I just remembered another possibility of a problem. The MG Midget I restored had a small tree growing up through the floor when I bought it and after I replaced/rebuilt just about everything on the car I found that I had to replace the filter in the fuel line MANY times. It seems that old gas in the bottom of the tank will get gummy and can probably be drained out if there is a bung/plug in the bottom of the tank, BUT (!) after ten years the inside upper surface of the gas tank may have rust that will fall down with vibration and clog the fuel line. I removed the fuel tank and had it soaked in a hot tank like a radiator but that did not cure the problem. Then I removed the tank again and put a few handfuls of 1/2" gravel into the tank along with a piece of chain and shook it around, up and down for about 15 minutes. Hopefully the chain will not get stuck in the baffles! Then I flushed it with a garden hose for an hour or so to get the gravel and chain out and then washed it out with about a gallon of gas to try to get the water out. Even then I think I changed the fuel line filter three times after that and in fact I carried a box of fuel line filters in the car and that was the first thing I checked if the car stalled. Eventually after a few thousand miles the rust flakes stopped clogging the filter. Of course a new tank would solve this problem if you can find one. Even so the bullet nose Studie is a neat car and when I was a kid we used to call them "frontwards-backwards cars" because the rear deck looked like the front of other cars. It may be fun to restore it as original or maybe find an AMC V8 for a major update and I am sure there have been enough Chevy V8 transplants to this body that the necessary motor mount and driveline changes should be well known if you look through/research old rod magazines.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder