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Thank you Tod for locking. Just to clarify the reason for no political/religion threads is because inevitable someone gets pissed off and it turns ugly. I have seen other forums destroyed by this behavior going rampant. Unfortunately "if people act as adults" is not a given based on my experience. 😒 Robert, the idea is P15-D24 is a safe haven from the the many "outside forces" that can distract us from the primary objective, keeping our mopars on the road!

I bought Alshere59's 1950 Plymouth. He gave me a super deal. Won't be able to start working on it for about two months. The shop I'm renting has asked me to move out by the end of the year. So I decided to build a shop and it will be about two months before it's done. Probably shouldn't be spending this much money but I'm old and I need a place to work on stuff and not worry about the owner changing their mind. The new shop is not going to be big or fancy. But it will be big enough to work on one car at a time and have a lift. I shouldn't be starting another project but I'm too stubborn to stop working on stuff yet. This is a perfect project for me. The mechanicals are good. All I have to do is paint it and then put it back together. I think I can do all that. It may need a few adjustments here and there also. This is a picture of the dirt work and the day the car got here. Had the car transported from Ohio to Texas. That's a story for another time. More news latter.

Saturday I had to say goodbye to the truck... He left for paint! 😁

Because I was concerned with the cable failing and leaving me with the aggravation you are experiencing, I installed an emergency cable that works independently of the standard cable. I goes through the left fender liner, I can pull it by reaching up and forward of the front wheel.

Last year the weather cooperated and I was able to take a ride on Christmas Eve with no snow and mild temperatures. (-3 Celcius) This year I am not so sure as we have already had a skiff of snow that has thankfully gone and some colder temperatures. I try to run the car right up to snow so will have to keep a close eye on the weather. Today was around 6 degrees with only a light breeze so I headed out to inspect some of the SPOOKTACULAR creations around town. Caught this one as it was being set up so hopefully the halloween weather on Thursday does not include the rain scheduled for 4:30 local time. Happy Halloween everyone.

Great news. We made it!!!!! 1,300 miles, 7 states in 3 days. We removed the spare tire, all our luggage and put the seat up as much as we could and she didn’t rubs (as much). The biggest thing was having a full tank of gas which dragged the rear end down so we just kept her with 1/2 a tank. The gear oil leak seems to be coming from the Speedo cable area but regardless given that she ran amazingly and brought me back home I plan on removing and replacing the seals on everything that goes into the gearbox from the sensor, Speedo, to the solenoid, etc. I am also going to order new springs and shocks as well. Any advice as to the best place to source them? And Thank You to everyone that helped us on this adventure.

To get at the front timing cover you’ll need to remove the front engine mount. You need to support the engine to do that. The rubber on your front mount looks poor. It should be replaced. You’ll need to remove the centre crank bolt. Then a puller to get the pulley off. Look at the sealing surface of the pulley. Clean it up. You may very well want a speedi-sleeve on it. Remove timing cover bolts. Remove timing cover. Kerosene and a brush. De-sludge everything. Clean all mounting surfaces like new. How’s the timing chain play looking? Install a new crank seal in the cover with a press. Get a new gasket in place. I like to copper spray both sides. Lay the cover and gasket in place. Do not tighten it down. Use crank pulley as centering guide. Install pulley. Then tighten down cover bolts. Put thread sealer on cover bolts.

The new shop will have a tall celling for a lift. Going with a two post. A four post would take up too much room. Having a deep concrete beam poured where the lift will be anchored. I have been told that six inches of concrete is enough for a two post lift so I'm going with a one foot thick beam. Didn't get much sleep last night - kind of excited about getting this done. Concrete today. I lucked out and it has been perfect weather here in East Texas for concrete work. More news latter.

Hey fellas, I'm new to the group and figured I'd introduce myself. I recently got this 1948 deluxe coupe. Someone put a 318 and 727 in it at some point and decided to tear it down to paint and never got around to actually painting it. I tossed the rear fenders and front clip on real quick just to see what it looked like

Please don’t think I still get upset about hot rods. I’ve out grown that. The hot rod guys love really nice paint and chrome. Their cars look fantastic! But the fact is, they were never built that nice even by accident when they brand new. I’ve had the pleasure of closely inspecting genuine “original” Model T Fords. Let me tell you they were just awful! However original Model Ts are extremely rare, they all have been repainted with modern paint and if the owner repaints the car they usually make the body parts fit right. Henry never made them that nice and if he ever saw one that was perfect, he would be mystified how that happened. lol In my miss spent youth I was a dealer mechanic. My Plymouths follow the formula of what a dealer mechanic would drive back in the day. If I can find an improvement from another MoPar vehicle that a dealer mechanic would know about, my car will have it. I have a Model A that the previous owner installed a T5 in. I really don’t like it. I am changing it to a 39 V8 gearbox with a torque tube mounted R10 Overdrive. As far as the wiring and switches and solenoids go….well a dealer mechanic would have an Overdrive that worked as designed. I appreciate the charm of the 49 to 52 Plymouths. I don’t want to get too far away from that charm. I think the Overdrive does nothing to diminish that charm. That’s my formula and while I like it, no one else has to like it. In fact I like the idea that most folks would think my car is dead stock. It’s all about fun and enjoyment.

Was able to get my dash clock working. Just needed to file the contact points for the electro magnet winding mechanism, has been a really good,productive day. Moving forward,slowly, but moving in the right direction.

It was a very fun day! Joy Ride

Hello all, My name is Sean and I just sealed the deal on my second project vehicle. It is a 1952 Dodge B-3 Power Wagon. I have always loved these trucks and I am super excited that I get the chance to work on one. I am just starting my research on the truck and what is available, which is how I found my way here. The vendors thread caught my attention as it is exactly the kind of info I was looking for and I greatly appreciate that! I am sure I will pop in from time to time to tap into your wisdom as I tackle this admittedly rough project.

It took awhile 50 years to be exact but my dream has finally been realized , fat fenders and running boards !! All went well, sales transaction, (private party) title transfer and registration with the 1934 vintage stamped from copper license plate, any way I am very impressed with a few things 1. how quickly and easily it fires up , I was a bit skeptical of the 6 volt system 2. how well it rides and steers even with the bias ply tires. 3. how smoothly and quietly that flat head runs, it actually rides better and quieter than my 56 Olds. I named her Fannie Mae . If your from the Midwest and love chocolate you may recognize Fannie Mae as the big chocolate company from Chicago. she reminds me of a big box of assorted chocolates and caramels , this color combo may not be everybody's cup of tea but it works for me and turns a few heads. I've heard some people say it doesn't show up on Plymouth color charts some say it is a factory color carrotine # 4 I think also referred to as the burnt cars ? I'm sure you here would know better than me I'm a pre-war Plym newbie !! I'm learning more daily and as I dive in hope to learn more, I'm not sure what's 100% original to the car and what's not (I'm not a stickler for that) I hope to lean on you guys as I try to learn. here's a few pic's of Fannie.

When I was young and dumb ( friends tell me I may not be young anymore but not much else has changed ) I used to feel bad when someone stuffed a V8 in an old car. Even though I lived for 30+ years in Northern Nevada, I never once bothered with Hot August Nights. Every nice old car had a Chevy V8 which was nothing I cared to see. Well I am changing my tune. Took long enough I suppose. I now love hot rods & resto-mods! You see the folks that build them usually have some great stuff to sell so they can pay for their new V8! And you can get some great deals. In the last couple of months I scored a 50 Chrysler Windsor chassis which yielded 12 inch brakes, a 3/4 inch front sway bar and a set of wheels ( wider by about an inch and a half ). I haven’t done the measurements yet but the lower front A-arms have the spring plates on the bottom, so you could lower the front if you used stock springs. This came from a guy who is putting a Dakota frame under his car with a V8. Yesterday I scored a very nice 230 engine with an Edgy head, Thickstun manifold, Stromberg carbs, rebuilt damper, T5 adaptor ( which I will never use as I prefer an Overdrive ) Reds headers and boxes of parts. This came from a guy who is putting a Chevy V8 in his pre-war Plymouth. I love the charm of my two flathead Plymouths, I always have. Putting a V8 in one just doesn’t fit with how I enjoy them. However, I no longer look down on what other folks do with their’s. Now I get excited by their engineering and craftsmanship. I am no engineer but I appreciate those who are. Are we in any danger of “running out of stock unmolested” cars? Probably not in my lifetime.

random update time, been slowly working on truck but no big changes. after ~4 year slumber, 4 new injectors and an hour to prime the fuel system, I successfully started the old Detroit and turned fuel into noise yesterday! good oil pressure, no run-away condition. back to doing sheetmetal fab, rebuilding the inner fender since I had to remove most of them for CAC/intercooler plumbing. Im hoping to focus and be done with sheetmetal work this winter as we are looking to move next year so would be nice to drive the truck to the next location rather than trailer.

Well I got some welding done on the manifold. Welded the three carb intake runners to the log. Next is the intake runners between the log and the block. Having the carb runners welded allows me to dial in George’s linkage.

At the 3:25 mark here I install front timing cover and gasket. The crank seal install in the timing cover is shown earlier in the video.

I just wanted to post a little update on the performance of this new carburetor. Now that it is finally starting to cool off in Florida I've been starting to drive the car more. I wish I had bought this carburetor years ago, in almost 25 years of owning the car it's never run this great. It runs so smooth and idles so good now. It has more power and it just runs cleaner. I used to always have some exhaust odor and that's virtually gone now. I probably rebuilt that old carburetor 10 times over the years and it never ran this good. Oh yeah and no more leaks.

Good advise on the lighting. I plan on going with LED. The foundation for the shop and carport is in. They are coming back today to pour the driveway extension. The sidewalk looking thing around the foundation is the new drainage path for the back yard.

I also spent some time getting familiar with wheels with oval valve stem holes. I took the original wheels to Discount Tire to replace the old tube tires with tubeless, and they used standard round rubber valve stems. One of the tires would only hold air for half a day, so I took it back, and they concluded that the valve stem hole in the wheel had "wallered" or rusted into an oval shape, and that the wheel would no longer work. I looked at the wheel when I got it back, and the valve hole definitely looked purposefully oval, so I took it to a mom & pop tire shop, and fortunately he knew about these types of wheels and had an oval valve adapter that could be used to seal a tubeless valve. The other three tires are holding air with the round base valve stems, but I ordered some of these to have on hand and am tempted to have them swapped in preemptively: https://ts-warehouse.com/products/tr501ov-1-1-2-brass-clamp-in-oval-tubeless-tire-truck-valve-stem-pack-of-4 Also available on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/383164156541 You learn something new every day with these amazing machines... 😊

A salute....to all who have served.... retired US Army and US AF Reserves, combined 32+ years

I've never been able to wear the clutches out in my 1948/50 Chryslers over 40+ years slipping the clutches in them.

The cross bars are screwed into the roof 12 places (and supported on 4 curves and the drip rails), the longitudinal rails bolted to the cross bars, the chair and rider are both belted to the rails. Safer than it looks, but still relieved we encountered no local constabulary on our travels 🙂. Here are a few more photos...

Making progress .... first I rebuilt the mounting flange. I specifically rebuilt the better fender first, so I could use it to make templates from. Then I rebuilt the mounting flange on the fender. It was pretty crazy at first, I could not believe the fender was that far off from the template .... I spent the rest of the day just getting the fender to match the new patch panel. I then spent a few hours the next day making a 1.5" flat strip to follow the fender and welded it in as a L shape patch. Then I made a longer piece shorter then the original and doubled up the mounting .... Way over kill but the bracket will not break off again. Today welding in a complicated patch went a lot easier, knowing today what I did not know before, I made the patch in 3 pieces. So it is going a lot smoother then the first fender patch. When I look at this photo .... I just wonder how many beers it will take to get this to paint. What was a solid mess and should be called scrap metal .... will be put back into service. For over 5 years I have been having nightmares about fixing these fenders. I find that once the rear mounting bracket of the fender is put back into shape, then the middle section repaired. The rear tail that was smashed flat wants to come back to original shape. So thats two fenders roughed in, they will never be perfect, but good enough.

Hello Gentleman, (and ladies) Update to my purchase of 1934 Plymouth PE. essentially I have purchased the car but believe it or not I have found a conscientious seller who noticed a (very small) trans leak after we returned from our test drive, he told me he could not in good conscious sell the vehicle that way, he also said he thought the battery had seen better days and wanted to replace the battery. both the repairs are being made with no adjustment to the negotiated price !! every now and then you get lucky and get your faith restored in man !! He is currently waiting on the required trans gasket/ seal and we will complete our transaction once parts are installed. he also removed the vehicle from the classified adds he had running . In my previous post reply's some had requested photos, well I only have one for now but will post more when I get her home.

The comedy is golden

And...ready for paint

I wasn't certain I would do a build thread here until I saw Loren's recent post on Resto-Mods which more or less paved the way. We'll see just how far that grace extends! I have had this car for just over one year determining my direction before finishing my last project (situation normal per my wife). I think having something hanging around the shop and mulling possibilities helps it evolve into a fun project. My last project was a 1961 Volvo PV544 which sat out the required year while I determined its fate. It did not have the stock engine in it, but it was a sound car. I decided to go to the next wave of hot rodding - Electric conversion. Now mind you, I did not do this for green reasons, although that is a nice by-product. I did it for the performance I could get. Approx. twice the horsepower and torque of the original power plant. Let's just say it is quite spunky! I have always liked the business coupes from all the auto makers, so when a Plymouth showed up locally I snagged it. My first impression was the proportioning was perfect for another EV conversion. While finishing up the Volvo, I became aware that I could save a ton of money if I did a swap, rather than from scratch. I did a search for rear wheel drive and learned of someone in Ireland who had reverse engineered the gas engine out of the Lexus hybrid model. In other words, toss the gas engine, buy his $350 circuit board and you could run just the electric part of it. HOWEVER...that would lose the chance at a full 340 HP. So I decided to look for a complete donor vehicle. I totally lucked out at my first salvage auction, getting a running/driving 2007 Lexus GS450H (hybrid). I really didn't know what I got until it arrived at my doorstep on a car hauler. I was amazed it was a totally function vehicle! Just a little smooshed. I have been driving it on our rural roads and really want to transplant as many of its features as possible. Including the 0-60 in 5.2sec take-off. (The Lexus weighs in at 4,134 lb vs the P20 at 3,068 lb) Even by adding for the batteries, I think the final car will be less weight than the Lexus total. I finally got the Lexus on the lift today to check dimensions of various components, including IRS, and it appears it is all doable. I like to keep my builds as reversible as possible, so minimal cutting and chopping are envisioned. The V-6 should slip into the narrow frame at the engine bay from what I can see. Wheel bases are within 1.2" while track will be just inside the fenders. The Lexus uses the same wheel bolt pattern as the Plymouth, so the custom wheels are also in play. Let the fun begin! (Although I have a couple repairs required before rearranging my shop to get both vehicles adjacent to each other.) I think the first order of business will be to strip each vehicle down to determine where everything will go. This could take awhile... John

I can hear it in my mind. Detroit Diesels have such a unique sound.

I would pass on this article as being a resource. Several inaccuracies. One of them is the following. Synthetics most assuredly DO come with detergents added. Another load of inaccuracies. Sounds like another piece of AI generated drek.

I found this decently-preserved 1947 Plymouth Special Deluxe at a yard sale approximately 5 years ago. While the car wasn't actually part of the sale, I spoke to the owner and we struck up a deal for the car at $3750, which I felt was a good deal as the car had spent the majority of life in a garage and had 36,000 original miles. I was in the middle of buying a new house and moving, so I didn't get to spend much time on the car for the first two months. Once I did finally dig into it a little and started it up for the first time, it was running very poorly and had dropped a cylinder. After pulling a compression test and finding cylinder 3 with 0 psi, I immediately knew I had a stuck valve. I then proceeded to pull the head and low and behold the exhaust valve was fully stuck open. I sprayed a little bit of ATV at the stem and tapped it down lightly with a rubber mallet. After working it up and down a few times, it freed up and has been perfect ever since. Crisis averted. Since owning the car I have converted it to 12v with all new wiring and a fuse block, discarded the heavily damaged original seats and installed 10-way power black leather seats from a 2015 Ford Escape, and started patching any holes in the floor. I've linked some videos below of work I have done to this point, with much more to come. I have new black carpet to install and a new creme headliner as well. But the car is truly coming along.

Yes, sir. And what a gratifying job it was to buff out this original paint and see it shine. Thank you.

this is why you order parts by your distributor model number........

USN 83-93

I like it this way....consolidates information. And reminded me that I have not yet returned to finish removing my door lock since my last attempt 14 years ago as documented above.... humph

I usually do the feathering of the gas, as you put it, while engaging the clutch. Probably more out of habit than necessity. I have, on occasion though, put the car in gear with the brake applied, and taken off from there. The owners manual says you can do that for certain situations such as taking off on a hill or in slippery situations. I've even mistakenly started the car in gear with the clutch engaged. Jumps enough to realize the mistake and hit the brakes, but doesn't die.

You can slip the clutch when accelerating from a dead stop...I do it at times with out just dumping the clutch. You can accelerate from a dead stop faster when needed by properly slipping the clutch. The FD clutch discs are not that delicate is all I'm saying.

I have been a member of this great forum for 18 years. Unfortunately, as stated, I must leave. In fact, I ask the forum administrator to remove me as a member. I’m sure he will anyway as this is a highly political statement not allowed on the forum. I leave because I cannot understand how any self-respecting democratic country can elect Trump, a vile human being with so many disgusting qualities. A majority will disagree with me and to those who don’t, I wish you good luck in the storm ahead. You will need it.

Unknown if you could still find it herein, but Don Coatney (RIP) put a 25" 265 out of a DeSoto in his P15 and documented the process quite well here in the Forum. This was going on 20 or so years ago now, but if you can still access the thread, it has a wealth of information.

Well, that's interesting. 31 views on the thread but only 6 hits on the YouTube. Clearly not a compelling initial post. I wonder if this screen grab will stir up more interest...

Whenever I keep something that other people would throw, out my wife always askes me the same question. “What are you going to do with that?” Then she reminds me for the next seven years when garbage pick up day is, so I can toss it out. OK maybe not seven years but this has been kicking around since our washing machine died a few years ago. Not having any kind of a box brake, I used the old time method of clamping it to a table with a piece of square tubing and smacking it with a mallet After lots of fussing and fitting I put a flange on all four sides, made corner notches, and made joggles to clear the big gussets on my frame. Now it almost fits. But it’s not ready to weld in yet. This floor will need reinforcements, and some get attached to the frame first.

what is the world coming to that a bungee cord will only last 5 years.......😃

A countersink is the correct approach to the problem. But be sure to buy the correct angle. Most hardware store/woodworking ones will be 90deg. The most common used in automotive work will be a 82deg.

It's a late 1950-1953 Dodge, DeSoto or Chrysler M-6 because of the internal shoe E-brake. The date of manufacture and model of car can be found stamped into the case next to the shift cover. I could tell you make of car by looking at the end of the E-brake drum.

According to the November 2024 Old Cars Weekly Price Guide, if: it was in #3 (Very Good) condition, “Completely operable original or older restoration showing wear. Also a good amateur restoration, all presentable and serviceable inside and out. A 20 footer, where at 20 feet it looks perfect, but closer inspection might show thin paint, wear on the upholstery, etc. Their average listed value from recent sales was $14,850. If it was in #2 condition (Fine), which they define as “Well restored or a combination of superior restoration and excellent original. Also an extremely well-maintained original showing minimal wear. They place a value based on recent sales of $25,200. Good looking car.

If you have the lockheed brake system with the step bores setup in the cylinders the factory setup is having the longest lining on the front of the drum and the short lining on the rear of the drum. This is how my service manual shows this on my 1939 Desoto. When you put the linings on the other way you are reffering to a Bendix brake system that has the same size pitson in the wheel cylinders. Chrysler does the opposite because of the step bore system and they are not equalized system. Rich Hartung