Topic: Rant on old Concours Wiring Restorations

[midlife]

Earlier this week, I received a beautifully looking 1968 tach underdash harness to go through as a double-check, since it was refurbished by Pat White at least 20 years ago and never installed.  Great, I thought...should be a piece of cake for me!  This harness looked at first glance to be pristine and well done.  I start checking it out, and noticed that one of the dash cluster connectors (should be an 8 pin female and a 6 pin male) were both 8 pins.  Huh?  I contacted the owner to verify that his dash cluster connector was a 6 pin female, and it was.  That was when he told me the story of the harness.  I replaced the connector, and continued on with my checking.  What's this?  The two wires for the brake switch were swapped...no biggie electrically, but for being concours correct?  No way!  Then I found molex pins with soldered joints rather than crimped.  I also had to replace an OEM splice for the resistor wire going to the rear defogger. 
I guess 25+ years ago when there were no reproductions, one had to use one of the few concours-level restorers.  Having now examined both a Pat White and Bill Healy examples, I am somewhat disappointed in the quality of the electrical work.  The aesthetic appearance of each were outstanding, but still...
I still have yet to find out what it cost folks back in the day to refurbish to concours level wiring...just curious.  For me, the electrical performance of the work should match or exceed the appearance, regardless of concours quality or not.  I cannot afford the time/effort to refurbish wiring to concours-level standards and keep my price points and sanity.
Rant over.
 

[JohnSlack]

Earlier this week, I received a beautifully looking 1968 tach underdash harness to go through as a double-check, since it was refurbished by Pat White at least 20 years ago and never installed.  Great, I thought...should be a piece of cake for me!  This harness looked at first glance to be pristine and well done.  I start checking it out, and noticed that one of the dash cluster connectors (should be an 8 pin female and a 6 pin male) were both 8 pins.  Huh?  I contacted the owner to verify that his dash cluster connector was a 6 pin female, and it was.  That was when he told me the story of the harness.  I replaced the connector, and continued on with my checking.  What's this?  The two wires for the brake switch were swapped...no biggie electrically, but for being concours correct?  No way!  Then I found molex pins with soldered joints rather than crimped.  I also had to replace an OEM splice for the resistor wire going to the rear defogger. 
I guess 25+ years ago when there were no reproductions, one had to use one of the few concours-level restorers.  Having now examined both a Pat White and Bill Healy examples, I am somewhat disappointed in the quality of the electrical work.  The aesthetic appearance of each were outstanding, but still...
I still have yet to find out what it cost folks back in the day to refurbish to concours level wiring...just curious.  For me, the electrical performance of the work should match or exceed the appearance, regardless of concours quality or not.  I cannot afford the time/effort to refurbish wiring to concours-level standards and keep my price points and sanity.
Rant over.

Randy,

I get it, I was just asked to "fix" a car that had just been finished by a high end restoration shop. The car is beautiful, however it doesn't run, in addition the wiring is not that great, he was able to pay a zillion dollars and come up with NOS. The restoration shop just responded with, oh, most people don't drive these cars anymore and as long as they are pretty....we are good.


John

[kgranhold]

The harness Randy is discussing here is my harness.  Yes, the original work was done 24 or 25 years ago by Pat White.  At that time, there were no tach harness options on the market and restoration was the only option.  I am glad to see that individuals like Randy are around to help us restoring our cars.   Randy does a great job, I frankly wonder how he does it for the price he charges.  I would suggest and recommend anyone needing harness work to  contact Randy.  Now if i could only find someone to restore an original starter relay.....

[Big Al]

Randy is very helpful when a "non-electrical" person like myself, tries to figure out what is happening when wiring, gauges and 50 plus year old components don't want to do what is expected of them.   I've "tied" him up on speaker phone as we walked thru a diagnostics on my problem.  He's been around the block a few times, (sorry, but its true) and knows what to look for.  Service providers with a conscious, like him, are getting harder to find.  Rant on, Bro!
Big Al

[Coralsnake]

Well, I feel obligated to mention reproduction wiring. It is very good, reliable, pliable and functions like new.

[ruppstang]

Well, I feel obligated to mention reproduction wiring. It is very good, reliable, pliable and functions like new.

I would have to agree most of the time. I had a new turn switch that had pins switched in the connector. That was fun to figure out.

[BobV]

Randy is a good dude.

Just be sure to get clarification when he offers to "check your shorts".... 

[midlife]

I do this to keep busy and to help the average hobbyist keep within budget; I'm not a concours restorer.  I've learned a lot and like to help people with solving their problems.  I agree that reproduction stuff is good quality, but the prices seem outrageous to me and to the average hobbyist.  For the early years, I only recommend underdash refurbishment and buying reproductions for the rest of the car.  Some years, like the 71-73, there are no reproductions.  Due to COVID, much of the underdash reproductions were simply unavailable.
As an aside, just yesterday, I reached a milestone: 1000 underdash harnesses refurbished, with only 8 returns for disssatiisfaction or additional repair work.  Here's a pie chart of my work as of model years.  There's a smattering of Cougars, Torinos, Montegos in there, but mostly Mustangs.  My first truck was today but is not included.  Interesting that 68-70 is half of my business!
http://midlifeharness.com/MHR1000.jpg

[midlife]

Here's the Pie Chart: 

[Motang]

Randy did my harness. Great price with quick turnaround. Looked awesome and performed perfect.
Thanks Randy