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New to the forum - 49' P18


Steven Dell Brown

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Hello all. My name is Steven Brown and  I am new to the forum and I , along with my 17 year old son Noah, are the new owners of a 1949 Plymouth Delux 4 door sedan. Picked up the car for next to nothing and trailered it home. It was sitting at the edge of field with weeds growing up around it so I stopped in and next thing you know, I'm dragging the thing home. Once we got it home and got a better look at everything I started to realize I might have just purchased a heap. The good news is, with little effort we got it fired up and moving under it's own power. The old six runs smooth and strong and is still on 6 volt positive ground. Vacuum advance is no good so we have to ease into it but it'll pick up and go.

The bad news is that the brakes are not intact and it has some serious rust issues. The floor pans are pretty well shot. Once we got the ragged carpet out we discovered that the carpet was all that kept us from driving like Fred Flinstone. The frame looks ok except the front cross member is done. Now I'm sure the floor pans and trunk area can be cut out (what's left of it) and replaced but the cross member has us questioning what we want to do since it needs to be replaced and it need brakes. I doubt we will go all out to restore it to showroom condition. It's just something my son and I plan to have fun with and I can teach him a thing or two (and learn myself too). It will probably end up being a mild rat rod.  We want to leave the flathead 6 in there and even leave it 6 volt positive ground. I love the sound of that starter as it groans to bring the engine to life.

My question for the folks here is would we be better off to hunt down a replacement cross member and stick with 4 wheel drum brakes or should we go with another front clip and change over to disc brakes. I've never done this so I'll be relying on the help of those who know to guide us through it and help us out. I do have a mid 90's S10 that doesn't run so that frame and running gear is available to us. Is there a better option than the S10? Is just using the front clip the best option or the whole thing?

I'm sure many guys have gone either way so I'd like to hear your experiences and advice.

 

 

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Edited by s55brown
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My 2 cents is don't hack it up.  It's pretty easy to find another cross member or just cut out the rust and weld new metal in.  I went with bolt on disc brakes on my 47 Dodge.  Very easy to do and won't cost much more if any than buying all new stock brake components.

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your least involvement and biggest bang for the buck without taking the heap off line for a length of time would be to do a disc brake upgrade, relocate the front shock upper mount to the frame and drive it for a bit while repairing floor issues as you go...the cross members I am guessing are the body cross sections...these can be found in replacement chunks for a fairly quick and easy repair....after a spell of driving..then you can see if you really want to go all out for suspension and body modifications.

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Welcome to the forum.  The car looks pretty good from what we can tell in the photos. 

 

If it were me? I’d weld in new floor and trunk pans as needed. Fully  rebuild the brakes. New Shocks. Change all oils. Full engine tune up. Install seat belts. New tires. Check/grease wheel bearings and front end. New battery. Test generator output. Then tinker away while you enjoy driving it!

 

Good find. Enjoy the time with your son. 

 

 

Edited by keithb7
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Thanks for the quick responses! Man, after checking out the thread by casper50 I feel so much better about my heap. It's not near as bad as that 47 when it started!

I'll work on getting some good pictures of everything posted so folks can see what we have to work with. I've already been in touch with Mr. Akers at RustyHope. I'm only a few miles away from his shop so that will help. I hope to go by his place soon and pick his brain in person.

Please, keep the advice and insight coming. It is greatly appreciated. I hope to be cruising around with my son as soon as possible. Even if that means throwing something over the holes in the floor!

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1. Brakes, always whoa before go.

2. Electric, your wires are 69 years old they are suspect.

3. Repair floor boards, inner and outer rockers if needed.

Now you have a foundation on which to build your car, do not get distracted and tear every thing apart at once....most people start losing interest about then.

No one wants to buy a pile o parts so it's the painful process of parting out or call the scrapyard. 

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Don't worry about replacing the floors yet. Fix the front crossmember first. Easy to find at junkyards on the web. Then do EVERYTHING in the brakes,including the lines and hoses. Nothing wrong with your drum brakes if the drums are thick enough to safely be turned. If you have to buy new drums,go with a disc brake conversion and be done with it.

 

Next go ahead and replace the gas tank with a new one and be done with it. Also replace the gas line with the new copper/nickel tubing you will also use as brakelines. Unlike steel brake lines,it will never rust and cause rust flakes in your fuel line. Replace ALL the rubber and gas filters with new stuff rated to withstand ethanol gas,too.

 

I realize you live in Florida and might have a snake problem,so just get some flat sheet metal,a tube of caulking,and some sheet metal screws to seal off the floors temporarily to keep the snakes and water out of the car. Don't worry about a perfect fit. Just cut it big,lay it over what you already have after running a thin line of calking all around where it goes,then drill a few small holes and use sheet metal screws to keep it in place for the time being.

 

People who have never gotten upside down on a front seat to stick their head up under a dash to pull a radio and then spot the skin from a cottonmouth hanging down from the radio box can understand the excitement involved in something like that. I can,and once is enough.

 

What I do now with a old car I plan on working on and driving that has bad floors is roll the windows up,and set a can or two of roach and flea killer spray bombs inside the car and set them off. Do this BEFORE you seal off the floors so that anything in there has somewhere to run. The "smoke" will rise from the car and there is no place it won't get into.  Once done,air out the car and THEN seal off the floors with flat tin and a brick or something else to hold the tin down to keep critters out until you can do the job properly.

 

I have a cousin that lived about 2 miles up a track through the woods,and that was the only house there. In warm weather she got into habit of just leaving the drive door of her van open when she got home. She got in there one day to go to the grocery store and drove out to the highway and stopped at a local gas station to get gas first. When she went to get back into the van there was a rattlesnake laying in the floor where her feet go. Needless to say,she never left the door open again. Or any windows rolled down.

Edited by knuckleharley
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