Like to hear from you if this affects you, especially if you’ve tried rewiring your car.

I am colorblind (red/green), and I also want to put in some new wiring harness kits to resolve some of the old/hacked up wiring on my car.

 

Same here (red/green). Can't tell purple from blue or pink. Can't wire for crap. Have to ask my wife to ID the wires for me. When I was in the Navy I was sent to NATTC Memphis TN for Fire Control Technicion school. My records showed I was red/green colorblind so that school was axed. Sent me to Lakehurst NJ for weather school.

 

I'm color blind to a few shades of red & green too. I can't tell red from brown wires without really looking hard & cleaning them. And testing them with a multimeter and/or test light. I'm a big fan of GM's old striped wires, but I don't think you can buy striped wire anymore. At least not in our factory color combinations.

Couple things I can recommend. Head lamp from Nebo for very bright lights when working in/on/under the car. Very helpful.

I tend to clean factory wires with lacquer thinner. Gets the crud right off. Clean wires are easier to see for color. And nicer to work with.

I tend to clean factory switch brass electrical connectors first with a light hit from a dremel with a wire brush, then maybe Deoxit 5 to remove any remaining oxidation.

When you have the wiring harness out of the car, label each end of each wire with something like a Dymo Rhino labeler. I use the 6000, but I think it's superseded. This labeler has a vertical wrap setting which allows very neat black on white tape labels which adhere well to the wires. That way the alternator wire says "Alternator" horizontally along the run of the wire. Very easy to read. I use Dymo part 18489 3/4" vinyl tapes. Get a lot of those so you're not discouraged from labeling.

One of the benefits of labeling wires is that when you go back in to fix something or add something 5 years later, you can see what you did last time without burning relearning all of your great customization tricks from years back. Solid time & frustration saver.

Next, to the degree that you're still using factory switches, you may find need of some Packard 56 connecters and maybe some plastic shells. I get mine at clipsandfasteners.com. I've built up a tackle box of this stuff just to have the ability to cleanly and clearly rewire my '66's.

Finally, you might leave some pigtails or provisions for future additional electrical circuits, you never know what clever gadgets you'll want for your Olds in 2026.

Cheers
Chris

 

Color challenged...if you please.

I see colors but, not shades. Some yellow and greens look the same to me and issues with browns / reds. As I recall, the USAF dialed me in at 85% color blindness back in the 70's. My oldest Grandson has the same issues. We bought him a pair of color correction glasses that didn't work well at all. Sent those back and got the ones that cost a LOT more. They opened his eyes up to a lot more colors.

I usually get The Queen involved when wiring anything.

 

I don't suffer from color blindness but my father did, My mom worked full time so my dad would pitch in sometimes and do laundry so it was not uncommon to see my dad with one green sock and one brown sock as he would pair them together frequently, he also had a hard time with pink and gray, I remember one time being with my folks when they were looking at living room furniture my mom asked my dad which color do you like better ? he said buy what ever color you want I cant tell the damn difference !! just make sure its comfortable enough for me to take a nap on !!

 

What I used to do when I ended up partially rewiring a Renault LeCar (I cut out the damaged part of the harness and then soldered in only enough from the new one, so that I didn't have to spend time replacing the entire harness) was to hold up each wire from the old harness together with each one from the new, since the colors matched. But, they were shaded differently. I had only problems with the typical red/green/brown ones. My daughter has slight problems with blue, strange enough, since her dad and granddad on her mother's side were both red/green blind. My father-in-law was even worse off than I am. Evidently, this problem isn't equally dramatic for all who suffer this problem.
Colorblindness is mostly male-oriented

 

I worked in the coating business and you would be surprised at how many men are color blind to some degree many didn't know that they were afflicted, most in the red green brown range. When ever I hired a new prospect for the house paint store they had to take a test....Tedd

 

Don’t these wiring harness kits terminate in some kind of identifiable connector so that the actual wires themselves are not as important as the connector?

 

I have trouble with shades that are close. I can tell red from green, blue from yellow.

Pat