Used a 12 circuit Painless harness to wire up a 1966 Excaliber w/ 327 Corvette drivetrain. No wiring diagram so I photo copied my 66 El camino diagram and used that. Without a doubt the easiest rewiring job I have done. All the circuits were clearly marked/labeled and the appropriate sections bundled together. I even hooked up his High Beam lights which were never wired in by the last mechanic. Cranked it up this afternoon without any problems and all circuits functioning properly. The previous attempt at rewiring was a mess of burnt wires and covering that could have turned a Sunday drive into a burnt shell of a car beside the highway.

That's GREAT Scrubby!
That easy huh? Thanx for sharing that because I'll be needing to replace mine here soon. I've FINALLY got all my wires figured out, but I'm not very comfortable with it. None of the ends were there or nothin.
Nice work on the 66. It's cool to see the work you're doing. Can't wait to see how it turns out. That year looks pretty cool.
What color Dude?

I second Scrubby's assessment. Though not on an Elky, I rewired a '67 Firebird using the Painless Wiring harness front to back and would highly recommend using this product to rewire a vehicle. I have to second Scrubby's comments and add that it was really easier than I expected. As long as you read their instructions once first then take your time and lay out the wiring, it seems to make a whole lot of sense when you are ready to go into the car.
I was very apprehensive about removing the original wiring but finally yanked it all out and went after it. It wasn't bad at all.
As Scrubby pointed out, the different circuits are bundled together and labelled well and on this Firebird-specifc harness, a few plugs under the dash were already terminated with the proper plug (light switch, ignition switch, heater / fan controls...). Also, the wire colors were similar to the factory GM colors and in most cases were the same.
The only things that I might bring up as "problems" were:
* the fuse box is bigger than the original (uses the blade type fuses instead of the glass tube fuses and has many more circuits than the original) so I had to cut the firewall or find another mounting solution - I opted to cut the firewall and nearly butchered the opening (operator error)
* lack of tail light sockets - I had to run to Auto Zone to pick up a few sockets to fit before finishing the job;
* the wire connections are the little plastic tube things with metal inside that you crimp together after butting the wire ends together in the tube - maybe those will last forever and I'm not skilled at crimping them properly but I occasionally have those things come apart
* one or two wires plugging into the steering column harness won't stay plugged in (yet) and I occasionally lose my tail lights or turn signals - however I just need to push the wires back in to remedy that

Over all, a 9.5 out of 10 in my opinion. :D

WTG Scrubby and Poncho! Thanx for the info. We really appreciate the feedback. I'll be using painless in the future.
Just a tip. I use the crimp things too, but I cut the plastic off and use the metal crimp AND solder it to make sure it stays where I put it. Use shrink wrap over that and you're good to go.
Soldering's pretty easy, just make sure you use lots O flux.
LATER
dug

I used to use the cheap crimping tool years ago and had the same problem with the wires coming apart once in awhile. I talked to an electrician about this and he advised me to buy one of the Klein crimping/cutting tool #1005. This crimper adds another dimple in the crimp to keep the wires from pulling out of the connectors. Haven't had one fail since. Channel Lock also makes a crimper/cutter like this.

Thanks for the crimp advice and tips! This is usually the weak link in any wiring gremlins I've chased.
Thanks again!

"painless wiring harness"? Did I miss a link on this? Please do tell :)

i just got done installing the whole harness on my 1970 and i couldnt have asked for anything better It was easy didnt take to long about a full week to get the kinks and get everything figured out i ended up getting an internal regulated altenator instead of the old external for my car and now the car runs. Reccomend painless if you have major wiring problems like letting someone do your body work and they cut all your blinker wires and headlight wires and dont tell you then when you hit the switch for them you get nothing but nice smellin smoke. Painless saved me alot of time and agravation i would highly recomend it to anyone

I have a friend that used them, Great product.

I used the Painless 18 Circuit harness going into my 80 Elky. I opted to use MSD Weather proof connectors and I am really good with a soldering iron, well pretty much any electronics and devices, formal training. EE/CE

I never did like the cheap little zaps and connectors that are commonly found in Auto Supply stores and as someone already pointed out the crimpers are super cheap and do more damage than good most of the time. If you plan to do much work with wiring then you need to have a really good crimp tool with replaceable Jaws and a good VOM or DVM, like a Simpson 260. A good soldering iron with adjustable temperature settings.

I don't suggest that you use a boat load of Flux, you can end up causing yourself a lot of problems doing that. Solder flux has an acid base that cleans the surface, in a manner of speaking, and it keeps going after the Job is finished. So if your using Rosen core solder or external flux use an alcohol soaked brush, stiff bristles, to clean off the excess or left over so it doesn't corrode inside the heat shrink tubing. 60/40 Solder is the best for this application and make sure when your soldering connections that you first make a good mechanical connection with the wires. Don't use the solder joint to hold together the wires. Tin the ends first, twist then solder. Cover with a small piece of electrical tape tightly then use the heat shrink to cover over that.

The painless harness I got was not specific to the Elkys. It is keyed for the GM column connector. Also, use the best sockets you can get your hands on. Try not to use devices with Tin contacts, try to get copper sockets and connectors.

Another good advantage to the painless harness is you can customize it with no additional problems. I made my engine harness connect to a weather proof plug. That way if I decide to pull the engine I only have to disconnect one plug. Same with the Lights and the Rear Lights all have connectors that I can unplug and completely remove the rear bumper without having to worry about the wires connected to the lights in it.

Likewise the radio harness, the instrument cluster, and some other things. I also added lots of relays to supply power to the lights and stuff instead of the way GM did it by routing power through the switches to the lights and such. The switch operates the relay only. Less current draw through the switch and the switch lasts for ever that way.

I recommend Painless and their factory is right here in my home town so its an American Made product built to last. The wires can carry more current than the circuits are generally designed to put out so there is little chance of the wires burning up under load.

Anyway its just my experience with Painless. .

There is a link to painless in the links section of the board.