One of my snake refurbishing projects was to dress up the wiring
harness. It would have been nice to replace it with a new one, but I
had better uses for the $815 (+ shipping) that would have cost. And
besides, except for 37+ years accumulation of grudge, the old one was in
reasonably good condition.
I started by removing the woven cloth mesh which covered several
sections of the harness. This mesh was mostly in a state of decay and a
bit messy to deal with. Fortunately the insulated wires underneath
appeared to be in good condition, with no significant fraying, hardening
or cracking of the insulation. Next I wiped the surface of the wires
with lacquer thinner soaked rags to remove grease and dirt.
Since most of the original harness was wrapped with black plastic tape,
which was still in good condition, I decided to follow this approach on
the sections that had previously been covered with the cloth mesh.
However, instead of using hardware store electrical tape, I order a
couple of rolls of Uni-Wrap tape from Aircraft Spruce. Uni-Wrap is a
silicone rubber wire wrap that looks like electrical tape, but doesn't
have an adhesive on it. It comes in rolls with plastic separators so
that it can not make contact with itself. This is because wherever it
does makes contact, it forms a chemical bond at that point. This stuff
is tricky to apply because it wants to stick to itself at the slightest
contact. A couple of times I had to cut out what I had done and start
over again, but once wrapped around the harness, it formed a strong,
tight weatherproof seal.
Another Aircraft Spruce product I used on the harness and other wiring
was an insulation that can be "painted" on. This is a black plastic
goop you paint onto bare wire, electrical connections or even over
insulation. After a half hour or so it hardens into a flexible black
plastic shell. This stuff is nice for dressing up crimped and soldered
connections or to just change the color of a piece of wire.
AC Cars used loom clips and self tapping screws to attached the harness
to frame members, bulkheads and panels along its routing. Some of the
clips were made of plastic, but most were sheet metal loops with some
kind of clear gold colored finish on them. Initially I had planned to
replace all of these clips, but since none of them were in bad
condition, I thought I would give cleaning them up a try first. Then I
remembered a product that Eastwood sells called Carb Renew. A few years
back I had considered using Carb Renew to restore the gold finish on a
Holley Carburetor, but ended up getting it replated instead. However,
this stuff is fairly cheap, so I decided to give it a try on the clips.
I figured the worst that could happen was that I would end up buying new
clips anyway and only be out this small extra expense.
I started by tossing all of the metal harness clips, plus some similar
clips used on the fuel line into a coffee can containing a lye solution
and let the lot simmer over a camp stove for about half an hour. This
took off all traces of grease, paint and undercoating. For good
measure, I gave each clip a quick wire brushing, then a rinse with
lacquer thinner. Next I strung the clips out on a piece of dowel stock
and gave them a shot of bronze Carb Renew. The result was quite
satisfying, in my opinion. They looked like new clips.
Since AC Cars used lots of off-the-shelf items on their cars, I'm
guessing there are other British Cars of this vintage that used these or
similar clips, so if you're kind of a cheapskate (like me), this is one
way to save a few bucks at the expense of a little extra effort.
Roland
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