I would break this down into cars built in the mid to late 50s and earlier, and cars built later on ...no specific date here but the difference being the older cars that had cloth covered wire and few if any molded electrical connectors and newer cars that have molded wire connectors and a lot of tape wrapped plastic insulated wire. The key thing here is that you either have suitable tools to remove the connectors from the plastic connector bodies so you can re use them or you have to replace the connectors AND the various terminals inside of them. Things like the bulkhead connectors or lamp sockets come to mind here.
The main thing I have encountered was that the older vehicles with cloth wire tended to have brittle insulation and the cloth would fall off while handling it, though it often looked fine until disturbed. The terminals were very straightforward and not hard to find for the most part and while colors were kept the same or as close as could be found, I used modern wire and skipped the cloth covering. (The vette was the only time that I actually purchased cloth covered modern wire thru a vette parts supply house, since the price of pre built harnesses was higher than what it cost to pay me my hourly wage to dupicate it. )
I had the advantage of being able to take the various harnesses out and lay then out on a sheet of plywood and use tacks and staples to hold it in place while I measured and cut the new wire, it was painstaking and took longer than I thought but it was not difficult per se. Like anything, just do one circuit or sub harness at a time, like the charging system wires or the headlight wires. In the case of the semi tractor, the fire took that possibility out, so I built the individual harnesses like headlights and front signals, brake, tail and signal lights in the rear, etc etc, engine compartment harness, and then tied them together under the dash with terminal blocks and ring terminals.
There are no doubt many sources of info, one that I found rather helpful is an HP books title, " Automotive Electrical Handbook ", probably 20 bucks at Borders or whoever. Not tooo big on theory but a little, but some good methodology in the back about repairing, replacing and fabricating a harness from scratch, and if one has the FSM to go along with this, I see no reason why nearly anyone who can read and understand the book couldnt accomplish this kind of thing. Im sure someone will attempt it and no doubt prove this wrong, but generally I think most of the people who will read this can handle it.
Mikey62 Crown Coupe
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