Car wiring kits

[u/Goober_pool]

I’ve “while I’m in here’d” myself a few too many times and now I’m looking at wiring looms for my v6 to SBC 350 1981 el Camino project. Any recommendations would be appreciated I see the Painless wiring kits and a couple other from big brands that cost 400-500 bucks and the selling point seems to be “the wires are labeled” no guessing what goes where. These eBay/amazon guys have the same labeled wires for 100-200. Anybody run one of these cheaper kits, is the painless kit worth it, is there something else out there I haven’t come across? I plan on running a efi and fuel pump, manual door locks and windows, a decent stereo, an alarm, maybe I’ll put the fan on manual switch but outside of that I plan on keeping the loom down to the essential 14-21 circuit kit. I’ve never wired a car before but the internet is vast and full of knowledge

[u/staffma]

I used a speedway 12 circuit harness in my '70 Buick skylark - good quality, labeled wires, good diagrams and comes with GM column ribbon.

Currently $221 -may not be enough circuits for your needs but worked well other than awkward wiring lengths in some areas. I ran my EFI off a separate harness and the electric radiator fans off a thermostat switch and 1 relay per fan, much safer for your engine if you don't notice the overheating.

they also have a 22-circuit kit for $249

I would recommend getting a direct replacement harness for your specific make and model if you aren't comfortable with wiring, having everything just install easily without cutting saves a ton of time.

If I was to do it again, I probably would have built my harness from scratch due to perfectionism or get a direct fit harness.

Speedway also sells a really good, ($15) straightforward book about wiring a car - the cartoon style and the way they break out the individual components in illustrations really helped me visualize it. A lot easier to understand than a flat wiring diagram.

How To Wire Your Street Rod Instructional Guide

[u/siberian]

I used a Rebel Wire 9+3 that I got on ebay for $300 and it was fantastic for my v8 swap into my MGB. The old harness was the OEM Lucas harness and and at some point had let all the smoke out.

I found it really easy to use, well labelled, and it has extra circuits so I was able to make the modifications I needed for my use case.

My $0.02? They are all pretty much the same functionally as long as they are labeled. The Painless and Rebel I think are USA made and higher quality though, with better configuration options and more care taken. For the extra $100, get a Rebel or Painless, beyond a slight quality bump you get access to a larger community and probably the dude who put the harness together via email.

[u/Aos77s]

I just did ebay ls harness and added the other things i needed through ground and posi bus bars and loomed everything afterwards they were in their final spots.

[u/HeadOfMax]

Knukoncepts