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I have to admit this forum has quickly become my #1 destination on the entire internet. I am thriving information on old Mopar vehicles. I have only been frequenting here for a short time and already see that this is "Thee" place for vintage Mopar owners. There many great folks here who are kind and very helpful. My gut tells me there are a lot of mature members here. That's great. I hope to pull whatever knowledge I can from any of you willing to share. I searched for a while to find the right home for vintage Mopar enthusiasts. Very happy to have found this one. Just for fun I thought I'd add a poll. To learn of the majority age of the members. The poll is anonymous. I will reveal I'm 46 and have a ton to learn. I could only choose 7 options, so I'm sorry but I had to end it at 71 and up. Here we go:

I drove my first Plymouth, a 35 PJ on farm roads in 1956. Before I got to drive it, I had to install a water pump. I was eight years old and could hardly reach the pedals. I have not been without a six cylinder Plymouth since and have covered a lot of ground, fortunately most of it paved.

Physically I'm 65. Mentally, 18-19 (my wife would agree). Been a carnut since grade school. Kept me out of trouble. Could've been worse.

My cousin gave me a 52 Concord 2 door when I was 14, didn't run had lots of rust and the exhaust was rotted off from under the seat back. But it was all there, my next door friend and I got it running after a weeks wait to get money together to get a used battery from the junk yard down the street. Drove around the field, taught all the 12 and up kids in the area how to shift and drive, charged them 50 cents or two gallons of gas for a half hour behind the wheel. Even set up a spot with hay bales to practice parallel parking and three point turns which was part of the NY drivers liscence test. Every kid who practiced passed their tests first time. It was a killer way to meet girls, they came from surrounding towns to practice. Drove it for two summers on the lot, never used my own money for gas after the first week it was up and running. Put on a cherry bomb and a side exit tail pipe. Rebuilt the carb, fuel pump, the Genny,and rebushed the starter. Sold it to a neighbor for 50 bucks. Bought my 46 when I was 21 for 200 dollars in 1970 from the original owner. Done 80% of the work to put it in its current form. Drive it about 3000 miles a season, and endeavor to put one long road trip a year on it. Other than a fan belt and a couple of hot start problems it has never left us stranded. Plymouth builds Great Cars.

I'm 28 my Wife is 27, we have two daughters 6 y/o and 3 y/o. We are happy to have our 49' Club Coupe and I intend on keeping it and eventually getting rid of my 2009 Kia Rio in the next 5 years, bringing on in a 57' Bel-Air as my Wife's daily (outside of her driving the 08' Enclave). I firmly believe we have enough old cars in the museums and the rest on the road are ours (including everyone else) to enjoy, drive and keep on the road. I'd like to keep my 49' fairly unmodified except for creature comforts and eventually after I retire form the Navy in 2029, that I'll hopefully get to grab a 40's to mid 50's Plymouth Business Coupe to make my hot rod daily. It will be in need of restoration as I do not want to tear up something close to excellence like many of us work hard to keep.

An interesting tidbit would be how old we were when we started either this hobby in general, or on MoPars. I used to take pride in showing up at cruises and shows with our D24 when we first got it on the road. I was 30 and the vast majority of others were over 50. Might have just been the area we were in, but we seemed to be under suspicion because we were young'uns with an old car that wasn't hot-rodded, slammed, or otherwise modified, and didn't meet everyone's profile for old car enthusiasts.

I'll be 74 Monday, but that's just a number. I bought a 1930 Chrysler for $175 on Halloween day, 1961. Another sob story about letting it get away, but next was a first series 49 Plymouth, 53 Cambridge, two matching 59 Plymouths, and now a 48 Plymouth that I've had since the fall of 94.

I'm turning 70 tomorrow and find myself in great company here. A wonderful neighbor gave me my very first car, a two tone green 1954 Dodge Coronet Red Ram 4 door in 1965. That was one tough machine. I gave it to a true friend and my first automotive mentor when I was drafted in 1966, and it ended up in a figure 8 race at Glen Este Speedway. My first "antique" car was a derelict $100.00 1948 Chevrolet sedan delivery purchased from a local AMC dealer, Harry and Carl Rambler, in 1969. They'd put it right out in front with bunting and flags as a joke, but the styling just blew me away. It was a tired old Grandin Hardware Store veteran, and with a Jasper rebuilt engine, an 8 volt battery and new tires, it became my daily driver for about three years. Next came a 1950 Plymouth Deluxe 2 door fastback, then a 1937 PT50 as a shop truck in the early 1980's, a 1936 Plymouth P2 coupe in 2009, and a 1935 Plymouth PJ coupe in 2011 which I sold to purchase my 1949 P18 Special Deluxe convertible this spring. Despite lots of other cars in between, I keep coming back to Plymouth flatheads.

@50 coupe the results are starting to agree with your comment. This is is cool to hear the stories and learn of the average level of experience here. I don't count my cars when I was a teenager, as vintage. A 1973 Ford Pinto, a 1974 Dodge Dart or a 1976 Mercury Capri. However I was forced to rebuild engines and clutches in every one of those cars. I started wrenching right at 16. All I could afford was cheap wore out cars. I was working just to keep up with repairs cost from 16 to 19. I goy my first vintage Car 2 months ago. My '53 Windsor Deluxe. Years later, my time behind the wrenches all my life is helping me a lot. Patience has found me. Way less skinned knuckles. No broken bolts. No loosing or mixing up parts. No throwing tools in frustration. No waiting 2 more pay checks to get the next part. I learned how to get all the oil in a drain pan with little mess lol. Growing older has its benefits.

hard drives die...sometimes randomly. Cloud storage gets backed up regularly and is more easily accessed from multiple locations (work PC, home PC, cell, etc).

Does this mean that only us old guys know how to have fun???

what you are missing that in the past you could NOT upload from your computer to this site, an online host was REQUIRED, many stuck with the photobucket account since then

Raised in SoCal........on Catalina Island. US Navy Submarine Service 1968-69 carrying SEALS into North/South Viet Nam, on board the USS Tunny, APSS-282. Vocations: carpenter, auto dealer, commercial fisherman, firearms dealer for 35 years. Now....new passion is the old Dodge WWII trucks and 1946-68 Dodge Power Wagons. HAVE A BLESSED DAY, and "keep your powder dry".

On this site and others you are limited to how many photos you can post directly from your computer. In my case I have used 58.93 MB of my 146.48 MB attachment limit on this site. I post a lot of photos here. When I post photos directly linked from Photobucket id does not count against my allotted space on this site. It is possible to delete the photos you post here if you exceed the limit but by using Photobucket I do not have to delete anything and my photos are visible as long as my Photobucket site remains active.

Perseverance!!

Really enjoy reading about your travels around Minnesota and Iowa in the Meadowbrook. I was raised in Iowa but moved away years ago. Your stories and pics bring back lots of memories of country roads, small towns, evening drives and great people.

Is that a firetruck?

I'm 35 years old. To answer the above questions I've had a Pilothouse of some flavor for the last 21 years (a couple of drivers, and several parts trucks). I just love the old flathead and the pickup built around it. Hence why I am on the mission to build a daily driver over on the truck side of the forum.

Keith, I'm 63, tho' sometimes I think this maybe my IQ rather than my age............lol...........been playing with my 1940 Dodge since 1971, have learnt quite a bit over the years but not nearly enough and these guys have certainly helped me to understand and learn more for which I am truly grateful..........Andy Douglas

Steve......whilst my disc adaption is an Oz setup you can see that the brake hose uses a banjo fitting same as the Scarebird setup but I have the hose going at the rear of the suspension, in fact it uses the original Dodge hose chassis bracket that is held onto the chassis with 2 bolts, I don't have them or it pictured but they are shown(the holes at least) in the post of yours just behind the upper shock mount...........by using this bracket my brake hose travels behind the spindle and shock absorber to this chassis mount bracket and does not come into contact with either the spindle or stub axle on hard lock...............btw it seems that the hoses you are using or recommended to use have specific shape at the banjo end that only allows the hose to fit one way....is this correct?...... and this is how they fit as per the 1979 Cadillac?........I'd be seeing if some other banjo hose can fit or if the locating edges on the caliper can be removed to allow a rear pointing banjo fitting and hose...................hope I'm not confusing all this.........lol........Andy Douglas.

Later after dinner wifey, myself, and the dogs went out for a long cruise. The dogs fell asleep in the back seat and my wife nodded off as well. The car sounds like a lazy sewing machine so it kinda makes the passengers sleepy. We never reached the cloud bank in the picture, which was okay by me.

Vintage Power Wagons also has new ones. I just ordered a set of them and they arrived a couple of days ago.

The calipers don't care what the wheel bolt pattern is. The discs do.

Here are close up photos of the banjo fittings for my conversion to Scarebird disc brakes. This is Napa part number 36845. Supposedly they are 15" front brake hoses for a 1979 Cadillac Seville. Indeed, as @3046moparcoupe said, they aren't 'round'. What kind of Banjo looks like that? @Andydodge: that is what I assumed. I couldn't see how the hoses could go around the suspension towards the front of the car and not rub the suspension components. So I'm going to move the clip that holds the non-banjo end of the hose to the caliper side of the suspension. It shouldn't be too hard to remove the bracket, drill and tap two holes. I don't have a welder but it might be quicker to weld the bracket. My son is learning this week how to do some basic welding -- I'm envious. That is a skill I have never learned.

Andy and Martybose, I really appreciate the reply's back guys,....and I see what your thinking is the bleeder valve down low in the picture (but what your confusing with the bleeder valve is actually the tie rod adjustment nut and bolt), the bleeder valves are on top, I have the bleeder valves covered with the yellow masking tape to keep crap out of the hole in the bleeder valve while I'm messing with this)....the reply I got back from Scarebird was ( to rotate the brake hose end at the caliper down 90 degrees ).

i love those guys, i bought all my brake parts from vintage got my parts 1 day later . amazing price i just bought a new fuel pump from them for my p15 for 100.00 that is ethanol freindly.

Here you go. Hope these help. The back of the seat back with the hooks As stated earlier, the hook on the right (top) hooks over the top bar and the lower part (on the left) snaps under the lower bar. There is no connection between the seat back and the bottom cushion. Here is the bottom cushion sliding under the back... Once it's locked onto the locating pins it's a nice tight fit. Nothing moves.

Marty is right, the bleed screw should always be at the top or highest point.............andyd

It looks to me that the caliper bleeder valve is down by the steering arm, which means that you have the calipers mounted on the wrong sides of the car. The bleeder valve is always the highest thing on the caliper so they can be used to get the air out when bleeding the brakes. Marty

Hempster, I'll be adding some pictures downloaded from my phone shortly. If you need any detailed specific pictures please do not hesitate to ask and i'll take pictures of what you need on what I have. The car is mostly stock from what I see and have experienced but I have changed a few things...i.e. stereo, speakers, center console, fuse box, plug wires, carb ect. I'll add that to an individual forum later.

OLDMOPAR84, an ebay seller called vintageamericanpartscompany listed the item as a buy it now for $385.00 with a make offer option. I'm a pushover for accessories like this and was surprised when they accepted my low offer. I spent a bunch of time freeing the solenoid valve armature and had to buy 100 ball bearings to get the correct .281" steel ball for the check valve. I dis-assembled and cleaned the contacts in both the shift lever and throttle switch, as well as repairing the wiring. I decided not to use the ancient flexible brake hose included in the parts. It's really cool!

http://www.studiotimecapsule.com/aluminum_fabrication

I think you may be having too much fun. Good thing you have your family with you to help you out!

I have never broken a cotter pin. They are soft bendable material. I use dikes. Unbend the curved end and the grab the pin lightly with the dikes at the looped end close to the base. Squeeze just tight enough to make a slight indentation and push down on the handle end to effectively pull the pin upwards. This will take several bites to work the pin out but you will not have a broken pin. Cotter pins are a one time only use. But an assortment at the hardware store and always use a new one.

you may be kicking a can of worms that should be left to die in the hot sun.....check with some of the local old car owners first to see if this would be a wise choice, I have no first hand knowledge of Illinois DMV but some states would lead to confiscation and destruction of misrepresented vehicle...especially if a vehicle ID tag has been changed or altered.

If you have a non vacuum advance distributor, why not consider a distb from Langdons? I got mine, seems to work quite well, had it all installed in about an hour with wiring and mounting the new coil. http://www.langdonsstovebolt.com/store/#!/Stovebolt-Mopar-Mini-HEI/p/1222043/category=18665978

Nothing wrong with the Ball and Ball carbs as long as they are correctly matched to the engine/clean and have the correct internal parts-jets etc.