Thread: 1951 Series 1 in USA

Small steps. Purchased an old dash with some of the bits and am slowly picking up the missing gauges. Seems to be common that the Lucas ignition/lighting switch handle is broken off flush with the central rim of the switch (picture 1, transparent white overlay). I bought some replacement keys on eBay and tested the switch and it works and so I decided to refurb it. I drilled two holes into the base of the handle (picture 2: lower hole of larger diameter wire shown; red arrow points to location where I drilled the smaller diameter upper hole) to a depth of 5mm and then epoxied into place two wires of 30mm length (picture 3). I built this assembly up with wraps of fine wire and more epoxy (picture 4), and more fine wire and more epoxy, and more epoxy (picture 5) until the shape approximated that of the original. I next used a Dremel tool to rough out the shape and then sanded the handle to 1000 grit (picture 6). The epoxy color is a close match to the original so I don't intend to paint but will get a new label. The countersunk wires should provide a stronger handle than the original but time will tell.

More small steps... The gas tank was about 1/2 full of old fuel so I knew that the bottom half was good, and when I tested the full tank there were no leaks so I decided to refurb it. I used the POR-15 treatment, warming the Marine-Clean with an immersible heater to near boiling, followed by Prep & Ready, and finally the Tank Sealer. I cleaned the outside of the tank and then painted it with the Tank Sealer (what is good on the inside should be good on the outside...) and followed that with two outside coats of silver POR-15 rust-preventative paint. From what I can tell, it looks like the gas tanks on the 1951s were black (?) (as was the tank cradle? ) so I will apply several final coats of black paint.