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As a birthday gift to myself and who better to give me what I want than me--I will buy myself a wiring harness for my 1949 Standard 4dr. Packard.

Now, the question is from which provider. Many of my fellow Packard owners at this site have had experience buying a wiring harness and I am asking for opinions.

When I ask for a good carb repair source I picked Daytona Parts Company from your suggestions. As several fellow members warned me the carb came back so beautifully restored I did want to put it on the fireplace mantel instead of on the car!!! As I opened the box in which it came I felt the joy of Indiana Jones as he lifted up the golden skull--what a thrill!!! Plus no head hunters chased me afterwards!!!

Looking forward to your comments.

Zougeride

I have to be loyal to my state so I would recommend either
www.riwire.com or www.narragansettreproductions.com Both do an excellent job and they are brothers

I used Potomac Packards. I don't think you would go wrong with any of them.

Suggestion - buy some "toe tags", the paper tags with string on them from an office supply store. Then layout the wiring harness on the kitchen table or a sheet of plywood on sawhorses and label each end of each wire with the number and what it goes to. When you install, only take off the old wire as you reinstall the new. Plus print out the wiring diagrams in as large a format as possible. And take photos before. Best if you have a friend to help read the other ends, and check everything with a multimeter.

I agree with David. I have used multiple harnesses from Potomac. They use original Packard Schematics to make, plus will add wires as you request for special items and provide excellent service.

I've been wanting to ask about wiring harnesses. Glad this thread appeared.

I think I can re-create several of the harnesses on my 400 but the dash and front end harness is intimidating. Looking at the website for Rhode Island wiring I see it can cost me $1171 for that harness. I sure didn't see that coming.
The other site doesn't list my model.

I guess you have to call Potomac as I can not find a web site.

I do believe it is cheaper to make your own but whether you want to pay for convenience is the key question. I've made a couple of harnesses so it's a project I wouldn't refuse to do again on a car using plastic wire and vinyl loom wrap. Not nearly as much fun on those cars that used cloth wire with the cross eyed tracing and braiding over all. Even if you do the loom and then send in for braiding, IMO, those looms are worth the price the professionals ask to do it all.

The modern plastic front loom is intimidating and sometimes monotonous but it is very much a doable project. One nice thing about DIY is you can customize if needed. As long as you take the harness out intact and label things -- or at least know the wiring diagram -- not much can go wrong. Having a large work surface such as a sheet of plywood where you can stretch the harness out in the shape needed in the car and then fix it in place, helps it go fairly quickly. Using cheap tie wraps in key places where you can tie, cut, & tie again & cut again helps avoid too much stress. One of those projects that are great over several winter evenings.

The biggest obstacle is getting the proper wiring type and the needed colors since some like pink, tan, light green etc are not generally available items at your local parts store. Fortunately, the correct automotive grade wire is available in bulk form in small quantities and in almost all color combinations from RhodeIsland wiring and a couple of others. The downside is you pay a bit more for the small 10 or 20 foot wire quantity but generally you can judge the amount needed to minimize waste.

Also as another choice, there are 6v street rod harnesses being made. The ones that follow the GM wiring colors are extremely close to the Packard wiring colors. Packard-Delphi heritage perhaps?

Take the street rod harness apart, lay the circuits to match the Packard one, and then tape wrap the harness. That is pretty much what I did with my car, but used a 12v harness. Everything is the same, except I have a modern fuse box hidden under the dash which controls everything instead of just the Packard circuit breakers.