eapink

I'm restoring a 1970 Y74 (Pace Car)

This car was 100% there down to the original water pump. All of the trim is in tack and strait. Now I'm beginning to develop my parts lists. I'm wondering if it is considered more authentic if I re-use the wiring harnesses etc?

Part of me says, replace all of the wiring harnesses because they are 47 years old. But they are still in great shape.

So my questions is this, for a restoration back to factory condition as new. Is there value in having as many of the original part and wiring. Or is there preference for collector to have items like wiring, alternator etc to be replaced with OEM replacement materials when looking at a total restoration.

jeffsims

I sent all of mine to American Auto Wire for refurb. They went through and replaced wires and connectors if needed.

eapink

Thank you, I'll throw there info in the file. I assume you are referring to http://www.americanautowire.com/

jeffsims

That's them.

Gary's 2 442-S

Another vendor for wiring is M&H. I replaced all my wiring in my 72 and used them.
http://www.wiringharness.com/ But if your wiring in functioning fine why not just refresh the tape on the wiring. InLine Tube is a good source for that tape as well as others.

70sgeek

x2 for M&H


Great tech support and perfect repro harnesses using updated materials with identical wiring colors/connectors. Have wired 3 cars to date with their harnesses.


old wiring is still old wiring regardless of how it looks - if car is apart and $$ permits, always a good idea to replace originals for new where available.

eapink

Thank you gh5168 and 70sgeek, they seem to have several options. With all they have for sale, I can have them rebuild the wiring or rebuild the wiring on my own.

AJFink

I did mine and over the winter months this is good "stay on project work" when you can't do much else. Its not hard to do, I used CLR to soak all my ends and a small wire brush to clean them up to new, then pop them back into there connectors and your done. Got the tape wrap from Inline tube as mentioned and replaced what wire was needed. If your changing things in the engine compartment you can do all the rewiring needed and wrap to look OEM.
Have you priced out what the new wire harnesses are????? And from what I got from this forum is that you will have to do some mods to make the repop stuff work. You will be surprised as to what it cost replacing. If you got the time do it yourself, you'll be glad you did.

70Post

If this is a 455 car and still has the original alternator you DEFINITELY want to keep that on the car (very rare open face altnernator). Other "hard parts" like original water pump, radiator, etc should be retained and used if possible. Folks are paying more attention to things like original/correct parts when you are talking about complete restos. Trim...same thing....redo the original where possible and use it.

Wiring.....considering its function and what can happen if it fails, replacement with reproduction wiring is not a "negative".

rcorrigan5

If it has the original starter, alternator, water pump, carburetor, distributor, steering box, jack, wheels, etc., keep and rebuild/restore them. The rebuilding/restoring process, in my experience, makes these parts as good as new. As well, these parts, and others (such as the steering column on my '68 4-4-2), have date codes stamped or cast into them that will be consistent with the build date of your car and, in my opinion, add value because of that and their originality.

Randy C.