Technical Traditional looking wire organizing?

LOL if you ever looked under the dash of a stock vehicle you would notice that it looks like it was wired by a spastic chimp on meth.

What most of us are overlooking is that most of these old heaps were not rewired. "Backin the day" most cars were not a frame off or built from scratch. There were purpose built cars like say for example the Carillo Roadster, but most hotrods and customs were just old cars. They didn't get rewired, they got modified and wires either got chopped out of the harness or they were just left hangin'. If a wire was too short or two long it either got extended or shortened or more often than not it just got wound up.

Show cars like a purpose built race car were a different creature once again. They got cleaned up so as to get show points.

Now here is the rub, we are building cars from scratch more these days that before. A frame here an axle there a body may come to us in pieces. We want them nice and they do need to be wired. What we have to decide is what is over done to the point of being newestalgia and what is just clean enough without a bunch of modern looking fooforah. Where do you stop and have it looking like a real hotrod or custom as opposed to a full on restoration. its a tough decision.

 

Perfect !

 

"Newstalgia" is a great word for things. You are correct that in the quest for being "traditional" the end product is far from what would have been built "back in the day." Technology has advanced and made building cars easier than ever before. With addition of the internet and car shows on TV there is a higher standard to what a lot of hobbyists aspire to build to. Awareness of things goes a long way to wanting to make things more tidy and exact than say 30 years ago IMO. Being older and wanting it to look better than I would have when I was 20 has a lot to with my attitude about building cars. The difference between a nice car and a Great car is just a little more work. I have enough patience to take some more time to take those extra steps. That being said I like to look at building my car from a restoration standpoint and want to use correct vintage hardware and materials. Cloth wiring isn't much more expensive than plastic wiring so why not use it? I would rather have mohair upholstery than some tweed stuff. It all boils down to details and how you feel about those details.

 

*The traditionals have won me over. I will use the original wheels after all.



*Warning! Post contains toxic humor which can cause a rash on sensitive skin.

 

Right on Binger. That is where I'm at with my build. When I started on the car 3 or 4 years ago, I was going to be a purist about 1964 or older. Period. But, project creep has been monstrous. Performance and safety have taken precedence. The cost and the time commitment to find the perfect 60 year old components has been limiting. Some of my attempts at using truly traditional old components have been scrapped because they didn't turn out good. So it will be a unique amalgamation of crusty old unrestored stuff, retro styled new parts, new modern parts, hand fabricated stuff, craftsmanship in certain areas that is beyond backyard build, and goofy hacked up kid stuff. Some really cool retro stuff cancels out the modern stuff in my mind. So I am loving it. I don't know what anyone else will think.

 

Maybe oldstalgia could be a word for crusty/rusty/dusty things also.

 

Better than patina or barn fresh? Maybe. Haha.


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