Achieving the perfect ground.

[bwilson27]

It seems to me that the most logical step after painting the entire car, inside and out, is re-installing the wiring harness.
I've been wondering about how I'm going to attach the grounds to the freshly painted body. My plan is to use a small flat grinding stone on a dremel to expose the metal, then screw in the grounding lug securely, and then re-paint right over the lug, sealing the whole connection in with paint. I'd have to do this for every ground on the body.
Is this the way to do it?

[Curly]

That seems like an awful lot of work to go to
There are numerous captive nuts welded to bodywork behind the dashboard and in the engine bay which make excellent earthing points especially if you use 'star' or 'spring washers' on the bolt. Using self-tapping screws isn't advisable as the contact area is quite small and they can work loose.

[bwilson27]

Well, even on the built-in grounding points in the engine bay, I'd think removing the fresh paint, attaching the ground, then repainting right over it would be the best way.... Right?

[ITA124]

numerous captive nuts welded to bodywork

I agree with Curly. When my car was painted, I ran either a tap or die (depending if it was a nut or stud) and used flanged nuts This gave sufficient surface area for conductivity. 5 years down the track and no electrical problems

One caveat though, I threw away the entire Fiat wiring harness and installed a new one. Every wire and crimped connection is new.

Keep in mind, this would be no good if the earth was no good.

[MNspiderman]

If you want to grind off little spots for your grounds thats great. Go over to the Homedepot and pick up some liquid tape in the electrical section. It comes in a variety of colors, thick and rubbery. You apply is like fingernail polish. It sticks like crazy to everything, stays soft and pliable. Awesome stuff. I recently put it over my O2 sensor splice after i solderd and shrink tubed it. I topped it off with liquid tape. Awesome stuff.

[MNspiderman]

I also was gonna say that if your going to reattach screws through sheetmetal and not use the old holes. Go to the Home depot and get yourself a pilot drill bit. Its about a 3/8 diameter with a 3/32 pilot drill bit sticking out further than the drill bit itself. Google it. The idea is the pilot will drill the perfect starter hole and the larger part will scrape off the paint in a perfect circle eliminating "oopsies".

[bwilson27]

Thanks Spiderman- I'll follow those suggestions.