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Why is it so important for the electrical system and wiring in your antique or classic car to be sound? It's the same as an old house, but worse.  The main problems with old original wiring in most classic cars is that for starters, they have a limited amount of circuits and were not designed for the load we add to them today - like AC, stereos, fuel injection, cooling fans, etc. In many cases, the alternator will also need to be replaced to keep up with added load. When we say "not designed for the load", that means a few things - mainly the size of the wire, number of fused circuits and the often neglected body to chassis/engine grounds.

Another one of the biggest problems we see in the shop is due to age, the number of times wiring has been repaired, tapped into, patched up or added upon. Stereo shops and installed are one of the biggest offenders as they often simple tap into any power supplying circuit they can for their equipment - I can tell you countless horror stories related to this.  It's not just stereo shops though - DIYers, professional mechanics, corrosion from moisture and rodents are all almost equally responsible for wiring issues on aging cars.

Due to age, the wiring and connectors in many antique cars can be corroded or brittle - especially true with any wiring exposed to the elements, but depending where the car or truck has lived it's life, any of the wiring could be compromised like this. 

So how do you go about rewiring a classic car or truck - sounds like a big job, right?  It is, it's huge and in some cases it takes a professional shop over a week to get done.  Some vehicles (popular ones) may have OE stock style replacement harnesses available which cuts the labor time way down. However, they still present limitations on number of circuits if you plan to add anything over stock, and most people do.

For some cars, a "classic update" harness is available which is basically a modern harness that has more circuits and is heavier duty that the Original Equipment harness was - still very laborious to install but not as much as a completely custom universal harness - which is where a lost of custom restomod and pro-touring projects fall.

If the vehicle does not need to maintain its originality, new wiring can have some nice options - extra fuses and circuits for future add-ons, circuit breakers instead of fusible links for quicker diag and recovery when there are problems. Modern wiring harnesses have newer style fuses and fuse boxes making it easier to troubleshoot issues and replace fuses if necessary - there are also options as to where to mount the fuse box. It doesn't always have to go under the dash in the most difficult place on the entire car to access! It can be mounted in the trunk or glove box or anywhere that makes the best sense on a customer vehicle.

Whether you are looking to troubleshoot electrical problems with your classic can, add electronic devices or flat our know the car need a whole new harness - re-wiring an antique vehicle is a huge undertaking but well worth it (and required many times) during restorations and major renovations/upgrades.  Pro-Speed installs new wiring harnesses in classic cars and trucks on a regular basis. Reach out for more information if you have any questions about the process of would like to schedule a full rewire of your classic ride.