Wire Tuck, Engine Bay Smoothing Advice

[FoxMustangLvr]

I'm wanting to know if anyone has done the engine bay smoothing and wire tuck and ended up regretting it? Did you do the wire tuck and have issues?
Did you have issues with accessing any important stuff in the fender wells?
Would you recommend hiding everything or are there some things that shouldn't be hidden to make maintenance easier over the years?

My engine and T5 is out of the car right now and I'm thinking that now is the time do hide wires and start welding up holes and smoothing. My battery is already relocated in the trunk with a kill switch. It will be worth it to me to put in the work but if other people have done it and then found it to be a pain to access everything and functionality became an issue then I might reconsider or maybe not hide everything.

My car will be an April-Sept fun car. Not a DD.
Thanks in advance!

 

[madspeed]

No issues here. Ive got my coil and solenoid hidden as well. No regrets. Just need to do the bay shave next winter

 

[MikeH686]

I've done both the tuck and the smoothed aprons I left my coil in the bay in the stock location because I actually don't mind it there I put my harness down through the trans tunnel instead of routing it to the fender and then through a hole in the door jamb any questions I can snap some pics and show you but everything is rather accessible

 

[Gearbanger 101]

Did the wire tuck....haven't smoothed the engine bay yet. My advice....get yourself a top quality soldering gun and get acquainted with it. You're gonna be lengthening a lot of wires!!!

 

[madspeed]

No lengthening for me but i didnt do the main harness on the firewall yet

 

[bentley429isBAC]

Only wire I lengthened was the maf. Dont regret it at all. I did not smooth the engine bay though. Pretty much have 0 desire to do that.

 

[madspeed]

Ah, I did need to lengyhen the maf harness, but its due to relocating it during my turbo install

 

[MikeH686]

I used one of those pre wired kits I can't remember the company they are out of business now because of poor customer service but made a decent product and it was meant to be tucked so everything is a foot or more longer

 

[madspeed]

I could use one of those. Next step for me is to run the main harness inside the cab and through trans tunnel

 

[MikeH686]

This it's very time consuming I did it when I had the whole car apart to get everything laid out that's also when I took the main chassis harness and put it inside the cab as well which when you see my thread is why I have a hole drilled in the door jamb strictly for the chassis harness which is mostly the headlight harness

 

[madspeed]

Well worth the effort if you at all plan on showing your car

 

[rbohm]

considering that for the most part you rarely have to access the wiring harness, hiding it really doesnt cause any issues. and if you make any repairs that are needed when you move the harness around to hide the wires, as well as doing any preventative maintenance, you should head off any possible issues for a long time to come.

 

[FoxMustangLvr]

Last time I tried to solder the solder wire wouldn't stick to the wires. Is that indicative of a cheap iron? Or not getting hot enough?

 

[MikeH686]

Could be that your not holding the iron on it long enough

 

[Bullitt347]

One of the things I did was to move the starter solenoid to the passenger side on the back side of the shock tower down as low as it would go. This way the battery cable from the trunk was shorter, and the positive cable to the starter was much shorter as well. Less amperage draw with the shorter routing.

 

[mikestang63]

I did it on my 87 vert show car about 15 years ago. I didn't have to lengthen any wires except for the fenderwell MAF. I followed alot what two guys I new did with their cars on the Corral years back- almost stock and another guy named Dave. Both have amazing cars. I think Dave goes by Sonic Cherry now. I think they have websites with articles on how to...

They key is you have to seperate the wire looms and re route them behind each shock tower and then tuck them up very high in the inner fender. It helps to have the fender off but can be done if you have alot of patience with the fender on. The passenger side was very easy. The driver side not so much if I recall.

 

[FoxMustangLvr]

Could be that your not holding the iron on it long enough

The solder would melt but just run over the bare wire and fall off. I have a cheapo $8 iron.

 

[mikestang63]

Could be that your not holding the iron on it long enough

That's what I told my ex all the time. Now make me a sammich.

 

[MikeH686]

One of the things I did was to move the starter solenoid to the passenger side on the back side of the shock tower down as low as it would go. This way the battery cable from the trunk was shorter, and the positive cable to the starter was much shorter as well. Less amperage draw with the shorter routing.

That's what I need to do to mine when I move the battery to the trunk I'll probably get a ton Francis distribution block for all the attachments to the solenoid then move the solenoid to the passenger side wheel well. Thanks for the quick inspiration

 

[MikeH686]

The soldier would melt but just run over the bare wire and fall off. I have a cheapo $8 iron.

Then it's gotta be the solder