'59 Plymouth Forum

Hello gang,

I'm in the process of installing a Painless wiring harness in my 59 Plymouth. This is my first time installing an aftermarket universal wiring harness, and although wiring doesn't scare me, I do have a few questions for those that have done this before in a '59 Plymouth.

First, where did you locate the fuse box? I've been messing around with a few locations on the driver's side using temporary 3D printed brackets but I haven't found a position I really like yet. If you installed one, would it be possible to provide pictures of where you put it and how you mounted it?

Second, in the rear of the car, how does the wiring harness route to the tail lights? I know it comes under the door and between the quarter panel and inner quarter to make it into the trunk, but I am thrown off by one thing - I have what appear to be mounting clips for the wiring towards the rear of the trunk, but nothing towards the front, which leaves the bundle of wire hanging off the fuel filler hose. I attached a photo to better illustrate what I am asking about. Are those clips for something else and the bundle just lays on the bottom?

Third, I also have a new trunk gasket - it seems I could install it in one of two ways. Which is correct?

These may seem like basic, borderline stupid questions, but I got my '59 disassembled so I have no idea how many things are supposed to look.

Hmm, I can't seem to upload any attachments....?

Brian,

I know that Mark Merritt installed a YNZ harness - I'll ask him here to comment on your harness questions. I guess we'll need to see your pix, though, as well as that trunk gasket.

I recently upgraded the Forum, so I'm wondering if that's responsible for your trouble uploading. Let's try this...

Hmm, that seemed to work. It also works when I log in with my non-administrative account. Are you getting an error message?

If you want to email the pix to me - dan at 59plymouth dot net - I can post them for you.

Dan

V8PunkRocket wrote: ↑Sat Oct 04, 2025 12:53 pm ...in the rear of the car, how does the wiring harness route to the tail lights? I know it comes under the door and between the quarter panel and inner quarter to make it into the trunk, but I am thrown off by one thing - I have what appear to be mounting clips for the wiring towards the rear of the trunk, but nothing towards the front, which leaves the bundle of wire hanging off the fuel filler hose.

Well, I'll be durned. I have two clips on the driver's side of the trunk at the top - and yes, they are for the wiring harness! I have the cardboard panels in my car - that's what you see here - but my harness is laying in the bottom. It should be in those clips! Here's a pic of one, looking up:

Just to note - the yellow and pink wire leave the harness just before the gas filler tube and travel up the C pillar to the roof. From here they split, with the passenger side rail lamp wires running along the top of the back window.

Dan

V8PunkRocket wrote: ↑Sat Oct 04, 2025 12:53 pm Hmm, I can't seem to upload any attachments....?

I had a problem with the picture I just posted too, until I converted it to png format! There is indeed a problem with the upgrade - thanks for the headzup. Now I can diagnose and fix.

Dan

I think my trunk harness ran inside the drivers side kick panel coming from the left side of the dash, then under the sill plates (4 door) and over the rear wheel well to the left side of the trunk. I used the bend tabs that were still in good shape to secure the harness. Was all plug and play. There is no fuse box. Only I think A couple of in line circuit breakers. Do you have A shop manual for wiring diagram? I used 3M Black weatherstrip adhesive for the trunk gasket. Look in my forum "Marks winter of 59" for my resto pics. It might be helpful. Mark

I got the pictures to attach my making them PNG’s.

V8PunkRocket wrote: ↑Sat Oct 04, 2025 12:53 pm ... in the rear of the car, how does the wiring harness route to the tail lights? I know it comes under the door and between the quarter panel and inner quarter to make it into the trunk, but I am thrown off by one thing - I have what appear to be mounting clips for the wiring towards the rear of the trunk, but nothing towards the front, which leaves the bundle of wire hanging off the fuel filler hose. I attached a photo to better illustrate what I am asking about. Are those clips for something else and the bundle just lays on the bottom?

Mark, I searched your thread, and this is the only pic I could find of your trunk - and this is before you installed your harness, apparently:

Because the harness clips are right on the lip of the trunk, the trunk cards must run behind them. It's not clear to me how the cable would run from behind the driver's side card to the front clip, which is in front of the card. Anyone have a good picture of this? Dick?

V8PunkRocket wrote: ↑Sat Oct 04, 2025 12:53 pm I also have a new trunk gasket - it seems I could install it in one of two ways. Which is correct?

I'm not sure it occurred to me at the time I installed mine, that it could go either way! It looks like I installed mine facing out:

(Still working on the .jpg problem Both of the pix in this reply are .jpg's, I still don't know what's different about them. I've found that if I open the image with Paint, and simply save it with a different name, it's uploadable. Go figure )

OK, this is the third try. This is the routing of the YNZ harness l installed in my Convertible. It's made specifically for a 59 Plymouth. Good luck with the Painless harness. The YNZ is routed thru the bottom of the DS kick panel into a channel under the sill plate then into the bottom of the DS rear window compartment then up and over the rear inner fender an fuel pipe and up along the inner edge of the trunk opening, mine had flexible straps to hold it up and out of the way then down to DS tail light then across to PS. The YNZ harness had a separate wire to feed thru a hole in the middle of the trunk floor to attach to fuel tank sending unit. Hope this helps.

My trunk gasket lip faces out. I started one end in the middle of the trunk latch above the license plate then all the way around to meet where it started and keeps the seam at the bottom. DANG !!! Good to hear from Dick. What the heck is going on!!! Mark

OK, the problem with uploading jpg images has been fixed. Sorry for the delay, I discovered I had dropped a previous fix when I updated the board software.

Dick, Mark - did you try to upload pix, and got an error? Could you try again? It should work now.

Brian, did you get the answers to questions that you needed?

Dan

Nope, I did not upload any pics.