Voltage regulator upgrade? Keep frying voltage regulators with swap

In most cases there is a fault somewhere, like a intermittent short to ground that causes this. A friends Chevy pickup is a perfect example but the whole story on it is more than I care to type. Who ever installed the Autozone 350 didn't do a very good job of putting the wiring back in looms and such where it belonged.
A large red wire that went to the BATT terminal at that distributer cap had a tiny chaffed through spot. When everything under the hood including this wire got hot enough the wire would sag just enough to short to the intake. So he could drive it to work and back daily without a problem. Every time he went into town smoke poured from under the dash.
I did find about 2 inches of that wires insulation melted/swelled/lumpy but the major damage others were repairing was always at bulkhead and under dash, along with alt' and reg' fried.
He had this trucked towed a few times to more than 1 shop before he finally had it towed here.