Repainting: Remove the harness or no?

[CurrusDei]

Hey guys,



Thought I'd post here instead of the M3 forum since this one gets a lot more views and there have been some sweet E30 restorations that involved repaint (I'm looking at you E30 Touring Restoration).



Simple question - I'm repainting the car, factory color, painting engine bay as well. Should I take all the wiring out or leave it in place?



The wiring appears to be in great shape, so I'm weighing the risk of it getting in the way of paint (even if bunched up in a corner) vs the risk that i break something (always a possibility - see avatar).



The rest of the project so far has had insane attention to detail (see build thread here: http://www.r3vlimited.com/board/showthread.php?t=319121) so I'm leaning toward wiring out.



So, what say you?

[DrJosh]

I would carefully pull it. But I'm just OCD like that.

[mr2peak]

Pull it out of the engine bay. Considering the amount of work you have ahead of you, the wiring harness isn't that much more work.

Are you pulling out the brake lines as well? Old lines will look bad in a freshly painted bay.

Honesty, your engine bay already looks very clean. Are you sure that it's necessary? Have you tried polishing the paint that's already there? An exterior respray is much much easier

[Stanley Rockafella]

c'mon breh, dont' be lazy!

You'll be thankfull you didn't

[rturbo 930]

There is a special place reserved in hell for people that just paint over wiring harnesses, brake lines, and anything else they're too lazy to remove.

[CurrusDei]

Repainting: Remove the harness or no?

Honesty, your engine bay already looks very clean. Are you sure that it's necessary? Have you tried polishing the paint that's already there? An exterior respray is much much easier

It's one of those good from afar but far from good scenarios. Some bare metal spots from unsecured lines etc rubbing away over the years, some light rust under the washer fluid tank as well. When this thing is done I want it to be spotless




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[CurrusDei]

There is a special place reserved in hell for people that just paint over wiring harnesses, brake lines, and anything else they're too lazy to remove.

Whoa, not paint over. That was never an option.


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[rturbo 930]

Whoa, not paint over. That was never an option.


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Sorry, pet peeve of mine. Maybe I should've read the post before responding, lol.

[CurrusDei]

Sorry, pet peeve of mine. Maybe I should've read the post before responding, lol.

No worries, I've done my share of ready, fire, aim.

Whatever I do the paint has to be excellent. I spent 8+ hours overhauling my heater box, so I'm not the type to slack on paint


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[E30 Wagen]

+1 for removing the wiring

[KVF]

When this thing is done I want it to be spotless

Answered your own question right there... Good luck pulling the harness and completing the rest of the restoration. You guys do some insanely inspiring work around here. Kudos, keep it up!

[CurrusDei]

Ok it's coming out. Thanks for the reinforcement. Garage spaghetti it is


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[nomansland92]

Take lots of pictures, and then a few more. It comes in hand when your putting it together 6 months from now

Good luck with the respray though!

[Cabriolet]

I can say as one of the few people who has does this.

LEAVE IT IN!

first, the spot that wont get sprayed well it covered by rubber.


engine bay after first paint by Eric Berger, on Flickr

getting it back in and connected correctly is hell.
my trunk light still doesnt work
and a few other items are still wigging out.

[Jb325is]

Yep, as someone else who has done this, leave it in. Re-routing the entire body harness the way it was meant to be done, with the same clips and tabs with tape will be all but impossible. There was no spot that wasn't sprayed on mine, I pulled the grommet forward, out of the firewall, then masked everything well and you can't tell one way or the other.