There are things I love about my car - the mechanical engineering is amazing. And there are things I hate about my car - the electrical system absolutely drives me insane. Circuits that aren't fused, full headlight current run through the turn signal switch, bad grounds, and fuse boxes designed in 1940.
So I'm in Pep Boys today buying some 30W oil for the lawn mower, and I see this for $4:
Not the bandsaw, but the ATO/ATC fuse block. 4 fuses, 80A. The new block actually has mounting tabs which have been cut off in this picture (hence the bandsaw).
On my way home, I start planning - thinking about how I could design a new front fuse box with several of these blocks. They snap together, and I'd fab a new holder for them.... then I get home and look at my 911 in, roughly, 100 different peices in my garage. I'm in the middle of a suspension overhall, and just for giggles, I'm replacing the interior at the same time. Oh, and installing H4s and a new windshield, too.
So designing, building and installing a new front fuse box gets shelved. But I have this fuse block - what to do? That's right, replace the engine compartment fuse block. So I start with this:
I hate those fuses - really. So I pull the whole assembly, remove the relays and the old fuse block. Now, time to install the new one, hopefully in a way that makes it look the way Porsche should have done it around 1979.
Step 1 - Mark the chassis to cut out a hole for the new fuse block.
Step 2- Cut it out with a jig saw and lots of filing. It's aluminum, so it cuts and files nice and easy like.
Step 3 - Fab up some brakets to hold the new block. These are made from 1/8" angle aluminum I got from Home Depot for $5. TO make it so the fuse block could slide in and out easily (since the block will be wired directly into the car), I used #6 countersunk machine screws to attach the brackets to the chassis.
Step 4 - Install the block. I used 2 #6 machine screws in the side of the fuse block to bolt it to the chassis.
And its done!
It was really pretty easy - the whole process took about an hour (not counting trips to Pep Boys and Home Depot). I'll install it tomorrow, and since there's only 5 wires, that should take another 1/2 hour or so. Three down, 21 more to go!