How do you make your engine compartment wiring cleaner looking.
Thread Starter
Race Director
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 14,376
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From: Check this riff........
How do you make your engine compartment wiring cleaner looking.
My 68 kinda looks like a rats nest of wires behind the distributor. My 76 really is not that different. How did you any of you clean this up? Any pics or tricks? It looks all factory to me, but awfully jumbled.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 9,127
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From: Pottsville, PA. USA Home Of America's Oldest Brewery Yuengling
Re: How do you make your engine compartment wiring cleaner looking. (SuprJames)
Clean the hoses and wires with lacquer thinner and rags
Thread Starter
Race Director
Joined: May 2002
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From: Check this riff........
Re: How do you make your engine compartment wiring cleaner looking. (Corvette ED)
Clean the hoses and wires with lacquer thinner and rags
Le Mans Master
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 5,202
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From: cincinnati ohio
St. Jude Donor '09
Re: How do you make your engine compartment wiring cleaner looking. (BigBadOrange)
When my car was apart I unrapped cleaned and retaped all the nasty wire harnesses, put them in the flexible plastic conduit and tried to route them as low on the firewall as possible. they're not invisable but better........
Mike :cheers:
[Modified by yellow 72, 10:27 PM 8/4/2003]
Mike :cheers:
[Modified by yellow 72, 10:27 PM 8/4/2003]
Melting Slicks
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 2,131
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From: May help you? You can sure as hell try!
Re: How do you make your engine compartment wiring cleaner looking. (BigBadOrange)
Eastwood and many of the Corvette vendors sell the original harness tape. It doesn't have adhesive on it like regular electrical tape. You stretch it as you wrap and tie it off at the end or use heat shrink to hold the loose end. You can also buy the corrugated split covering like the newer cars use at some of the auto parts stores. Harbor Freight tools also carries it at a decent price. You could also go to the salvage yard and take some off a later model car. Almost all the manufacturers use it. A lot of the yards will flat out give it to you. I'm also a big proponent of heat shrink tubing. That stuff works great and it doesn't peel back off and get funky like old electrical tape.
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Thread Starter
Race Director
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 14,376
Likes: 1
From: Check this riff........
Re: How do you make your engine compartment wiring cleaner looking. (yellow 72)
When my car was apart I unrapped cleaned and retaped all the nasty wire harnesses, put them in the flexible plastic conduit and tried to route them as low on the firewall as possible. they're not invisable but better........
Mike :cheers:
[Modified by yellow 72, 10:27 PM 8/4/2003]
Mike :cheers:
[Modified by yellow 72, 10:27 PM 8/4/2003]
I might try lowering the wires and using the split stuff. Thanks
Burning Brakes
Joined: Apr 1999
Posts: 905
Likes: 0
Re: How do you make your engine compartment wiring cleaner looking. (BigBadOrange)
There is a product that looks like chrome tubing that is really a flex coil that you wrap around wires and such. Think you can find it at just about any car parts place - just don't go to Poop Boyz - still bitter about them.
As you you Yellow 72 - Mike - that is NOT an engine compartment :) That is simply a work of art inside a corvette body. Looks great!
Thanks and STW :seeya
Robert
76Stinger
As you you Yellow 72 - Mike - that is NOT an engine compartment :) That is simply a work of art inside a corvette body. Looks great!
Thanks and STW :seeya
Robert
76Stinger
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,162
Likes: 2
From: Beaverton, OR
Re: How do you make your engine compartment wiring cleaner looking. (BigBadOrange)
I just tackled this problem on my '74. It still isn't perfect as I'm not working on a show car, but here's what I did...
I first looked around for any problems with wires, splits in the insulation, old crimp on connections, etc, etc. Fixed those by cutting and splicing in a touch of new wire, soldering and heat shrinking the connections. Once all of those were cleaned up, I then retaped a good amount of the wire, especially the areas that no longer had tape on them. The next step was to use black convoluted tubing of various sizes (I just bought several feet of each size the store had) and put that over the wires, taping the ends of it in some places where it met up with a junction in the wiring... I got some federal mogul high temp wire protection tube (it doesn't have a split) and put the wires that go to the starter in that as far back as I could after replacing the fusible link and a large section of very burned wire. This was all really pretty easy because I had the engine out. It still shouldn't be difficult, but it may be a bit more annoying with the engine in the way...
:cheers:
I first looked around for any problems with wires, splits in the insulation, old crimp on connections, etc, etc. Fixed those by cutting and splicing in a touch of new wire, soldering and heat shrinking the connections. Once all of those were cleaned up, I then retaped a good amount of the wire, especially the areas that no longer had tape on them. The next step was to use black convoluted tubing of various sizes (I just bought several feet of each size the store had) and put that over the wires, taping the ends of it in some places where it met up with a junction in the wiring... I got some federal mogul high temp wire protection tube (it doesn't have a split) and put the wires that go to the starter in that as far back as I could after replacing the fusible link and a large section of very burned wire. This was all really pretty easy because I had the engine out. It still shouldn't be difficult, but it may be a bit more annoying with the engine in the way...
:cheers:
Le Mans Master
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 5,943
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From: Wildwood IL
Re: How do you make your engine compartment wiring cleaner looking. (BigBadOrange)
Black Electrical Splicing tape is a thick rubberized non sticky tape that is used to waterproof splices. It handels high temps, high voltage, and is available up to 3" in width. (maybe more) Can be stretched tight and is available at any home improvment store. Not something that will get your engine bay on the cover of Corvette Magazine, but is way better than just "functional", and beats regular tape hands down. :D :D
Eddie
Eddie
