There were a few requests for some info on wiring a backup camera. I recently did this on my 69 Cougar and wow what a difference. Cost was about $25 For a Chinese kit from EBay. I don’t see any full fledged kits with the rearview monitor for under $24.50 to save you some searching. My recommendation is to avoid the wireless kits. If you wire the monitor to a live ignition wire instead of your backup lights, I read a few reviews of people having the camera pick up static images while driving due to some interference. If you do the hardwire version and tap into your reverse power light you will avoid all this and the camera/monitor only come on when you go into reverse.
This video helped me a lot on YouTube. Reverse Backup camera wiring - YouTube The instructions that came with the kit were an absolute joke.
The kit you are looking for should look like this
search eBay for backup reverse camera kits. I prefer having the monitor built into the rearview mirror. It looks cleaner as most wont know you have one until somebody looks really closely.
There are kits where there is a monitor that can be placed on a dash. That’s up to you to decide.
Then there is the camera. The picture above is a more hidden camera. You will have to put a small hole in your trunk to mount it. The other type of camera will fit over your plate. This is what I initially did. It looks like this
I fit the wiring into the trunk through the license plate wiring hole after enlarging it a tad. I sealed it afterwards with silicone.
Your “magic” wire is that single wire in your trunk going to your backup lens. You will need to splice two lines to this. One line will go to the camera live wire. The other goes to a wire that is also a live wire connected with the video feed wire. It looks like this
One side of that red wire will also splice into your backup wire.
Run that video feed wire to your monitor. If you followed my suggestion, your monitor will fit directly over your rearview mirror. Plug the yellow line into the side where your camera feed is. Plug the opposite side into the matching yellow feed at the monitor side. There will be a red power line coming from the monitor. That red wire stick out the other side should be tied in here. Run a ground wire from the camera to something metal in your car and repeat at the monitor side.
That’s it. Took me about an hour. The results
When I’m driving forward this is how my mirror looks.
When I back up this is what happens to my rearview mirror.
Feel free to ask questions and list your results. A benefit I found is my rearview window gets foggy but the camera is always crystal clear when I’m in reverse parking. Makes it very easy to park in tight spaces now late at night