1965 Dodge Dart 270 Wagon

I ordered a bunch of replacement lights with a bit of guidance from SlantSixDan. They all arrived yesterday. I haven't got to dropping the tank yet because my efforts to clean up the gauge cluster were a bit more then I planned for and I needed a break on Sunday.

I built a small regulator circuit based on the 7805 chip from radio shack. It's not as complete as I'd like because I wasn't paying attention and when I grabbed 5v zener diodes from the correctly labeled parts bin I got home to find that I had a package of 12v diodes. No short-circuit protection for me. I used some conductive glue I had laying around to connect the 7805 to a small heatsink, but haven't decided where to anchor it on the gauge housing yet. It turns out my stock regulator appeared to be working fine when tested, but this will prevent me dealing with it later down the line. The frustrating thing is that the regulator measuring fine means that I really do have a full tank of gas and there is some other reason my temp gauge is reading high all the time (at least in theory.)After scrubbing the gauges I determined that I will definitely need to paint it, but I don't have the inclination to deal with it now because I need to get more functional issues dealt with. So I cleaned everything as well as I could with warm soapy water, the actual gauges got a light scrubbing with baking soda and vinegar, and I put it all back together and into the car.

I ordered a gas cap last night. There is a locking one on it right now that doesn't seal right and I don't have a key for. Any thoughts on removing it? It's pretty loose and I've tried to just work it back and forth, but it's hanging on somewhere inside. I could drill the center out, but I'm worried about getting metal shavings in the gas line. I will be swapping the tank, but anything in the fill tube could cause a problem.

I washed up the light lenses and housings last night. On the way home I will grab some chrome paint for inside the housings. I used some high gloss enamel on the front parking/turn signal lenses and they look 100% better. I didn't take any pictures, but I will do some before and after when I do the tail lights. I will use some spraymax 2k clear for those since they will get more sun exposure. These old lenses are very dull and worn looking even after a good cleaning. The gloss really restores that new factory shine.