I just ran some wiring up either side of the engine bay, and up to the headlight area on the hood, so each side of my engine bay has one black, one red wire going up it. What can I use to wrap these wires in to make them not so noticeable? I don't want to use wire loom, I don't like the way it looks and it's only two wires on each side, so it's a bit unnecessary, what else can I do? I've thought of wrapping the wires in electrical tape, but that's a good bit of tape for that. Anything else I can do?

 

I'd vote for tape. It's what I did for all of my rally lights, and it holds well against water and such..

Other than that.. replacing the red wire with another black one, and just zip-tying them?

Me.

 

I vote tape as well but i got sneaky on mine do to not liking it to be seen that easily as well.. I took some duct tape that was wide enough to flat tape the wires straight on the engine bay. This was about half width of normal Duct tape. Then Painted the tape the tape the same color as the engine bay. Then applied the tape to the wires and enginebay.

 

See post #7 and #5 for different options in the thread below
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=87623
Steve

 

You could use some regular vacuum line, 5/32" will fit 2 wires inside it. Just slice it down one side and use it as loom.

 

I loom added wiring with electrical tape in most cases. It looks stock, protects the wiring and it's cheap enough. In areas that could see abrasion, I overlay either the black, convoluted slitted plastic tubing, vacuum line or mesh sleeving. Where a small, single wire has to make a solo journey in an engine compartment or other area exposed to maintenance, road spray, heat and/or debris, I will usually add a layer of shrink tubing to beef up the single strand.

 

i use wirewraps too (or looms), zip ties, black e-tape. looks stock and
protects from heat, weather, abrasions.

ive never had any issues with wiring ive done. probably because
99% of the time i use solder instead of taps.

 

thats my other issue, I'm not too savvy with my soldering iron, so I havent been able to use it on my car wiring yet. The last things I used it on were my guitars about two years ago.

 

Wrap it in something to protect it - you don't want shorts. Soldering isn't too hard if you've got a 100w or better soldering iron/gun. Those smaller ones aren't worth it. Heat the part AND the wire, make sure the solder melts on the part/wire (not on the gun tip), and shrink tube (preferred) or tape/wrap when you're done. When I've taped a joint, I use Scotch 33+ tape (the best IMHO) and then a small ziptie around the tape so it doesn't unravel. That 33+ has held for years in un-ziptied joints in engine compartments, so it's good stuff.

Tape's cheap (~$3/roll for 33+) and it's not too bad to spiral wrap a wire or three to protect it.

 

Plastic loom comes in extremely small diameters that can just barely hold two wires. IMHO this is the most "factory" looking way to do it. Looks great with shrink tubing at the ends. And I always use T-Taps with no problems (Not ScotchLoks!).