Thread: 49 More-door build

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Falcon, can't believe I missed this thread until tonight. Cool project and great progress so far. Nice score on the free flathead. Also nice floor work and fender repair. This car looks to be in great shape for the most part. Will converting it to 12 volts make the gauges useless or will they work with 12 volts?

Thanks, Steve; for a 62 year old car it's not too bad. As far as the gauges I'm still deciding. The speedo, temp, and oil press are all mechanical so problems there. I think the amp gauge doesn't care what the voltage since it just measures current draw so that just leaves the fuel gauge. The previous owner had the fuel tank cleaned out and coated but lost the sending unit. I don't know if I'm going to get a new sending unit and use a small 6v-12v converter for the stock gauge or I also saved the gauge and tank from the Buick. It looks like the tank will work in the factory location so I might just build something to mount the gauge under the dash and use it. It's free and the wiring is already right for it. This thing is on an ultra tight budget!

Here's what I came up with for the fuel gauge;this is from the Buick. I'm going to use the Buick tank so it's already got the right sending unit and the wiring is right for it. Plus it's free. I opened up the engine and it looks like someone rebuilt this thing not too long ago. Zero sludge in the pan, you can still see hone marks on the cylinders, and all the bearings look new. I'm just going to get a gasket kit and stick it back together as is. I finished rebuilding the back brakes and got the rest of the brake lines ran. I was going through the spare parts in the trunk and decided I really don't like these taillights so I'm going to do something else. Not sure what yet but I think it looks much better without them.