Technical Buy a wiring kit or make my own , or use what I got ?

I make my own but use labled wire from Rebel. My buddy does his own but does the black wire routine which is fine, it works but on his new build there was an issue with no start and he was cursing a bit tracing that black wire out

 

The OP has probably rewired his car by now, but here’s a neat selection of attractive wire loom. I used them throughout my Model A build and it works and looks very nice and has a period-correct look.

John

https://www.vintageford.com/sect_search.cfm?Line=Wiring Shop&Category=Loom- Cotton Braided

 

I have used that loom on a few 40's love the look

 

Rebel has great color coded and labeled wire in their kits, and are worth the cost for just the wire. I am not a fan of their fuse boxes. I use the Enos Black Boxes for the well organized fuse box. A new company still makes them, I believe. Bosch relays are easily added to horn, instrument, and headlight circuits to reduce amperage load on switches, thus increasing reliability. I use GM standard 10 SI alternators their reliability compared to on wire models.

 

With 35 yrs of "street-car" experience, one thing I'm definitely installing is a clutch switch. Truly amazing how this little detail seems to get overlooked by most builders. Found one at Summit but wouldn't be here until 1st week in October. Low and behold, a search on stupid Amazon, will have one at my front door in 3 days.
Wound up pulling the trigger on the 22 circuit Speedway kit, fantastic value and had a few other items that I found in their catalog. 1stop shopping seemed like the way to go.
JT
P.S. friend told me about the Rhode Island Wiring company. If I was building a AACA show car, they would be my choice. Period correct/factory perfect.

 

One thing I'd recommend whether building your own harness or using a kit is to run extra wires in case you want to add something later on. I ran a pair of speaker wires in with my rear harness for later on when I install speakers back there. I meant to run a wire for a trunk release but forgot it, just as well since my trunk doesn't latch anyway. I just added a power antenna to replace the original rotted out factory vacuum one, but my harness already had one so it was just a matter of hooking it up.

 

It takes a while to even plan it out. With my car I made a real harness board so I could break out everything ahead. Anyone that says they can wire a car in a day... I have my doubts. I took my time and it was probably a month from start to finish. I would work on it a little here and there.

 

I made a harness for my ‘59 Chevy PU in the 90’s. I didn’t even know to look for an aftermarket harness, only had a phone book then. So I went “point to point” on replacing wires after work and a portion of weekends. I bet it took me a month as well. I was lucky living in the Bay Area at the time, many electronic stores, so when I ran out of solid colored wires from Kragen, I went to Fry’s electronics for striped wires.
I painstaking made a diagram of my work as I went along. Had the diagram in the trucks glove box. Never thought to make a few copies of it. When I sold the truck some 15 years later, the diagram wasn’t in the glove box anymore, must have took it out and put it in a “safe place” I’d forgot about.
Should have made copies.

 

I made a wire list in Excel and have a couple of hard copies and it is saved on my computer. I may have it on a thumb drive too. All my notes are stapled into the instruction book, I made sure everything was written so I can read it of the time comes.

 

Heck, I don’t think I had a computer in the 90’s. Maybe late 90’s.
Heck I’ll upgrade this iPhone 7 someday

 

I rewired it myself .

looked at the painless kit , simply to much unnecessary stuff on it.

I tackled the engine bay first , then signals and lights. Then stereo and heater .

I have my gauges left to do .

one section at a time , kept the car running so I could still cruise . Turned my spaghetti mess into a pretty neat little set up .

not difficult , but time consuming to do it right .

i used the crappy old plastic split loom , over the winter I’m going to change out the wrap for some canvass looking stuff we use at work . More period correct .