Wiring Zen - Electrical

To some, the very thought of re-wiring a rig conjures up images akin to climbing Potato Salad Hill at full throttle in a TJ on 37s. We'll admit it, some of us are afraid to do any of our own electrical work-so very afraid-but thanks to companies such as Painless Performance Products, the guesswork and the voodoo has been removed from the equation, making any wiring job a whole lot more palatable. Painless offers products such as complete conversion engine harnesses, with or without computers, for those of you who want to put an LS1 crate motor in your K-5 Blazer, for example. Painless also makes a direct-replacement Jeep CJ-7 harness, which also happens to be one of its best sellers, in addition to its universal harnesses and miscellaneous electrical hardware that can be used to rewire any project.

Painless invited us to its headquarters in Forth Worth, Texas, to take a look at how it puts together the most user-friendly wiring systems in the business. Painless employs about 71 employees and has been around since 1990. Dennis Overholser, Executive Vice President and co-founder of Painless Performance Products, graciously opened his doors to us and took us on a guided tour of the Painless manufacturing facility.

Painless produces high-quality, vehicle-specific, and universal electrical components for the automotive enthusiast.	Dennis Overholser takes the time to explain the different facets of the Prototype Room, where new products are researched and developed, and production layout boards are created. From concept to production, a new harness takes about 12 months.	Painless creates comprehensive manuals in-house to maintain highly accurate instructions.
Being tested in the recently completed, state-of-the-art dyno room during our visit was a prototype bolt-on EFI/intake system that Painless is currently developing. This new system promises to be a great alternative to many of the other hard-to-tune EFI systems on the market.	The "Cage" is where Painless inventories between four and five million individual parts at any one time.	Each of these barrels of wires holds between 10,000 and 50,000 feet of raw wire that will be processed before becoming part of a harness. Painless goes through 11 to 12 million feet of wire per year.