Thread: 51 MG restoration.

Yeah, I like the '65 Riviera also but the '63 was what was for sale when I bought mine.
There were some great looking cars in the 60s for sure but there were some mutts also. This was my first car

'62 Plymouth Valiant. Ugliest car ever made by man. Although in those days it was just some ugly old car. Today it would be kind of cool to have.

Originally Posted by PaulFLUS

Yeah, I like the '65 Riviera also but the '63 was what was for sale when I bought mine.
There were some great looking cars in the 60s for sure but there were some mutts also. This was my first car

'62 Plymouth Valiant. Ugliest car ever made by man. Although in those days it was just some ugly old car. Today it would be kind of cool to have.

Looks like the Grandfather of the Pacer….but all the chicks wanted a ride in that…lol

I did say cool cars were welcome here, and while that Plymouth May be a valiant effort, it does not qualify, lol..
And hey Ness, I found the one, almost unblemished panel on the car! Aside from an after market electrical hole for the just removed fuel sender I need to fill, it’s relatively unscarred.

Cleaned up pretty easily and for the first time in a year I can envision the rear of the car.

It’s like the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle and it fits!
Frikkin great feeling. Really..
There is a slight, intentional overlap as the original had rolled edges where the two sides met the rear.
I may just file my new sides to meet the factory edge on this piece and call it done.

That is cool. After all the work and making of parts, you find one that can drop right in. And it fits. Congrats. I bet that was a great feeling.

Originally Posted by MikeB52

I did say cool cars were welcome here, and while that Plymouth May be a valiant effort, it does not qualify, lol..
And hey Ness, I found the one, almost unblemished panel on the car! Aside from an after market electrical hole for the just removed fuel sender I need to fill, it’s relatively unscarred.

Cleaned up pretty easily and for the first time in a year I can envision the rear of the car.

It’s like the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle and it fits!
Frikkin great feeling. Really..
There is a slight, intentional overlap as the original had rolled edges where the two sides met the rear.
I may just file my new sides to meet the factory edge on this piece and call it done.

There is a God !!

I noted you deleted a sender on the tank.
Wots it got for a fuel guage?

Coming together!

That sender was the ugly aftermarket capacity type sender the dpo installed I presume.
Hated the hole and the hack job even though a full sweep gage was nice.
Since I’m trying to make the dash look original-ish I’ve decided to go back to the original sender style.
So had a hell of a time getting the old stump of the old sender out of the tank lower section. I resealed the tank and left in in as it did make a good plug. But lots of heat gun action to almost bake off the epoxy and some pry bar action and patience paid off.

As you can see the new one doesn’t have that cool Bakelite hardware,but I think I can swap it over.

Since I owned the car there is a green indicator light on the dash that was for cooling fan on, well originally that light came on when you got to about 3 gallons petrol left in the tank as I understand it. The float on this will make circuit complete and signal that light to, well light. What I don’t know is If it blinks, or just comes on at three.
Will be neat to get the original system restored and save valuable dash gauge locations for the few I really need.

So it's simply a 'low fuel' light? I remember a few old cars having a capillary tube running to the dash to raise the indicator according to tank level.
A Graham Paige was one..

A friend of mine had a really old VW Bug, it had the split rear window (VW stopped using that in '53). It didn't have a gas gauge but there was knob to turn on the 'Reserve' when you ran out of gas.

I've been watching this guy's channel and here's a screen shot of a custom chopper Knucklehead tank---------------Basic, but it shows how much gas is in the tank.

From my driving experience with the car it’d be a good 6-8 hour drive to kill a tank, holds 35 gallons I think.
And I’ve never gone more than 2 without needing a stop and stretch, but a visual gage like buddy did on his tank does have its merit..
Thanks for the idea Roy.
In typical British post war logic I guess they figured who cares about any fuel level except when you are running low so go with a simple warning. Long road trips weren’t a thing in the early 50s.