Technical Traditional looking wire organizing?

I'm trying to keep my 31 Plymouth coupe old school looking, thus I'm using cloth covered wire. Plastic tie wraps are all wrong. I'm looking for ideas how to secure and organize wiring that look good. The original factory wiring under the dashes of my old 40's cars was a mess, with wires routing designed to save wire, and who cares what it looks like. So I don't want to be authentic in that regard, I want it to look organized.

Thanks, Joel

 

Look up cable lacing. Very traditional. Get a spool of lacing tape on Amazon and practice a bit. It's not hard to do. Goes pretty quick once you get going. Hard on your hands, though, you'll want to spread it out over a few days.


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Using lacing twine will give it that aircraft/military equipment look, which can be pretty neat.

Guys who were in more of a hurry might use friction tape.

Also the Adel aircraft type clamps, secured with a slot head screw, help to hold the harness in place with the right look.

Make sure not to use the standard crimp connectors with the color plastic insulator, either cut it off or buy bare terminals.

It's almost April, better get moving on that thing! September is just around the corner

 

Cable lacing is beautiful!

 

Knew a guy in the early 60s that used to use black fishing line with knots every 2 or 3 inches...vary sanitary....

 

a little how to

http://selectric.org/manuals/lacing/index.html

 

Thanks for the link. Great little tutorial.


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Thanks for the suggestions. I like the lacing idea. Squirrel, I hate the yellow red and blue insulated terminals. I normally use un-insulated terminals, crimped and soldered. Most connectors don't need to be insulated, but if they do, I use a short length of black shrink wrap. I now have some cloth covered shrink wrap I will try for that purpose. You are right, September will be here before I know it. Progress is being made. The glass is in, the floor, front suspension, and headers are done. I had a radiator built. I'm working on putting the motor back together this weekend. But I'm trying to plan ahead for everything I need.

 

Using terminal blocks like 31Vicky showed is a nice way to make your (removable) connections. The lacing cord that I use is waxed and comes in black or white.

 

Check out this video on YouTube:




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Something kind of interesting about the instructions is that for a neat look it tells you to build your harness upside down so that all of your knots and splices are hidden from view in the final installation. However, this seems to really only be possible when build your harness on a fixture. When lacing wires that are already installed all of your knots and splices are visible, as can be seen in the image posted by 31Vicky.


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I second the screw terminal block suggestion. I used them on my Chevy II, it makes it easy to troubleshoot, and swap wires if needed.

 

And a great place to terminate those extra wires in the 21 circuit harnesses. The unused wires may eventually be used later if needed.

 

There are glove finger things we use at work, I'll try to see where they get them. Really saves the fingers when doing a lot of lacing. The smaller size nomex lacing tape is probably the worst.

 

Friction tape does give an old timey appearance.

 

Nice info, thanks!

 

My pinball machine was built in 1976, one of the last electro-mechanical models. They used some plastic covered wire, but mostly cloth, and lacing twine.

 

Thanks for all the info. I'm going to have to see a shrink to learn how to be OCD if I want to accomplish my vision here.
I agree on the screw terminal blocks.

I'm thinking I'll do the lacing inside the car, and then on the exterior use the Painless Classic looming:



Also, in my quest to avoid plastic zip ties, I ordered some old fashioned aluminum ties, like I've seen on some 40's cars.

 

Shrink tubing is also a good old school way of keeping the wire neat and orderly. HRP

 

My last wiring project on the GTX was a learning experience. This one will be neater....

 

I used a loom similar to that I got off of eBay. It was Hoffman Group stuff, but I felt safe since there were no moving parts in it. About the only thing they sell that won't try to kill ya....

 

Should have posted a picture of the harness for the score reels in the backbox.



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Oh, that'd be killer. I laced the entire harness for my Chevy last year. By the end it was getting difficult to keep going when each knot cut further in to my finger.



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I made my own hold downs and did this.

 

Better pics on work computer. This is all I got here.

 

After seeing this thread I recalled my dads pinball machine from the 70's, the Sure Shot. It is mostly cloth wire and lacing as well... laid out real tidy.


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Plastic ties actually came out around 1958. They were used in the aircraft industry. They were mostly plastic except the little catch prong was steel. So they are traditional. So all those people who say hey that's not traditional are dead wrong!!!


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With the arthritis in my hands I sometimes struggle with zip ties, can't imagine how hard that lacing would be on me. Still might give it a shot someday.
If wiring something I want to look somewhat vintage I use the cloth style loom where it shows with black shrink wrap on the connectors. Under dash and places that doesn't show I just zip tie but I do try to make everything neat and tidy. Pays big dividends if you every have to go back.
That picture above of the Mopar, I had a "pro" built 40 Merc convertible come in with wiring issues and it's wiring looked about like that only pushed up under the dash and held up with garbage bag ties. Needless to say the car got totally rewired.

 

Lots of things existed in 1958, that hot rodders were OT using to build their cars in the 50s-60s.

Zip ties are still ugly....and don't look right in an old hot rod.