I doubt we will get carried away with doing a two tone. If it did happen, it would likely be the roof one color and the lower body a different color, at least there is a distinct body line to separate the two different colors.. That last wagon you posted doesn't work for me at all, I think the car is too modern to pull that look off. The modern fenders are not separated from the car's body like the 30s and up to mid 40s were, and I think not making the entire roof and around the gl*** the same color was a mistake. The sharp contrast between the two colors doesn't help. We had a 35 Dodge that had the entire roof and the fenders a different color then the body, but those fenders were clearly separated from the body, the the roof line had a distinct body line to separate the two colors. If you happen to have these laying around, would you be kind enough to make a few measurements of them for me? We need 55" wide, and 32" long. The one @RodStRace posted was pretty close at 52.4" wide, I could make that work, but if the covers you have would fit better, that could be easier (I'm pretty lazy). We now have functioning wipers, new blades and all. The wiper blades that came with the car were incorrect for the wiper arms that came with the car. I have also replaced the seal around the tailgate and hatch window, I believe that should eliminate a few rattles. We are pretty much just putting on a few miles here and there. Its just about time to refill the fuel tank again, can't wait to see if the gas pump at the station shuts off before the gas runs out of the top of the tank and on to the ground again... Sealing the top of the tank to the fuel pump will be another re-engineering project for the off driving season. At this point, the next project will be installing the new Speed Hut fuel gauge and speedometer when they arrive. Between now and then, putting on some miles is the goal. After the gauge install, its drive the wheels off of it until the season ends. Then the real work begins, inner and outer rockers, some floor patching, rear quarter repairs. Then permanently correcting the springs bottoming out, and hitting the exhaust. Then sealing the windows to the body, before we install the new headliner. Sealing the fuel pump to the tank may be the 1st thing that gets done, or it may be an early spring job, that will be weather dependent. Then maybe body work and paint. I'll be back later with another thought concerning the gl***.
Yeah the light roof and pillars would be the best visually and for temps. Cutting fenders into slab sides doesn't work for me. With the pic, it just confirms it. Gene, that cover site I posted also has other very modern selections. https://www.vevor.com/retractable-cargo-cover-c_40465 I doubt anything that isn't a full size SUV is going to be wider, but you never know. That's the big GM, I'd check the Expedition, it's huge. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0H49TCG5F/?tag=atomicindus08-20 also https://www.justforjeeps.com/cargo-area-security-cover-wagoneer-l-ws-grand-wagoneer-l-ws.html both do not have measurements and I'd look for cheaper aftermarket versions. I'm sure there are other aftermarket suppliers that will have other selections and dimensions. Good on the other progress.
Yes, I looked at the other options that company you posted had, the one you posted was the widest one they listed. @Scruffy49 stated he may have others in his possession, I figured if he would take a few measurements of what he had for me, that would let me know if a deeper search stood a chance of being fruitful or not. I don't expect to see many wider options, but looking doesn't cost much... In the other matter, I'm looking for ways to slow down the snowball effect this ride seems to be heading towards. The first fact is, the car will be living outside in the weather. The second fact is that there are places around the gl*** to body rubber that have chunks of rubber missing. In these two pictures you can clearly see the effects of those poor window seals. Those inside cardboard panels are most likely original to the car. The cardboard was originally painted a dark navy blue (though in the pictures they look black). These two picture are the area under pictures 2, 3, 4, & 5 above on the inside of the car. Its pretty easy to see that water has been coming through the rubber surrounding the gl***, running down the steel structure, bad enough it has discolored the painted cardboard panels. The lighter blue pieces are the inside steel structure of the window frames. on the rear most windows you can see the steel trim pieces that are held in place with screws, these pieces are what has to come out to install the head liner. Its pretty easy to see that over the years, water has been coming through the rubber surrounding the gl*** and running down across the steel structure bad enough it has discolored the painted cardboard. Since the trim pieces have to come off to install the head liner, it would be pretty stupid not to change the rubber surrounding the gl***. The good news is, all of that rubber is available! Each piece isn't real far out of line, cost wise, but there are a lot of pieces in play. $560 worth of pieces (not counting taxes or shipping), the most single expensive piece is the rubber around those two sliding windows (above the discolored cardboard). The rubber for those sliding windows is $130, but that does both sides. The new headliner is sitting here in the box, its going in at some point in the future. To install the headliner, all the trim pieces around the inside of the gl*** has to come out, it all has screws holding the trim against the window rubber. knowing the rubber has chunks missing, and having evidence of long term leaks, it would be foolish not to replace the rubber around the gl***. Let me be clear, none of this was unexpected from the beginning. it was not a surprise. This brings us to the question concerning the condition of the gl***. I also knew up front that the original gl*** was starting to separate. Both sides of the windshield have been replaced, and I believe both door vent windows may also have been replaced. As far as I know, the rest of the gl*** in the car is original. Its not hard to see in nearly all of the pictures showing the gl*** in the car (you can see it at the bottom of the last picture posted showing the discolored cardboard. Those little bubbles and scratches at the bottom 1/2" of nearly all the original gl*** is the sure sign of early stages of gl*** separation. For those that don't know, gl*** from the mid 30s through the 70s was made with two sheets of gl*** with plastic between them (Safety Gl***). When the gl*** gets old, and the edges are exposed to sitting in standing water, the water starts to seep in between the two pieces of gl*** and start to separate the gl*** from the plastic between them. That allows more water to seep up between the two pieces of gl***. Once they start to separate and the moisture between them goes through the heat and the cold cycles of summer and winter, the separation increases in speed. The end result is gl*** you can't see through. This is the bottom 1.5" of the p***enger door roll up window in the car (ya, I know, my work bench is a mess). This is the piece of gl*** that is in the worst condition on the car. You can clearly see the bubbles between the two pieces of gl*** on this window have gotten larger then the tiny spots on the other windows. There is nothing that can be done to stop the separation. From this point forward, more and more of the gl*** will be consumed by the bigger bubbles, and as the moisture grows and expands, the plastic will become less and less clear, until you can't see through it at all. Replacing the seals on the door may, or may not prolong the separation, and how long it will take for things to get worse is anyone's guess. It may happen in a year or two, or it may take 10 or more years. So here is the problem, the replacement gl*** is not cheap either. I believe I'm going to replace both of the door roll up windows ($95 each, + shipping and taxes), (because when the windows are down, the top surface of the gl*** is not smooth and I like to rest my arm on the door with the window open). There are 3 more pieces of gl*** on each side (6 total), and a rear gl*** in the tailgate. I have to buy each piece of gl*** separately, and no one source has them all (the 4 sliders can come from one source, but the two fixed rear gl*** has to come from a different source, and the hatch gl*** is sold by itself). I have not priced out the remaining pieces of gl*** because they would have to come from different sources, my expectation is shipping gl*** from 3 different locations will add up really fast. I believe all that side gl*** and the rear hatch gl*** will live several more years, more then I believe I'm going to care about, but maybe I'm being cheap. What would you guys do?
I would replace the 2 roll up window gl*** in the doors. The windshield and those are where your eyes are all the time. The side gl*** would be nice while it's out, but with fresh rubber they could be done later. If those vent windows are like others I've dealt with, that is a major task that can snowball. I'd hold off for now and see how the first winter goes. I'd be seriously tempted to use some RTV or caulk, even though that should go to the bottom of the door and drain out. I would for sure clean the drains around the bottom of the body. If doing those, I'd lube and repair the winders as needed and any fasteners for the vent window frames.This is ***uming that you can pull the door gl*** without removing the vents. Tailgates often end up rusty due to this, but I think the 2 part design helps here. That would be after the doors. I doubt the owner is the type to rock the panel van or delivery look, probably prefers good visibility. So no dark tint but the back sides are lower on the list. That would be my priority list. We would all love to just buy all the stuff, prep and paint while apart and ***emble with all fresh. Most of us can't swing that in one hit and with the car outside. Better to chip away and keep it driving as much as possible.
Thank you. That probably cures me of trying to do a mad search for something that doesn't exist. I was looking at the door gl*** this afternoon. I believe the vent window needs to come out to remove the door gl***. The reality is, I will probably replace the roll up windows in the doors, and will probably replace all the window seals on the doors. The door to body rubber looks fairly new and appears to be sealing pretty well all the way around both doors, so I'm not going to mess with those. I believe both pieces of the vent window gl*** were also replaced. Other then the the ****py roll up gl*** seals and tracks, everything on both doors works very well. Of course while its all apart I will be sure everything gets cleaned up and greased. I think I'm going to leave all the other gl*** as is, with new rubber surrounding them, since I have to buy each piece of gl*** individually, I might as well wait until I need to replace each piece. I did pick up a tube of silicon, I believe I'm going to seal up those gaps where the missing rubber is gone, until I get around to the rubber replacement. I'm not so concerned about the water getting into the body (the bottom is already rusted out), but at this point, all the water that gets through the gl*** seals ends up on the floor boards. I just know there is already going to be some floor patching when the rockers get installed. After I have done the rockers, the floor patches, and the rear quarter panel repair, I am going to seam seal all the floor panels. I believe then I will also dig out the old seam sealer along the rain gutters and the lower body to floor pan and seam seal all of those areas as well. At this point, we are driving the car a bit more. Once the new gauges are in, we will probably rack up some miles on the wagon until the cooler weather sets in and shuts us down for the season. The car will be making a 120 + mile round trip to an all Mopar car show on Aug 23. I'm hoping I can get the new GPS speedometer and the new fuel gauge in it by then (the expected gauge arrival date will be close), but its going there regardless. When the driving season is over, it will be metal working time, and my garage will temporarily turn back into a welding shop.
Disc brakes, coil in cap conversion distributors and GPS speedometers… My only concessions to modern automotive technology. 49 truck will be running 47-? Chevy truck repop gauges in the original speedometer and speaker locations. CB/****og Blaupunkt radio in the original gauge bar opening, to a surround sound bar under the dash. I “get” to spend today working on “her” modern junk. P***enger front tire is shot, looks/sounds like the unitized/c***ette bearing has failed. Joyous rupture… That is why I won’t ch***is swap my 49 with a 4wd minitruck ch***is. 2wd, normal wheelbearings. 4wd, unitized bearings, and why my OT ifs 1t 4wd dually is getting a leaf spring/Dana 60 conversion. Gene, between your car/truck, and Mike Lawless’ ‘Ol Furd, I’m definitely getting a badly needed refresher course on my favorite vehicles. Thank you.
Gene, we are going to want some nice driving pics! You mentioned she likes the blue. Here is one that's blue below and white on top. Also one that has dark pillars. I know you are not comfortable doing body and paint and that is down the road, but perhaps show these to her and see what she thinks.
Scruffy49, with me having been an auto mechanic for many years, I've seen way too many of the old wheel bearings fail because of lack of maintenance. Those unit bearings often go 200K + without having ever been repacked or serviced. With the longer life expectancy of the unit bearings, they are less expensive then the old set up used to be, by the time the bearing repack and seal replacements are added in. You probably wouldn't like the ch***is set up under my 49. It is a 93 or 94 Dakota 4x4 ch***is. That means the front axle has a center section solidly mounted to the motor mount brackets, then it has two CVC shafts with constant velocity joints that enter a bearing/hub with a slip on rotor on each side. The bearing/hub ***embly's are connected to upper control arms and lower control arm with front torsion bars connected to the lower control arms. There is a cross member for the torsion bar anchors where the height adjustments are made are about 24" behind the cross member that holds the transmission and the transfer case. The transmission and transfer case need to be separated for the trans to be removed, but that removal will be a pain because the exhaust crossover is under the front bolts on the OD auto trans oil pan. The motor is a 5.2 Magnum (modern 318) with EFI, computer and all that. The automatic OD trans also has computer electronically controlled up shift, electronic OD, and electronic lock up converter. That 5.2 magnum with the OD trans, and 3:55 gears pulls 18-19 mpg @ 70 mph and 13 mpg around town in the summer. I drive the truck all year around (winter temps between 0 and 30 degree range, 36" average snowfall/year, and they salt the roads), during the winter the truck pulls 15 mpg @ 65, and 10 around town. This winter coming up will be winter # 5 for the truck. We have driven the truck roughly 35,000 miles since June of 2022 (that is an annual mileage of 8,700 miles per year (that is in addition to two other licensed, insured, and driven vehicles). The truck has Speed Hut gauges (made to order in the state of Utah, USA), and the wagon will eventually have them as well. I build drivers, and we drive them. I love the old bodies, and I'm OK with the ch***is designs up to about 2005. Any new designs after that, they built by cutting every corner possible to save a buck. The wagon this thread is about has been here since mid May (and we took a 9 day vacation a few days after it arrived), as a running driving car. It has a 3.9 V6 Dodge motor (a 318 with the back 2 cylinders cut off), it came on a 97ish Dakota rear wheel drive ch***is, the motor is EFI, and the auto trans is electronically controlled. The speedometer doesn't work (nor does the fuel gauge, read all about that). We are about to put its 3rd tank of gas in it, I estimate we have put around 450 miles on it as of now. Neither the truck, nor the wagon have any sound system in them, but the wagon may get a radio, at some point in the future.
I will show her. My expectations will be that she will like a lighter blue color, closer to the light blue in the bottom picture. The white top will be a toss up. I don't expect that she will like the dark blue window areas with the lighter blue bottom and the white top (but after 50 years together, it wouldn't be the 1st time I would be wrong). Now on that top picture, replace the blue with the bottom picture light blue (maybe a shade or two lighter), keep the hub caps, loose the whitewall tires, loose all the chrome except the bumpers and grille. Then add back in the door handles (and the locks), and the split windshield, and probably the stock front bumper and grille. Then you could be pretty close to what my wife would want (then the white roof may fly). While we were sitting on the porch swing this morning, I was laying down the time frame on the car for the rest of the year. She is excited about driving it for a couple more months (weather permitting). She has lived through the experience of what all will happen this winter, several times before. She pretty much knows what to expect. She is already looking forward to next spring.
Just an update for @RodStRace , I showed my wife the pictures. Her first comment was "Cool!" Then she said she liked the light blue of the 2nd picture better, but didn't really like the dark blue around the windows. She says she doesn't need 3 colors (but didn't reject the two tone with the white roof and the light blue bottom). My body work wouldn't be nearly as smooth as the body in the top picture, but I bet I could get close enough for us. My middle paragraph would be a pretty accurate Photoshop of the car she would like.
Good to hear. It's nice to have a plan forward. Those cars were selected for the color schemes, not the mods. I didn't expect you to shave handles or track down the exact trim they had. Just see the color layouts. The reason I went down that path is so when the windows come out, you could spot in around the frame before new rubber went in. It's more prep and shoot during that phase, but less later when prepping and painting the rest. Even scuffing and brush or roller paint up under the rubber would be better than nothing. When you do the whole body, you can tape the rubber and shoot the White without removing the gl*** and rubber. Just a thought, not trying to tell you how to do it!
Being the body work hack that I am, when I do anything around a window, I clean up the area real good. Then the last step, just before the rubber goes in, I paint the area within about an inch of where the rubber will be glued on (on both sides of the rubber) a heavy coating of Semi gloss black spray paint. I've been doing that for years now. My reasoning is that I too believe anything is better then nothing. I usually lay the paint in pretty heavy, not many are going to see it, and I want to be sure the metal is covered. I choose semigloss black because it usually matches the color of most rubber these days. Once the rubber, and the gl*** has been installed, you usually just see the edges on my "black paint job" around the edge of the rubber. When its getting close to the final sanding, I feather the edge of the semi gloss black into the body work.When the car gets tapped off for primer and paint, we tape the edges of the rubber and the primer and body color gets put on. The process isn't perfect, but its a pretty good try. In the past I've had a vehicle painted (by a real painter) then had gl*** installed a week or two later (by a real gl*** installer), and I have seen the paint get scratched by the gl*** guy. No process is flawless.
Yep, you have been there, done that and have a process. I didn't think I was going to teach you anything new, but you've already a step ahead blending into the rubber rather than the paint! I watch various YT videos and one in particular shows and mentions that this car is 70 years old and yes this spot on the edge or floor is rusty because of water intrusion, but this other area is bare metal inside and only has the lightest surface rust. He's even found ***embly line fingerprints rusted in the bare metal inside. Perfect may be a complete sealing of every surface, but that will outlast us and probably the m*** production of petroleum fuel.
What I found interesting was that the guys that "built" this wagon decided they wanted some insulation on the firewall and floor boards, so they glued 1/2" thick jute backing material on to both the floor and the firewall. I'm sure the jute backing probably added a lot more insulation then just the bare floors did, but that jute material retains a lot of water. It was interesting that they decided that they didn't need to cover the jute with anything. I can tell you without a doubt, that the jute material itself, without the protection of carpet, doesn't stand up to foot traffic very well. That jute material, under a driver's foot, is self destructing pretty quick, and a person can almost feel the heat radiant up through the gaps between where the patch work was glued down and the vacant places between the patchwork. The jute material tends to catch fire pretty easily near welding sparks, so I will have to s**** most of that off the floors before I get started with the welding repair. Not knowing what they used to glue the Jute down has me a bit concerned as well, I will probably have to s****e the glue off as well. I'm thinking I may be buying another box of the Nioco (the price has doubled since the last time I bought it in 2021) to cover the floor pan after the welding is done, but then at least I know it is well insulated, and I know I can put the carpet directly over top of it, though I may be able to save some of the jute material for reuse in some places (like the rear hatch area where extra thickness under the carpet might be good.
My wife took the Plymouth for a short drive the other day, I didn't notice any brake lights. I had a few minutes today, so I checked them. It wire terminal that plugs into the brake light switch was unplugged! I discovered it only locks in place if its seated in hard. Its seated in now. I'm wondering how long we have been driving it without brake lights? That was a scary thought! Tonight we took the wagon to Church (we usually take the 49 truck and took the coupe before we gave it to our grandson, the people there expect to see us in an old vehicle). This was not the first time we have taken the wagon, but for some reason, people noticed it tonight. My wife rather enjoyed the conversations with the people about her car! In the bad news department, she got her first scratch from the rusty rocker tonight! She braved it much better then I expected she would, I suspect the conversations with the ladies about her "new" car helped in that response. When we did get home, she did attend to the scratch like I expected the nurse in her would. Now she is telling me she has blood and sweat in the car (from the scratch, and from helping install the insulation in the ceiling). She is claiming that ownership! I believe I'm going to cover up the rusty rockers with primed duct tape until I can get to the metal work. Tonight was minor, I don't want to take a chance it could be worse. Anyway we have put another 10 or 12 miles on it (this time with working brake lights). I think that means (I'm guessing) that we have put about 130 miles on this 16 gallon tank of gas. I think I'm going to pull the sending unit wires out from under the dash, ground the sending unit ground (all the wires to the fuel gauge have been disconnected at the gauge, the ground wire for the sending unit is no longer connected to a ground, (When the new fuel gauge arrives, it has its own wiring that goes back to the sending unit), then I can check the ohm reading tomorrow. Lets see if I can determine how much gas is left in the tank before I refill it again. If that works (I have no doubt about that working), I can place that sending unit wire someplace I have easy access to and I can check the ohm reading when ever I want to check the fuel level, until the new gauge arrives.
Thanks! Always stumbling forward, is making progress. At least that was what I was told. The only progress I made today was enjoy a day of cooler temps. The sun was blocked by clouds and there was a nice breeze with the temps in the upper 70s. After breakfast, my wife and I enjoyed swing time until about 2 pm (we usually get chased in by the sun by noon). Then we took the truck for ice cream. When we got home from that, my chair grabbed me and forced me to take a little nap. That's my story... Then I would have to go out and buy chrome duct tape! Being a true cheapskate requires another level of being cheap... I still have a partial roll of the old regular stuff. The primer (which is also on the shelf here) would be to hide the cheap duct tape. Its probably only got to last just over another month....
LOL. My wife has varicose veins and wears nylons/*****hose/tights with her shorts in the summer. I can't tell you how many times she's gotten a "run" from one of our old car's rough edges...and believe me, I hear about it every time
My wife is shorts or short leg pants with bare legs and sandals in the warm weather. A scratch draws blood. The sun chased us out of the swing around 11am, it was a lot warmer to day then it was yesterday, so what did we do? I went into the garage to work, and she went to work on her flower beds. Yea... we are smart like that...LOL! I started out rounding up the wires from the sending unit, of course I had to pull the 4 screws that held the instrument cluster in place, some guy had just cut the wires to the gauge, and left the connector on the wire itself, then he put a zip tie around a bundle of wires (including the two I needed). I was able to wiggle the wires and the crimped connectors through the zip tie though. I installed an eye terminal on the end of the sending unit ground wire and connected it to one of the steering column bolts. I looped the sending unit wire around a zip tie that goes through a hole in the bottom of the dash. I have easy access to that wire all the time. The current fuel level is 49 ohms on a 73 ohm (empty) to 10 ohm (full) sender. I figure 54 ohms should be around a 1/4 tank,which should give me around 4.5 gallons in what google says should be a bit over 17 gallon tank. I'm sure those of you with better math skills then I have can be more accurate, but its close enough for what we do right now. The other project for the day was o doctor up the outer rockers, the goal being to eliminate the sharp edges for another month or two. It has nothing to do with pretty, just skin protection for my bride. The materials needed: Duct tape (the real sticky kind with the dimples), tin snips to trim off some jagged edges, a long, and a short screwdriver to dig out loose debris, a wet rag to wiper off the first layer of dirt, and an almost empty can of gray primer to blend the duct tape in with the rest of the car. This are the only "before" pictures I have of the rockers, someone wasn't thinking about "before" pics. But in this picture you can see the area that probably got my wife Sat night, This p***enger side is more complete, but has a few through holes in bad spots, including this on it the top surface. . The driver side had nearly the entire front and most of the rear vertical rocker surfaces missing, along with several through holes in the bottom surface, but the top was still pretty solid. With this much material missing, I was really surprised how much debris was still hanging around inside of the driver side rocker! The p***enger side rocker was nearly full of debris. There was much s****ping with screwdrivers (had to get a real long one on the p***enger side), the a blow job with the air hose, I got em both pretty clean. Building rockers out of duct tape is pretty interesting when the holes are wider then the tape is, good thing we are only doing this for cut prevention, because it was pretty much a failure in making it look even close to acceptable, even in primer. I did take pictures of the "finished" job, so you guys could laugh along with me. These two are the driver side. Since the p***enger side was more intact, it looks a bit better, but just a bit... It is what it is, a temporary parch to keep injury count down until real metal gets installed. See that mess under the car? All that came out of that one rocker! The big chunks were a wasp nest at some point in history. I spent the next couple of hours cleaning up the shop a bit. Its been a while, and it showed. Thought I would post these, just so you know I'm trying to pull a fast one. These are the new inner and outer rockers for this car, that came with it. They are sitting here waiting for the driving season to get over so they can be installed. This is what the inner rocker looks like. The little flange welds to the top inner edge of the outer rocker (that would be the edge of the floor pan as well) The bottom edge of the outer rocker then attaches back on the inner rocker at the step flange. It may sound strange, but I am a welder/metal man, I can hardly wait for the end of this driving season, so I can rip this thing apart and start welding in new metal! This patch it to get by ****, just kills me!
A layer of 'gl*** and it's ready for the back row! Just teasin' Gene. Guess this means sidepipes are not in the Bride's future!
OH man Greg! I could barely handle putting on the 2" wide duct tape! I would really have screwed up 4" - 5" wide stuff. In other news, my Speed Hut gauges were moved to the company's shipping department late yesterday. I don't have a Tracking Number as of yet, but I'm pretty happy about that big step.
Look what arrived at my door this afternoon! I suspect I have a pretty good idea what might be occupying some of my time tomorrow...
I really like my Speedhut "stuff". I opted, many years back, for the combo speedometer/ tachometer. I like yours better. Ben
These are the Speed Hut gauges in my 49. I really like the fact that they are an American company, that produces the gauges right here in the USA (Utah in fact), and that their gauges are made to order and have a lifetime warranty. The wagon came with a set of Dolphin gauges (the cheapest stuff on the market) that were not used very much, the guys that built the car installed the gauges around 2021-22. From the 5 gauge set, they couldn't figure out how to program the speedometer (and neither could I) and the fuel gauge was the wrong ohm rating for the sending unit in the tank. I bought a cheap online fuel gauge (with the correct ohm rating) and it was 3/4 tank off! It read just over a 1/2 tank when the tank was full, and 40 miles later read empty (even though the 30 ohm reading said there was more then a 1/2 tank of gas). At this point, the oil pressure, volt meter, and temp gauges seem to function close enough. I'm just replacing the speedometer and the fuel gauge. The other gauges will be replaced at a future date, I have several higher priority items to spend that money on right now. Here we have the Speed Hut gauges installed in the car. Both appear to function, but I had other responsibilities I needed to attend to (read that mow the lawn between the rain showers), so we do not have a road test completed as of yet. I was a bit concerned with that fuel gauge, it is programmable. The instructions state that you hold the ****on in and power the gauges for 12 seconds. The gauge will sweep, the return to empty, then let off the ****on and the gauge is suppose to step up to an 1/8 tank mark. At that point, you are suppose to push the ****on on time to advance the needle each 1/8 tank mark until it reaches the point that matches your sending unit (6 possible steps). When it reaches the step that matches the ohm reading of your sending unit, you are to push the ****on and hold it for two seconds to select the correct ohm reading. After that, the gauge will read the correct amount of fuel in the tank. The 70 (empty), and 10 (full), which matches the closest to my 73/10 ohm reading sending unit, is the second step in the choices. Each choice is another step up an 1/8 of a tank. If none of the listed preprogrammed settings match your sending unit, the last two steps are to program the gauge at an empty tank, then program at a full tank. So I'm ready, I hold the ****on in, and power up the gauges. The gauge does the full sweep, then drops to empty, I left off the ****on, and the gauge goes to the reading you see on the gauge. That is it, NOTHING else! It doesn't go to the 1/8 tank full, then cycle, it goes directly to this point. WTF???? By this time it was after 5pm, or I probably would have been on the phone to Speed Hut. That was probably good for me. It caused me to think a bit. When I ordered the gauge, I told them I wanted a 73/10 ohm range fuel gauge. They seemed excited to tell me their fuel gauges were all programmable. I was not very excited, but if that is the way they come, so be it. Just the other day I pulled the wires I had run from the tank to the dash for the fuel gauge sending unit, I was getting an ohm reading of 49 ohms, on what I figured was about 120-130 miles on this tank of gas. That should give me a gauge reading between a 1/4 tank, and a 1/2 tank of gas, which the 49 ohms would also indicate. Maybe the people at Speed Hut had pre-programmed the fuel gauge for me? About the speedometer, its a GPS unit. When I started the car, it told me it was seeking a signal, I backed the car out of the garage, and it was showing all the zeros in the mileage section, so I am ***uming it was happy. Tomorrow I will road test the speedometer, I currently have the GPS antenna mounted on the top of the dash, I'm not so sure that is going to provide enough "open area above the antenna" for it to read well. I will also be making a stop at the gas station to fill up the tank, we will know if the fuel gauge is working then for sure. The duct tape repair is already failing! I really was not expecting much, but I did expect it to last more then a couple of days while sitting in the garage... There are places where its already coming off the car, and other then a few minutes this afternoon, it hasn't even left the garage. We have had weather that has been hot and humid (upper 80s with 80% humidity) for hours, then cool and humid for hours (over night lows in the upper 60s exceeding the dew point almost all night), along with rain, then hot sun. The garage has been pretty much closed up most of the week, there is no AC in it.
The Jalopy Journal
