Toyota Repair: short in wiring harness, vocational technical school, fuse block

Question
Ted,
 I hope you can help me with a problem I'm having with my son's 96 Camry.  He was in a front end accident and we had the car repaired by a local vocational technical school. After he got the car back, we recharged the A/C (the condensor was smashed and the school did not have the gauges/vacuum to recharge it).  When we turned the compressor on after the recharge, we blew a 30A fusible link in the engine compartment (dirvers side f/b) and a 10A "gauge" fuse on the left side of the drivers comparment.  We replaced the fuses and noticed that the headlights would come on as soon as we started the car (no, there are no DRL's), what was more interesting is that when the car was off and we turned on the headlight, that the guauges and idiot lights would come on!!

I traced the problem to what I think is a short somewhere between the headlight (low beam) wiring and the A/C dual pressure switch.  The problem was never obvious before we charged the A/C because the pressure switch was not activated since the A/C was charge was zero.  

There is a small bundle of wires on the drivers side, engine compartment, of the car near the front between the fuse block and the head lights.  There are branches off this very small section (about 8") of the harness for the A/C dual pressure switch (located on top of the receiver/dryer) and everything else.  

I think that the short is in this section.  How do I go about safely removing the harness in this area and how do I safely and reliably make the repair?  Can I replace the whole harness (if they're available)?

I am fairly certain that this is where the area is, I have a CD with the wiring and this seems to be the only area where the headlight and A/C circuits are together.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
- Bill  

Answer
Hello Bill, welcome to my expert page.
The harness was probably damaged in the accident,the harness is available from the dealer, it's expensive,if you decide to replace it try to find the white label on the harness, it's taped on, the part number is on it, I find that by giving the parts dept the number eliminates ending up with the wrong harness.
You may be able to repair the damaged wires, cut the insulation open at the suspected area, cut the affected wires out and solder new sections in and the re install the insulation and tape everything up.