper work. Then I would do a cab swap.

I did a cab off frame rebuild by myself. With the cab stripped you can lift each side by your self.
Long boards & horses you can lift 1 side slid the boards under that side of the cab and on the horse then do the other side. If high enough you can then roll the frame out from under the cab.

On the wiring not all slots in the fuse box have wiring going to them and not all will have power till something is turned on, I think lights is like this only has power when lights are on.
AC and non AC is not a big deal as this is a add on harness to the main harness.

What I did find out is a big deal is if you have dual tanks or not for a 81 F100 truck both with manuals & 300 six motors, they are different.
Now in your case if different years and motors / fuel system this could be even a bigger deal as some have fuel pumps in tank(s) and different switching valves and some dont like mine.

So if years / motors / fuel system are that much different then using the parts truck harness may not be the way to go. I think  it would be mostly the fuel system than motors but thats me.


In my case I was going to use the parts truck harness because of the AC as I did not know it was a add on.
But doing the swap I also found the parts truck harness had dual tanks, that I wanted to use on my truck and is not a add on, so it worked out for me.

Also note the main harness runs across the top of the dash, you can get to it by removing the dash pad.
It then goes out the firewall on each side into the engine bay.
Because I was also swapping dashes the parts truck harness came over with the dash and I feed the harness thru the firewall.
Dave ----

wow thanks for the all that info. :) the parts truck is a 1982 dual tanks auto 5.0, the truck being fixed up is a combo. a 1980 f150 4.9 4 speed 4x4 1 side tank. the cab is a 1985 f150 same specs. i didnt think about the lights having to be on, thats a good point. i guess because theres so much damage to fix and not having really any time to fix it i get off tilt and confused with the issues and i miss the small stuff. would i need to remove the fenders to put a new cab on?  ill check on the dash lights tonight and update yall.  thx again

Techguy wrote

wow thanks for the all that info. :) the parts truck is a 1982 dual tanks auto 5.0, the truck being fixed up is a combo. a 1980 f150 4.9 4 speed 4x4 1 side tank. the cab is a 1985 f150 same specs. i didnt think about the lights having to be on, thats a good point. i guess because theres so much damage to fix and not having really any time to fix it i get off tilt and confused with the issues and i miss the small stuff. would i need to remove the fenders to put a new cab on?  ill check on the dash lights tonight and update yall.  thx again

You learn a lot when you do a ground up rebuild of your truck over 4 years.
I also added dual tanks but my truck, a flare side, never came with dual tanks as a option.

Is the 5.0 carb or EFI and how many ports on the tank switching valve?
If carb I think you would be able to use the parts truck harness but if EFI might be a little harder a sit would have more wires going to the tanks for pumps & senders.

Then you have more fuel lines with supplies and returns to deal with.
If the beds are the same between the 2 trucks you might be able to take the harness, dual tanks & bed and move it over to yours and have dual tanks.
I just dont know how the valve works on the parts truck. Some use the in tank pumps to switch the valve and others use electric power. Once you know what it is you can make it work with single or dual tanks.

I know I just made more work for you
I like to think of all the good parts I have between the 2 trucks and make what I want from them like the dual tanks, ribbed metal bed floor in place of wood and made custom bumpers.
Oh how about changing half the firewall so I have AC LOL
Dave ----