Ditching stock harness, some questions

[1971ford]

Trying to ditch the entire in-dash harness on the race truck. It is a HUGE mess of wires that i really need to get rid of.
I want the truck as absolutely simple as can be so it can be fixed in a race. If i have a wiring issue somewhere in the stock wiring harness in the dash then i'm done. If i take the few things i need , and run them on simple switches, it can easily be fixed in a race.

The only things the race truck needs from the original wiring harness (unless i'm forgetting something??) is ignition, headlights, brake lights, and wipers. I don't need instrument cluster, dome lamp, radio, heater, fuse block (fuses can be in-line), any of that crud! I can get away with no turn signals. Truck will be street driven a couple miles each friday.

Here's what i need to know... what's the best way to set up the ignition with no original wiring? Having no key is OK if it's much easier to not use one. If they break into the truck, figure out all the switches they'll have to find the battery cut-off and such too.

How do i go about putting the headlights on a switch, and how would i still be able to use hi-beam? If that's hard to do, could i lock it on low or high beam?

How would i go about getting the brake light to still come on? I still have the original switch on the brake pedal.

Wipers?

Thanks!

[Dirty Offio]

Can you read schematics? Not trying to be a jerk, some people only see spaggetti when they look at a wiring diagram. If you have a hard time with them, I could draw you a simplified version showing what I would put in. Be a few days tho. (Used to be an aircraft electrician, wiring doesn't scare me.) What kind of ignition system are you running? Points, DS, MSD, or ???

Here is what I would do. I would buy a HEAVY DUTY toggle switch for the headlights, try to get one that is 20 amps...bigger if you can. I would use the factory style floor mount dimmer switch for high/low beams (new switch of course). Brake lights, use the factory switch. Wipers...if you want both speeds, you can either stay with the factory switch, or you will need a heavy duth DPDT toggle switch, preferably Off-On-On, but you will probably have to settle for On-Off-On. Wire 1 side High, and the other for low. Ignition is easy to swap with a toggle, be sure to use a heavy enough gage wire for all.

Let me know if I can help.

Offio

Oh, do you need a radio when you are racing? As in 2 way? Something else to wire in if so.

[onetuford]

You can get a small fuse panel and just start wiring it up as you need. Making your own harness. I would see no problem with using toggles to start the thing. I had a bad ignition switch in pickup one time and had no money to fix it so I used a toggle I had laying in the tool box and some wire. I would also wire in a secret switch to cut the ignition as well for theft protection. To set up ignition, what are you using? Duraspark or an aftermarket unit?

[1971ford]

Thanks guys, we're doing the wiring this weekend so i may have more questions soon but for now it's mostly covered.
Offio- yeah we use a race radio, last season we just wired one of the spare switches up and had the wires hanging out the dash that we hooked upto the radio that we borrowed. Thats another thing though for sure.

I don't think we will be using a fuse panel. I have a moroso switch panel with many heavy duty toggle switches on it and a breaker for each that way we can hit the breaker isntead of having to replace a fuse in the middle of a race.

[Dirty Offio]

Yeah aircraft style breakers are awesome, a bit pricy but awesome. I am working (slowly) on building a breaker panel to replace the fuse block in my 68. Hope it works out well!