That's what I was wondering. Electrical was not the forte of early automotive engineers/designers. As evidenced by lack of fuses, bad grounds, battery placement, 6V, Positive ground, cloth insulation, primitive or no connectors, dim lights...........
Some of that is just that technology/materials were not available. Some of was the lack of understanding of Electrical reliability importance; environmental/vibration/corrosion/ heat/cold/protection effects on electrical contacts, terminals, wire and components. WWII and Korea were major learning exercises.
The positive ground part is just to say no standardization, it has no effect on performance. GMC, VW, Model A, etc. had no issues.
They started hiring electrical engineers and things got "better"/standardized.
That's what most of us do, upgrade/renew the electrical as a major item on the Do-Do list.
Great photos from Kevin.
