Restoring Battery Cables

[dpcd67]

How do you guys treat battery cables that have cracked covers? I always have just replaced them, but is there any way to restore them, like some sort of coating, rubber paint, anything?

[rjbeamer]

I wonder how heavy wall heat shrink tubing would work. Might not be as flexible but it would be worth a try if you wanted to save an original cable.

Roger

[JAB]

I don't know off-hand what the positive battery cable is supposed to look like, but for a quick, cheap, period correct appearance, I was considering covering mine with asphalt loom. It comes in sizes large enough to do that and looks better than modern cable. It's called many names, including asphalt impregnated non-metallic auto-loom conduit so a search may depend on what you call it. To get an idea of what I'm talking about, if your wire harness is fairly accurate you'll see it on the tail light pigtails. Ron is out (when I looked a couple of weeks ago when I placed an order) but Rhode Island Wiring Service has it from an 1/8" all the way up to 1-1/8". They have a website http://www.riwire.com/ but they only take orders by phone to avoid mixups. Look under "supplies" and click "metal and non-metal conduit tubes" then scroll down to "non-metallic autoloom black" Just tell the nice lady that answers the phone that the guy with the needle and thread in his order sent you!

[dpcd67]

Battery cables are smooth rubber. That loom is textured like canvas, but would look better than cracks. But the shrink wrap stuff might her worth looking at.
What about rubberized undercoating spray? Just thought of that; I might experiment with it. Cant hurt.

[goldenjeep]

I have used shrink wrap, It looks almost as good as fatory. Used to get it at Harbor Frt. I dont think they sell the big wrap anymore. Try Amazon I think they have it.

[JAB]

Battery cables are smooth rubber. That loom is textured like canvas, but would look better than cracks. But the shrink wrap stuff might her worth looking at.
What about rubberized undercoating spray? Just thought of that; I might experiment with it. Cant hurt.

I'm looking through the Lloyd White books and other sources of early and original pictures for info on another issue and noticed pictures of the positive battery cable in what appears to be the asphalt loom, bare rubber, and one that even looked like it was wrapped in electrical tape in the same manor as a wire harness would be (a repair to a damaged rubber one like yours?). Maybe there's more to this than a simple "one answer applies to all situations".

[dpcd67]

Maybe you are right. I thought about just wrapping it in electrical tape.