Wiring the Subaru aux lights, part 6: making and installing thefuse/relay box

With this auxiliary lighting project I’m adding a bunch of fuses and relays, and these are things best left protected from the elements. There’s a reason fuse boxes have covers. In this installment, I’ll be building a box to house all of these items and fitting it to the car.

The basis for the box is this, a hard drive enclosure that has been sitting in my basement for far too long. It has been cut down by about 1" from its original length to fit in the space available.

Wiring the Subaru aux lights, part 5: under the dashboard

Time to string some wire! This part of the wiring project will be all about finding the wires under the dash that we need to cut and tap into, and connecting those to the switches and relays.

When I removed the lower dash panel (three screws and two plastic fasteners) I realized I needed to get rid of some excess wire. This car’s previous owner, though he kept spectacular care of the car, didn’t believe in cutting the extra wire off of his many electronic gadgets and instead just tucked it away in neat coils. This makes for a cramped under-dash area, and isn’t much fun to sort through. With a few cuts and a few new soldered connections, I was rid of all this wire:

Into my bucket of spare wires with you!

Wiring the Subaru aux lights, part 4: parts and pieces

I guess you’ve realized by now that these installments aren’t really in any logical order. This time around, I’ll introduce you to the various parts that will come together in wiring the auxiliary lighting on the Subaru.

There’s a lot of stuff going on up there. Let’s have a look, shall we?

Wiring the Subaru aux lights, part 3: more diagrams! (switches)

So, you thought I was done with wiring diagrams? So did I. As it turns out, the wiring for the switches themselves is a little more complex than I can handle without putting something down on paper. The previous wiring diagram included a simplified version of the switches, but there is much more to take into account.

Wiring the Subaru aux lights, part 2: wiring diagrams

Wiring diagrams can be an interesting mental exercise. They are just so logical - like looking at a road map - but keeping track of what is flowing where and which polarity is which can make your brain hurt.

Wiring the Subaru aux lights, part 1: new bulbs in OEM foglight switches

You may remember, long long ago, I put some fog lights on the Subaru and built a light bar. Well, now it’s time to actually get some light out of these by adding electricity. The wiring job will be more complicated than the light installation, I think, and will be broken up in several parts.

I have managed to scrounge some Subaru OEM foglight switches from the junkyard, and those will be the means of adding and removing blinding light from the road ahead.

Adding a ceiling fan to the garage

Especially in the winter, with wet and snowy cars moving in and out of the garage, I tend to have problems with moisture on the floor and in the air. One of the solutions for this problem is a ceiling fan.