Adding aftermarket gauge lights and stereo

[Gagecampbell82]

I have an 1982 c10 that I've added aftermarket gauges on for oil psi, water temp, voltage, and a tachometer. All sunpro/Bosch and I want to wire them to come on and dim with my interior lights since I'm replacing all of the bulbs inside the truck. So I know I have to look up a schematic which isn't a problem. But my question is should I tie directly into the dash light hot wire from the headlight switch (as cleanly as possible) or should I add a relay and tap into the dash light wire as a "signal" wire for the relay. And if so. Where should I draw the power from to run to the relay for lighting the gauge lights.  Is straight battery power to much current for my small gauge bulbs? I want to do this right regardless of the cost because I'm currently cleaning up tons of messed up wiring and fixing it all right.

Also, I'm wanting to add a stereo into the truck. I already have speakers behind the seat with wires run to behind the dash. Also I have a battery ground and battery hot ran but not hooked up to the battery yet. So I just need to know the safest way to add the remote and memory wires.
 For the memory wires I'm assuming find a 12v constant at the fuse box and get a "add a circuit" to hook it to. But for the remote should I do the same for a switched 12v wire?

Thanks for any help ahead of time. I have a feeling this will be a lengthy project but it has to be done right this time.

[Burkhalter]

If it were my rig I would slice into the existing wire for the dashboard lights with some solder and heat shrink. If you use a relay you would circumvent the dimmer switch, meaning that you could not dim the lights down.

Did your rig have a stereo previously? If it did you should already have all the wiring you need. If not I would just tap into the fuse block. It should have a couple of spots to hook up the ignition switch and a couple more that are hot at all times.

[Gagecampbell82]

I was worried I wouldn't be able to dim them with a relay. So I may tap into the existing wires temporary and run it with a close eye on the wiring just to be sure it's safe. And it did have a radio previously. Which was tied to the factory radio wire. Which was also powering the old gauge lights and possibly something else and is now burnt down into the main harness. I unwrapped all the wire covering and I got lucky that the factory radio wire was the only one burnt with just some sut on other wires. So tomorrow I will be cleaning and inspecting them then cutting out the burnt factory wire and soldering in some new wire. If I do this and only run the radio off of the factory radio wire it should be safe and not burn again right?

[Burkhalter]

I would think that you would be fine. Just as long as you have removed anything else that was connected to those wires. The extra current from the other loads is probably what put caused that wire to fail.

If the dashboard lights were plumbed in through the stereo. Do you have a problem with your dimmer switch?

[Gagecampbell82]

Yes when I got the truck the headlight dimmer switch was wired so the low beams came on with the key  (it had a bad dimmer switch so they caused tons of trouble over a inexpensive fix)

and the interior lights flicker and cut out when I turn the knob to brighten/dim them but I believe I just need a new switch. Today I went to the Junkyard and stripped apart a wiring harness and got the entire yellow radio wire (it was already cut when I got there) and took apart the fuse box and pulled the fuse holder out and came home and pulled my harness free enough to replace the entire "circuit" and checked for other burnt wires. Amazingly only 1 wire burnt and some of the coating stuck to another wire but pulled right off and didn't damage the sheathing on the other wire its strange that I got so lucky honestly.

Do next step is to figure out where one random black wire I have goes. I've determined it's either a ground or a positive for a light socket as there's one that uses a black wire only already. So il power it up and check it's polarity tomorrow hopefully.

Then tidy up the harness, cleanly wire in the gauge lights when I determine the right wire, wire the radio to the factory radio wire and most likely test then solder and heatshrink it all correctly and replace all interior bulbs and replace the headlight switch and hope for the best.