Painlesswiring, American Autowire, or ??????

[Ronno6]

I am contemplating a total wiring replacement for my '84 C10.
Painless is less so than AA, but they both command a hefty sum.
American Autowire seems to have a more complete harness, but I have read that much adjusting is required...wire lengths, termination, etc.
My son-in-law sells aftermarket truck and import accessories, and he is high on Painless.

Who among y'al like or dislike either, or recommend someone else????
I doubt I could come up with all the OEM colors to do on my own....

 

[PrairieDrifter]

You would be in it way more money doing it on your own, then you would have to make the choices for some connections, whether to use the old connectors, if you can even find new connections for everything. Plus sourcing all that wire and individual pieces.

I haven't ordered a full harness yet but everything I've ordered from painless has been top notch and the customer service is great!

I ordered a torque converter lockup kit and I broke one of the components. I emailed summit told them I broke it and it wasn't painless' fault, also to see if I could order just that singular piece instead of a whole nother kit, they got ahold of painless, and told them what I told summit and the people at painless said I wasn't able to order that single piece, but they said they would send one out free of charge for my honesty.

So as far as I'm concerned I'll stick with painless, and summit as well lol. Summit has been top tier customer service.

 

[Doppleganger]

I bought the GM column 28 circuit Painless kit for $300. Pulled my original harness out, removed all the connectors from both halves of the firewall gang connector, bought a pile of new connectors (Rock has them for about 1/4 what napa does)....and I intend on making the rest of it myself. All the pigtails are pretty much available (Rock), and many of my originals were still in great shape.

Adding power everything, FI and relays so nothing they sold would be turnkey anyways.

 

[idahovette]

Did my Grandson Brody's 79 K10 with Painless.......it WAS painless, great product, no surprises!

 

[dhenderz]

I rewired the entire 77 K10 (complete resto) with AA. No issues.

 

[Redfish]

I rewired a '73 Bronco with the Painless Harness. While the experience wasn't exactly "painless", the wiring harness was excellent. The wire insulation color matches the factory original colors so the factory wiring diagram can still be semi-useful, the wires are all very well tagged AND the name is printed on the insulation about every 12 to 18 inches. The plugs for the headlights and tail lights are there, you simply plug things up. They provided options for different ignition systems which was great since we still had points and condenser OEM ignition when I did the job but we switched to a modern electronic ignition soon afterwards.

One thing that makes a difference on a job like this is money. Money and the willingness to spend it. This is when any old switches, gauges, or anything electrical needs to be replaced. Pay some extra money and get the high quality wire loom covering kit. All of that makes the job better, more worthwhile and more complete.

I cannot say anything about any other brand because I have no experience but I can say the Painless was superb and would definitely be at the top of my list if I ever had to do it again.

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[Ronno6]

I am beginning to see a pattern here....

 

[Jacob Miller]

I just rewired my 73’ C20 with the 28 circuit painless kit. I’ll absolutely go with them again, make sure to take your time reading the instructions (the included book is great) and lay out the harness before trying to run it and it’ll go in easy. If your motivated enough it can be done over a weekend.

 

[da_raabi]

I'll add in that I used Painless when I did a relay kit for the windows on my 80 Camaro. Very high quality kit and the instructions were simply amazing. I'm used to getting generalized low-quality instruction with this stuff, but Painless actually included full-color images for all steps, and they ACTUALLY WERE FROM THE SAME MAKE/MODEL/YEAR AS MINE. So when they advertise a kit is for X model, of Y vintage, their instructions actually match! Painless is the name, and from my experience painless is the game. Pricey, but I can't say enough about it. Kinda wish I would have used their whole-car harness.

 

[idahovette]

My thoughts exactly Adam, the Painless was great and will I use it again when I need wiring!!!

 

[LateOnTheBrakes]

I was very happy with the painless set I installed. I wish it came with connectors instead of having to splice in some like the headlights, taillights, etc.

 

[Doppleganger]

I got the 28 circuit Painless kit for GM columns as it was less than half the cost of the SB specific kit and I'm adding FI, PW, etc anyways. Kept and cleaned the firewall gang connector too. Keep all the old stuff too if only for a connector......although, most of them are available new and fairly reasonable through RA.

 

[Ronno6]

I got the 28 circuit Painless kit for GM columns as it was less than half the cost of the SB specific kit and I'm adding FI, PW, etc anyways. Kept and cleaned the firewall gang connector too. Keep all the old stuff too if only for a connector......although, most of them are available new and fairly reasonable through RA.

Did you repopulate the firewall plugs with new terminals?
What about column connectors?
So much time......so few questions......

 

[Doppleganger]

Did you repopulate the firewall plugs with new terminals?
What about column connectors?
So much time......so few questions......

I cleaned (soaked in gas to get rid of that rubber cement type sealant) the firewall gang connectors then bought all new male and female terminals. Get those at Rock Auto for about 1/3 what NAPA wants.

The GM column harness has all the column connectors as I didn't want to mess with that. I'm adding relays as well - PW, PL, headlamps, AC, FI, etc. so will have to do alot of my own routing anyways. I have some to figure out as well with the cruise control.

 

[WP29P4A]

I am learning that these wiring systems are only as good as the person installing them. I have been working on a rock crawler jeep for a client that had the Painless wiring system installed by someone that obviously does not do wiring on a regular basis. Who ever installed it bundled up the wiring that comes attached to the fuse/relay block under the hood, on top of the fender. Looks like crap, original installer lacked the basic planning to shorten the wires before connecting the system. I have gone over original install and cleaned up crappy wiring job, did the best I could without starting from scratch.

Now I am starting over and removing the Painless block and wiring, replacing it with something different and smaller. Pulling out all the added wire looms to reduce the amount of wires crossing the engine compartment before rerouting them. I was able to reduce the amount of unnecessary bulk by removing the lose jacket on the pairs of wires and grounding locally instead of running the ground wires all the way across the firewall to the ground location the first installer choose without considering the big picture.

Picture below is what it looked like after the first clean up session. The client is making the choices on what type of wiring system to use, I just install what ever the client asks me to. Hope this info is helpful in making an informed decision on what system to use. After playing with the Painless system the only critique I have is the fuse/relay box is huge compared to others.

The Painless system is quality, and planned properly will work very well. High quality wire, connectors and hardware compared to other automotive wiring