Few things test an owner's patience like classic auto-electrics. Decades of perished insulation, corroded connections, well-meant bodges and slow-blowing fuses conspire to produce the intermittent fault that defies diagnosis — the headlamp that dims when you indicate, the fuel gauge that reads by mood. The reputation of old wiring as unreliable is largely undeserved: done properly, a classic electrical system is simple and dependable. The trouble is almost always age and amateur repair.
We build wiring looms by hand to original patterns, in correct colours and gauges, with period-correct connectors and cloth braiding where the car originally wore it. A new loom, correctly made and correctly fitted, removes at a stroke the accumulated faults of decades and gives an owner something rare in classic motoring: electrics that simply work.
Made to original pattern
A correct loom is not a generic bundle of wire. It follows the original routing, uses the original colour codes so future work can be traced, and terminates in the correct connectors. We make our looms to match the car, working from the original where it survives and from factory wiring diagrams where it does not. Cloth-braided outer covering, correct grommets and proper clipping all form part of doing the job as it was done at the factory.
What we put right
- Hand-built replacement looms to original colour and pattern
- Diagnosis and cure of intermittent and elusive electrical faults
- Dynamo or alternator charging systems set up correctly
- Instrument, switch and control restoration and calibration
- Lighting, ignition and ancillary circuits made safe and reliable
- Sympathetic, hidden upgrades where an owner wants them
Diagnosis before replacement
Not every car needs a new loom. Where the original wiring is sound, we would far rather diagnose and cure the specific fault than replace something that does not need replacing — preserving originality and the owner's money. Patient, systematic fault-finding with the right instruments resolves the great majority of classic electrical troubles, and we approach it as the detective work it is rather than reaching for the wire-strippers.
Discreet modern reassurance
For owners who tour, certain hidden improvements make a classic far easier to live with: a higher-output alternator concealed in a dynamo case, additional fusing, a relay to spare the original switches, or electronic ignition behind a period distributor. We fit such things invisibly and reversibly, so the car looks entirely original while starting and running with a reliability that lets you forget the electrics exist — which is exactly how it should be.