Leaderboard

I enjoyed racing in the days of Petty, Wallace, Gant, the Waltrips, big Dale, Fireball, Allison, Yarborugh, Parsons, Labonte, Bodine, Martin to name a few. The days where you could tell the manufacture of the car by looking at it. So homogenized to day is is boring. I have not watched a race for years.

NASCAR's race cars of today remind me of the vacuformed bodied slot cars of the 60's. I'm sure that, to keep the butts in seats, they will allow Ford to slap a Mustang grille decal on some vaguely shaped body that fits their template and the chassis of the day, as has been the norm for decades now (remember the v8 powered rear drive two door Taurus?). I like my race cars to have doors, and lost interest in Nascar when the the cars stopped being based on at least a body-in-white. I do regularly attend a local short track, and my favorites are the hobby class cars.

I once was exactly where you are, had to learn one bolt at a time, so don't stop. I would tap the bolt holes nice and clean before installing the head. Then blow them out clean with an air hose. Your looking great!!

Here's a real quick crappy Photoshop of what the car is basically going to look like

I also chose my paint, and I had it custom-blended for me today, it's kind of like a seafoam antiqued aqua, I wanted something different than everyone else has

Just got done putting on a new water pump, all new hoses, new belt, and a new thermostat housing gasket, I learned something today, every post that I've seen on the water pump so far says to leave the fan on take the bolts out and there's enough room to get the water pump out, that is not true, unless you want to do major damage to your radiator, I took all the bolts out of the radiator and shifted it over to one side and then slid it behind the mounting brackets and gave like another inch of space then the water pump slid right off freeze out plugs tomorrow, and if there's any time left in the day I'll put the new fuel tank in also, then hopefully I'll have it running good enough to take for a ride, without leaking antifreeze out of everywhere, and leaking fuel out of four different places in the fuel tank LOL

Jimmy why do you need 12 volt? 6 does fine. They even make 6 volt leds if you want them. Much easier to just leave it 6.

Welcome,I don't think I have seen any other members from Scotland. Maybe you will start a trend?

Shazzaam Shazzaam Sergeant Carter. I have never seen them before. I know Andy Bernbaum's got all the Rubber ones for Pot Metal Housings to the Body and License Plate Light. I would probably opt cut my own before I would pay $24.95 for two little Gaskets. Just saying. Tom

I just took my old thermostat down to Napa and they matched it up with a new style with the temp I requested.

Those buckets, ugly in appearance to me, look totally out of place in the car. As you did ask for opinions, I personally would use the original front seat. Your car so do what you want.

Wow! there's some quality repair work! Gotta go to steel and get it back to the factory connections.

Black and grey interior needs black or some shade of grey seat covers or some combo of black and grey. They could match or compliment the exterior color if you were painting it. If you decide to have the seats reupholstered, lose the headrests. They look totally out of place.

I had a 1925 Dodge pick-up for a while in the mid-1980s. It had the original flathead four with a silent starter-generator (big guy). No oil stick either, a float would raise an indicator which came up through the block. It had been a grocery delivery truck in Tonepah, Nevada. I drove it across town once, but never had it street legal. I sold it to a guy in southern California, wonder how it's doing...better truck than the 1928 Chevy I had later.

Here is a set of ignition wrenches size 5/32 to 3/8 by Craftsman . I have had this set for 54 years and have never used some of them but others have come in handy .

That should work. Also, pick up a parts cleaning brush at your local parts store. It’ll help scrub the nooks and crannies.

Last weekend and this weekend my time was spent painting the trans and installing the brake, and painting, repainting and RE-repainting the motor. First try was Duplicolor gloss black. It went on like oatmeal..... sanded it down the next day and tried a different batch of Duplicolor and got more oatmeal. Dammit. Sanded it again yesterday and used a different paint; the Seymour Hi Tech paint the shop uses for just about everything. What a difference! It actually shines, and went on wet and leveled fairly well for a rattle can. Could have been better with a proper spray gun and some good automotive paint, but I didn’t go that route. Maybe my next engine... This one is now waiting in the back row of the engine room to get back into its car. Also, still stripping and painting various small parts in preparation for reinstallation. Also got the original air cleaner stripped. It will be gloss black again.

How to move your toolbox.

I add Marvel Mystery Oil to my 87 octane unleaded with the ethanol to stabilize the fuel, keeping it from going stale and gumming up carburetors as well as reducing starter cranking times...recently, I revived my JD 425 from storage after not touching it for 4 months, had parked it in the barn with a season's dirt in the air filter and less than 1 gallon of treated gas in the tank...just like in years past, this year's first start took less than 5 seconds of cranking with full throttle and choke to awaken this li'l workhorse, and the engine ran very smooth after 3 seconds...in years before I switched to treated gas, first start was a curse-laden chore that involved removing the air filter and hitting the carb with starting fluid, resulting in the inevitable ear-ringing expletive-inducing backfire, and on one occasion, replacing the subsequent destroyed spark plugs...several neighbors have reported similar results since switching to treated gas, saying they don't have to work so hard since putting the red stuff in the tank...the last time I tore down a B&B carb, it was striking how clean the reservoir was and how little varnish had formed in the usual places after switching to treated gas...it seems like such a simple thing to do, but it does solve several problems, as advertised on the bottle

My 24 Dodge Brothers 100% stock.

I think I read it here "a vehicle in motion tends to stay in motion, a vehicle in parts tends to stay in parts"

Just bought this 39 DeSoto a few weeks ago from Washington state. Had it delivered to San Francisco. Drive it almost every day. Need to adjust the emergency brake a bit but other than that, it’s a great driver. Nick

be careful of aftermarket wiring as they advertise for some of the older cars but more a rodding application where upgrade to 12 volt is the norm. In the Plymouth shop manual the P15 does not give the gauge wiring on the schematic but all the later car schematics in the book show the gauge. So if staying 6 volt and such just to the next model year and use the gauge listed per circuit application as the components were basically the same for amperage ratings. On here the search for a Dodge D24 should garner a schematic that would also circuit for circuit list the correct gauge wire to use.

Those Champion J-11 plugs are probably still good; clean'm, gap'm & install'm. The PO of the '49 couldn't find the original ignition key, but while inspecting that truck, I flipped up the mat to take a look at the floor and VOILA there was a filthy Dodge key...

the best treasure I found besides the 1968 Minnesota map was a copy of the ignition key on a key chain with my mom's maiden name on it and the 4 digit phone numebr.