Bob Ross '56 Imperial Miss Pearl----- Original Message ----- From: "Dick Benjamin" <dickb@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <dansgarage@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Cc: <mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, August 07, 2006 10:54 AM Subject: RE: IML: reproduction wire and wiring sources
You make a good point, Dan; I think I should post your remark and my response (following) to the IML - as others will run into the same situation. -----Original Message----- From: dansgarage@xxxxxxxxxxxxHi Dick! .....I did check the Y & Z website, but from what I saw therethey only go up to 1963 as far as Imperials. I vaguely remember some place advertising in a car magazine, maybe Hemmings, that did 'custom' wiringharnesses. I never checked with them but I would guess they are expensive. I would like to try my hand at making my own replacements for the Imperial but I am wondering if this is biting off WAY more than I can realistically chewon!!!..not to mention I don't even have a source yet for the correct wire for an Imperial! Hope all is well with you and the family!! Has it been as hot there In Temecula as it has been here in Beaumont??? (the last few days have beenGREAT!!, but I think its going to start getting back to real AUGUST weathertomorrow!) Take care and will see you at the next meeting when I (hopefully) will be bringing my newly acquired '66 LeBaron!! Stay well!!! ( and Liz says "Hi" also!)Dan MelnikActually, Dan, the wire quality in the old cars is what drives the replacement wiring harness business - the old cloth covered wire is dangerous because it cracks and the insulation flakes off, leaving bare copper wire in contact with whatever it is close to. This problem disappeared in the late 50s, as the car manufacturers woke up to the problem. They started using much better wire, so the need to replace a harness pretty much disappeared in cars built from 1960 or later, unless there was fire or accident damage.Y n Z's will make any harness, if you can supply a complete one as a patternto follow, and a wiring diagram. The condition of the old one doesn'tmatter, they just need a pattern to show where the branches break out of themain harness, and in what direction, and an example of the end terminalsused for each wire. The wiring diagram gives them the original wire colors. Once they have the pattern, they can turn them out pretty quickly, and theyare reasonably priced. Apparently, no one has had one made for a post 63 Imperial yet. As for making your own, you can follow the same procedure that they use:Get a 4X8 sheet of plywood, and lay out your old harness on it, holding thebranches in place with bent over nails, and splay out all the individualwire ends for easy visibility. Mark them all, and buy the replacement wire - you will need many colors, some with "tracer" stripes - so this will be a major undertaking if you want to duplicate the original, but it can be done. All the terminal ends need to be duplicated, and soldered (not CRIMPED!) on.This takes some skill with stripping and soldering. Then you need some lacing tape to hold it all together, and finally wrapping tape to make itlook authentic. I'd guess you are looking at around 100 hours labor to makeit, not counting taking the old one out, and putting the new one in. Thecost of the terminals (Y n Z's will sell what you need to you) will run youaround $100, and the wire another $200 or so. I've done all this, on a much simpler vehicle, (51 Chevy pickup) and I'll never do it again - and I'm an experienced harness maker - (that was my first assignment as a newly minted junior engineer - I made harnesses for the early "Sidewinder" missiles we were designing at Philco in 1953!)As an aside, the name "Sidewinder" comes from the hunting method used by themissile - once launched, it scans the area in about a 30 degree cone infront of it, looking for warmth - when it spots a warm item - it acceleratesrapidly and strikes it, just exactly like its namesake rattlesnake. If it doesn't "see" anything warm in front of it, it will look around in otherdirections. It is a scary weapon - it will fly right up the tailpipe of aplane and blow it to smithereens, and until a secure way was worked out to disable it, there was no way to stop it. Some of the early test flightsended in disaster! Sidewinders are still a mainstay of our defense systems -more than 50 years later. Yes, it has been somewhat warm down here, but not as hot as some years(we've lived here since 1979). We can recall weeks of 110+ temps, and some as high as 117. Of course that was with very low humidity, and the nighttime temps always drop into the 50s-60s because of the crystal clear skies, so we can sleep well. The odd weather of the previous 2 weeks was very unusual inthat respect - the humidity was outrageously high for the "desert" and the sky was overcast for a few nights, so it only dropped to the mid 80s at night. For the first time in all the years we've lived here, we had to leave the AC on all night to get good sleep. Dick ---- Dick Benjamin <dickb@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: =============I can second Mikey on this. Y and Z's are the class of the industry for oldcar wiring harnesses - I've used them for 20 years - their stuff is top notch and they are nice people to deal with. Dick Benjamin -----Original Message-----Today, I think it was Don Dickinson, was looking for a source for older car wire and or wiring harnesses and such. Im sure there are others, but one ofFrom mike and linda suttonthe most often seen in most automotive magazines is Ynz....which is Yanez actually. They are one of the few who still can do the old cloth covered wire, which I believe they use a cloth cover over a wire with realinsulation, so the fire hazard associated with cloth covered wire is greatlyreduced. I dont work for them so dont take my word for it, just check themout for yourself. http://www.ynzyesterdaysparts.com/ Mikey 62 Crown Coupe ----------------- http://www.imperialclub.com ----------------- This message was sent to you by the Imperial Mailing List. Please reply to mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and your response will be shared with everyone. Private messages (and attachments) for the Administrators should be sent to webmaster@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx To UN-SUBSCRIBE, go to http://imperialclub.com/unsubscribe.htm ----------------- http://www.imperialclub.com ----------------- This message was sent to you by the Imperial Mailing List. Please reply to mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and your response will be shared with everyone. Private messages (and attachments) for the Administrators should be sent to webmaster@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxTo UN-SUBSCRIBE, go to http://imperialclub.com/unsubscribe.htm
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