Painless vs. Ron francis, which should I go with?

[69RRberkeley]

My next project is a rewire of my 69 RR. I plan on adding a 100amp alternator along with it. This is the
first wiring project I'm taking on, any tips on which harness i should choose?

Thanks All!
-Olaf

 

[trimmer]

I have used wiring from both of the ones you have mentioned. I think both of them use a G.M. fuse blocks and neither of those are going to be plug and play. They will be good for easy id. of where the wires go but you will still have to make all of the connections to all your electrical outlets and if you have no experience doing that then you will need more information. They do come with easy to read instructions as how to use them on a variety of vehicles. Good Luck.

 

[67 coronet]

i do all of my electrical from scratch,but many of my freinds have said the ron francis stuff is a bit better quality then the painless.

 

[RustyRatRod]

I know the Ron Francis stuff has no firewall connector. That's always a point of contention. I think eliminating it is a great idea.

 

[747mopar]

I'm currently rewiring my car with an aftermarket universal kit that is based on GM components. Mine was made by American Wiring, It is no longer being made but I can tell you that even a universal harness isn't to hard to figure out if you have a little electrical know how. The only thing you really have to figure out on the universal harnesses is how to adapt the Mopar components to the GM style harness like the steering column, switches etc. I elected to change all of my switches to more available switches that just plug right into the harness. Me personally, I think they both want a ridiculous price for a harness but that's just me. Good luck

 

[rocky61201]

I used the Ron Francis Mopar Retro Wiring Kit for my 71 Charger. Price was the factor when comparing against painless. The extra stuff I had to buy was the Ron Francis voltage regulator and I probably didn't need it, but it was plug and play with his harness and only $25 bucks. Also had to buy braided wire covering for the wires that can be seen (it's pretty), plastic split loom covering for wires that can't be seen (not as pretty), zip ties, and some extra un-insulated male/female connectors to use with rebuiling some of the connectors from the original wiring harness that I wanted to re-use. Plus a couple headlight relays to wire in myself. In my opinion you don't need to go top dollar and buy the already built/wired headlight relay kits from either vendor, but it would probably make the job easier. Both vendors will give you plenty of extra wiring to use for other stuff if need be. Don't go buy extra rolls of wire from auto zone just yet. I think my headlight and taillight wiring came about 50 feet long, lol.

You will have to create you're own wiring from the wiper switch to the wiper motor and washer and heater/air system as well. The kit only comes with power from the fuze block to those two switches, you build the rest. But like I said you will have plenty of brand new quality extra wire to re-use. I also re-used my firewall bulk-head connector by drilling out the holes a little and running the wires straight thru.

It was very time consuming to get everything just like I wanted, but I got it right the first time and the motor fired with the first turn of the key. I did a few extra things like running the headlight/horn/washer wiring thru the fenderwell vice the engine compartment. This was my first every attempt at anything like this beyond putting in a couple car stereos. It aint hard, just follow the instructions and study the original wiring diagrams to get a thourough understanding of how everything works.

 

[5.7 hemi]

I used Ron Francis on my build and when it came time to connect the connections, I just took apart the mopar factory stuff and put wires in them so it all had a factory connection.....my buddy did most of my wiring and this was his suggestion.