I installed Central Offices (telephone exchanges, whatever you want to call them) from 1975 until the early 80's, and laced hundreds of miles of dozens of different cable sizes. We used waxed nylon rather than waxed linen, which was used in earlier (traditional?) years. I developed some thick callus in odd places on my hands. I never took any pictures because I didn't think it was anything special, just something that was a part of the job.
I was a union construction wireman...We were shown how to do it and more importantly, how to route wires to avoid stress and unecessary length ....But most of the work was conduit and wire..Big pipe, big wires, big deal..
1959 Fiat 500 done quite a few years ago, but the wiring and lacing was fun. First and last time, so far. Used cloth covered wire and did it from scratch using some of the same tutorial pics that have been posted.
Beautiful work. Makes me think of an old Abarth fitter in a flat cap and shirt sleeves, cigarette dangling, leaning over to neatly lay that harness in place. Cheers, Harv
My '32 Roadster doesn't have many cables, so I kept it simple though tidy throughout the car like this 1mm cotton lacing and bee wax
We had a new harness design at work years ago. It called for Nomex lacing tape, this one was white with black specs in it. The lady who laced it up used our regular black waxed stuff. She had a canary when I showed her in the work instructions what she should have used, down to the part number and description. Good times.
My father in law was a telephone man. He gave me a spool of that waxed cord. I used it from time to time....and lost it in a move somewhere along the line.
I learned this while in the Marine Corps working on Dragon weapon systems and their test equipment. Of course every damn wire in the things was white... the waxed string @Roothawg showed was our go-to standard tool of the trade. We generally used a soldering iron to gently melt the wax to lock a knot in. Working for an obsessive boss that had an eye for how things were 'supposed' to look was not only frustrating, but also helpful in the long run. It certainly helped reinforce the idea, that if looks right, it probably is. I've not had to use this skill in quite a while due to a career change, but seeing this post was very nostalgic for me! Thanks Ryan!
MIL-T-43435 is the basic mil-spec lacing cord used just about anywhere in defense work. The spec itself is vast. I have even seen where TWO different lacing has been used within a single cable or harness. We put the halt on that for new designs after I put up a stink about it. Sheer lunacy.
The Jalopy Journal
