TMCP #641: Scott Bowers – Ron Francis Wiring – Wiring a Hot Rod the Right Way
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the muscle car place online podcast episode number 641 this week our pal
Scott Bowers from Ron Francis wiring returns now longtime listeners know
that I will forever appreciate and oh Scott a debt of gratitude for allowing
my Chevelle in his booth at the SEMA 2013 show as you might guess Scott and his
team know a lot about electrical everything when it comes to car
switches knobs bulbs wiring kits amperages on alternators that can
reduce peak horsepower pulls due to lack of proper gauge on cables all that
stuff and if you call them with a question or a desire to swap a crown
big four six-part train anything they'll help you with that but mostly as long as
I've known Scott he's always been a really straightforward and honest guy
and for business owners you're gonna hear from someone who has expanded and
then reduced product offerings solely for the purposes of quality control
serving customers and living with his own conscious and we're not Amazon we're
not okay go ahead and return it you know we want them to be happy we want to
help them fix it and when we can't that's the kind of stuff that keeps me
awake at night and I don't want that
this is the muscle car place online podcast brought to you by National
Parts Depot this is the weekly show dedicated to people worldwide who love
American muscle cars if you're buying selling restoring even racing them this
is the place for you now here's your host Rob Kibbey yes indeed I am Rob Kibbey
and welcome to the muscle car place podcast well here we are the second
week of March 2026 already you can feel the car season in the air can't you
Scott Bowers the owner of Ron Francis wearing is here to talk you all through
the tales that come with owning Ron Francis but also about serving a customer
base in a way that will help you sleep at night there'll be lots of great tech
stuff in here too I love Scott Scott is a it's gonna say meat and potatoes can
Scott has a balls and strikes kind of guy he calls him like he sees him it's
that simple he reminds me of Rick Schmidt in some ways he is definitely a guy
that has been there done that bought the t-shirt and is as frankly okay leaving
something on the table that might put a little more coin in his pocket but they
could leave a customer dissatisfied he's just a great guy so that'll be coming
up here he does have tech tips alternator tech tips which I thought was kind of
fun and when it comes to swapping Ford bar trains and needing wear harnesses
you've probably found that their place he'll explain how that is but he's
wearing all right I have a little bit of a random mix of stuffery today a few
things none of which are connected I have no personal car news no Dallas
Kibbe racing update this month I'll wait for April to share some of that but
let's start here now if you're a fan of this show you're probably a fan of just
automotive media in general and maybe you were a fan of the original top gear
the one with Jeremy Clarkson James May and Richard Hammond what I'm gonna tell
you here isn't new it's about a month old but the hosts of the new grand tour
were formally announced by none other than Jeremy Clarkson himself so a little
history here for many of you the original top gear on the BBC was just the
OG of car shows the best of the best and I did see that show many times and I
liked it but frankly I loved and still miss the original top-gear USA with
Tanner Faust, Rutledgewood and Ferroira nothing against the OG top gear you just
like what you like you know well keep all that in mind more hosts have come and
gone on the top gear brand worldwide but the UK would be the home base for top
gear that's theirs as it should be now the one I remember that followed the most
famous host I remember that followed there was Matt LeBlanc and that's all I
remember I remember Ken Block was on a UK top gear with Matt LeBlanc in the car
with him and then I think there was another top gear USA maybe top gear
America Antron Brown was one of the three hosts there but in the end for the
bulk of the world top gear was is and always will be Clarkson Hammond and May
okay that version of top gear ended but their time together really didn't and
the show continued on and it moved to Amazon Prime and it was called the
grand tour and the reason for that is probably legal I don't know the details
I don't know that it even matters anymore but Jeremy Clarkson either
definitely or maybe punch somebody and that ended top gear but Amazon called
and frankly they invested a lot of money and made a great product but now their
version of the grand tour you know last year I think it was it came to an end as
well they've retired so here we are the grand tour the brand kind of like top
gear the brand will go on they've named their new host Jeremy Clarkson did and
the new hosts are Thomas Holland and James Engelsman who come from the YouTube
channel Throttle House and I'm a subscriber and huge fan I've reached out to
them for interviews but never got one but love their stuff and then the third
host is his real name is Luke Nicholson but he's known online as Francois
Bourgeois he is a mechanical engineer I think he has experience at Rolls-Royce
he is famous for viral train spotting TikTok content okay so let's hear from
I don't know a thing about Luke Nicholson Francois Bourgeois at all other than if
you little lips that I've seen online Thomas Holland and James Engelsman huge
fan been watching for a long time so let's hear Jeremy Clarkson making this
announcement on his channel then immediately we're gonna hear Thomas and
James from Throttle House make the announcement on their channel and then
we're going to go to Doug DeMiro and friends on his podcast called this car
show is it called this car show if it's called Doug DeMiro and friends we got a
problem Doug unique name can be in France is the name of my show but anyway
Burton would you please roll those clips you'll have Jeremy Clarkson Thomas and
James from Throttle House and then Doug DeMiro these are the CVs for all the
people who want to be a presenter on the new Grand Tour show no full beard
okay my name's James May but he sounds a dog oh hello
James he once held a 1300 meter drift zero evidence has been uncovered
frequently presents an opinion as if it is fact and then if challenged will
change the subject yes funny man one I know this one is the train man from the
internet yes he's got a cycling proficiency test 20-20 vision but
clothes you can see behind him here's no what a moustache no I know I'm 5 foot
4 mm once reviewed an entire car using only sarcasm height depends on what
dating app you find him on that's funny you lot are afraid one lucky let's get
them in but what good get them in yeah this is about the most stupid thing you
could take on isn't it are you ready to tell them together on three sure here
it goes one two three we're gonna be the host of the new grand tour for a male we
are hosting the new grand tour yes yeah are you serious sorry what you bought a
third out for a minute who know you can't just call me you're missing you're
missing the point okay what matters here is that a lot of work has gone into this
yes okay a lot of elbow grease hearts and souls the budget's much bigger than
normal and despite being moving a very flawed decision from the outset it could
be quite wonderful you're still talking about the offer on you maybe we are
hosting the new grand tour but throttle house isn't going anywhere and our new
grand tour co-host Francis Borscht walk he's a proper petrolhead an absolute
jam
speaking of all right something here's the deal about this grand tour situation
next all right what are you gonna say nothing I'm not gonna say anything I have
a lot of faith that it's gonna work out they finally have confirmed after we
already knew it that the grand tour which was okay so there was top gear and
then they got kicked off the air for hitting somebody or something yeah they
went over to Amazon and did the grand tour this is Hammond James May and Jeremy
Clarkson then eventually they retired because they got old and rich and rich
and then the grand tour stopped and now the grand tour has restarted except it's
with three new people yeah James and Thomas who we know from throttle house
delightful you delightful folks great YouTube channel if you haven't already
seen it go watch it right now literally stop watching the podcast yep or
listening no and then there's the other fellow yeah Francois something
train guy that's all I know he's in the train there's been a little there's been
a little anxiety in the automotive community that Francois bourgeois maybe
Francis okay thank you yeah maybe isn't like the you know person we were
hoping would fall right and I think that they have really gone out of their way
to try to pitch us to make sure that we believe that he's right right like even
in throttle house is like opening announcement video they had to be like
he's good but he might be I don't want to say anything yet I think it's totally
inappropriate to like to like make those kinds of statements now I truly believe
that okay there you go that was all of them back to back that's not our content
that's obviously theirs straight up I am already interested I'm interested because
of Thomas and James from throttle house I am just a fan I like their videos at
times I love their videos sometimes I think their videos are too long on car
content because I find myself wanting just more of their brand of comedy
they're great I don't know a lot about them personally but clearly Thomas has
got a pass as a racer he can drive so can James James is an Englishman but
they both live I think somewhere in Ontario Canada for Francois bourgeois
whose real name is Luke Nicholson I'd no clue I have no idea who he is but if
Clarkson and him and it may picked all three of these guys together they must
have an idea about why they chose Francois Bourgeois aka Luke Nicholson or
the other way Luke Nicholson aka Francois Bourgeois I'm assuming that this guy
chose a different name like Garrett Mitchell did who you know as Cletus
McFarland it's just an online name for a different persona I don't know both
Bourgeois and throttle house each independently have YouTube subscriber
channels topping three million maybe that's why the OG Top Gear guys who know
a hell of a lot about automotive TV know that the future of automotive TV isn't
on TV and they've chosen youtubers to make the next great well you know
basically online TV show so new content for the new grand tour should come out
this year and that's it that's all I know nothing more I'm excited for that God
knows that we all need some I was gonna say real TV show content but let's be
honest there is something nice about a professionally produced product there
just is not that you can't have great stuff on YouTube of course you can not
that you can't have great podcasts like this of course you can but there is
something when it's you know a big dollar thing that's pretty fun all right
next up totally different topic not breaking news just like the last one
it's not brand new but I followed the embargo rules but since it's
dripped out so much in so many different social medias including their own I
don't think it applies anymore no one required me to follow these embargo
rules it was heavily implied that I do so so I did but this has been in the
works for a long time AMD who you know as a supplier of great sheet metal
restoration items has produced a brand new no original parts included 1969
Dodge Charger body and they did so last year and let me say this not care
honestly as far as I know there's only one it was assembled for them from one
of their US based suppliers who supplies them with other parts and displayed
at the Carlisle Mo Parnott's last year we have pictures of it we have video of
it wasn't in hiding but my understanding again is that there's only one my
understanding is also that there are a few parts on that fully assembled unit
that are one-offs and aren't something you go purchase and if it just in corn
dog Cornette my co-host from Kibbe and friends were here he'd tell exactly what
they are but it has something to do with like the C pillars and the rear window
assembly area stuff like that I don't think it you can buy that all directly
from AMD but nonetheless there was a video on AMD's very own tiktok channel
it's not saying they produce this and make it for sale but they are seeing
this this is a completely scratch build all AMD parts 69 charger that we're
gonna be sending off for display in one of our production facilities we're just
we have really grabbed every part out of the catalog from the drip rail
moldings to door handles door hinges fenders hood hood hinges you name it
we put it together okay now you've heard what I've heard I have been told from
people that I trust that that demonstration body may have gone
overseas to be evaluated for full tooling to produce no one from AMD has
commented at least anywhere that I see directly on that if they have tell me I'm
happy to share it here I have not asked AMD directly but I am in the know with if
people want to get something out and leak it through me that they know how to
do it they just frankly do not that I'm that important but they know that I'm
interested in this and they probably would free media is free media so I
don't know how this is gonna play out I hope though that there's a path that AMD
just makes these cars and I believe that they will if they aren't already
interestingly enough but I think I shared this on the pod last year at SEMA
2025 we met a different supplier unrelated to AMD this is a supplier from
China and they claim to already have a 68 charger body that's in production they
claim to have it available to purchase this year in 2026 it's that same
supplier that produces all the 240z bodies that you've been telling me about
they're literally on Alibaba so if you go on the Alibaba website you can buy
anything you want from the Asian market you can buy a 240z body on Alibaba
well all that aside between AMD and you know other suppliers I think the day is
coming when an all-new 68 to 70 charger could be a real thing meaning you could
build brand-new cars you could restore cars to infinity and beyond well that
be as profitable a thing as whoever invented AI will be profitable no but in
our world here of classic car restoration that's you just a big deal
all right burn close that chapter and open a new one
okay final thing this is not car related in any way it is not a personal
car related thing it is not a Dallas give you racing update nothing this is
about spring break so for some of you the concept of spring break is a big deal
for others it's not something you even remember when I was a kid my mom was a
teacher she was an elementary school music teacher and spring break was a fun
week and we got to stay home but we did not travel during spring break I didn't
know anybody that did but now a lot of families do you know especially when you
are in cold country you want to go somewhere warm with that said whether
you care about this or don't care about it there's a chance to go see a spring
break movie and take a little break that you might thoroughly enjoy as you know I
love movies and I used to really love going to see movies in the theater and
there just aren't as many out in the theater now that that I want to see
there aren't as many out in the theater it seems at all anymore but there aren't
that many that I want to go see but this one I do it is called project Hail Mary
it stars Ryan Gosling who we all hear love from the fall guy movie and here's
a clip from the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and Ryan Gosling is the guest
this is as much explanation as you're gonna get so let's go ahead and roll
that I was watching director this guy I went in kind of blind I didn't know the
book everybody gets the best book people are like it's the best audible book as
well yes when a double whammy but I'm like and you just fall in love with you
in space and you fall in love with your alien friend Rocky and he's so cute and
you guys bond even though you don't have the same language and it's just the
whole thing you know it's it's not ET it's a different alien I don't know how
to describe it but it's beautiful and it's fun and it's you're kind of goofy as
well and you just love your character and your clumsy and you knock into things
and it's you go you're just rooting for you the whole time he's not good at space
that's a good line that's a lot for that he's not good at space puts the knot in
astronaut yeah how do we how do we set up what project Hail Mary is about project
Hail Mary is about a middle school science teacher
who wakes up in another galaxy on a spaceship and realizes that the fate of
humanity lies in his hands yes and he makes an alien best friend and they
save the stars together okay there you go it's a science fiction read I know
nothing about this other than the advertising but I just shared with you
from the Jimmy Fallon show as well as a couple clips that I've seen online I've
never read the book I may download it and listen to it actually that could be
fun but I think it's kind of fun every now and then to take the excuse of
spring break to just do something to turn your brain off to relax kick back
for a little bit and enjoy I plan to go see that movie I'll report back to you
in April it has nothing to do with cars that I'm aware of but it should be
really really fun so thought I'd share that with you all hope that you have
something fun to do for yourself as well okay well that said back to the show
don't forget once per month we do have mr. Richmond from NPD on to talk all
things NPD and you can ask him about anything you like car related business
related family food anything he seems to have an answer for anything send in
your questions to me Robert at themusclecarplace.com you do have time to
do that for the April show and of course visit nationalpartsdepot.com to
proves for all your muscle car parts needs because they find the source they
expect the best there is a difference and they've got the goods
Alrighty feature interview up next to Scott Bowers of Ron Francis wiring some
great tech tips in here some great business tips even a little bit of a
prognostication on Scott's part about four to four six swaps and why Ron Francis
wiring seems to have a Ford harness kit for all modern engines enjoy
the muscle car place weekly podcast interview is brought to you by our good
friends at nationalpartsdepot see them through the link at themusclecarplace.com
today our guest is Scott Bowers a name well known by longtime listeners of
this show Scott is the grand poobah of Ron Francis wiring a company that
provides harnesses to wire a car from a generic hot rod to a custom show car
probably race cars as well he is a master of knowledge on all things crown
Vic wiring harness he can find you a single filament bulb that'll save you
from pulling your hair out and frankly he's just an all-around good dude
Ron Francis has been in business for years in my years of working with him
their biggest value is that they can just tell you what you need help with
instead of making you rely on figuring it out yourself Scott's more than a
business relationship he's a friend and in 2013 after letting me put my car in
his Seema booth all week he stayed late and helped me load it up Scott welcome
back to the show thanks for having me Rob boy that's been 13 years ago that was
a long run and for those that weren't there that wasn't a car trailer we loaded
up that's a cargo trailer and we had those like but my friend Aaron made
those big like nine-mile-long wooden ramps and hard mounted a winch in the
front and as I recall I was either in the car or steering the car and you were
running the winch
pretty awesome that wasn't the first probably not going to be the last
inoperable booth vehicle at Seema I've shared this with people often but when
you agreed to let me put my car in that booth I was thrilled
I later learned I think from you you know people back out all the time you
just got to tell me I didn't know I could have
like months in advance or something it never would have been to me to do such
a thing yeah I could tell you so many stories
and real quick my favorite and they'll give you a chuckle
I had a guy out in California commit and
move in afternoon he calls me and says I'm in the middle of the desert
my trailer just blew a tire and I don't have a spare
the strings that I had to pull for that one I got
the Las Vegas convention center to agree to let me bring this car in
the morning of the show at like four o'clock in the morning
and I had to get all these different entities to sign off the fire marshal
the show staff the ground staff oh my gosh let me tell you
there's a lot of working pieces there and I've never had someone totally back
out without giving me enough time to find a plan B a substitute sure but
that scene of show I mean it's an amazing experience
it's something you can only see to believe I mean it's like the government
there's a process of procedure and red tape for
everything it is so hard yeah completely yes but
oh Scott a little remind it's been a year since your formal last interview
here but just who are you and where are you from Scott Scott Bowers
born and raised still live in Delaware the business is just across the line in
Pennsylvania just south of Philadelphia I've worked for Ron from like 92 to 2002
he sort of part of waves a little bit and I started buying parts of his company
shortly thereafter bought it completely back in 2007 they're running it since
we're at about 52 years strong now and yeah we make a lot of wiring stuff
it did you do Ron Francis the man is one thing but the company did the company
start in the 70s yeah 74 okay and its niche was hot rod wiring harnesses is that right
yeah originally Ron is a diehard street robber and the story goes that he started
making wiring for his own projects and next thing you know he was doing the wiring for all of his
club co-members you know he saw a need and started making a kit that could be do it yourself
and kind of humble beginnings we have since branched off into many different
areas from electrical accessories to wiring for fuel injection and continually trying to develop
our kits so that they could be installed in later model vehicles up until about the 80s
the need for wiring harnesses is never going to go away it's part of the DNA of the aftermarket
people are always building something new or swapping something but your kits are
how do I put it they're picky I would assume that you have a customer who kind of likes really
nice clear well thought out kits the wiring is all color coded properly it's all banded
properly everything goes in a certain spot and it's very clear why you're doing it and what
you're doing it was that a run thing like why is it that way I would say Ron is responsible for
instilling the importance into our product line as a core principle so the color coding we try it
like that do it yourself mentality is bred throughout the product from all the wires being
color coded to the panel good clear printing on the wires and instructions that are color
to really help the individual not only install it but understand it really it comes down to
allowing the customer to be their own tech guy and understanding it one of the other aspects
we try very hard to do like our big wiring kits to like rewire project vehicle headlights
with tail lights we do try to tailor that kit in some certain areas that make it even easier for
them to install so we do not like the idea of our products being called a universal kit okay when
you call us an order of wiring kit we'll ask you what kind of steering column what kind of alternator
where is your ignition switch located where is your dimmer switch located so that they get the
right parts and wiring that they don't have to be splicing for some specific alternator
and there's a lot of value in that they might not realize it if they've never installed a
wiring kit before they might not realize it before they buy it but by time they're installing it
they understand yes a competitor's kit was used by a friend and he did it in a day he had to do
it in a day it was for a youtube video and his hands were bent like bent inward from crimping
all day he was so worn out and so miserable and what you're talking about is you've been there
you've done that and it doesn't have to be that way that's what you're referring to when I look
through your website at stuff I kind of go to the things that I first am most interested in frankly
for me that's wiring kits and all the fuel injection stuff am I the common around Francis
customer like I mean I know you'll help anybody with anything but who's most commonly coming to you
some of our specific fuel injection kits probably is attracting a certain demographic
we have been able to develop a lot of Ford kits that no one else has so I think our reputation draws
people to us but also some of our specific offerings it's the gamut as far as a first
time car builder versus an old timer who's we have guys that have been using our products for 50
years you know and they they know it they don't want to learn anything else and you know they're
building another car but others I think are finding us because of our niche specific products
that aren't available elsewhere well let's talk about that and specifically the Ford stuff because
you have a significant amount of Ford engine swap or wiring harness kits I'm going to start with
something that maybe you wouldn't think the crown Vic world Scott is out of hand
yeah well you know sometimes you get lucky and my philosophy maybe in 15 years ago was that
everyone was doing ls's and yeah it's a very popular engine but when the four six came along and we
had already had quite a few different systems for the five liter which was its own boon in its time
but when the four six came along there was a lot of interest in that and it wasn't a small buck
Ford we were able to get in on the development of that as far as where the connectors and terminals
and all that came from then the coyote came along and that was another boon and the crown Vic was
just a natural extension to that and sometimes you kind of get lucky that you know that whole
like subframe engine and all Ford did a good job on that and it's the most excellent engine
it lasts forever once again that was a really easy development cycle for us to be able to offer
wiring kits for them sometimes it really requires the manufacturer not to change everything every
couple years fortunately for that whole last crown Vic run from like 05 to 11 there was an
ECM change in there but other than that just about everything is the same so it's easy for us to
service that whole generation here's what I mean by this I'm going to guess that you probably did
this because of the value of the engine swap of a four six into something else yes but now
people are just buying crown Vic's period you know as you know my kid wants to be a race car
driver we go to all these small tracks and I'm telling you the cletus McFarland effect is real
there are crown Vic series out there and as with all things racing Scott it started with
such good intentions and then everybody does what everybody does they strip it down they make a race
car and they're straight up cool race cars and I'm sure that they're swapping motors here and there
I don't know if they're using a Ron Francis kit to wire things from the ground up but they
easily could we see this all the time you know in my world of the Kibbe and Friends show where
geeks for the dukes of hazard well it's a pretty common recipe now to rebody a crown Vic as a Dodge
charger that's a great car to use as a stunt car sometimes the factory wiring harness is there but
sometimes it isn't so what is the difference between a 94 95 and actually have two kits for the 05
through 11 there's an 0506 and an 07 to 11 what's the difference between the 0506 and 07 to 11
simply ECM it's a ECM generation difference but all the sensors are interchangeable and the
engines like you could run a 07 on a 05 ECM or a 05 on a 07 ECM the calibrations are identical it
was just a Ford ECM change for what reason they did that I don't know but everything else is the
same not that you're not known for lots of things but is the crown Vic kit whatever your crown
jewels here I wouldn't say a crown jewel but let's say that we're selling more of those than a
Chevy TPI wiring kit or they're one of the more popular at this point because that's what enthusiasts
are finding and just as you say I've known of them doing the spec racing with them of sorts
but what we're seeing is the whole front hydroformed so free I said I'm not sure if hydroformed or
cast but that whole subframe can very easily bolt into a lot of different classic Ford vehicles
so once they do that and they're like well it's set up for the 462 valve we can put that in there
engine and trans and that's where we come in to get that all wired up for the other Ford kits I
mean you're right the most common swap out there I'm going to guess still today is an LS swap if
you're going for a modern engine you can tell me if I'm wrong there but you have a plentiful supply
of Ford wiring harnesses did you just see a hole in the market I know you're a fan of Ford personally
you got to be winning that too yeah an outsider might think that it was from my somehow natural
selection of fords and despite owning several fords I'm not really a Ford guy per se oh yeah some of
my first street rod or hot rod builds was like a Nova and an El Camino and for me you know and you
have heard me say this a lot I end up mixing business with pleasure and it helps facilitate
my time and costs into it we also just like I said we got kind of lucky with some of this little
hanging fruit so it all made sense and as I said earlier there are so many companies out there that
do LS swap harnesses and it's kind of dime a dozen so we have stagnated on that a little bit we do
up through maybe the mid-2000s primarily it's just because it was an easy transition for us to get
into the Ford stuff and again Rob no one else is really servicing that stuff I mean there's
some guys out there that the wire diets on Facebook and stuff but no one seriously do you
do ECM programming we do both DM and Ford so if somebody wants to do a swap and buy one of your
kits what do they have to provide you other than the ECM do they have to give you a then like what
are you taking out of it the emissions control and well we can if their local emissions laws
allow them to we are very careful with being compliant and the legalities of that primarily
we are setting it up to remove the anti-theft if it's there we can adjust shift points for gear
ratio or tire size changes and most importantly all these engines were returnless fuel systems
so the ECM communicated with a fuel pump driver module which in turn ran the fuel pump at variable
speeds so some guys don't want to use that kind of system and go return so it's like a separate
fuel pressure regulator in return so we can set up the ECM to do that do you see people wanting
something more like they remembered it working in the 80s or do you see people wanting more like a
push button start today like for example when I fire up any of my hot rods that are fuel injected
I'll turn the key to on let the fuel pump prime then when it's done priming I'll fire the engine
but in any daily driver I have I just get in and hit the button and it starts
do you see people having a preference for more modern comfort and functionality
in hot rods from a wiring perspective yes there is a demographic out there that once that same
daily driver functionality you know kind of like comfort and classiness
I'm going to be very frank here about that kind of stuff
for several years we sold a touch to start ignition system its functionality was iffy
and personally I've gotten to the point where I am a little technology adverse
to those kinds of systems the sophisticated things it's great in concept I love the idea
but to service that kind of equipment takes a lot of time perkiness it's not OEM stuff
it's aftermarket stuff that people developed and good people developing things like this
but yet you let the battery drain down too far you don't hold your tongue right
and next thing you know it's not working and they got a dead car and god forbid it's a dead car
in a parking lot or somewhere else out on the road for us those products have come and gone
but we have slowly decided me being the owner of the company it's not right for our product mix
we're busy enough teching easy stuff and helping customers understand what they're doing getting
involved in these high tech things are a whole another story I hear you and we're not Amazon
we're not okay go ahead and return it you know we want them to be happy we want to help them fix
it and when we can't that's the kind of stuff that keeps me awake at night and I don't want that
yeah that may have been a little bit longer answer than you wanted to hear but people are interested
in it I do think that like in the last year or two we've turned them away enough that we're not
asked about it much more let someone else sell them that deal with it I can't remember the name
of that amazing barbecue shop in Austin but they're famous for being asked why don't you grow
bigger offer everything in franchise and they've said because we're great at this we're great at
this one that we're the best there is we don't want to not be the best there is and stay awake
at night worrying about all this trivial stuff that we added on just to have more so I hear you
at SEMA this year um I was just walking around I think I was in the SEMA either the SEMA or the
ARMO but I can't remember where I was but I texted you a photo of that what was that amazing blue
I don't even know what it was amazing blue hot rod sitting there it had around Francis
wearing was that another Rick Dore car was it like coach built yes yeah that's Rick Dore he's a great
guy he builds a lot of coach built cars and they're just like artwork you'll have customers like
that and I think you have a lot of customers like that so again on the Kibbe and French show this
week we were goofing around and the ad of the week was I think it was the LS11 low voltage sensor
and it's this little add-on device so that if you have converted you know your old system that
had an external voltage regulator to a one wire alternator you can still run your idiot light
yep yeah you truly serve the best products for the breadth that you have just like you just said
there we're not going to offer you something that we don't want to sell you I'm assuming
if it's here you're cool with it yeah yeah you know sometimes you hear the stories like if you're
a small business owner you can decide who you want your customers to be that's how I feel about those
we've tried to sell a lot of high-tech items and about every time it seems like we're getting egg
on our face so I'm like let's stick to what we can do you know the fuel injection and
there's about as complicated as we get when we chatted earlier this year we came up with
the idea of sharing some tech tips in an interview yeah and you say well yeah I can do that all
right so have you come up with some tech tips so maybe common man tech tips well I would call them
not sort of tech tips but more of like tech knowledge that I think confuses a lot of people
because we get a lot of questions about it the first one is alternators we get all kinds of
questions about alternators we get questions that enthusiasts think that if they get too big of an
alternator it's going to overcharge and boil the battery smoke their wires and things like that
so an alternator will only charge as much as it needs to in order to keep the battery
and the electrical system to a certain voltage that is determined in the voltage regulator in
the alternator like a typical gm one wire or 10 si alternator would typically want to keep the system
around 14 and a half or so now that's what you see on your voltmeter gauge might be slightly
different because the voltmeter might just be scaled slightly different let's say it's like
mid 14th okay as you demand more amperage from like electric fans and fuel pumps and what have
you that voltage will go down and the alternator will start ramping up its charging value that's
how that works so it's not going to ever overcharge unless you have some kind of grounding problem
where the alternator can't correctly see what the line voltage is in the system so when people say
too big are they talking about the amp okay yes all right so the modern fuel injected engines
they're all the way up around 150 amp alternators but they're not going to charge at 150 amps all
the time only when it's demanded okay so the next thing would be amperage at idle which to me is
as if not more important as the high end output rating of an alternator and this is where it gets
tricky that you got to think of the big picture this is the knowledge I'm trying to impart is
fuel injected engine fuel pump electric fans you have to add that up and see what it would be
potentially at idle so let's say it's 40 amps or so when you go to buy an alternator you should be
looking at what the idle amperage value is on that alternator and that might end up making you buy a
slightly bigger alternator than you think you need but that doesn't mean you're going to use that high
end okay I see you so it may be a common no not mistake but line of thinking to only look at
the high side instead of the low side correct because can you help people calculate what the idle
amperage might be certainly okay that is good to know I frankly wouldn't know how to do that
I'd just go look at the max number for everything well you really need to focus on the big items
the fuel pump electric fans if you're running AC those kinds of numbers you have a decent idea of
what the electric fans are going to draw now their draw at the moment you start it up is going to be
much higher than what it runs at but most electric fans a third of decent size 14 16 18 inch going
to be in the end the 15 amp range okay when they start up they might be like more like 30 and they
might be on a 30 amp fuse but unless they're severely worn and the brushes are all beat up
and it has many hours on it it's not going to be like super high amperage but again it all adds
up those different items right and finally good grounding of the alternator can't be mounted on
painted brackets for it's not going to get a good ground path as well as a good charge wire
any kind of like 100 150 amp alternator eight gauge at the minimum if it's on the high end of
like 150 amp you should probably be going to six gauge really yes jeez okay I can tell you a real
quick story about that too my race car the coyote powered svo it's got a factory ford 60 alternator
on it's probably about 150 amp I put an eight gauge wire on it with our wiring kit everything
was solid good grounds good crimps and lugs took it to my dyno guy and he said just so you know
you know when I was like in the high rpms it was starting to go lean and I was looking in the
your line voltage was starting to dip I put a second power wire on your alternator for you
really I mean it has an electric fan but you know no ac nothing like that just a big fuel
pump an electric fan and the ECM so I think the ECM was demanding all that to keep the coils and
the injectors all happy so that was eye-opener for me yeah how did that guy know that I mean if he
hadn't had the capability to look at at understand what he was looking for you know he was tuning
and I think he was a little confused he was probably looking at the duty cycle of the injectors
and seeing that it wasn't escalating but it was leaning out it's been too many years Rob I can't
quite remember exactly how he picked up on it but obviously the day that he was looking at when it
was on the wheels and that's why the car went to him he's aces these are good tech tips how did
you come up with these not that I'm not impressed but how did you come up with these the process
when we talked about this and you know let's do something a little different and for many years I
was giving seminars at different one of the FEMA councils is the HRIA hot rod industry alliance
and I was involved in their education days where we would go to different events and give seminars
so not only do we have a lot of tech tips in our catalog I have like power points and seminars
that I've given over the years and I thought like I probably pull a couple good things from that
I start thinking about what areas do people have constant confusion about and where could I impart
some knowledge it's very beneficial and one of the reasons that I always ask anyone to come on the
show you know that's a partner of the show specifically but you in particular it is hard
to explain just the straight up real dude here's the answer nature that is Scott Bowers
but when people hear you and hear why you do what you do and why you don't do what you don't do
I think they understand very clearly all right I get it he's in a specific lane because he's
tried the other lanes and they were unacceptable to him so I personally appreciate your frank nature
here I personally appreciate that you will just probably just walk people through the stuff over
the phone which is a rare thing these days so somebody calls and they just need you to teach
them what they need you'll probably help them as they call right yeah if it's not me one of the
guys to be happy to uh we're helpers we like to help people it's one of the if you call it one of the
founding concepts of the business so be it it's not like we have a credo about it but it's just um
you know our days are monotonous and if if we feel like we can leave a bright spot in someone's
day by solving a problem for them it's all good it's so nice everybody please check out
ronfrances.com you're gonna find a little bit of everything in there every time I go there I end
up finding myself hunting for the single filament bulbs and they're there they're always there
Scott here's your last question and it's a left field question I asked this of rick schmid at npd
and I was pretty shocked if you weren't running ron francis wiring if you'd never been involved in
the first place what would you have been doing delivering pizzas really because rick said he'd be
a dentist oh my gosh yeah that's my joke that someday I want my life to be simple enough that
I'm just delivering pizzas oh man that'd be sweet but I don't know I'm very hands-on these days I
like to spend a lot of time outside I could be working at a state park who knows oh wow yeah
I don't have any real good solid answer for you it's certainly nothing as a student as being a
dentist that everybody you know we are all kids once you know it's kind of interesting the paths
that your life take and opportunities come up but as an eight-year-old kid you probably never
thought someday I'm an automotive fuel injection wiring company you didn't know what life had in
the store I could see you running a park that would make a lot of sense to me are you gonna do
more racing this year I am it's going to be a flux year so end of last year I tore up the
engine in the svo the coyote engine and I ended up breaking the balancer bolt in a hotel parking
lot after trying to replace the front main seal and that's my fault for reusing it displayed
up in an arp bolt but the engine was already getting tired I was getting a lot of blow by and I
was going to retire the car at the end of the year temporarily retire it anyway and that just
kind of forced my hand now I'm hard at building this mccure xr4ti with a 2.3 eco boost I don't
know if I'm going to have it done this year yet I've been spending all my free time on it but
also have this goofy little mini cooper s an r53 it's just been kind of like floating around my lot
and not doing too much with but like I hadn't really figured out what to do with it so it's
going to get pushed into autocross duty I've already got a roll bar in it and a couple
sparkle race seats and I had totally rebuilt a lot of the engine because it was leaking a little
everywhere and new rack and whatnot so it's got all new suspension so that's the long story
to answer your question I'm going to do as much autocross as I have in years past but when it comes
to track racing I did sign up for nd optima because I couldn't pass up that opportunity sure how much
more might just be a couple track nights but I have committed myself I got a little swept up in the
point stuff at optima which is not a bad thing but this was a good opportunity for me to get back
to just wanting to visit some historic tracks and have fun this year not worry about points
I applaud yet another wise decision by Scott frankly this is supposed to be fun and I mean
that we all get competitive but it's really fun and by the way whatever you said was it a mere
cooler you said yeah okay yep that's probably going to be the cool car in five years because
you were on the fox body or fox bodies are everywhere now Scott they're the next hottest
hottest thing so after that will be mere coolers and then probably after that will be mini cooper's
whatever you're interested in and you know kind of like the crown vic swap five years from now oh my
gosh rob it's the future please don't pin me as a trend setter I can't fill those shoes it's your
nature man you can't help it all right Scott how do you want people to find you just the website
we're on facebook ron frances wiring website is ronfrances.com 800 number 1-800-292-1940
you can also find our products at most major establishments classic industries jags summit
or give us a call absolutely Scott thank you for coming on thanks for being on board for another
year thanks for being a good friend and i'll catch you later see me here rob thanks for everything
and uh i enjoyed the interview you bet you man bye bye
thank you Scott excellent so for some of you really long time listeners Scott Bowers of
ron francis wiring Scott had positioned ron francis as the sole sponsor the major sponsor
of the pro touring podcast that larry callahan and i did for years and then we had the pro
touring update that larry callahan would do and they continue to sponsor that
now who says Scott has a sense of humor ron francis wiring is the sponsor of the celebrity
automotive ancillary birthday game segment on the kibbe and friend show right what a drummer good
dude absolutely good dude ronfrances.com is where you go thank you again Scott i'll be back next
week between now and then hit me up on facebook or instagram anytime be sure to subscribe to
us on apple podcast spotify and youtube you can always find every show plus all of our show
merch on the homepage of the musclecarplace.com website and as always don't forget to keep
chasing your dreams like you let me chase mine thanks for listening everybody bye bye thanks
for parking at the musclecar place online podcast sponsored by national parts depot visit the
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About this episode
Scott Bowers of Ron Francis Wiring shares insights on wiring hot rods the right way, emphasizing quality, customer service, and practical tech tips like alternator sizing and wiring harness specifics. He discusses the company's history, focus on Ford engine swaps, and the importance of clear, tailored wiring kits. The episode also touches on the new Grand Tour hosts, AMD's 1969 Dodge Charger body project, and a fun spring break movie recommendation. Scott's straightforward approach and deep expertise make for an informative conversation on wiring and hot rod electrics.
Original notes
Scott Bowers from Ron Francis Wiring returns to The MuscleCar Place to talk about the art—and reality—of wiring hot rods the right way. With decades of experience helping builders bring everything from garage projects to award-winning show cars to life, Scott shares why thoughtful wiring design makes all the difference. Instead of generic “universal” kits, Ron Francis Wiring focuses on engineered systems built around real-world setups, ensuring builders get harnesses that make sense and actually work the way they should.
Along the way, Scott shares behind-the-scenes stories from the SEMA Show, dives into the surprising rise of the Ford Crown Victoria as a hot-rodding platform, and busts one of the most common electrical myths in the hobby—why installing a high-amp alternator won’t “overcharge” your system. It’s a fun and practical conversation filled with real-world tech knowledge that every builder—from first-time project owners to seasoned fabricators—can appreciate.
The post TMCP #641: Scott Bowers – Ron Francis Wiring – Wiring a Hot Rod the Right Way first appeared on The Muscle Car Place.
The MuscleCar Place
Robert Kibbe
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