Leaderboard

I know alot ow owners ask what plug to purchase for their old MoPar flathead engines. A friend of mine who also owns a 1939 Desoto which is a driver car and not an AACA show car let me know about these plugs. He also uses these in his engine without an issues. Walmart back in the auto section has a rack of various small engine plugs. They only charge $1.98 per plug versus these same plugs that are listed on Ebay and they are selling these same plugs for $8-12 each. You also save on shipping if you purchase at your local walmart. When looking at the package you will also note that they are a replacement plug for Champion J8 plugs that were also used in our MoPars. From some of my early cars catalogs the original Champion plug that was used is the J8C, but the J8 replaced the J8C at some point in time. These Autolite 295 Plugs do not have the black body and do not have the original hash markings, but the body is not chrome plated and give you the BLING look But when you can purchase 6 plugs for a little less than $12 plus tax these are a great buy. I keep six in my tool box in the trunk of my 39 Desoto as spares. Also of note that the older Autolite A9 plugs are getting harder to find, but when at a swap meet look at the end label on the autolite box and look for this number: A00-12405-A these are the A9 14m 3/8 reach. Just passing along information to the members. Refer to the attached pictures. Rich hartung desoto1939@aol.com

The welds on the front anchor are ugly, I admit, but I wanted to be able to grind them off if it did not line up properly. The good news is that it all lines up. Even better than ever! Once everything was anchored down, the doors are close to adjustment, needing to push forward a bit for clearance and gap. Also when the front fenders got bolted to the A-Pillar, it moved them forward slightly so that I may not have to move the radiator like I had been thinking all along. They still need to pinch together at the front another 1" on each side from what the pic shows. With those critical fit-ups confirmed, I finally removed the lift straps! But they'll be back later, when I determine how to trim/paint the interior. It's looking very possible that the Lexus rear seat will actually fit if I completely remove the trunk bulkhead. That would be cool to have a 5 passenger Business Coupe! You can barely squeeze by the front seats when they are full forward, so may have to reengineer the seat back hinge. The fun stuff! But I am getting ahead of myself!

I heard from a past attendee that three vehicles may show up. The 1955 C-series in light blue metallic that made an appearance at the 11th - the gentleman that owned it, known as Boscar (or Bosker) passed away last year, but his son is planning to bring it. Also, his other son(s) are supposedly bringing a '57 truck and a '57 300, both from the Boscar collection.

"Our age"? I'll have you know I am 39 years old and born in 1953! (Just don't tell my daughter or grandkids)

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Vp9ktJ6y4VZZfcLfA New to me 230 is a runner. New fuel lines, rebuilt fuel pump, 6v prime pump, New wiring harness... The list goes on. This is a work in progress but thank you to the members that are always helping me out with my lack of knowledge issue 😁. Still have many issues to work through but I think Grandpa it smiling down.

The Chrysler A57 Multibank is a 30-cylinder engine with a displacement of 1,253 cubic inches (20.5 liters), developed in 1941 as the United States entered World War II. This powerplant is composed of five groups of inline-six engines, typically found in civilian automobiles, to achieve the 370 horsepower required to propel the M3 and M4 tanks.

Have not posted for awhile. Painted some window trim pieces, removed both doors and started repairs on the passenger door bottom. Booger welded bed mounts on. Welder was jerking and spitting. Found the tip was messed up inside so I replaced it with a new one. Welds smooth again. the big spring is broken on the passenger door regulator and will need replaced. Ray J.

Got her all together yesterday. Took her to town and gave her a bath today. Big stupid grin on my face the whole time and ever since!

Couple photos from the day. Great to see everyone and always nice to meet new people hard to believe only a couple of these events left on the books. thanks again 48Dodger!

We've set up, we've done the business at hand, and shined the awards. Tonight we sit around the fire pit, tip a glass to those who can't be with us, and enjoy the night before the show! 48D

The spec is for an obsolete gear lube GL1. You can use a modern lube such as Redline MTL. The latest specs are for LOW Viscosity lube. Low Viscosity lubes run cooler. NO more 90wt! To clean the crud out of your new Overdrive, I would drain it and refill with ATF. Drive it a week then drain and refill with Redline MTL. ATF has additives that remove the crud and make the inside Razor Clean. For my own Overdrive I use Redline D6 ATF all the time but it's really expensive. There's two filler plugs on the side, fill them both, then recheck. NEVER use anything with Extreme Pressure additives ( EP ) or Hypoid additives. The statements you hear about lubes attacking the metals in the Overdrive are just non-sense. The real reason is the Sprag Clutch ( otherwise known as a One-Way Clutch or Freewheel Clutch ) EP or Hypoid additives will make it slip.

Just spent the day walking the swap meet fields at the AUTOFAIR at the Charlotte Speedway. Inner ring was well packed with national vendors and regular guys off-loading thy eir spares. The outer “red and green” fields were maybe 40% full with vendors and there was a ton of empty vending spaces. Managed to find a couple things on the list and saw some familiar faces. Had a nice chat with the inliner guys and the gents that bought out scare bird disc conversions where also present. Photos taken from the inliners tent.

no but likely forged from fire ourselves.....

More importantly, is the owners cranky old men?

Running boards ready for dry fit. I know I have to notch something for the cab mounts

testing for power old fashion way.....I once accused Don Coatney of being this chap in the photo....he got a good laugh....miss that guy.

We have a successful landing! Trim #4 got me close enough to know it is going to work, but still needs to go rearward by 1 inch as seen by the rear wheel well centering. Also I would like to lower it another 1/2 inch in the rear and 1 inch in the front (for starters). All are doable with further trims.

Will any motorhomes be attending this year? If so, make sure Dave brings his tow truck again, lol. From the 2016 archives: (...and shyte)

only use I can think of for me to use a snow shovel would be in making a pancake Uncle Buck style.

Replaced/reworked: Remove/reinstall fluid drive. Multiple times. Replace rear main seal Fresh oil pan gasket Replace clutch disk Replace throwout bearing and sleeve Replace clutch fork retainer spring New leather boot for the clutch fork! Sexy new boot! Clean/regrease clutch torque shaft Replace motor mounts Rebuild/clean oil pump, new gasket to block Replace U-joints on both ends of propeller shaft Replace e-brake band New e-brake cable New speedo cable Replace transmission output seal Replace differential input seal Replace exhaust hangers Replace front sway bar bushings Replace rear sway bar bushings, repaint rear sway bar Change brake system over to DOT5: new hard lines, new master cylinder, new wheel cylinders, new pressure switch Bang the dents out of the downdraft tube, clean, repaint. Writing it down in a list like that, it seems surprising that the car ran and drove as well as it did, but a lot of this fell into the camp of "Well as long as it's up on the jack stands and not going anywhere any time soon, may as well fix that..." It took me most of the day just to clean out the garage well enough to be able to drop it to the ground and back it out. I award myself a well-earned beer.

The resistor is probably a substitute for the red charging light that would have been in the dash. Without the bulb or a resistor the alternator would not charge. The large wire is the alternator output wire. In a perfect world it would go to the battery.

Thought some might find this interesting. Definitely different but functional.

I put a dab of Napa's Sil-glide (sp?), a silicone based grease, on the part that contacts the cam, and a very light coat on the cam. I use that contact point like a little bitty scoop. That way there's not a lot on the cam to slop all over the place, and the grease can ease off the contact as needed. At least that's how it goes in my mind. Something my Dad taught me - not the type of grease, but where to put it. Seems to work well enough, I redo it every year when I take the ol' Dodge out of hibernation. The Sil-glide doesn't dry out or liquify and isn't affected by temperature extremes. (I also use the Sil-glide everywhere it calls for lithium based grease.)

Here are the distributor lubrication requirements outlined in the C-1 shop manual: I have used hand-me-down tubes of cam lube, but if'n ya need to add to your inventory, look for something like Lubricam or similar. Application amount should not be any larger than the wiper block; I typically applied about heavy-half the wiper block size, and that lasted the year considering how few miles I racked up. Feel free to have jeweler's screwdrivers and Q-tips on standby for application + cleanup.

Sadly the new market is plastic...not even a quality nylon breaker cam on the points....back in the day when they were phenolic and a dab of lube actually did some good. Not much quality in points as technically they are way out dated....

Old carter carb went south.Looking for replacement but $300 on Ebay.Found Rochester one barrel from 60s chevy 235 motor on Amazon with 2 7/8" centerline on 2 mounting studs.Nenkuten for $100.Fit perfect on studs and linkage also.Runs like a champ now.

Built a tool yesterday to assemble my lower control arm and torque the lower inner control bar bushings on the 40. Heres what i did. I took a good known front suspension from a 51 desoto. Measured the 51 lower control arms and control arm bar as an assembly. i found the measurements matched exactly from left hand to right hand control arms. I felt it was a safe bet to make a jig from this. Once I transferred my completed jig over to the 40 control arm I found that these old arms had been cranked in without a jig in the past (1/8 - 1/4" approx). I used a floor jack to spread the arms and install the jig. Torqued the control arm bushing to 150ft lbs. Life is good.

I bought a new truck. 2025 Silverado, 2500HD. Much to my surprise it has grease fittings on the front steering and suspension. Nine in total, I didn't expect to see them on the factory parts. Pleasantly surprised. Us old guys find satisfaction in the strangest things.

I read somewhere on a forum a personal observation that to his opinion, all new cars look like electric shavers. I think they shaped like cockroaches. Back in the day, yes many cars were nothing more than the upgraded coach. But as time went on, each maker added a bit of bling and pizazz to their creation that later became an iconic feature of the brand, be it a gunsight grille or dual kidneys....one can at a glance name the beast. Things change....everyone is different in the same ole way.

Okay so here’s what I found out. The new mechanical pump has failed already. I bought it from a very reputable vendor. I know they don’t manufacture but seriously I doubt I put 200 miles on it. I’m going to call them and let them know. For now it’s the electric pump. I still have some tweaking to do before I drive it.

Probably because the distributor was in the wrong position 🤣 Joke, son, I say that was a joke.

Grampa got carried away on this one, a few years ago. (Should have let the kid do it, but it was fun.)

I knew a gal who kept her kitchen like this except the cookware and dishes and utensils all needed a good scrubbing...she did not appreciate me pointing this out whenever I visited...she also had the dustiest Christmas tree up by her front door year-round...on the bright side, she sure could sport a bikini...bless her heart 👀

ANOTHER GREAT DAY WITH TIM AND FAMILY... THANKS MUCH!!!!!!

I heard that radio and HVAC knobs are making a comeback by popular demand...the Laramie has a drop-in oil filter element which I kinda chuckled at when I 1st saw it, but I appreciate after years of doing oil changes...of course there's a trick to not making a mess, but it's way easier to swap out than the spin-on filter on the QuadCab; that one marks its territory every time 👈

Simplify your life, get one of these. Bolts right in, uses the same speedometer gear as your old transmission and it was a factory retrofit. Won't hurt the value of your car. Turns a 55 mph car into a 70 mph car and won't hurt the charm of your car.

I have found this booklet to be very helpful. You can find it several places, including fifth avenue internet garage 👍

it's pothole season...tread carefully

Damn now I gotta pack my banana hammock

The youngster, who really knew his Japanese cars, felt I could chop more of the Lexus outer sill away and rebuild with new sheet metal welded deeper into the actual frame core below the outer sill. I was going to rebuild the Plymouth sill on top of it anyway, so why not get another 1/2"? Ugh. More cutting. The attached pic shows the outer skin of the Lexus sill and the Plymouth outer rocker since removed. Some of that rocker was solid bondo! Oddly, they had spanned rust out areas with tin foil and filled it up! There is more space at the wheels than the pix reveal. The circumference of the Lexus tires is actually quite a bit less than the old Plymouth treads. Plus, the PO had fitted extra wide racing wheels in the rear that could not even be removed without jacking the body up to expose the top of the fender opening. None the less, I will see how she rolls before too much more lowering. The stance, especially the second pic, is deceptive because I could not get very far away within the shop. So it appears like it has more rake than it actually does. That 1/2 degree translates to about 1/2" over the length of the car. An old hot rod rule of thumb was somewhere around 1 degree. Yes, I have a fishing trip planned for Northern Idaho, but I will have to earn it by completing my yard work before I go! Thanks for your comments guys!

At our age, a reminder is not a bad thing.

Sounds like I'm not the only one who had used the emergency brake for stopping at higher speeds.....

Hand brake works good for stopping up to about 20mph...that's the word on the street 👈

Painted the back of the cab higher than the front of the bed. Made the power brake mount. Will clean it up and paint it after it is bolted onto the frame. Ray J.

You can try bottle feeding it to eliminate various systems. Put some gas in a plastic mustard squirter bottle. Drip it into the carb venturi while it is running for the first 3 seconds. Can you keep the engine running this way? If yes, the root of the problem lies somewhere in the fuel delivery system. Fuel pump, carb, fuel lines etc. If you cannot keep it running by bottle feeding it, its likely an electrical or mechanical related problem.

I wonder if Tiger Woods used that to build his deck? There's no way he should pass up the opportunity. Roar!

Don’t mean to hijack this thread, but I wanted to share something I learned. Since the 50’s I’ve been holding own he clutch to start a cold engine mostly to eliminate the drag of the cold trans lube. After recently going through a complete rebuild of the 251 in my B2JA a very talented elderly machinist advised against that when he watched me start it. He said that running a dry crankshaft thrust collar against a dry thrust bearing causes excessive wear on the bearing and over time the thrust collar too. He said that this was part of the reason that the collar on my crank needed to built up and machined down. Just something to think about.. not trying to start an argument simply sharing another person’s opinion that I respect!