Year Make Model | Painless Performance
Made in the USA
Closed Now

History of Painless

1990 - 2024
34
Years

 

34 Years Of Wiring Solutions

 

In 2024 we celebrate 34 years in business - 34 years of helping our fellow rodders, our 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. Our 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 we say it will do. They know that our service after the sale is unequaled in the industry. If you have questions or need help, you won’t get a busy signal or be left eternally on hold. We take customer service seriously and continuously expand our technical services department as demand and conditions warrant. We treat you as we ourselves want to be treated. In the end, we are all consumers.

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 our 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.

We know full well that our success depends on how well we serve you, our customers. Should you wish to voice any concerns or should you have any questions we urge you to give us a call or visit us at the many car shows and events we attend throughout the year. We would appreciate the opportunity to thank you in person for being the most important reason for our success.