Hello I am a car guy through and through but I have never done any major resto work I have always wanted a 68 or 69 camaro I just so happen to know a guy who is selling a 69 camaro he is a professional welder and has done all of the body work and primed the car he has a motor and trans that he is putting into the car I will get exact info on that this week, he is going to sell it to me for $5000 can't beat the price but the car will not be working he said it will still need to be wired now I have gone on the net and found wire harnesses for like $600 my question is how much work is envolved in wiring the car are there any step by step post on here for that and is there anything that I should know before I start

thanks in advance

 

Well I can tell you that I purchased one of those Painless Wiring harness kits off of ebay. Saved a bunch of money on it. So far the kit seems very thurough but I have no clue how to install it. My husband will be helping me get the car all wired up. It comes with great diagrams and everything you need. One thing I did to start was label all the ends of everything starting with the main harness. This will make it easier when refering back to the diagrams. Other than that we are gonna take alot of pics of the process and Im sure I will be learning as I go. Here is the link to the one that I bought.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/69-Ch...Q5fAccessories

 

bought my car from a die hard drag enthusiast. he cut all of the wiring out that he didn't need to save a few pounds. I started to do all of the wiring myself, but after all of the cracked and corroded wires the price of a painless kit sounds a lot better. I ended up buying one and it was one of the best decisions i made with that car. no spliced and soldering, no old wires or corrosion problems. Painless really does make there kits painless because they label all of the wires.

 

thanks for the responses I should be going to check it out this week and I know the personally and will prob get it

 

One thing I constantly run in to with these kits is if I lose my train of thought I have to re-trace my steps and figure out what the hell I'm doing again. So when you're mid-install be sure to kindly remind everyone in the house that you need your concentration. Maybe I just can't concentrate... but I know if I've got 10 wires in my hand and someone comes up and asks me a trivial question it can get pretty frustrating. Also I agree with everyone else, painless makes a very... painless wiring harness.

 

with a Painless harness that is never and issue because they label everything excellent.

they also crimp their ends correctly. that is a HUGE concern because you will never have issues with the Painless harness that you will have with others down the road

as an example: you buy a different harness because it saves you $300 over the Painless one (you get what you pay for). about a year doen the road you start having intermittant electrical glitches but you can't find it. maybe after about 40 hours of troubleshooting and aggravation (and hopefully no burnt up parts) you trace it back to a weak crimp in one of the connectors. you fix that and it happens somewhere else down the road, but at least you find that one quicker. you now doubt taking your car on a long trip anywhere because you can't trust it anymore

now does that original savings of $300 sound like a bargain?

I can't tell you how many times I've had to bail people out after they didn't listen to me and tried to save a few bucks. electrical and safety and not places you want to skimp on

 

I bought a Painless harness and was very pleased at the ease of installation. As mentioned all wires are marked. Got it installed i my 68 restoration, hooked the battery and turned the starter- SUCCESS. If you should need any assistance an email to the company and some one will reply promptly with at solution.

 

OK, first off... Painless is a "brand" not just a term when it comes to wiring kits. And they are not painless to install compared to the latest kits out these days. Second... Orocker, Your kit is not a "Painless" brand Kit, Its made by American AutoWire and is about 100 times better by far.

 

someone is confused here????

the reason I was talking about Painless wiring kits, is because I buy all my kits from Painless Wiring, otherwize I wouldn't be talking about them

also, I'm not saying that the American Autowire kits are junk, but I've installed two of their kits in cars, and compared to Painless they are a step down in quality IMO

 

hmm you're right. Didnt notice til you said something. So far this kit seems to be ok as long as you know how to put the connectors on and what to connect where. I now know more about reading the diagrams but someone not knowing a thing would have a bit of trouble doing any of this. Especially when it comes to running the rear wires. So far it seems to be going good. But then again I dont know what the Painless kits are like and cant compare the 2.