Marek

All-white harnesses have become common in professional motorsports. They are often labeled with colored bands according to the EIA color code. When built to a high and consistent standard, they are easy to work with. I have also seen harnesses use white and grey only; where one denoted the low current/higher gauge leads and the other the higher current/lower gauge leads.

The sources are much appreciated. I especially like your modular design. I am hesitant to over engineer the electrics in my car and going modular would be a good way to modernize yet keep maintenance within reach of a future owner. The Cartek is very simple, highly reliable, and very affordable. I understand the attraction. I've looked at the AiM, Motec, Blink Marine, and MicroPDM PDMs as well. Motec is always a great choice. But with a MicroPDM I could easily afford to carry a spare. Tough choices. The integrated logging of the AiM boxes is interesting as I would like to look at improving the engine and charge cooling in this car and logging would be a big help.

Thanks, Dave, for starting this thread. I am just now sourcing materials for a similar project. Could you share sources? My own experience was a 6 year career detour into professional sportscar racing. I started in data engineering and driver coaching and it later evolved into all manner of car electronics and harnessing. I still have my Daniels crimpers and other tools, but have found my parts sources are out of date. Recently, I've been using prowireusa.com as well as milspecwiring.com. I see you chose CarTek PDMs - I am curious why they were your preference. I don't see a fuse or breaker box in your pictures. What route did you choose for circuit protection? For anyone looking for a good background read, I recommend https://www.rbracing-rsr.com/wiring_ecu.html.

The 85.5-91 Porsche 944 has all the same advantages at a much lower cost and better supply of used spares (look on FBMP for your local guy with a hoard behind the barn). I daily'ed a 944 from 2003-2016 and my son now daily drives the car.

Defenders and earlier G-Wagens are both excellent road-going tractors.

Option 3 is to not expect to rely upon OEM. Electrical systems in particular are well suited for modern replacements. Aftermarket PDMs have become quite sophisticated and ECUs options are plentiful. Of course this does assume we have a supply of shops with the needed skills. The odometer question for aftermarket dashes and ECUs deserves more investigation. Agreed the specific legality is often dismissed. But I recall there are conditions to replace a dash and satisfy the law. For example, 2021 updates to the Motor Vehicle Information and Cost Savings Act added flexibility to odometer rules for cars over 20 years old.

Performance Shock in Sonoma, CA. I have to believe there are small operations around with the knowledge and skill.

I am looking for someone able to rebuild 80 Series Konis. It seems most of the places providing the service in the US have closed in recent years, including the Koni Service Center. The lone remaining service is quite pricey. Barring that, any idea how to lay my hands on specifications (and, ideally, parts)? These won't be more difficult than the Penskes and MTB dampers I've done in the past.

It was the '20 years' of the original post that I latched onto. There are a long list of vehicles which can remain mechanically reliable over decades. It is plastics and electronics which are unknown. Every shop seems to have stories about customers with failed modules (usually body controllers) which they can't justify or can not find the part to fix. And so the customer lives with warning lights and disabled features. The push to reduce weight has increased the use of plastics in engines - which don't have the same long term durability and will over time become fragile. While manufactures seem content to supply mechanical parts for many years past the end of production, it seems not so for electronics in particular.

My son is a young mechanic for an independent Mercedes specialist shop that works on mostly late model and classic Mercedes/BMW/Audi/Porsche and we discuss this on occasion. His advice: Mercedes, BMW, and Porsche have good options, but not all models. Avoid Audi. Know your engines and start there when choosing the car you want. There are often big differences in reliability across the range of engines from any given manufacturer. BMW iDrive V1 is fine. After that the complexity went way up. Mercedes complexity took a turn for the worse around the same time (early 20-teens). Base models. Manual transmission. He has worked on Defenders and numerous G-Wagens and is not a fan of their unsophisticated handling. If you want something that simple, drive an 80s BMW 5-series or Mercedes E-class. This is an interesting topic and it keeps coming up with friends. One friend expects to switch from buying new cars to driving restomods. I think there is a future where we all know someone daily driving a classic with restomodded engine/brakes/interior.

Zetec-Powered Birkin S3 https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2003-birkin-s3-2

When learning about the Sevens world before acquiring my car, I came to several conclusions; 'Originality' for Sevens is its own, fairly unique, aesthetic - and generally does not affect values. The notion of 'Clean Title' is deeply muddled - and has no apparent affect on values. After 'tasteful versus not' and condition, the greatest affect on value is whether or not it is a Caterham (yes, we can talk about a few other names here). These factors make Sevens valuation a very different algorithm than any other vaguely-modern car*. All this is to say I came to the conclusion that when looking at Sevens it is best to check my notions of car valuation at the door. * Elise are worth noting here...such a high percentage have salvage titles, and for non-chassis reasons, that the title status of an Elise has much less affect on values than any modern car I have encountered.

@Carz01 The first part of the season was great as we had it out once a week or more. I had planned to refresh the wiring harness this winter as it came to me with some damage from running higher current lights than the wiring could support. But my luck ran out and the harness began failing; so the winter project began in August. A few higher priority projects later (like learning how to program a Alfa TCT dual dry clutch gearbox), and the Rotus is still in the garage. But January is looking quiet and the car should be ready with fresh wiring and a fix for the trammeling well before the salt clears in spring. Thanks for asking...encouragement is always good.

A friend just installed minisplit heat pumps in his new 1700ft^2 garage. Very effective and efficient! https://mrcool.com/diy-4th-generation

Mike - I am curious the motivation to seek an alternative to the services of a traditional restoration fabricator.