Cloth wiring options

T

Tatertot

Junior Member
Opinions on weather or not I should spend the cash for some reproduction braided wire for my 38 Pickup. Just wondering. Any good by the foot places to buy? And dumb question- does it matter that I’ve gone to 12V. Thanks!
 
If it is important to you to have authentic looking wire then go for it, if not then suit yourself.
6 volt wire is more than sufficient for 12 volts.
Don't know of any supplier that sells by the foot but am sure there is probably someone who does.
 
Hey there MR. Tot, welcome to fordbarn and a lot of us here with the 38/39 peekup's. Are you related to the comedian Mr Ron White aka. tater salad:D

I have used the pictured Belden 7mm high temp metallic cable and cut my wires to length as I had bought a 12' length.

Get some pictures of your truck and let us know how you make out. Scott
 

Attachments

  • IMG_0308.JPG
    IMG_0308.JPG
    132.8 KB · Views: 91
  • IMG_0309.JPG
    IMG_0309.JPG
    135.1 KB · Views: 71
  • IMG_0310.JPG
    IMG_0310.JPG
    104 KB · Views: 71
  • IMG_0311.JPG
    IMG_0311.JPG
    118.6 KB · Views: 84
I am another "fan" of RIW. Used them for my restoration and they do sell wire and "supplies" as mentioned.
 
I am an advocate of the 'spend a bit more to get a lot more quality' school. In this case, aircraft wire is performance certified and 5 years down the line you won't be repairing it again - buy from this aircraft supplier. Most available generic wire is stiff becase cheap copper is used, the copper is not 'tinned' for ease of solderability, especially a few years away, non-soldered and the unknown insulation may have pin holes and likely also stiff. Plus the plastic wall is a far superior tough thin wall to ordinary plastic wire. The aircraft certified wire is superior in all respects. But for us, it's easier to install and won't require future repairs.

One gets this good stuff at https://www.aircraftspruce.com/menus/el/wire.html
Otherwise known as Spruce Aircraft. I have bough fire extinguishers for a sport car back in the day when regs disallowed an aircraft FE in a car and they had to ship by special transportation. As I and they are both in Oregon (main office however is Atlanta) circumventing transport problems.

The only issue I have and I anticipate you will as well, cost will dictate your purchase of white wire. They generally mark white wire with black ink making the identification easy. It is available in colors but then you need to anticipate color/length/gauge which gets spendy to cover the unknown requirements of a job. Bottom line-spend time estimating your needs.
 
Last edited:
Paul Bennett said:
I am an advocate of the 'spend a bit more to get a lot more quality' school. In this case, aircraft wire is performance certified and 5 years down the line you won't be repairing it again - buy from this aircraft supplier. Most available generic wire is stiff becase cheap copper is used, the copper is not 'tinned' for ease of solderability, especially a few years away, non-soldered and the unknown insulation may have pin holes and likely also stiff. Plus the plastic wall is a far superior tough thin wall to ordinary plastic wire. The aircraft certified wire is superior in all respects. But for us, it's easier to install and won't require future repairs.

One gets this good stuff at https://www.aircraftspruce.com/menus/el/wire.html
Otherwise known as Spruce Aircraft. I have bough fire extinguishers for a sport car back in the day when regs disallowed an aircraft FE in a car and they had to ship by special transportation. As I and they are both in Oregon (main office however is Atlanta) circumventing transport problems.

The only issue I have and I anticipate you will as well, cost will dictate your purchase of white wire. They generally mark white wire with black ink making the identification easy. It is available in colors but then you need to anticipate color/length/gauge which gets spendy to cover the unknown requirements of a job. Bottom line-spend time estimating your needs.
Click to expand...
In as much as the Original Poster is interested in cloth covered original type wire, please indicate where 'Aircraftspruce' lists their cloth covered wire.
 
Aircraft wire is generally all one color for the most part although aside from mostly white, it is available in black and a few other colors by special order. Manufacturers apply a lazer inscribed code every 6-inches or so for circuit identification. Colors are seldom used for ID in aviation. It is available in multiple types of wire strand preparation and fire resistant insulation covering depending on the application. There is a chart in the FAA advisory circular AC43.13-1B that lists all the different types of composition of the wiring that are available. MIL-W-22759/16 is the most common type used for standard circuits The dash numbers that follow that indicates the wire gauge size followed by another dash for color. The average price is around $0.65 per foot so it can get expensive.

Most folks want the color coded wire but modern auto wire availability is limited on colors and composition of wire strand & insulation. A person would have to special order wire with tracer color codes and would likely have to buy in bulk.

The choices are limited. Tyree Harris is one, the various Bauer offerings, and the Rhode Island offerings.
 
Last edited:
Or you could buy cloth covered wire in various colors, in a number of tracer patterns, by the foot from RIW.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top