How often have you seen advertisements for wiring harnesses promising, "21-circuit kit for the low, low price of...?" What do you get for that low price? 21 circuits and yards of colored wire? Is that all you need, and exactly what makes up a proper wiring harness, anyhow? Well, it's a lot more than just circuits and wire. A wiring harness is, first and foremost, engineering. At Painless, all of Painless harnesses are designed by real engineers using the latest in diagnostic equipment and AutoCAD to ensure consistency in manufacturing and an accurate and easy installation.
The next most important component in a wiring harness is skilled craftsmanship. No, you won't find that in the box along with the parts kit, but you'll recognize it as you install one of Painless harnesses. You'll appreciate how Painless take the time to properly group each wire in sections so that instead of routing eighty or a hundred individual wires you route entire sections of the vehicle at one time, drastically reducing the amount of time it takes to install a harness and virtually eliminating routing errors. That's why Painless say: With Painless, half the work is done for you.
Finally, and certainly not least, there's quality. You deserve the assurance that after installing a harness it's going to work: That when you turn on the headlights, they shine; That the blinkers blink and that the engine starts. At right you see a Painless fuel injection harness in the process of being mounted on Painless exclusive test board. Every single fuel injection harness, before it goes in the box, is mounted first on a test board like this. Each connector on the test board simulates a particular engine function. This test ensures that all connections are working properly, all pinouts are correct and there is continuity in all the wires. When you install a Painless harness, Painless GUARANTEE it is going to work.
If you're looking for superior quality, engineering and craftsmanship, Painless is your only sensible choice. Painless has remained the leader in automotive wiring and electrical products for over twenty years through engineering and innovation, not corner cutting and imitation.
In 2017 Painless celebrate 27 years in business - 27 years of helping Painless fellow rodders, Painless friends in racing and off-roading, find painless solutions to their automotive electrical needs. What started out as a single idea about a simplified way to wire a street rod has evolved into what is today a multi-faceted company with sixty-six employees in a modern 45,000 square foot facility manufacturing over 500 products for show cars, dragsters, rock crawlers and everything in between.
Dennis Overholser, one of the founders of the company, remembers well selling his first wiring harness at the 1990 Pate swap meet in Cresson, TX. In fact, he sold three that weekend, an unimagined fortune in those early days. Back then, the company was known as Perfect Performance Products. As the word spread about the quality of the harness and the ease of installation, editorial writers for leading magazines came knocking, wanting to learn more about this fast selling new product. In a 1991 article in Hot Rod Mechanix Magazine, Tex Smith ended his review by stating, “This is really painless wiring!” The name caught on and Painless Wiring! was on its way.
The company grew rapidly over the next few years and it became evident that it could no longer efficiently build harnesses one at a time for sale direct to the public. A national distribution network was needed to handle the growing demand and Painless was soon available at national auto parts chains, warehouse distributors, mail order outlets and independent retailers everywhere. Customers could now benefit from the cost savings resulting from longer production runs, consolidated distribution and reduced shipping costs.
In 1999 the company changed its name to Painless Performance Products to more accurately reflect the growing diversity of the product line. While all this was going on, the company was receiving more and more recognition from the industry for the innovation and engineering excellence of its products. The highest recognition comes each year at the SEMA Industry Awards Banquet in Las Vegas. Most companies have never been nominated for nor won a single Best New Product award. Painless has been nominated ten times for awards recognizing engineering excellence and has been honored with three Best New Product Awards and seven Runner-ups. Additionally, Dennis Overholser received the 1999 Industry Recognition Award by the Street Rod Marketing Alliance (a SEMA council) and at the 2002 SEMA Awards Banquet Painless was named Manufacturer of the Year and company president Adrian Murray was named Person of the Year by the Performance Warehouse Association.? Painless was again recognized as Manufacturer of the Year in 2010 and 2011.
Awards are nice and it is always an honor to have your efforts recognized by your peers. But what really counts is having the loyalty, support and respect of your customers. For that, Painless is deeply honored. Over the years competitors have come and gone, trying to duplicate Painless’ success. Painless customers keep returning, year after year, project vehicle after project vehicle because they know they can count on Painless for a quality product that does what Painless say it will do. They know that Painless service after the sale is unequaled in the industry.
There are always new horizons and Painless is always innovating, always challenging the future. The next evolution for Painless is to be the leader in electronic fuel injection engine management. As more and more of Painless customers install fuel injected engines into their rides, the need is growing for a company to take the lead in offering products that provide solutions to the many problems which can occur when undertaking such a project. Painless is that company.
A wiring harness is only as good as it is engineered. The quality of the wire or the crimps is meaningless if it is engineered with incorrect lengths of wire, improper gauges or poorly constructed laid-in wires (which Painless will discuss shortly). The highest quality components can go into a poorly designed harness that will be a nightmare to install.
Painless have five highly skilled engineers on staff who design Painless products. Each engineer takes a project from concept to final production, supervising each phase of the process. The first step is to lay out the design of the harness in AutoCad, as you see below.
It is here that each wire is drawn to its correct length in the CAD program, the proper gauge is determined, color codes established, etc. Most often the wire lengths are taken from the original factory harness if this is a vehicle specific design. Painless generally will increase the gauge of the wire from factory in order to accomodate for the higher amperage accessories used today.
There are two classifications of wire - those which are directly connected to the fuse block and those which are "laid- in." Laid in wires (also called break-outs) are those which go from some power source or switch to a particular accessory or appliance. It is this second class of wires which is so important in design. If the lay-in point is not drawn exactly, the installer could be three quarters of the way completed before discovering all of the wires to the dash are a foot too short to operate the gauges or switches. Not a pleasant discovery.
The drawings which are printed from this CAD layout will also become the template which is used for the actual layout board, so that the computer-generated harness will identically match the "human-generated" one.
After an engineer has completed the drawings - a process which can easily take months - one harness is built by hand to the specifications of the print. This harness is then installed on the subject vehicle to ensure all wire lengths are correct and that the wiring harness fits and can be easily routed. If any changes are required, the drawings are corrected and another hand-made harness is built.
Once the drawings are finalized, Painless will again make a limited run of three or four harnesses. These are sent to independent installers and consumers who have donor vehicles awaiting wiring. Once Painless have had independent feedback and made whatever changes are necessary based on that feedback, Painless are ready to go into production.
Harnesses are not made one at a time. They are produced in long production runs which, depending on the harness may be three to four hundred units. Once all the wire is cut, it is time for termination, the point when terminals are applied to the ends of the wires.
It's often said that anybody with a hand crimper can be in the wiring harness business and, sadly, that is true. Probably not for long, though. The quality of the crimp is one of the most important ingredients in the overall quality of a harness and the determining factor in how it will perform and hold up.
To the right you see the termination area in Painless plant. The "trees" on the left side represent all the various wires for one production run of a particular harness. To the right you see the amp presses used for termination.
Each press is set up permanantly for a specific gauge terminal. This eliminates costly set-ups and tear-downs as well as speeds up production and reduces costs. Just as importantly, it eliminates potential set-up errors in which the wrong terminal die could be used, resulting in a poor crimp. This is why Painless are confident in offering a lifetime guarantee on Painless harnesses. Painless know it's done right.