conversion

[roger sumpter]

say you have 2 identical cars same year. one has rear defroster,power trunk release,twilight sentinal. and you want to put it in the other car that doe's not have them. how hard would it be to swap these 3 items over to the one car  that doe's not have them.

["Cadillac Kid" Greg Surfas 15364]

Rodger,
What model and what year?
Greg

[roger sumpter]

both cars are a1968 fleetwood broughm

["Cadillac Kid" Greg Surfas 15364]

Rodger,
As some of the convenience options became more and more popular and mor of the cars came with them the factory began to provide basic body wiring harnesses with the wires for those options, leading to unused plugs if the options were not to be installed.  I am not sure of the level of "completeness" on your car, but if the basic body wiring will support the optional devices, the rear defroster is a "snap".  The twilight sentinal requires the installation of the optical sensor, the TS light switch, the Amplifier, and the wiring connections.  You might be able to reidly see if the same connections are avaliable (now) on the un optioned car.
I believe that the '68 used the cabvle pull down system for the trunks, so a complete conversion might proove a challange.
Chheck out the wiring harness. Two out of three ain't bad.
Greg

[Doug Houston #2257]

I did this on a '66 convertible that I once had. I don'tknow how much the later cars followed this description, but this is what I did.

The "donor" car was a front end wreck in a junkyard. It was loaded. Lots of stuff my car didn't have, so I bought EVERYTHING that I didn't have. Here's what I got:

Power front door vent windows.
Vacuum door lock system
Twilight sentinel
4 way flasher control
Stereo radio
Trunk pull down
Cruise control
Guide-Matic
Tilt-telescope steering column.

The dash harness had to be removed with the other stuff, because the Twilight Seltinel wiring was integrated into the harness, as it had been a factory installed option.

I managed to get every piece of hardware for everything I bought. It all went into the  car easy as pie. The car is now owned by a friend, and if you look at the body name plate, it doesn't show any of the stuff I installed on the car, but otherwise, you'd never know it.

Fortunately, the interior of the parts car was black, and my convert. was Black, Black,and Black. The door panels simply went in place of the original ones.

[Glen]

As Doug said the Twilight Sentinel has a special wire harness.  The 68s did not have the wiring for it if it was not installed at the factory.  The trunk pull down has a different foundation for the lower part and you need to cut the foundation off the donor cad and weld it in place of the non-pull down foundation on the other car.  Not impossible but usually more work than most people want to do. 

Glen

[roger sumpter]

if the 68 fleetwood did not have the wiring harness for the twlight sentinal because it was not ordered on it and you have to pull the wiring harness off the donor car it sounds like you are in for a big job. am i right.

[Glen]

You can splice the donor harness into the one on your car. 

Glen   

[Bob Hoffmann CLC#96]

Roger,
 Do you have to switch the parts back to the other car or is it getting parted out?
Bob

[roger sumpter]

i am gping to keep the donor car

[Bob Hoffmann CLC#96]

Roger,
You're looking at LOTS of work. The trunk opener will be the worst as it means switching the metal brackets that support the trunk latch on the body lip. They will have to have spot welds drilled out & re-welded.
Bob