complete Painless wire harness job 81 Z28

[Angie]

Any of you out there ever done a complete wire harness rewire of a vehicle?

Angie's 81-Z28 is a basket case of wiring mess. For her birthday/xmas present i am going to rewire the whole car for her. The kit is here at the parts store ready for pick up later today.

I have read through the 150 pages of directions (on line download) and all looks pretty straight forward.

Wanting to know if any one here can give me any tips or tricks that are not in the directions...

Biggest thing I have seen about the tips is to not be in a hurry and I know this project will take a few weekends to complete....

thanks in advance.

 

[Mark_88]

I've never wired an entire vehicle from scratch but I've traced enough wires over the years.

What is in the kit that you bought or are buying? Do you start from scratch completely and just have connectors and spools of wire or do you get a harness that needs to be modified to match your accessories?

 

[Angie]

complete everything.... here is a link to it.... nice unit have it home now...

thanks

http://www.painlessperformance.com/webcat/20114

 

[Mark_88]

wow...sorry I missed this post...

i just sold a wire harness to a guy for $75...it was the inside dash including the fuse box and connectors to the firewall plugs for the engine bay...I kept it in the off chance that I'd ever build another carbed Ranger 2.0 or 2.3...

I saw the price on that one and even though it is much more complete than what I sold it tells me I gave the guy a good price...I hope he uses it too...

Thanks for the link...it seems like a good price for that much wire...

 

[Angie]

Geee... 75 bucks is a great deal... hope he uses it also.

Have done enough homework on that project now... attempting it now.... (hopefully start in the AM tomorrow) ... wish us luck... lol

it is a bit pricey... but mostly plug and play with all new connectors and plugs so it is (hopefully) straight forward.

cheers

 

[Mark_88]

Good luck on that project then...

I don't think the guy actually needed the whole harness but he wanted to put in a radio and I told him if I hacked the harness for the radio then I might have trouble selling the rest of it...I gave him the lower price because he bought my old radio and a few other parts.

If I was doing a rebuild I'd want new wires regardless...it "could" solve more problems if the harness has been hacked and spliced all over the place...like so many projects I did as a teenager...lol

 

[91stranger]

That kit doesn't look too bad at all. Especially if you are doing everything from scratch. Kit looks easy and every wire should be like you said a plug and play or at least you would know what it is powering.

 

[bobbywalter]

i have completely wired and plumbed everything from dirt bikes to complete drilling rigs



how old are the carpet and seat skins? be a good time to address the carpet if its getting long in the tooth because you will want to start with a stripped interior.

painless has great stuff. you have the right car to make it easy....the ac issue is workable.


the biggest issue is you have to be willing to completely tear the car down to do it...it is a shit ton of work...plan some weekends.


and some calls to these guys....

https://www.yearone.com/Catalog/1967.81.camaro/interior/fasteners/interior-screw-kits


it gets out of hand quickly. good luck

 

[Angie]

hi bobby, sorry i missed your comment.

the car is completely stripped down (well interior and all the added goodies) she is getting the painting finished, and I am redoing the interior stuff and she is doing the upholstery seats and console.

so far the wiring has been pretty plug and play. no real issues. we are at a stand still on the wiring as I am waiting on her to finish the paint and then we can place back in the dash, then i can finish wiring in the cluster and under dash stuff. this car is our 3rd build. 1 pinto, one ranger and a camaro... too many projects on the go. this car is new carpet redone seats & customized console. only thing not removed is the strong 350 with 4 speed.


hi 91, ya it is pretty straight forward, just a bit overwhelming at first as you start to pull all the old stuff out and scratch your head thinking "what in hell did i get myself into"

cheers guys