I am getting ready to purchase a wire kit. The three places I am looking at are Rebel wire, they have a rear trunk kit that looks good, Painless wiring and EZ wire. I am looking at the 21 circuit. My question is I won't use all the circuits, what do I do with the extra wire? Cut the wire and don't install fuse ???? I am wiring a 55 ford F-100 Panel with a few modern additions is why I need the extra circuits, and is a litttle more involved than my past projects.
I ran the extra circuit wire to the area it could be used, bundled the wire and tucked away pulled fuse. My thought was to have wire in area of accesory if I would add it in future and not have to tear up interior to do it!
I have used them all but I now prefer American Auto Wire,the fuse panel is separate from all the wires so all you do is add what you need and leave the rest of the wire in the box for future projects. HRP
I always run extra wires while I have things opened up, never know when you might want to add something later. Try to think of any future additions and account for them now!
This is good advice and definetly will use it in this project Thanx Thanx, I have them installed in my favorites and am now looking at their Highway 22 series. Like the customization feature
You got that right,no one offers more comprehensive step by step diagrams that are color coded for ease of installation. HRP
I wholeheartedly agree. My last wiring kit was American Autowire and it is the only one I have bought that has decent wiring diagrams. The other ones I have purchased looked like kindergarten attempt at a schematic. I will stick with them from now on because of this.
I used Kwikwire and it was a good kit, had everything, and good instructions. They wre also somewhat local and attend quite a number of carshows in the area. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Totally agree with HRP. American Auto Wire is very easy and clean to use. Using a Painless trunk mount unit that the customer brought right now and it is a PAIN
I've been wiring cars from scratch since 1956, but a customer wanted me to do his '55 F100 with a Painless kit. I have to say that if that kit is 'painless', I must have butt trouble. My wife ended up doing all the under dash wiring with a complete revamp of the 'painless' kit. I like the 'kit concept', and credit Ron Francis for pioneering the idea. I'll try American Auto wire, as I've heard positive things about them. Are the wires 'verityped'? (printed every few inches; This system was first used in the wiring of the Polaris Missile, my bud worked on that project at Westinghouse, 1960.
I did that when I wired my 55 (Painless harness) in 1996. Last year, I was doing some work under the dash, and decided it was time to cut out all those unused wires that had been getting in the way all these years. The last two cars I did got non-wiring kit wiring in them. I guess I'm getting traditional in my old age.
Are the wires 'verityped'? (printed every few inches; This system was first used in the wiring of the Polaris Missile, my bud worked on that project at Westinghouse, 1960. Yea american autowire kits have the wire printed like that. -Pat
Check Speed way out, I got a wiring kit for less than $ 160 and am perfectly happy with it. Everything you need and instructions anyone can figure out, even me a 40 yr retired electrician.
I use Centec as much as possible unless the customer has got something else already. American Autowire is good too but their panel is more bulky. Painless should be called Pain-in-the-ass with its big bundle of wires. I don't like prewired panels, they are too cumbersome. Jim Ford
X2 here. In the process of putting in a 17 circuit kit right now. Been pretty good so far, everything is marked, but the instructions leave a little bit to be desired. Could use a better diagram and plug marking.
i have only used rebel wire and it was easy to install and reasonable price. they are alliance vendors and give discounts to members. they are also verityped every few inches. all the circuits i did not use, i rolled up and tucked behind my kick panel incase i ever wire it up, or i can use it for anything i want to add as far as accessories
I've made my own kits, but with the cost of wires and a panel the Rebel kit paid for itself. I put one in the '54 f100 panel truck as it was cheaper then the wire/panel that I bought to make the harness for my '28.
I haven't done it yet, but I'm thinking the unused wires from a terminated panel could be attached to an out-of-the-way terminal strip. Easy to hook up loads to these circuits at a later time. Blue
I have an upcoming project that may need a comprehensive re-wire and I've been looking at kits. I'd only need something like 14-16 circuits. I'll look at American Auto Wire though. I was wondering if they all come with an alternator plug in them, just to make it easier on me. The only one I saw that specified one was Kwik Wire.
The first time I wired my 38 Chevy (in about 74) I did it from scratch, it worked but the wires by this time were 60 years old (stripped out of a 57 Chevy and 64 Comet) so I wanted to redo it with new wire. I used a Rebel 9 + 3 kit and almost wish I would have gotten more circuits, and it wasn't a fancy job, needed electric fuel pump, electric fan and radio/heater so it was pretty basic, I had a couple of questions as I went along and their tech guy was good about educating me on things I probably should have know. Price was decent and everything works
X2 on kwikwire. I have 2 of there panels and they are very affordable. They run all wires out of the panel. I made a panel bracket with a strip bought at a local electronics store, any circut that I wasnt going to use I ran to the strip, that way I can attach to the strip if I ever want to run the circut down the road.
I made the panels for my last three projects and what I liked about was being able terminate each wire to the panel and have no excess wires leaving the panel. The dislike was the chase for wire terminals, the coding of the wire, the schematics and the documentation of what went where. I decided to give the kit route a shot for those reasons. I now have looked at many wire kits, they all have their pluses amd minuses, the majority of the panels are prewired, I don't care for that, Centech makes a real nice panel, its prewired tho and has a too techy looking panel for me. American wire Highway 15 series seems to be the correct fit for me, really like the customization feature of the panel, the price seems to me will be less than what buying individually would be. I will run extra wire over and down the door jambs and neatly tuck it out of the way just in case there is a need in the future. The panel will have extra spaces and termination can be neat and done later when needed. Thanx for all the advice and was and is much appreciated.
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