CarMiZa OEM Wiring
Mike delves into the OEM wiring to understand what is there, what needs to be fixed, how the overall will be improved in the final version.
Just so you know, the Tesa tape (at least the interior soft stuff) DOES leave a gooey residue after a while. As someone who is in the 12V industry (almost 29 years now) I have been using it for the past few years, and ocassionally have to go back into installs, and have seen it…and I don’t live where it gets to 110+ degrees. It’s kind of like deadener…a lot of people review deadener but never go back and check it after the fact. I used some 3 layer deadener based on reviews, and a year or so later I won some different deadener at SVR and when I went to add it I found the original deadener had oozed and the panels would ring if you tapped on them. The attention to detail on this car is amazing and you’re doing a great job!Show less
The CarMiZa OEM Wiring post delves into a meticulous restoration and rewiring process of a vintage BMW. It outlines challenges such as degraded factory wiring and unconventional modifications by previous owners. With over 177 hours invested, the wiring was fully redone using high-quality materials like Tessa tape, ensuring a factory-original look while integrating modern audio components. Detailed cleaning and repairs were performed, and every wire was treated to extend durability. The result is an expertly restored wiring system that preserves the vehicle’s authenticity while enabling superior functionality.
Transcript
0:01hey how’s it going here is another
0:02update on car misa
0:05uh today is july 10th 2022
0:08uh it is a nice crisp of 114 degrees out
0:12here in beautiful arizona
0:14a little bit warm this weekend i’ve been
0:16spending quite a bit of time on the car
0:18i think i’m about 14 hours in so far for
0:20the weekend
0:21uh but getting a lot done today is
0:23definitely i would say a milestone
0:26um it’s taken me i got some specs here
0:30177 hours
0:32to redo all of the factory wiring but it
0:35is complete
0:37uh so if you recall maybe i’ll see if i
0:40can uh
0:41splice together a video of some initial
0:44early video of what the the fact even
0:47just the factory wiring let alone the
0:49audio wiring by the time
0:52i got the car it was just absolutely
0:55a mess there was sheetrock screws going
0:57through harnesses
0:59um
1:00oh my gosh monkey dung everywhere um
1:04electrical home electrical wire nuts on
1:07some of the speaker wires the audio
1:09wiring was just awful uh basically very
1:13molested at this point so
1:15i went through removed everything and
1:18then redid a i spliced in where needed
1:21uh some new factory plugs because some
1:24of the plugs like for example that abs
1:27plug that was broke that orange plug
1:29i was kind of shattered so
1:31i took all the wiring out of the parts
1:33car
1:34and basically replaced that plug so
1:38um
1:39again about 177 hours on the wiring it
1:42is done um i went through 18 rolls of
1:45tape
1:46and as you can see
1:48i
1:49basically duplicated
1:51i wanted this to be like okay bmw built
1:54it
1:54today and they did the woofers what
1:56would it look like right kind of like a
1:58plus one so
1:59i maintained the same exact kind of tape
2:02that bmw used uh i sourced a brand
2:05called tessa t
2:06esa this is a nine millimeter cloth tape
2:09and then in some of the areas where i
2:11did full coverage
2:12it’s a 25 millimeter stuff is great to
2:15work with um it doesn’t leave that black
2:17nasty sticky residue like
2:20the 3m tape does the vinyl tape
2:23and i just find it a lot more user
2:24friendly and i think it’s got a much
2:26better fit and finish when completed
2:28um so i went through 18 rolls of that
2:32and again if you saw on some prior
2:34videos every single time i put tape on
2:38so for example
2:40here’s one of the the rear dome light
2:43at the end of each piece of tape
2:46i put a drop of super glue on every
2:48single wire run in the car i noticed
2:51when i pulled the car apart
2:54the factory wiring um
2:56was you know the tape was on there but
2:58it was kind of falling apart first at
3:01the ends okay so i figured okay let’s
3:04make it so that this thing will last
3:06forever
3:07and kind of terminate that end you’ll
3:09notice too i even redid every single
3:12inch of wiring in a car was
3:15factory tape removed cleaned any
3:18repairs that were needed to be done were
3:20done um
3:22the wiring was cleaned because it was
3:24real gummy and gross um
3:27i mean cleaned like i used um
3:31what did i use goof off
3:34and then a um mineral spirits and then
3:37like a soap and water just to make sure
3:38everything was as clean as possible
3:41right is is just going back to like a
3:43clean new finish
3:45um
3:47so at this point you can notice that i
3:50reinstall the factory harness
3:53shrouds so those are all in place just
3:56this is just kind of temporary pre
3:58dynamite i also did things like replace
4:01the loom where the door harnesses or
4:04excuse me the seat harnesses are
4:06that was exactly the way it was from the
4:08factory
4:09um
4:11let’s go up front and look at a couple
4:12of details there
4:14and again you can see all the factory
4:17door wiring was was redone and all
4:19cleaned up
4:21there
4:22um
4:23now this area here
4:26is quite unique right so up till this
4:29point
4:30going along here it’s all basically oem
4:33but again
4:34you pull one of these off just so you
4:35can see
4:36i redid all that wiring but it looks if
4:39you were to pull a cover off of another
4:41bmw e34 would just like look just like
4:44this
4:44only
4:46probably coming apart at this point 30
4:48years 30 years old
4:50okay um
4:52then what i had to do with the 13
4:5413-inch bowers and wilkins woofers going
4:57into the fenders in the kick panels i
5:00needed to move the wires out of the way
5:01when i was talking to earl gosh years
5:03ago he said man what a bear it was to
5:06swap out a woofer because of the molex
5:09plugs that were right they were right in
5:11this area right right in here and as you
5:13can see you got a little bit of a bulge
5:15here
5:16but there’s man
5:17i don’t know
5:1840 or 50 wires in that harness
5:21all of them are extended using factory
5:24wiring off the old car harness the parts
5:26car
5:27um
5:28that is not temper or it’s excuse me
5:31it’s not done per se i’m either going to
5:34build up the floor and make that off
5:36flat
5:37and i’ll probably use corian to do that
5:39and fiberglass it in or i’m going to cut
5:42the factory metal for the floor
5:45imagine if i was to just take it and cut
5:47it like this
5:49build a trench
5:50for the wiring to sit in and then cover
5:52it up
5:53right so either way the floor will be
5:55flat when i’m done um
5:58now a lot of these harnesses here
6:01a lot of this stuff is done a bit
6:03differently than factory i don’t know
6:05exactly what it looked like from the
6:06factory when i got the car
6:08that had the 15-inch woofers down in the
6:10kick panels and this wiring was just
6:13absolutely
6:15destroyed it was just all in a wad and
6:17it was covered with expandable spray
6:19foam
6:20uh it was gross so
6:23some of this now these are
6:25these are plugs you can see i have just
6:27temporarily um label these i’ll probably
6:30do prettier labels later i’m more
6:32worried about function than pretty on
6:34something like that
6:36um
6:37but i had to
6:38like this silver box for the i’m pretty
6:40sure from the factory this is not where
6:42this goes i believe it goes in the kick
6:44panel but that’s a little busy right now
6:46so i had to relocate that but as you can
6:49see uh i built a bracket you could shake
6:51the whole car by holding onto it so it’s
6:53very very solid
6:55um but notice the attention to detail
6:57here this bracket um this was just rusty
7:00bare metal from the factory i took it
7:02out sanded it painted it
7:04um just a lot of attention to detail
7:06like that also you’ll notice throughout
7:08the car some yellow tape
7:11these are vacant harnesses that i found
7:13that have no nothing that they go to and
7:16i label them yellow that way i know if
7:20later i go to put you know the car back
7:22together and say wait a minute there
7:23what’s where’s the plug for that i know
7:25where they are
7:26i also
7:27just in case they’re live
7:29you can see i covered the ends just to
7:31make sure nothing conductive can touch
7:33that
7:33now it is important to note that i did
7:36uh just today i plugged in everything
7:39electrical for the car i made a huge
7:42list of every electronic you know
7:44headlight switch
7:46sunroof
7:47all the functions of the power seat so
7:49on and so forth i made a giant checklist
7:51and i checked everything and everything
7:53works 100
7:55uh even all the hvac if you saw the
7:57prior video of me rebuilding the entire
7:59hvac box
8:01everything works exactly as it should
8:02really good air flow through there the
8:05motor is good and quiet
8:06and when i select different flaps um
8:10you know because i replaced all the
8:11gaskets for the doors and everything
8:13everything is really good in steel blows
8:15much better than my newer mercedes right
8:18so
8:18i love these old cars um
8:22so that
8:23uh let’s see what else do we have here
8:27um
8:31i think that’s about it um yeah that
8:34should be it so basically my next step
8:36for the car this again is is really
8:39you know 177 hours i’ve been averaging
8:42about 35 or 40 hours so how many months
8:44is that to redo this wiring and that’s
8:45all i’ve been working on i’ve i got you
8:48know over a month of just soldering
8:50right i did work on uh the sony es stuff
8:54i have uh you can see my little test
8:56area over there with all the electronics
8:58i’ve been playing around with uh i had
9:00some bad dc to dc converters on some of
9:03the es equipment so
9:05my buddy mitch has been helping me out
9:06and hooking me up with new converters so
9:08i’ve been swapping those out so i’ve
9:10been taking a break from the car to do
9:12that um
9:14but next is going to be i gotta get past
9:17this
9:18this the design for what i’m gonna do
9:20here with this it’s kind of driving me
9:22crazy
9:23um i really i have a vision in my head
9:26of what i want this all to look like
9:28um the finished product and i’m i’ve got
9:32some challenges they’re going to keep me
9:33up at night to figure out exactly how
9:35i’m going to do that i’ll figure it out
9:36i’ll get through it
9:38uh my old thunderbird i i did something
9:40cool where i raised the floor
9:42with cory in and i fiberglassed it all
9:44in
9:45and basically just built up you know i’d
9:47be filling this area in with corian um
9:51and maybe even taper it from here to
9:53that side
9:54um just so that the floor is nice and
9:57level looking when it’s all finished off
9:59but you don’t feel the lump from the
10:01wiring right and there’s no and
10:03absolutely no issue
10:05um with the integrity of the wiring
10:07harness right so all right i think that
10:09should be it for now thanks for checking
10:11back and i look forward to getting more
10:13videos again once the um
10:16once i get this thing figured out which
10:18i hopefully won’t be too too much time
10:20uh i’m going to be dynamating the entire
10:22car um
10:24dynamat was uh
10:26was very very helpful with me michael
10:29good
10:29at the company
10:31uh so i’m looking forward to getting uh
10:33i probably should be able to do two
10:35layers on every single surface i will be
10:37priming and painting any bare metal
10:40before i do that um
10:42and also even like on the doors doing
10:44things like i just got some abs plastic
10:48today i’ll build kind of an inlay that
10:50goes in here a cover making sure it
10:52doesn’t interfere with the moving
10:54mechanism for the window uh but
10:56basically be able to close that off so
10:58when it’s all done i get a really good
10:59solid barrier so that’s the next thing
11:02that’s up um
11:04kind of on my to-do list and hopefully
11:06it shouldn’t i’m thinking maybe 75 to
11:08100 hours to get the whole car dynamited
11:10i’ll pull the cartridge for the sunroof
11:12all that will come down
11:14i’m getting the car pdr’d uh paintless
11:16dent removal
11:18before i do the dynamat um the car’s got
11:20quite a few door dings and i know i’m
11:22gonna get it resprayed and i know it
11:24could be taken care of with bondo by i
11:26would rather
11:27minimize the use of bondo wherever
11:29possible so
11:30that is what is next again i appreciate
11:33you checking in we’ll talk to you soon