I'm looking for suggestions/ideas for covering wire looms and harnesses under the hood. I've seen plenty of the stuff they call "convoluted tubing" , just about enough to know I don't want cheap looking plastic crap. Of course, wrapping with electrical tape like stock applications is an option (even colors other than black). What else? Anything imaginative being used? Pictures or links to products would be cool, but I'm open to making something original myself if I get inspiration.
Painless has a product called Powerbraid.. http://www.painlessperformance.com/webcatalog/largeview.php?SearchField=70902 Hardly "traditional" but cool stuff nonetheless. Looks much better than split loom & more resistant to heat. just my .02
I use a weaved cover that is kick ass that comes from Ram products. I think you will love this stuff. It is like an old cloth cover. For the headlights I use flexible conduit.. Hope this helps!
I like to run the wires where they are not seen/noticed and used a wiring kit with all black wires. My fuse box is under the seat. Wires for the drivers side (headlight/taillight and dash) go through the floor and onto the drivers side frame rail. Starter, alt, oil pressure, water temp, hot wire to fuse box) go through the floor to the passenger side frame rail. All of the wires are tightly bundled and zip tied every 4 inches or so.
^^^^^ I've been thinking about the hockey tape for a while. Just wondered how it held up. When it gets warm under the hood does it get all gooey and want to slip around? Pretty sure I'm going to go with the hockey tape. Scott
I just use zip ties every foot or so (Are zip ties traditional ?), and use fiberglass covered range wire (it looks nice). maskes it easier to figure out where stuff is going if there's a problem, and also easier too add things.
well.. i actually don't have it on anything to close to the motor at this point. but its sticking good for what i did use it for so far.
I use the stock early ford cloth wire loom from Mac's. It's cheap, looks nice, and protects your wires!
Black asphalt-coated cotton loom in many sizes is a traditional wire protection material and is available from many sources including your local NAPA store.
I use an NSA rated loom, keeps wire neat and is abrasion resistant. There is an alliance vendor that has very nice looking loom materials and he displayed them once during a discussion on this same topic. If you have the patience try the 'search' feature and see what you come up with.
i used heat shrink tubing, and tried to keep it all out of sight, its clean......but its expensive....but....i would do it again
you want asphalt impregnated fabric wire loom cover. It's traditional, comes in various sizes. I got turned onto it by the vern tardel build book. you can get it at Restoration Specialties & Supply http://www.restorationspecialties.com
Wasn't this shit outlawed when Lady Bird Johnson started her beautify America campaign? there is not a car in the world out side of a Ringling Brothers clown car that looks good with this shit. Just say no!
They make something similar to this in the early 60's called "spaghetti" but this is made of PVC and can be found at your local dollar store... Go to the stationery section of the store, and pick up as many of the "High School Musical 2" pads of notebook paper... the ones with the plastic spring down the side... They may make Spongebob Squarepants notepads, but the HSM2 ones usually have that dreamy Zack on them, and using him as kindling in your BBQ grill or fireplace is much more satisfying than ol Spongebob. Nip the bent over end off of the "spring" and unscrew it from you notepad Now you have a 11" long piece of "spaghetti" to wrap your wires with for $1. What is nice about it is that the wires can exit the wrap at any point, and it comes off in 11" chunks so you can remove one and not have to take the whole thing off, and it looks kinda period correct for the 60's
use to call it friction tape,stickier than hell on one side,cloth on the other.good stuff but looks like ass with any lumps or splice connectors under it.looks even better with age and the dust that sticks to it gives it that not so new look
I'm with Harpo1313-nothing looks better than cloth tape. I plan on using it when I install my loom. Let me know if you need some, I'll sell you a couple rolls. I've got a couple dozen rolls of it, 1" black, and sticky as hell. Cheap too, like $7.00 a roll, I think?
I just bought friction(black cloth tape) tape to use under the hood of my 39, 3m makes it and home depot stocks it .
The black cloth friction tape looks as close as it gets . The nice dull black look it perfect & it's pretty cheap too . Holds up good and when it gets warm it really sets up nice . I wouldn't use it near exhaust & don't try using it in the cold . Just remember to ware some gloves of some kind because if you don't your hands will be like black , sticky tar !
Wow this is a lotta good stuff! I didn't think to ask when I was doing this a while back. I despise that split plastic crap. I found the tar soaked cotton weave, whatever you callit, bought that at a swapmeet and its pretty cheap. You ahve to think ahead because you can't just remove it like you can the split stuff.
Does anyone have a source for what we called "spaghetti"? It was a spiral wrap and it came in different colors but had a white strip in the middle of it.
I used some black heavy duty cloth wire loom stuff I got from CJ Moss in Santa Ana, CA. You have to pull the wire thru it, it is not split, and then I used shrink tube to close the ends. They have it in 1/4 to 5/8 inch dia. I used it to cover my injector wires and also some fuel line. Rex
I used a wire covering from McMaster Carr, looks good and is split for easier installation. Its a woven cover rather than that corrigated plastic.
we use a braided covering we call "snake skin" on aircraft....try avionicsinternational.com, look up "expando" comes in alot of sizes....
I made my own harness and took it to a local guy that had an actual wrapping machine from the 20's or before. Neat old thing that had a dozen or so spools of heavy thread and made noise like you couldn't believe. He wrapped the entire loom for me for $40.00 and it looked like a NOS original. The fellow died and I haven't been able to find out what ever happened to the machine.
Old thread, but I found it in a search as I am currently wiring the '29 Phaeton. I exhausted myself looking for something that looks traditional. What I wanted was the asphalt covered cotton loom, but I could not find the larger sizes I need (3/4" & 1") in small quantities. The least I was going to spend to go that route was $102, and I would have a lot of the larger sizes left over. I ended up using the 3M friction tape. I'm very happy with it...if I had known how good it looks, I would not have wasted so much time looking for the other stuff! After reading the package, I realized this friction tape is made for exactly what we are using it for. I can't believe in all my years of building cars, I didn't know about this tape.
Here's some examples of very neat wiring. It can be done at home with the proper lacing twine. It is is extremely neat and efficent but definetly not traditional. Taks some practice to do right but is easy to rip out and do over till you get the look that you like. http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=cable+lacing+examples&qpvt=cable+lacing+examples&FORM=IGRE
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