OBSESSED WITH QUALITY WIRING -- Tools, materials, suppliers, techniques?

Tools:
This is one place I've dropped the money for really good stuff...and it isn't that spendy, amazingly.
Wire strippers from the Snap-on truck. They're like a spring-loaded pliers, and they strip clean every time. I think they were $35?
Small butane torch, also from the Snap-on truck. It was $35. Get the good name-brand one, not the generic. It fires easy, and best of all it has a stand, so you can set it on the bench and use it with no hands on the torch. Use it for heat shrink tubing and soldiering.

Ratcheting terminal crimpers. Again, snap-on truck, and again, $35. These put the really neat crimps on terminal ends.

I've got a pair of Stack-on "half moon" crimping pliers for **** connectors. The key with these is to make sure that you arent crimping the joint in the metal tube with the male portion of the crimper. This pliers is a must-have, and available at any commercial electrical supply place, and I think I've seen them at Home Depot.

Keep your eyes open on ebay and at the swap meets for a big honkin set of cable crimpers. Bigger than you think you'd ever use.
Because you will use it for the wire going into the back of your alternator, and for the battery cables when you put the battery in the trunk. Nothing else will do, and you'll be a garage hero when you whip those bad boys out.

Sears sells amazingly innexpensive Multi-meters. Get one.

Year One sells plastic wire-loom tape, in a couple different widths. I picked up three rolls there.

As for wiring itself, just this week I finished rewiring my '62 Suburban with a kit from American Autowire. Second car I've done with them, and there's a very good reason it's the second car I've done with them. The kit is EXCELLENT. They have restoration-oriented kits, and I used the cl***ic update kits. Everything is wired in the back of the fuse panel and comes ready to cut and finish. Each wire is labeled down the whole length, and the instructions are FANTASTIC.
For the '60-'66 kit I used, they gave me 4 different instructions for the dash, because there were four different versions of the dash, including "61 with temp gauge, '61 with indicator light." And there was a 5th instruction diagram for aftermarket gauges.
The pics in the instructions also show the wiring harness going on an actual '60-'66 truck, showing that they actually installed their own product on what it was designed for. Lots of places don't actually do that.
You can also get a lot of accessories and different things through them, like 3-position heater switches, etc.
I'll always use them, and we don't sell them at work--I won't say who we do sell, but I paid the long dollar for the kit, not the employee discount I could have gotten by using the well-known brand we carry.

-Brad

 

http://www.dairiki.org/hammond/cable-lacing-howto/

 

I've been wrapping my visible under hood wiring in cloth loom from napa. Under the car I've used the plastic stuff for the ease and durability.

When I use the zip ties, I usually bundle things in groups, then bundle the groups together. Makes troubleshooting easy.

 

i really like weatherpack connectors. they don't look traditional by any stretch of the imagination though, so if that's going to upset your project, don't use them.

if you're interested in using them, you might want to check out the ratcheting crimper from sg tools. it works just as good as the delphi one and only costs about $35.

 

Cool, is that stuff sort of like the hockey stick tape? How does it hold up?

 

A coupla more, Make a Wire Run List. Like spread sheet, wire one is drivers headlite plus, wire two etc.. You'll soon discover the car won't have 25 wires in the list. If you can make wire one land on harness plug slot one you can eliminate wire lables. Cloth wrap on wire numbers look sweet, or masking tape flags with numbers written on to be peeled off later also works. Don't laugh electrical power plants are built this way.
Build from one end to the other. If all the s****s are a foot long in the end your lost labor and material is nothing.
Wire weaves like rope, twist the harness so it supports itself as one uniform ***embly blended to the car. This is art, but compared to pinstriping or paint it's childs play.

 

Great post, great suggestions. I would just like to add one more "tool".
I picked up these velcro straps that you can wrap around a wiring bundle, and it sticks to itself, but you can also unwrap it to add more wires. So you can build your harness a wire or 2 or 3 at a time. When you're all done with running the wires, you start taping it up, removing the straps as you go. You can use them to secure wires to objects to keep them in place as well, either temporarily, or more permanently. But always easily removed!

 

Look in the Painless wiring catalog: They have a line of extra quality bulk wire that sounds very promising, AND a line of super-duper terminals with heat bonding insulators...way upscale from their kit wiring. I hate those Yellow-blue-red terminals--some are actually decent quality, but the look is K-mart.
Decide on a line of terminals, like GM type 57 or early Ford bullet, to use throughout, and get OEM or decent quality plug blocks. On the GM ones, you can use the plastic terminal plug blocks cut from junkyard harnesses, and replace the actual contacts with new ones very easily.
Make a single-wire dummy to show exact length needed for each segment of the haness, flag it where wires turn out, use it as a guide for building harness.

 

Wow! Thanks! This exceeded my wildest expectations.

You guys are GREAT!!!

When I start wiring I'll photo the progress.

--Matt

 

I used to do a lot of electrical panel work and still build custom electrical panels on occasion (have two in the shop right now). A couple of thoughts for you.

XLPE wire is a possibility. It is rubber coated and very flexible, better than THHN or similar wire and it's no more expensive. Buy it at electrical supply houses. The issue with this might be wire color. I'm not positive in color choices.

Use correct stake-on pliers. Quality connectors can be had off the internet at many electrical supply houses. Personally, even for custom cabinet work, I use Home Depot or Lowe's off the shelf connectors. They look reasonable, hold up well and if you're proficient in crimping them, they don't tear up. (operator error always has a way of defeating any project).

Crimpers and fittings...most off the shelf stuff will deform the plastic covering somewhat regardless of the quality of the crimper. Unless it's a very special job, I just use a Klein crimper. However, I have about a dozen other special crimpers for anything from pins to buchanans. There is a blue handled mechanical crimper for fork lugs that does really nice work, but it's over $100 but is super fast, and does a super job. However, unless you're doing more than one job, it's really not cost effective. I don't have the name as the tool is in a tool box at home.

Use shrink around the connector body if you think the cheaper priced connectors look "cheap", and or use solder connectors with shrink.

I use ty-wraps, as needed, to keep the bundle together, making sure that colors run straight and true throughout. Also, depending upon restoration work or "don't really care" work, I would cloth wrap the bundle, tape w**** the bundle or use the plastic wire hiders available at box stores or online suppliers.

 

I'm still in awe over the great content you guys provide.

I was curious about the lacing comment and found this link:
http://www.dairiki.org/hammond/cable-lacing-howto/
Kinda cool...

 

I'm a big fan of the Wurth Solder/Seal Connectors
http://www.wurthusa.com