Looking for advice.
I guess you could say I am starting from scratch, (almost). Project is a 1st Gen Camaro roller, and for the most part, the chassis is already done. Caged, tubbed, back-half (ladder bar, braced 9 inch, coilovers), with tubular control arms & coilovers up front. Interior is basically gutted, has a Kirkey aluminum seat and quick-release wheel/column. No dash, gauges or wiring. No fuel system.
Car will be used for bottom-bulb brackets only, moderate BBC (750-850 HP), Glide w/Brake, will also footbrake it. Nothing special.
Since I need to plumb and wire it, I thought I would ask what you guys would do, as far as preferences. I could set it up the way my old car is, although I have a short list of lessons learned, but since I am not locked into doing it any particular way, I'd like to hear how you would go about it. There is a master cutoff switch on the rear panel, a pair of DZUS fasteners on the hinged deck lid, the hood is a fiberglass 4 inch cowl with lightweight springs, factory hinges and latch. No battery box or wiring. (I do have a stainless steel box that I will probably install). No fuel system at all, but there is a large square opening cut into the center of the trunk floor, assuming the guy had a 8-10 gallon cell hanging through there.
I know some might think this is a dumb question, but I know a whole lot of you are smarter than I am, and have setups that work really well. I do wish GM had put their starters and alternators on the left/driver's side, so I could keep fuel and electrical separated, but I don't want to add extra weight and load on wiring or fuel lines to run one of them on the left side. But I don't like the way I did my old car, with fuel hose and 2/0 battery cables running together the entire length of the car, either. Don't necessarily like my fuel pump bolted to the rear frame rail above & behind the right slick either, (although I fabbed a shield for it and it has not presented any issues at all).
Right now I plan to use another BG400 pump, (they have worked great for me, and I have plenty of rebuild kits for them), but placement is not determined yet. Need to buy a fuel cell, and I do know I need a larger one than the 3 gallon model on old car. But I don't see a need for anything larger than 5-8 gallons. Not locked into putting it in/over/under the hole in trunk, I could easily tack a patch panel there. I don't understand the "XHRA" rule about top of cell must be below top of rear tires, (anybody know what that is based on?), but this should not be an issue. It has 32x14's on it now, I think an 8 gallon cell could sit on trunk floor and still meet that rule. Where would you place the cell, (in trunk with sump below floor, beneath trunk floor with "cage" around it, or halfway down the hole)? And why? My old car has cell in trunk, and it is easy to fill without a funnel. But it has a drawback, cannot clean filter, service pump, or detach fuel line anywhere except at carb, without it draining entire cell by gravity. Thinking a cell below trunk would make for fuel spills when filling, (especially at night), but maybe not. But that would eliminate problem I just mentioned. I could add a ball valve fuel shutoff too, if the cell is to sit above trunk floor.
Same question on battery and primary electrical wiring. I know it seems like most folks put the battery box over the right-rear corner, since the engine rotation pushes LR slick down, and wants to lift the RR. Is that still the accepted standard? Plan is to run main cable to terminal block up front, distribute power to starter, switch panel inside, relay board, then to fans, pumps, ignition, lights, etc. I used to spend hours walking the pits, checking out how others set their cars up. That was 20-25 years ago. The last 10 years or so I prefer to just visit with friends, make new ones, or focus on my own program. So I suspect some "best practices" have changed over the years.
Anyway, you guys get the idea, if you could start over and re-plumb your fuel system and main power wiring, how would you do it? Any particular reasoning as to why will be helpful also. This is going to be my "retirement" race car, so ease of use, and a high degree of maintainability are important.
Only item I am firm with right now is the fuel pump, but even that I can mount and plumb however, so this is pretty-much a "clean sheet of paper" to work with.
I offer my thanks in advance for any and all thoughts, advice, experience you care to share. Appreciate it.

I am doing the same thing, just to my old vega that I have faced for 20 years. I used a 5 gallon cell mounted in the middle of the back. I have a pro star 500 pump (same size as my old bg400) mounted with inlet/outlet oriented front to back on the left back corner by the cell inside the batch area. Fuel line comes out of pump thru rear wall with a 45* fitting to run line to right frame rail. Line runs up to front along right rail under the floor pan. Battery and cutoff switch is at right rear corner. Instead of running battery cables under car like before, I ran them thru inside of car. Next to wheel tub down along floor at door frame/kickpanel area. Run thru grommets front and rear walls. I found a 4post power bus bar in the urge catalog, so I hung that on firewall. Cable runs to that then starter,switch panel and everything else gets its power from there. No more rat nest at starter. That's about as far as I have gotten so far. Still need to finish rest of wireing so I can get it running again.

Thanks for making this post. You just gave me an idea to change my battery cabling. Keep the ideas coming kids, I could use them as well. I'm doing a complete rewire along with new fuel cell/plumbing, as well as new ignition and switch panel on my 68 Camaro bracket car. Looking at how my cell fits in the trunk, I may have to cut the pan to recess the cell, if I'm going to keep the filler below top of tire though. I've been out of the loop for several years, hoping to pick up some good ideas through your post. Have a great weekend folks...

From time to time, check my build under, "Woodfin's lamplighter Camaro" In the next few months that build will be wired and plumbed. There may be some helpful ideas there.

quote:

Originally posted by Larry Woodfin:
From time to time, check my build under, "Woodfin's lamplighter Camaro" In the next few months that build will be wired and plumbed. There may be some helpful ideas there.

Awesome, thanks for the heads up. I'll look it up. Mine's primarily going to be bracket raced, but will see street cruise 1-2 times a month. Rewiring entire car, minus a few circuits, no heat-A/C, wipers and such. I'm way behind the curve with this stuff, last time I dug deep into a project like this was mid 1990's.

If I was plumbing and wiring a car from scratch I would install a 3 gal fuel cell in the front. It just makes it simpler. I run my battery cable through the interior of the car no where near the fuel line.