I've been hunting around for striped wiring for a restoration. I found a place that seemed to offer what I was looking for, so I listed the wiring that I was looking for, asked if it was available, and asked what the prices were and the cost of shipping.

They confirmed they can get the wiring, but a week goes by before they respond with pricing right before the holiday weekend.

Since some of their spools were much more than I needed, I responded after the holiday weekend that I'd like to order only a select few.

Then the vendor responded that they had already placed the order for *all* the spools (likely in anticipation of my purchase).

So...now what? The spools I didn't want were a lot more wire than I needed and are quite a bit more than I was willing to spend on them as a whole (I was only going to use maybe 10ft, and the spools were 250ft).

I would like to maintain a business relationship with this vendor since they can provide wiring at a reasonable price, but I also don't want to pay for something I didn't actually order. Thoughts?

Good idea. I think I'll do that. Thanks

They actually seem to be able to provide any colors, plus cloth-covered wiring.

Ok, so it looks like I got it sorted out. Since I wasn't too keen on ordering 250ft spools, they agreed to cut them down to 25ft for this order. However, it sounds like they don't regularly keep 22AWG wiring in stock--only 18 and 16AWG. So, the 22AWG was a special order, apparently.

In any case, I placed the order, and I guess now I'll play the waiting game for the package.

I didn't want to finger-point unfairly because of a miscommunication. I also wanted to wait to see if everything ended up going smoothly and be able to inspect the wiring before giving a stamp of approval. I will follow-up with whatever happens.

However, for those interested in testing the waters:

http://www.narragansettreproductions.com/general-supplies-primary-copper-wire.html

They charged me $6 for each 25ft spool of striped and stranded 22AWG.
$8.75 for 25ft of striped and stranded 16AWG
$9 for 25ft of cloth-covered stranded 18AWG

Like pbresource, their ordering is a little old school, so you will likely have to phone in your payment information. They answer requests via email fairly regularly.

Since I had not seen the charge on my credit card for the order yet, I contacted them three days ago asking about the status of the order. They said they were waiting on the cloth wire to come off the braiding machine, but that all the other wire was ready, and would charge the card when it was ready to ship.

As of this afternoon, they still haven't charged my card. I'm not quite sure what to think at this point, since I really don't know how long it takes to braid cloth wire.

The wires finally arrived yesterday. Apparently, the hold up was the braiding of the cloth wire, followed by lacquering. I asked them if they could skip the lacquering when I found out about it last week, but they said it was already started and too late. In any case, here's what I received

16awg black with white striping (25ft): $8.75 ($0.35/ft)
18awg braided and lacquered red wire (25ft): $9 ($0.36/ft)
22awg brown with black striping (25ft): $6 ($0.24/ft)
22awg white with purple striping (25ft): $6
22awg green with black spriping (25ft) $6
Shipping: $10
Total: $45.75

In comparison, bayareaamusments.com is selling 10ft lengths of 18awg striped wire for $2.75 each ($0.27/ft), and 22awg wire for $2.25 ($0.23/ft). However, I'm not sure what the shipping costs would be.

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The striped wiring was the correct size and matched the original wiring pretty well, though obviously it looks a bit newer in comparison. However, on the 22awg wire, there was silver text on the entire length of the wire. This was absent on the 16awg wire.

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The cloth/braided wire I received has a diameter of 2.5mm. The original wire is 1.5mm. The reproduced cloth wire is a bit thicker than the original of the same gauge.

The lacquer wasn't nearly as thick or shiny as I thought it would be. It's actually pretty dull and not too noticeable. The smell was still pretty strong, so it really was freshly applied.

The cloth wire does have some black smudges in various places. I'm not sure if that's from the machine, or the grime from the person's hands handling the wire. Either way, it's permanent since it's in/under the lacquer.

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In the comparison photos below, the new wire is on top, and the old wire is below it.

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I can't say I was too thrilled with the long wait time. I just wish there were up-front about how long it could take.

I'm not too pleased with seeing the silver writing on the wire, or the black smudges on the cloth wire.

I'm guessing this business is primarily an auto shop, and making wire isn't their primary line of business. Someone else might have a better experience ordering from them, but overall, I am pretty disappointed. Maybe someone else might have a better experience, I don't know.

I was kind of thinking that might be the case. I sent in a question about that to bayareaamusements to see if their wiring has writing on it or not. If it does, I'm not going to worry about it at this point.

On the other hand, I ordered some 25ft spools of sold color 22awg and 18awg wire from jameco.com--the 18awg has writing, but the 22awg does not. I also picked up some 16awg solid color wire from lowes, which was free of writing.

_{Post edited by ForceFlow: added comparison with solid color wire}

Upon further inspection, the smudges on the cloth wire seem to be contained within the first few inches of each end, rather than throughout the length of the entire wire.

bayareaamusements responded to my question about their wiring.

They said they can sell any length, but writing is on their wiring, as it is now a requirement.

So, it looks like it is pretty much the same for any wire supplier now. Oh well