ok, so i'm about to buy a wire kit/harness for my '53 Chevy...just wondered what everyone has used and what everyone likes or dislikes, as long as it works. i don't have a big bank to play with so i'm looking along the lines of pretty basic wiring, with the exception of adding a stereo and would like to leave room for adding electronic to bag the back one day, but thats really not a concern right now.... what you think? thanks.
I've wired afew cars so far with the EZ wiring harness. But theyre all pretty much the same from what I've seen shopping around. I'd just use something other than the fuseable link. Get a BIG maxi fuse or a hd circuit breaker to replace it. Ron Francis wiring has some nice stuff but it gets into the $400s I think. The EZ kit was about $165 for the big one and $130 for the little one with less accessory fuses. Wiring is my side hussle so if anyone needs some help I just like to work on cars. JC-SoCal
thanks man. yeah, i've been looking at EZ and Painless...the Ron Francis kits look pretty good if you have the extra $$$$ which i don't at the moment. i may just shoot for the EZ kit for now. thanks again.
I used the EZ wire kit and it worked pretty good. The only thing Id recomend is thinking about putting the fuse panel in the trunk, I put mine under the dash and its kind of a pain to get to. My buddy made this wood panel board and mounted it in the trunk against the back seat and it looks like its 10 times easier to use, just throwing some options out for ya
buy from alex gambino...he'll treat you right. i just got one from him and the price and service was exceptional. george
Hot Rod Wires in Mesquite TX ...12 circuit harness $179 and have an incredible tech support 972-240-6851
I like the smaller(10-12circut) harnesses. I find it works better to have all of the main wirinig in one main harness. If you want to add accessories it works better to have a sub panel for them. In my cars I wrap the whole harness in black cloth friction tape. Every wire has a grommet if it goes in a hole. I like the black wire kits, so that I can add colored wire for any add on work. If you do mount the fuse block under the dash, I would add a small license plate style light under the dash. It makes it nice to have light handy if you need to check a fuse. You can run it with a small hidden switch, or with your interior light switch. I wire all my cars/trucks the same. My 56 f100 is finished, my 53 chevrolet 2dr sedan is next. On a closed car I like to use the 2,3,4,6 wire black plastic plugs for the conections under the dash. With everything soldered it is nice to have a quick fool proof way to plug/unplug gauge clusters and the like. One other trick, I use white ground wires. I have a 10-12 gauge wire in every leg of the harness. I use a 1/4"x11/4 stainless bolt as a junction. So at the driver side of the firewall where the harness goes from dash to engine compartment there is one bolt that has the ground from the interior, headlights,taillight, and a direct 10gauge wire from the battery. My reason is when you go to trouble shoot the wiring years down the road it makes it so much easier to go to one place to check your grounds. It is a real pain in the ass to have to look all around a car for ground wires. Every wire is shrinkwrapped after it is soldered. I have been using one of the small open flame butane torches for the last 5-6years. It is a little quick than a iron, and with small diameter solder I find it real hard to cold solder a joint with the torch. With a little practice you can make a connection in under 1min. I am also a fan of the shrinkwrap with the heat activated addhesive. Sorry for all the extra info. I enjoy doing clean wiring.
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