An old tip for painting

[midlife]

As many of you know, I refurbish various wire harnesses.  One of my pet peeves is trying to clean up a harness with paint all over the taped harness: primer, epoxy, etc. Most of it will simply not come off, particularly if it is old and now baked into the tape.  People do this because they are  too lazy to remove the wiring when painting the engine or trunk compartment, or the dash area.  OK...I can understand laziness, but really?  Seeing a painted wiring harness in a car, whether at a cruise-in, judged show, etc. tells me that owner isn't paying attention to details at all.  

So here's a tip I learned back in 1998 (that's AD, not BC...) when I first got started on Mustang Internet forums.  Simply take aluminum foil and wrap it around your wiring or parts that you don't want to get painted, and then go ahead and paint the compartment to your heart's content.  When the paint is dry, remove the foil and throw it away. 

Surprisingly, I've net seen this simple tip mentioned again in the last 20 years.

 

[keiths71]

I agree foil rocks!

 

[jpaz]

Owe, come on you foiled the plot! Lol

 

[NOT A T5]

Aluminum used to be a very rare and expensive metal!

 

[Omie01]

I actually used this tip from this forum when I did my engine compartment. Works VERY well!!

 

[Don C]

I keep a roll of it in my workshop.

 

[Carolina_Mountain_Mustangs]

Lol, I bet most of the old timers here have done that. Now the trunk wire harness should have trunk spatter paint on it. Was painted after assembled. Some paint on tail light housings, wiring, side marker housing, trap door if a fold down.

I did spend hours washing off the rattle can restore on the 73 vert to get back to the original factory paint in the engine compartment.

 

[turtle5353]

That’s funny, I just got done using 2 rolls of aluminum foil the s morning. Should be ready to paint this afternoon.