Re: Wiring harness, Body-off resto

[Steven Ayres <comwest@well.com>]

Charles=> How difficult would it be to replace the wiring harness on a 
       => daily driver?  

I had a new harness made special for my Ghia, and put it in after the 
body had been completely stripped and painted. It was easy to get 
everything in more or less the right place, but I have yet to plug in 
the fuse box or get started on the nuts and bolts of hooking up the 
various switches and appliances. I have notes from the wiring guy, a 
reasonably good diagram, lots of space with the interior out, and a 
well-lit garage -- but still the connection process is a major obstacle 
in my mind. Too many connectors, too many wires, it's not a tidy problem 
at all, and I expect it'll drive me right around the bend. 

=> Doing a body-off resto and stripping down the pan to is bare assets 
=> seems like the beginning of a never ending project or just a 
=> nightmare at least.  Am I just imagining it is worse than it is?  

Actually, it's probably *worse* than you imagine. 

=> Can you tell what all this entails? 

Briefly, you have to undo almost everything that you, every previous 
owner and VW did to make your car, clean everything, paint, repair or 
replace most everything (keeping all the parts identified and organized 
as you go), discover resources, deal with painters, rebuilders and 
rechromers, buy more tools than you have space for, refinance your house 
to pay for everything even if you're doing it yourself (some will say 
*especially* if you're doing it yourself, since more goes wrong), clean 
everything you missed, redo everything that got done wrong by suppliers, 
redo everything that got done wrong by suppliers the second time, 
organize your parts again, go through all the processes that VW did to 
build your car, buy all the parts you forgot about or broke or turned 
out to be bad anyway, redo half the processes that VW did to build your 
car because you got them wrong, and redo half of *those* after you 
finally figure out how to do it. And you *will* scratch it. Count on it.

If this doesn't put you off completely, go for it -- you're as nutty as 
the rest of us.

=> Do most people hire a professional?  

Only *rich* people.

=> Does he do all the work to where it's ready for the body?  

That's what he'll *tell* you, anyway. Don't be fooled.

=> Are there that many competent people out there? 

Nope.

=> Any good ones in So. Cal?

Go directly to West Coast Classics and talk to Lenny. He'll point you to 
good sources for what he can't do.

Steven Ayres, Prescott AZ
'66 KGhia 1600 in process