Kit or Scratch

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

Just wanted to know people's experiences in re-wiring a car?
So far I have four alternatives.
1. Taking the car to an Auto-Electrician, to re-wire from scratch.
2. Buying a kit, $5-600, and taking to an electrician to fit.
3. Buying a kit and fitting myself, then possibly taking to an electrician for the hard bits/stuff-ups.
4. Trying to work with the mess of old wiring thats in a couple of boxes.

Swaying towards option 3 with a kit from Aussie (see below)

I also have three alternatives for kits -
1. A Vintage wiring company.
2. A Painless Kit ($?)
3. A kit from Aussie Auto Looms ($550 one size fits all, free COD) http://www.aussieautoloom.com.au/

[smithy]

hi stinky, for what its worth i recently ran into the same drama, my original loom was just an absolute mess in-line fuses everywhere and burnt out or frayed wiring.
i had a look at the painless kits but ended up going to classic car connections ( pretty sure thats the name) in victoria. the also trade as airide suspension supplies. ph Glen Rulach 03 97295556
i ended up paying just on $600 for their micro fuse panel which is a tiny little fuse panel and had more than enough wires to fit out whatever you need, just tell him what your running and he will make a kit to suit. all wires are GM coded and stamped every 5 inches with the source or destination. all i had to do was to run the wires and mount the fuse panel.
starter, horn and hi/low beam relays were included, im no sparky but took my time scratched my head a few times and worked it out. and if you get stuck glen was only too happy to help out over the ph. IMHO well worth it.
dean

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

Were the wires terminated and ready to plug in, like headlights etc? or do you need to do that yourself?

[Ed]

Hi Stinky,


I helped re-wire an EH using the pinless kit, and the kits are really good, much like any aftermarket loom u can buy now I guess. easy to follow, and wire up it comes down to budget and time costraints tho.

Currently using a VN commodore harness now, and the relays and fuses make it an easy hook up for my particular application.  price wise, about 20% of the cost of aftermarket loom, hassle wise about 500% more.

and as mentioned b4 Air ride place has lots of handy things like weather pack clips and OEM type clips for adaptation.

Cheers

Ed

[collecta]

Hey stinky,
talkin to a mate from the FB/EK club the other day about this, and he said not to be scared to fit a loom out of a HZ, which is what he has done in his red six FB,reckons
it works a treat.
cheers
Scott

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

Smithy, Thanks for the "heads-up", I gave Glenn a call and the 18 fuse/21 circuit kit at $395 seems to be a good deal and $200 cheaper than a Painless Kit.

Scott, Good idea too, but it's a 20 odd year old car again, who know what gremlins I may inherit.

[smithy]

hi stinky sorry about the delay in getting back to you, all wires are terminated at the fuse panel all you have to do is connect it up to the source. lights etc. all plugs for headlights, dipper switch are in the kit and there is heaps of cable so you can pretty much put the fuse panel where you want to. i ended up running all wires to the front of the car under the guards and hid the rest. instructions are quite good and you will have heaps of spare wires and fuses in the kit all marked if you want to run things like thermo fans, electric windows, doors or choke.
hope this helped a bit. im going to be starting my beast for the first time in two years in the next week or two so hopefully a fire extinguisher wont be needed

good luck
dean

[blacky]

 A handy trick for testing wiring looms after doing mods to them is to power it up using a cheap battery charger in place of a battery, if there is a drama with the wiring , the battery charger wont melt anything because it hasnt got enough grunt.

[Tumbles]

Thats a bloody good idea Ive let the smoke out of the wire on occasion
Tumbles

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

I'm glad Blacky let us in on this, I have also seen this suggested in Australian Street Rodding. They have a tech article on a Painless Wiring kit fit-up in the Nov/Dec issue.

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

Got the wiring kit from Airide today, looks real good.
With any luck it will be in the car next week sometime.
Photos to follow (maybe).

[Tumbles]

You got that wiring sorted out yet
Tumbles

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

Pah! I wish, I've only just got the motor in tonight. Depending on what job looks most urgent, the wiring should be started in the next week or so.

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

BTW, if anyone has fitted an aftermarket kit and has any suggestions as to where the best place for the fuse panel should go, I am all ears.

[smithy]

hi stinky, i may be able to help you here, i just finished ( well couple of months ago) a kit from airide, they are quite simple to fit up. not too much head scratching involved. the best place i found for the fuse panel is back up under the dash above the acelerator pedal, mounted to or around the subframe location,.  the relays (if you got them aswell  ) i sat up high to the right of the fuse panel behind the dash all still within reach.
the main fuse 50amp i secured to the fire wall behind the glove box. the small bolt comes out of the firewall just behind the bonnet hinge, you cant really see it  unless you look. all other wiring was split under dash and run beneath the front guards there is heaps of cable for that. the rest is pretty simple depending on what kit youve got there should even be wires left over to add on accessories later, power windows, doors etc. just make notes of what wires are used, what has been cut and where they run. feel free to drop us a line anytime and i'll see if i can help you out. my number is 0418865326.
good luck
dean

ps. big thanks to chris b for helping out when it got too much!

[fccool59]

I had a exact replica loom made up for $260.
there was no point going to the leco's. I took it out of the box and stuck it through the holes when my wagon was a rolling shell.
After that everything just went together as the car went together. It took about 2 minutes to poke it through the holes, trickiest part is feeding the tail harness.

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

Hey Smithy, how did you route the wiring to the rear of the car?
It looks like the factory wires go up inside th A pillar and along and down through the C pillar. Did you pull yours through or go another way?
The factory wires seem a little tight and I am not too keen on pulling them through.

Cheers

[smithy]

hi ya stinky, sorry about the delay, i had the same problem wires are too thick to take through the pillars, i just ran them along the floor then wrapped them in some tubing for protection. a little tip though if you can use a connector to join the rear section ( somwhere near / under the back seat is a good spot) then if there are any problems with the rear lighting you can just unclip. also if you really want you can always split the rear section into two from the front then run it down both sides of the car, and as long as they are protected, run them under the scuff plates and carpet.
good luck
dean

[Glenn 'Stinky' Stankevicius]

Thanks Smithy