48mirage Wrote:I own a '49 Coronet. I love this old car. Things were much simpler then and I can do most of the work myself. I have a service manual and a parts manual and a few other resources for those looking for information on their cars.
I've add Scarebird's disc brakes to the '49, dual exhaust, a holley 94 to make her breathe easier and I run a dual voltage system. (headlights, starter, brake lights, heater fan and modern radio are 12 volt. Ignition and everything else is 6 volt.) I have rebuilt a distributor with dual points but waiting on warmer weather to put her in.
If anyone has any questions about these old rides I will do my best to help.
Jim Graham
I'm just curious 48 what the advantage of running a dual voltage system is? Did you put a voltage drop on the fuel gauge too? I converted my '49 Chevy to all 12 volt and rewired it with the old style harness. I used a 12 volt alternator and left the six volt starter and it loves it. She cranks strong every time and so far I haven't had any issues.
That is a good looking Coronet your buddy has. Tell him good job.
Parking lights, dash lights, defroster fan gauges and ignition is still 6 volt. When my heater fan went out the easiest fix was a 12 volt fan of the same motor size. Advantage? Don't know that there is. I like to try different things to see if they work.
There are 3 different ways to do it. An added alternator and battery to run things like a modern radio and other 12 volt accessories. Too crowded in the '49 to make it work.
The 2nd option I replaced the generator with a 12 volt 1 wire GM alternator and 2 optima 6 volt batteries in series. I used a dual buss panel from Blue Sea
http://bluesea.com/category/82/35/productline/186 and hooked up 1 battery for 6 volt and used the other buss for 12 volt. The GM alternator was connected to the 12 volt side and charged both batteries. I had rewired the GM alternator to positive ground to try to avoid some technical issues but came up with some new ones that required work arounds. The 3rd and current setup has the GM alternator negative ground, the Blue Seas dual buss and a voltage reducer from Koolcars.
www.koolcars.us click on the voltage reducers tab. The voltage reducer is connected to the 12 volt side of the blue seas buss and supplies the 6 volt side of the buss. This way the voltage reducer always have a power source but it's output goes through the buss to the amp gauge supplying the car. I have old style headlight relays to take the load off of the original headlight switch and use the dimmer switch to operate the relays that pick up the load for the headlights from the 12 volt buss. For those things that are now 12 volt things like tha starter are still wired to the original 6 volt starter relay. For the brake lights I removed the old pressure switch in the brake line and put a mechanical switch from Street Works
www.watsons-streetworks.com/brake_switches.html This switch was powered directly off the 12 volt side of the buss and the wires at the old pressure switch were connected together. To supply a keyed power source to the 12 volt accesories (radio and heater fan) I took a feed off of the 12 volt buss and ran it through a 6 volt continues duty relay, like they use in golf carts, and then to a small fuse block for the accesories. The relay pickup was connected to the ignition switch so when the key is on the relay picks up. I can supply pictures in a photobucket link later if anyone is interested.
I love seeing car(s) in yards or woods, that have not been touched in decades ...
jfreakofkorn Wrote:I love seeing car(s) in yards or woods, that have not been touched in decades ...
My '50 would have been a whole lot better off if nobody touched it in decades....but that's OK. We can fix that too.
jfreakofkorn Wrote:I love seeing car(s) in yards or woods, that have not been touched in decades ...
....but sometimes I cry!!
hey,what part of the woods are you from fellow La resident, st.charles parish