Do you make your own wiring harness and why?!? with poll!

I'm sure we'll never know the truth... Would you fess up to it? I sure wouldn't, its like bustin' ass in an elevator.

 

I like the looks of old Ferrari wiring, Like this TR59 replica, so I'm on my own. Don't this just look swell??

 

I have done both. The last one was a kit and all went well but will buy the colored wire next time. This kit had all black wires. There were marked but only about every 3 to 4 feet, so did a lot of tracing to make sure I had the right wire. Lesson learned!

 

I've built lots of stuff in college that looked like that with real basic-type mounting board and wire wraps, so that looks great to me, EA-SY to troubleshoot! Ahh the days of breadboarding circuits hungover, or maybe just still drunk, just like everyone else in the class. That would be one of the few things I would do from scratch. You could work that into something REAL trick looking, and you could use all brand new components in it, hell, the shiney ones will be tarnished in like 2 minutes anyhow.

Really, its nothing more to me than using all new parts, regardless of the style your going for... Used electrical stuff, man, gives me the heebie-jeebies.

I'm just gonna let you know now... I'm thinkin' I'm gonna steal your idea.

 

For my 27 T tub I didn't need much of a harness and I had a component panel and lots of leftover wiring from some other wiring jobs that wasn't required, so I put it all together. On the other hand though I have used complete kits and they really are the way to go if you have lots of accessories. With the cost of the complete ones being so cheap, there is no reason to do your own. Like I said, I had a lot of leftover wire and an extra panel. Pat.

 

I have done it both ways, even if you but a kit you still have to make up things like a guage harness etc. If I use a kit it is going to be modified

 

My EZ kit had all the wires I needed for the gauges... I only had to add 1 or 2, maybe 3 wires total, but there's some aftermarket gear in it. It really was quite complete.

 

I've always wired my own cars. Start with a wiring diagram, buy the components and put it together. The kits give you all of the stuff, but if you look at what's there it would be easy to duplicate. It doesn't matter to me that a wire isn't labeled rt turn signal, I just look at my wiring diagram and see how that wire that I'm looking for is color coded.

If money wasn't an issue, then I'd probably buy a kit. But I'll spend a little more time and do it the same way I've been doing it for 40 years.

 

im almost finished wiring my car with an ez wiring harness.

 

I am wiring my roadster myself here is my sketch of a schematic

 

Yep.

 

I picked up a wire harness and farmed it out.My model a is the 1st car ive ever done from frame up.I have this thing about knowing what i can do and not do.And i cant wire a car just something about smelling burning wire.

 

I build cars for a living and it is more cost effective for the customer and myself to just buy a kit. They use to be expensive but now you can get one for around $200.

 

I do restoration mostly and to buy a new cloth-covered harness is by far more fically sound than replicating 1 wire at a time, even though theres really few wires. Some of the 60s harnesses are reasonable too. I think an engine harness for the 61 bubbletop is less than a C note. Kustom stuff? On my own there but I like it.

 

Early on I cleaned up what was already there. I have swapped complete systems out of the donar car to the project car, wired up complete cars by myself and used kits. I did a Ron Francis in the 34 many years ago and have had no problems with it. Have an EZ kit ready to install in the F1 project. I find it easier to use a good color coded kit. Use what you need & save the cut off parts.
Does anyone have a clue on wiring up a Ford 2.3 EFI Turbo?Any pre-fab kits or harness tricks? Thanks.

 

Mine was a mix on my truck. The guy who owned it put in a front replacement harness and had the rest of the harness in a box for me. I used what was there and modified it to how I wanted and cleaned up some stuff. I also soldered my connections and heat shrinked them then put them into the old style loom so it looked dated yet clean.

 

Hell, you can get 'em around 150 smackers now... Definitely very cost-effective, capitalism at its best; whos gonna plunk down $500 when you can just as good a one at 20%, competition is a very good thing! IMO a great bargain, especially if you go with a new fuse panel on a homemade one, I couldn't bring myself to use a old fuse panel.

 

I do mine. I work in the electronics industry and I would not be able to show my face if I didn't at least pretend to know what I was doing. As an aside I am building a dual voltage system for my 52, using a solar charger to keep the deep cycle powered. Might go to 12V later but I'm having a lot of fun making stupid stuff work in this carcass.

 

wow im gettin dizzy just lookin at that!
ima conquer my wiring fears soon. rewiring a 6 volt system. pretty basic but im eager to learn.

 

I'll be rewiring my Pontiac this winter, and the plan is to make my own harness from scratch. That way I know the turn signals will work with the factory switch, none of my wires will be too small, I won't have any extra circuits, etc. and I can use that beautiful Pontiac fuse holder.

 

Did my own S 14 DeSoto was simple

 

It's not hard if you break everything down into basic circuits. I like to pull fuse panels out of different cars at the junk yard to use in my projects. I don't spend a lot of time designing it first. Just do it, and as you rough in the wires, remember to leave extra slack at both ends so you can re route something mid project if you want to modify the way it looks. I've found that using the cheapo solder guns is a waste of time. It's all about the duty cycle. I went through 3 of the cheap ones before I got my newest soldering iron. It's a Weller WESD51, and has been running strong for the last 5 years.

 

...I've wired about 30 cars/trucks from scratch, using these mid-60's American Motors fuse panels; all connections labled as well as fuse sizes, and all push-on connections. These are getting hard to find now.

 

I have always done my own wiring. I started when there were no kits and am now stuck in my ways.

The kits have nicely labeled wires but other than that I'm not a fan. Besides if it is done right I'll never have to go back, right?

 

I've done my own, not because I wanted to, but because I had to. There is no Kit for my car, and the universal ones won't work. I did have the schematics for the wiring complete with what the factory used, color and gauge. That made it super easy. Car electronics are really easy, especially on these older cars that don't have a sensor for everything. Don't be afraid, 12 volts doesn't hurt that bad.

 

For the price of a Rebel Wire setup there wasn't any sense in me buying the wire and fighting the headache of setting it up myself. That, and their setup has the wires labled every foot.

 

back "in the day" we had to do our own. As Ron Francis and others began to provide quality kits, it didn't make sense to continue to do so. For folks just starting out in this hobby/avocation, go ahead and make your own, but for those of us who have already spent countless hours at each end of the car and on top and underneath, it's just more time-effective (and cost-effective also) to use one of the myriad kits that are available for nearly every car and or circuitry need.

 

I have done a few prewired kits, and plenty of repairs. Unless it is a direct replacement, I will make my own. I can give a myriad of reasons, but having to cut and reroute a premade make it easier to route my own, plus I can better control what is visible with minimal splicing. A big reason for me is, I enjoy doing it, and it is hard to beat that reason./

 

I always figure that someday down the road sombody will need to repair or modify something, If you need to jump into the midle of something that isn't factory and figure out whats what, the wires being marked every foot or so is a huge help.

Sure it's not rocket science to build a harness, but these kits are very reasonalble and much easier to diagnose for sombody later.

 

I had this guy bring his Jeep into the shop one time with an electrical issue. I take a quick look... the whole car bumper-to-bumper was wired with the same gauge exorcist-green wire. I advised my boss to pass on taking it in.

I've only done partial rewire jobs, which weren't that bad. I always got a copy of the wiring diagrams from the car manuals at the library. This was on simple stuff like old Chevy pickups. I've also spliced in parts of harnesses from junkyard donors.

Bob