project 1951 Pontiac Chieftain

[3VOM]

I think I should be able to do those. Headlights and such 12ga, alternator 10ga. Pretty much everything else 16ga.

 

Phil

Just to confirm for any of us not in the US of A that's presumably AWG.

Battery Alternator and earth in at least 10awg. I'd check the heater fan doesn't need better than 16awg.

[PhilA]

AWG yes.

 

Actually, I need to change the heater fan, the current one is 6V.

 

I'll probably run 10ga to it just as a matter of course. I'll be getting 00 gauge welding wire made up for the battery, running that to the back of the car.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

...or I could be cruel to it and run the heater fan at 12V with a dropper resistor. It might actually clear the screen then. Hmmm.

 

Phil

[bigstraight6]

Most excellent tinkering threads; if I find myself doing car maintenance in a shirt it means a puncture or FTP and associated roadside shenanigans. Perhaps I should dye my boilersuit purple.

Phil appears to have Jason King shirt tendencies, I hope he was also wearing a cravat!

[somewhatfoolish]

AWG yes.

 

Actually, I need to change the heater fan, the current one is 6V.

 

I'll probably run 10ga to it just as a matter of course. I'll be getting 00 gauge welding wire made up for the battery, running that to the back of the car.

 

Phil

Be careful; the wire gauge police are active, there was a thread recently on PistonDirectors about the subject of battery cable size for shifting batteries into the boot and it quickly turned sectarian with the fundaMentalists positing that anything less than 100mm2 was likely to kill both kittens and nuns.

[DodgeRover]

I'm using 75mm sq welding cable for battery leads and can confirm a definite improvement in the cranking quickly stakes.

6v needs thicker leads than 12v as it requires twice the amps to achieve the same power output so you may find the existing wiring is thicker than it needs to be.

I would just run the fan motor on 12v with some form of voltage dropper rather than try to source another motor.

 

Why does the engine need to come out?

[PhilA]

6V starter motor on 12V battery! 0 or 00 will be fine. It's currently on 4 gauge, which is about what you get on a Morris Minor.

 

 

First set of wiring colors chosen by my 9 year old niece. Can you tell? Ha

 

Engine gotta come out to get gearbox out to rebuild the valve block and hydraulic solenoids.

 

 

Also painted the air filter bolt.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Woo, my bullet connectors arrived the mail today. Funny 3.9mm ones, unlike the standard 5.5mm ones found in Lucas applications.

 

 

They fit all the standard bullet connectors (small gauge) in the car today. There are a few larger ones under the dashboard- looks like quick disconnect for the gauge cluster. Further investigation required there.

 

 

Does fit the brake light switch though. Now I need to get some more crimp dies to fit.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

I kinda got sidetracked this afternoon.

 

Started by poking a flashlight up under the dash. It's held in place by a myriad of nuts. Standard, so that's good.

 

I then decided to pull the radio out. Apparently that's a special one for this car. Haha. Okay then.

 

 

Custom sounds from California.

 

 

POS radio, really. I haven't decided what I want to do yet, thinking I'll try find an original AM set for it.

 

 

Polished up the original radio escutcheon. (Escutcheon is a great word). I then decided I needed to remove the temperature gauge bulb- it's got a Bourdon style gauge under the dash. To do that requires the engine to be drained. I undid the drain cock and nothing came out. So I removed the drain cock completely and poked about in the hole with a screwdriver. Yuk!

 

 

I then polished the cock.

 

 

I found a piece of pipe with the correct union in it and Heath Robinsonned a connection to the pressure washer.

 

 

Blew the pipe off a couple times then it made a good noise and started to flow.

 

 

Spent the next hour flushing it backwards, forwards, from the top, from the bottom.

 

 

It's running pretty clear now. Decent coolant should see that better, with some anti corrosion chemicals in.

 

 

Finished up, pushed the car back inside and called it a night. I'll probably try to remove the temperature gauge tomorrow along with the oil pressure gauge and ammeter. That'll clear a fair bit of access under the dash, too.

 

Phil

[stonedagain]

You can't beat a well polished cock!

[Guest Hooli]

You can't beat a well polished cock!

 

Looks like PhilA has a natural ability as a cock polisher too!

[PhilA]

Cleaned up and painted the screw head for the drain.

 

 

Got it all fitted in and leak free.

 

 

Decided to start on the electrics. Pulled the neutral inhibitor/reversing light combo-switch.

 

 

Pulled it to bits to inspect the contacts.

 

 

Overall not bad. Cleaned it up.

 

 

Reassembled and cleaned up a little. Pulled the clamp plates off. One is steel and holds a couple of fuses (there's one left in the old loom, going to have to address that), the other aluminum with some instructions about the fuses on. A lot of the paint and words have rubbed off sadly. I might try find a replacement.

 

 

Ended up by putting a few other steel items in the ascorbic acid to sit overnight before paint.

 

 

This pile is only going to get bigger.

 

 

Phil

[Squire_Dawson]

Good work, it'll be a different car when finished. Driven reasonably cars like this will give years of reliable service.

[PhilA]

I'm hoping so. It was pretty well built to begin with, I'm just copying what they did originally, bringing it all back up to speed.

 

Phil

[tooSavvy]

..... capable velocity.

 

EFA

[PhilA]

Ascorbic acid works.

 

 

Had a few other bits soaking.

 

 

Cleaned it down and got it in primer, along with the wire bracket I pulled off (since found another one hiding underneath).

 

 

Also pulled the one last remaining fuse holder off. It's in pretty sorry state.

 

 

Pulled it to bits and dropped the steel parts in the acid.

 

 

Rudely lopped the old wires off and wire brushed the firewall.

 

 

Added the Loctite brand version of Vactan and left it to dry.

 

 

Time for lunch!

 

 

Phil

[purplebargeken]

Wow!

[mrbenn]

Slightly embarrassed to say that this thread passed me by, until now. Just read through the whole thing, sorry for filling your notification thing with "likes", Phil.

 

Beautiful car, great write up

[PhilA]

Got the wire clamp in paint this afternoon. That's drying now; the temperature is going back up again.

 

 

After cleaning the car, the driveway was full of little oily clods of dirt, so finished up one section.

 

 

Vactan is pretty much dry now, which is good. Really I need to pull the heater box off and get up behind there too.

 

 

Now I have a headache.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

The screenwash bottle holder had been soaking at another angle overnight and showed up the signs of having had a yellow label on. I think they have remade these, they're floating about on eBay periodically.

 

 

Also having had a soak was the case of one of the in line fuses. It didn't come up so well, so I clamped it in my drill.

 

 

Spun it up with 120 grit sandpaper to get the rust off.

 

 

Finished it up with 1500 grit wet-n-dry.

 

 

Then, chemistry!

 

 

Reassembled it. It's got the look I wanted- careworn. The wires won't be staying though- the cups are soldered so I'll pull those apart and redo it with new wire.

 

 

It clips into the wire clamp plate. It can be the "gray" one. The other is "gold", there looks to have been remnants of copper on it so I think perhaps copper plated and polished for the other one (when I get it).

 

 

Not sure why this side of the plate came out matte. I've painted it again.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Yup. My grandfather had this basic lathe thing that was powered by a handheld drill.

 

My old man says it was crap, but it's all they could afford. It worked well enough for simple tasks, like making wobbly, semi-round things.

 

Quite a lot of this car was made by turning or stamping so there's a fair opportunity to fix stuff up by this method. It's not perfect but it's the original part (a big thing over here so I'm trying to keep with that flow if I can) so it's fun trying.

 

Phil

[Guest Hooli]

Those fuseholders are great. You won't get that finish on Mr Lucas' finest plastic tatt.

[Squire_Dawson]

All well and good, but but but, plastic doesn't rust. Or conduct electricity...

[PhilA]

Tell that to the cheap black plastic rotor arms that decide the high carbon-black content makes them conduct enough to make an engine not run..

 

 

Phil

[DSdriver]

Tell that to the cheap black plastic rotor arms that decide the high carbon-black content makes them conduct enough to make an engine not run..

 

 

Phil

Is that why dizzy covers and rotor arms are usually redish brown?

[PhilA]

Yup, they're colored with oxides. Black plastics, tyres etc are colored with carbon black which is conductive.

 

Phil

[Guest Hooli]

All well and good, but but but, plastic doesn't rust. Or conduct electricity...

 

I bet leyland could make plastic rust.

[PhilA]

Needed a little quiet time this evening, so I went out to the garage.

 

 

Removed the three-gauge cluster of aftermarket gauges from under the dash, coaxed the wiring and pipes through and got it all out of the way.

 

 

I know the oil pressure gauge worked fine. The ammeter never really moved- traced the wiring and it had been put in wrong. All it was reading was output from the alternator. Heated the temperature gauge bulb up with my heat gun and the needle registered so that's good too.

 

 

Blocked off where I had taken the oil pressure gauge line out so I don't empty the sump by accident turning the engine over.

 

 

The dash is already more tidy. I was wrong, the dash was originally gray, and the steering column black.

 

 

Engine bay is better. Need a bung to put in the hole up behind the engine. Also there should be a ground strap there, too. On the list.

 

Phil

[PhilA]

Today saw a little time to work on the car.

 

 

Removed the old wires from up under the dash. Much dusty fluff from the old cotton.

 

 

Got all the way up inside and lifted the gauges out. This will be original then.

 

 

Took it to bits and buffed the plastic.

 

 

The bigger bits with more scratches required a little more effort.

 

 

I still need to pull it all apart again and redo the matte black on the facia, but it looks a lot better than it did.

 

 

Quite happy with that. The gauges also move when turned upside down, so as long as the coils aren't burned out (going to investigate), they should work.

 

Phil

[hairnet]