Hey fellas,
Finally back from yet another deployment and I have electrical issues to work. My lights, ignition, and alternator works, but that's it! 30 years of hacking and splicing has taken its toll. After reading several old posts, I believe the Painless Muscle car kit #20102 looks like my best option. When I do this, I want to do it right.
Does anyone have any tips and tricks for installing a new harness and making it look really good? For example, are you guys just using tie wraps around wire bundles or are you wrapping them with some sort of tape? I don't want to use regualar old electrical tape if I can keep from it because if you ever have to pull it back, it becomes a sticky, dirty mess.
Are you hiding all the wires in the engine compartment or have you thought of a really cool way to route them in plain sight? I've done the convoluted tubing thing in the past, but would rather not again.

Anyway, just fishing for ideas. Thanks for the advice!

The tape used on wiring harnesses doesn't have adhesive on it. It's the same black vinyl tape but works more like cling wrap than electrical tape. You have to kind of tuck it under itself on one end, tape up the harness and tuck or tie it off at the other. Sometimes a strip of regualr electrical tape at the ends is enough to hold the vinyl tape in place without making a mess.

A lot of people use the corregated conduit like what is used on modern electrical systems, but it does detract from the stock looks.

If not going for an original look,What I used was the split tube like on newer cars/trucks.Buy new in colors or go to your local pick and pull to get what you need.

Welcome back graemlins/beers.gif

I don't like using tie straps. If they're too tight, they can damage the wires, especially in a car. Too loose, they slide around.

Something like this maybe?
Eastwood (http://www.eastwoodco.com/email/default.asp?T1=25063&SRCCODE=1CJBAN8)

3M (http://products3.3m.com/catalog/us/en001/auto_marine_aero/marine/node_5VDFZG4DZMgs/root_GST1T4S9TCgv/vroot_GS4JK4Y166ge/bgel_N8R2PJ4VBNbl/gvel_VB2NDGZBTHgl/theme_us_marine_3_0/command_AbcPageHandler/output_html)

Yep I just had the fun of pulling apart my headlight harness to replace a wire that showed over 20,000 ohms. :(

Pulling it apart I noted the stock tape was some sort of cloth almost like anti slip tape. Little cloth strings held it together in a few places.

On reassembly I used the black corregated junk. I hate the look. I think I will buy the repro tape and use that. Hiding the wiring sounds nice but I'd be too afraid of something needing repair.

I laid my new harness on the floor and got a visual on where things were going to go first. There a parts of the harness that can be prepared before the final install.

I dont recommend tie wraps for bundling either. When I got the final install I taped certain sections to bundle and then hung the harness into place by either the factory hooks or used 3M self adheasive tie wrap anchors to add support to parts that needed more support. I then used black corregated tubing in exposed areas, over the tape. I also allowed circuit 'test areas' and 'test points' in the harness.....places where it wasnt taped and had added taps in certain wires.....to facilitate eaiser access during troubleshooting. But there is nothing visible in the interrior, trunk and very little under the hood. I pretty much just changed the routing to try and hide everything I could.

The real thing that is important is to leave some relief in the harness itself. After you get it placed into the chassis and attached to the firewall, lay the harness out and then think of where you are going hang the harness. I also made my changes to the circuit direction in the harness to suit my needs and accessories....but this obviously hasas to be done before the final install.

Another TC member here told me about the black tape used on hockey sticks. I went to local sports shop and sure enuf there it was. Ive gone thru 2 rolls of it. Its black, cloth, sticky on one side. wraps nicely and looks pretty close to the stuff I pulled off under the dash. Original? no, works? YEP graemlins/thumbsup.gif

Does the cloth tape say in good shape? Does it absorb water and dirt over time? That's why I have always stuck with sticky-free vinyl.

Im sure the cloth holds some airborn dust but it appears to be more flexible when you need to move a thick harness section. The old stuff was a fabric type in my car and it was very brittle after 35 years. Since the wires are not visible I guess I wasnt conerned with the dust element. graemlins/beers.gif

I can't say enough good stuff about the orginal-style non-adhesive tape from M&H Electric. Just rewrapped the original engine/forward lamp harnesses on my 69 with it and it looks awesome. Really easy to work with, too. It's about $10 for a roll of the 1 1/4" wide tape.

Take a look at the link to my site. From the pictures of the engine you can see that I routed all wires to the grill behind the inner fender. In addition many of the wires route inside the car from the fuse panel, and over to the wiring grommet for the heater behind the engine and from there make their way to the engine. I ran everything in wiring loom, and used the "cling" type tape. I was extremely impressed with the painless kit, and with some energy you can set it up to where there are hardly any wires to be seen.