Good weekend folks, just curious if anyone has any idea about the costs of a professional to do a complete rewire of a truck like mine, 1968 F250 Custom Cab. Complete rewire. I've heard folks say it's easy as DIY, but I don't know if I am up to it, so any idea of costs? Thank you.

 

Probably varies quite a bit across the country.
Are you in a major metro area, or a more sparsely populated rural area? Somewhere in between?
The shop rates vary of course, but so do different mechanics abilities and assumptions about time.
And frankly most normal shops will hesitate touch it, or they’ll quote you such a high price that you won’t touch it.
Primarily because they don’t want to touch an old truck where at any moment costs could rise because parts fail, old stuff falls apart beyond their responsibility but it becomes their responsibility because it failed under their watch.
And of course they also make mistakes and break things that they have to pay for, if they could even source a new one.
It’s a can of worms for shops that don’t do it regularly. A truck seems pretty simple to wire, and it is if you know what you’re doing but. But even experienced wire geeks like me would tend to take a lot of time to do it because were scratching our heads at what the factory did versus what the reproduction wire harness does. Or because we decide to change wire routing half way through.
And that’s if you want a reproduction harness, or just a generic aftermarket one.

Speaking of the harnesses themselves, costs of pre-wired harnesses range from $200 to over 1000.
Just for the parts.
Not including every little widget and connector that happens to not come with it. Some of which are made of unobtanium, so you either have to repurpose the ones from your original harness or substitute something more modern.

sorry about the long ramble, but it’s by way of leading up to saying a rewire would probably cost a minimum of $800 by someone who doesn’t know how to quote, to $5000 by someone who doesn’t want to do it.
with maybe 1500 to 2500 being in the middle of all that? Hard to say I suppose, but someone who is in a hurry and on a purposeful mission, and who knows what they’re doing, might actually do it front to back in a single day and charge you under $1000 for the labor plus parts.
That’s hard for me to grasp because it would take me a minimum of a week. But I’ve heard of people getting it done in that amount of time so I had to add that.

 

On my 1970 CS about 80% of the original wires were serviceable. Ultimately I went a little crazy and installed a new power distribution fuse and relay box near the battery, new headlight relays, fuel injection, and on and on but even still, a lot of the original wiring under the dash and out to the rear lights and front parking/marker lights is still in use. But, mine wasn't eaten by mice either. You may find that you can tackle yours in steps rather than a total rewire and get good results without too much head scratching. In mine the worst section was the engine bay and primarily the alternator wiring and main wiring from the solenoid into the cab. If I'm not mistaken some of the aftermarket original style replacements are available in sections. So, you could start there with an engine bay harness. Then while you are at its are going to hit and so if you plan in advance, you could perform a 3G alternator upgrade and replace the harness at the same time. This would ensure a safe and effective charging system and would ensure that you have solid power being supplied to the cab. My wires were hacked from the original owner adding power taps everywhere and just cleaning up that mess was a big help. For a novice I would recommend a factory replacement rather than a 15 circuit aftermarket kit with rolls of wire and crimp connectors. I would suspect that the factory style wiring harnesses/kits will cost more but may be nearly plug and play.

Next you could tackle the ignition switch, then the light switch, etc. With each project you take on and complete your confidence will improve. I have seen some work by supposedly competent shops that took longer to correct than it would have taken to do it right. For a full front to back rewire I think some of the prices shown are in the ballpark. Then multiply by 2 for the inevitable problems that will crop up.

 

You have received some great answers. My 2 cents worth is study, study, study, then study some more, the diagrams and figure out WHERE everything goes and WHY !!!
Gather all the diagrams of wiring and know them by heart.
If you do this it will be fairly easy. Take out the inst. panel & probably the dash if you can and the new harness SHOULD come with detailed instructions !!! I say the most difficult is knowing what goes where & why so for me time was my most difficult part because I started job to quickly & this causes much confusion & frustration !!! The bundle of wires can be scary, but i cannot stress enough know where the bundle goes you will see everything much more clearly & comfortable you will finish the job
BE PREPARED
OH, LABEL YOUR WIRES YOU HAVE WITH MASKING TAPE , MAKE A LITTLE TAG YOU CAN SEE EASILY . SOON YOU WILL KNOW THE WHOLE SYSTEM

 

Labor costs are going to be a lot.

I did mine using the American AutoWire kit. It’s not too complicated although if you have an ammeter gauge you’ll either have a dead gauge or have it converted to voltmeter.

i think the kits assume you are upgrading the alternator. I went with a mustang/Taurus “3g” and had problems with clearance. If I had to do it again I would try a “1-wire” conversion.

I started by removing all of the existing wiring. Beyond knowing where wires go though holes in the body i dont think there was anything to save. I did reuse the headlight pigtails.

laid the entire new harness out on the garage floor to get an idea of what was going on then started working on it. I was done in a few weekends going very slow. I could do it in a day or two now though.

i decided to finish all my wires with electrical tape wrap (the good stuff) but you could invest in some split loom for easier install and servicing.

honestly not many vehicles are going to be as easy to rewire. If you have the space and time it’s worth the cost savings.

 

I ended up half *** copying the way GPatrick did his. My truck was in full rebuild mode already and started back from the frame. Ive never wired anything like this before and had to first understand a friggin relay. I went through the whole harness laid out on the ground and labeled everything and checked all the wiring. Then I did any alteration I needed before taping up each section(like getting rid of the resistor wire to run HEI). I took most of the loads off the original wiring by running through a power distribution box under the hood. Truck now has 3G alt, E-fan, EPAS, HEI, and headlight relays. Just a couple of things left but have been dragging it out.

 

I have always wondered if there would be a market for a specialty harness install shop. I am a mechanic and have always kind of favored wiring work. I actually enjoy a good electrical problem, if I have a good schematic available LOL. But I have always wondered what would be a "fair" price for a complete install on a harness. I mean you of course would start with aaw or painless or ez wire or some other harness but the main battery wiring, and stuff is not really included in those kits and all has to be made up.