Hot Rods Traditional wire ties

The factory wrap has adhesive, it's just much lighter than what's used on 'normal' tape. It also dries up over time and once disturbed loses all stickiness. If you look closely, you can see the residue on the tape when opening a vintage loom.

Guys tend to lump 'electrical tape' all together, but there are big differences between types/brands/price points. My go-to is Scotch 33+, it is the very best for our purposes IMO. Plymouth Premium is close. Scotch 88 is considerably thicker and harder to work with. When I was still working, 'bargain' tape (we lumped it all together as 'Jap wrap') was used for very temporary use (wire pulling mostly) or as 'filler' under better-quality tape (taping up split-bolts for instance if no rubber tape was available). Almost never used for a 'finished' install unless covered by a better-quality tape (at least by me).

As far as zip-ties go, the only ones worth using IMO are the ones with metal catches. Not cheap, but these will not fail like the all-plastic ones do. Buy cheap, get cheap...

And a tip: when removing the excess 'tail', don't cut them off. No matter how close you try to get to the 'head', doing that will leave a sharp end that will slice you up. Instead, grip the tail right at the head and twist them off with pliers. Do it right and it'll break off flush with the head, no sharp ends. If using cheap all-plastic zip-ties, expect a high failure rate. The metal catch type won't fail.

 

From Temu

Stainless, cheap. I have had no problem with them. Mike
https://www.temu.com/300pcs-metal-c...e-flexible-and-durable-g-601099528117086.html

 

Someone early on mentioned friction tape. I remember that stuff from my dad’s toolbox. Anyway, I decided to see what was offered. As usual, Amazon had everything…..including wiring harness tape.
Who knew ?

 

I had a few minutes at the garage this morning so I tried out the wire harness tape. Feels like the old friction tape but is not sticky on the top. Wraps very well. Looks great. How great you ask.

 

I never liked the taped up wire looms, makes it a bitch to trouble shoot. When I built my coupe I string tied it like they used to do in aircraft and then used the split mesh wire loom. The loom is hard to see but this is the best picture I could find, the distributor wiring is on the engine and the headlight wiring is by the left shock. Not traditional but looks good and fairly easy to work on.

 

Few years back in the big auto factory we had wire ties. The older group of employees called them chicken bands. They were not solid plastic.

 

I've been using the black wire ties to organize and fasten wire groups were the aren't easily seen. I find they don't pop out visually. Don't buy the cheapest ones, they don't seem to hold or last. I used the Holly weave split loom from speedway for protection and were they are exposed, looks good and easy to use and remove for modifications and repairs.

Phil

 

Just saw this. Looks cool. Someone has to buy some and let us know.
https://www.temu.com/heat-shrink-br...tection-pet--organizer-g-601099561044216.html

Mike

 

You first!

Ben

 

I found these on Amazon, 20 leather wire ties with a snap. You can order just brown or mixed black/brown. They are 2.91" long which equates to about .95" diameter. I will let you know how they look when I get them tomorrow.

 

I was going to step up to the plate and order some until I saw the TEMU logo. Just read a few articles about TEMU. Don’t want my name or credit card number in their files. Be careful guys !!!


EDIT !!!!

found it on Amazon and bought some. I will let you know how it goes

 

This is something I've always had a love/hate relationship with.

On my stock cars I always copied what the factory did, mostly muscle cars when I was young, so this meant black tape wrap. Even though I went that route it didn't mean I couldn't hide the wiring which I did, up under fenders etc.

On customer cars where I was adding extra circuits like, line-lok, electric fans etc, I always keep my electrical wiring separate from the vehicles wiring. As in you could remove anything I added including the wiring and never touch the factory wiring. On this I used small black wire ties with the wiring running nice and straight thru the loom. I hated the wiring wrapping around itself.

Now that I'm looking to wire my model A I'm looking at all possibilities. Thinking black wire ties on things that won't be seen like the under dash/gauge wiring and nice little bundles with the wiring nice and straight.

On seen areas, I'm thinking some of the nice black woven covers with the color dots (headliights, motor, etc), under the car and down the frame where it won't been seen but open to elements I'm leaning to the split plastic loom. Easy to install and remove in order to troubleshoot or add to later but hold up really good to the elements....


...

 

It’s also on FleaBay

 

We used to boil white wire ties in ritz dye. Could make your wire ties any color you could find in Ritz

 

I have worked on older industrial machinery that also had string tied wire runs. When done correctly it looks very impressive, but it’s not as easy as it looks.

 

On the car in the picture over there in the corner (don't recognize that hippie weirdo with all the hair...), I didn't have a lot of wiring. However I did have enough that I wanted it neat and easy to troubleshoot and repair. I planned the wiring runs and used rubber lined wrap around hose clamps screwed down and just ran the wires thru them from point to point. Easy to do, easy to r&r, and easy to add on to.

 

I am going with a vintage vibe for my roadster project. I found the correct cloth electrical wiring tape and waxed aircraft lacing cord. I'm very happy with the look, it's different than everyone else and has a vintage look. I made my own metal "J" clips and dipped them in black plasti dip that bolt on to hold the taped bundle.

 

My order showed up. I finally got a minute to play with the stuff. This order was 3/8 inch size. The is not a split loom product so plan accordingly. I cut a small piece just to see what it does. This product is delivered flat. You will need something to open the tube. No mess or fuss on my hands and fingers.
I hit the small piece with a lighter for about 7 seconds. It shrinks the same if not a little better than regular shrink tubing.
I’m hoping to get to my garage in the next couple of weeks for a better test.

OPINION : $17 for 22 feet seems kind of expensive.

 

I still have a partial spool of tie wire (bailing wire) that has a GM part number on it....I hung a piece of it on a staunch Ford guys F-1 truck rear view mirror bracket....bent up like Wonder Womans' pubic hair....he still hasn't recovered but hasn't removed it

 

" like Wonder Woman's pubic hair" ? Pictures?.

Ben

 

Tesa is also a good brand, something like this would be a good option.

https://www.tesa.com/en-us/industry/tesa-4657.html

 

Well, didya get 'em yet?

 

Don’t ya hate when someone ghosts you like that? Sorry, forgot until I was playing with them on the truck today.
There was a loop on the end, maybe to attach them to something? I don’t know but I cut them off. Black leather with a brass snap. Looks better than zip ties. I think.

 

Wire lacing
Link to Garage journal article
https://www.garagejournal.com/the-lost-art-of-lacing-cable/
Dan

 

Damn, that is beautiful !!!

 

Oh that’s neat! Might have to steal that idea!

 

I worked in a gas production plant built in early sixties . All the control wiring was laced , a lost art to say the least . One of my Buds is 80 now , he can still do it and does on his projects .

 

Yeah, I figured you just forgot about it

They look pretty nice on there, much better than zippy ties! Thanx for the pics

 

Nice Billy. Great look, I might get some of these and play around with them.