VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1949-1954 My 1951 Deluxe Sedan Restoration Journal...

For a moment, I forgot that you were north of the border, eh.

Well... Nothing comes easy. I've hit my first real snag that has me really angry... and it's my own fault. My wiring harness came from Y'nZ's last week, and I've been waiting for a day to get started on it. It comes in three bags. First is for all of the front end wiring, second is the "body kit" which is the tail lights, gas sender, and door/interior lights, and third is the optional back-up lights.



I figured I would start easy, and run the body section first. Most of it hooks into the light switch, and it's just a matter of running it back to the back of the car. Here's where I boil over.

My previous experience has been working on my '50 convertible. All of the body wiring runs under the carpet to the back, and the door light switches just run under the dash to the doors. The '51 is a sedan, and still has all of the factory wiring. The entire body kit runs OVER the door, and is in the head liner... that's right, the headliner that I already had out, and paid to re-install!! The door switches run over the head liner as well to the passenger side, even though it would have cost GM half as much to run that wire under the dash!!

Now I'm debating... run the kit like a convertible, under the floor (there is enough wire), and just splice in the original door wires, or pay to drop the head liner again. I didn't see the car while the headliner was out, so I don't know if there are clips holding the wiring from moving, but it doesn't move, so fishing it is out...

Hi Brewster,
Running it under the carpet sounds like it would not interfere with anything and you can keep moving forward.
But if you are going to have that in the back of your mind that it's "not right" by all means drop the headliner.
The car looks great, everything your have done is First Class.

I ran into that when I replaced my wiring. There are definitely clips that hold the wires in place above the door and window. I replaced all the wiring from the dash forward. The PO had installed turn signals and ran the wires under the carpet to the rear lights. I left them alone, but I worry about the wires getting frayed under foot. I plan to redo the rear wiring when I replace the carpet and paint the floor. I'll run the wires along the floor by the door away from the foot area.

The factory tail and stop light wires ran over the top except for convertibles.. When the dealer installed directional lights the wires were run clipped to the frame rail under the car.
If it were my car I would run all of the wires under the floor mat/carpet.

What ever you do leave those little Id tags on the wires well after completion. I think that will be the last detail I do as I still have a funky tail light and switch issue that I have been putting off.

I went and got the tires mounted back on the rims this week. I made a quick decision about where the weights were going to go when it called for 2 of the larger ones on the first tire we tried. I had him put them all on the backs. I know it's not correct, but I'll get it switched up the next time I get new tires, instead of messing up the nicely painted rims right off the hop. I figure the 400 lbs of interior and trim still sitting in the basement will bring the ride height back to factory. I also now have the tail lights and mohawks back on...

Today I went out and installed the door handles and guards. Then I went paint shopping at Canadian Tire to pick a yellow that matches the original dealer installed AC oil filter. It's not surprising that they don't have many yellows to pick from! The closest match was the Classic Caterpillar Yellow. I washed, sanded and put a coat on...



Fresh primer...



Classic Caterpillar Yellow...

(I would suspect the original yellow fadded some....as yellow does. Also supprised to see the filter being an AC but not the same as the US version..

The line at the bottom of the decal reads "Made in Canada" We took pictures of it, and Paul Rozon has photoshopped me a reproduction of it.

I was going to ask about the ride height, based on the picture. Front and rear look pretty high.

On the "good side" of the headliner issue ..... if there ever is a wiring concern, having the wiring under the carpet/mat is a heck of a lot easier to retrieve, instead of being clipped in, above the headliner material.

Car looks great, Bruce.

On the flip side... I'm also more than a little worried that losing 300 lbs of under coating, bondo, and rust are going to make it sit higher!

I was assumong it was still on a jack or stands. Did you change the springs?

The car looks amazing with the white walls and new paint. The AC filter is a nice addition. Like my buddy said to me about my Fram filter "who would have thought that an oil filter canister could be a centre piece"? I can't wait to see it in person.

It is far easier to "correct" for a bit higher rear end. A couple sand bags can help level the ride and also give grit on slippery driveway, street or parking lot.

I didn't do anything with the springs, front or rear. The shocks are not in it yet, and the all of the interior, grille, radiator, bumpers, splash pan, lights, seats, etc are not in it. They must be pretty heavy, because the car is still fairly easy to push around the garage.

While the shocks will not change the height the other items mentioned will make a big difference.

Here's the AC filter, waiting for a new decal...

After fully assembled, take 5 of your heaviest VCCA friends for a ride.
By the time you return, the springs will be settled in.

Today I bolted the front fender braces back onto the bottoms of the fenders. It was really a nice change to work on restored metal from the parts car compared to the Swiss cheese that came off the car. Remember, the passenger side was welded to the splash shields...

Before...





Here's the restored parts...



One of the things I'm trying to stay consistent on is how I'm doing all of the hardware. I don't have the budget to send everything out for plating, and I don't want to buy modern looking replacements. I'm basically using all of the original nuts and bolts, or ones from the parts car. I'm kind of lucky that the car had a heavy layer of under coating. After I pick the coating off of the bolt heads, I have a fairly well preserved original bolt. Use an SOS steel wool pad to clean them up, and get rid of any minor surface rust. The bolts that have no under coating are rusted pretty bad, and I'm just using replacements from the parts car for them. So far most of them are cleaning up to give the whole car's bolts a consistent look.

Is there a concern of rust returning or are you doing something for prevention. I am thinking that the original bolts may have had some type of special finish for protection such as cad plating.

Well... Now there's a concern!! Drat you for putting that in my head!

I'm not too worried about it. Most of the bolts were surface rusted, and it came off pretty good. I can always put a dab of clear or a squirt of WD-40 on things if I notice it going down hill. It took 65 years to get as bad as it was, so I doubt it'll go south quickly.

I've spent the day adding more bling. Bumper and trunk guard is on the rear. This end is starting to look like a finished car!

Looking great
Is your edge of the gas tank guard opposite were the gas goes in sharper than heck?
I have an NOS and I took it off for fear I would loose a finger wiping that area down.