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I've always enjoyed driving my P15, and I'm having even more fun now that my son's old enough to get behind the wheel. We worked the car hard at a recent Speed Hill Climb at historic Prescott Hill. The wet course was super slippery, so we got some sideways action on the hairpins!

Last Monday I had the great pleasure of meeting Dave Pollock (dpollo). Dave has helped me with lots of phone advice and hard to find parts for my ‘53 Plymouth and especially my ‘51 Dodge D39 business coupe. I live in Alberta and he lives on Vancouver Island, BC, so we are about 800 miles apart. I was visiting siblings on Vancouver Island and arranged to meet Dave who is about 15 minutes away. Dave has an amazing collection of old Mopars ranging from the ‘20s through the early ‘50s, all flatheads of course. My personal favourite was a ‘40 Plymouth business coupe but an extremely close second is the pictured ‘51 Plymouth convertible. Dave was kind enough to take my brother and me for a good half hour cruise in the ‘51 with a stop for coffee on the way. What an incredibly sweet running car! Dave is a great forum member and has helped many people on this forum besides me. Thanks Dave! It was great to finally meet you in person.

Took a ride to the caverns today. I enjoy the three mile climb of 1400’ from the base visitor center to the cavern site. High gear to the top and you have to appreciate the torque of a flathead six with the three hairpin turns in the road that slow you down. I have 4.1 gearing, I’ll try it in my 49, it has 3.9 gearing. These are the only pictures I could post, the others were too large to post from my IPad, although the site seems to have made them from mB to kB. ? Whatever assets I have, computer skills isn’t one of them. But you didn’t need to see my car in front of the visitor centers. It still looks the same, only has more bug kills. Rick D.

Float bowl being half full isn't real relevant, floats float so the fuel should never reach the top. I would empty the bowl and blow compressed air through all of the passages, check out the accelerator leak. Test drive and then adjust the points and retest. I hate doing multiple adjustments and then find out it's fixed but don't know what fixed it.

You said the flathead is stuck, so out it comes. If you only have 90 days, you might be better off unsticking the flathead. I mean it's your car and do with it what you will, but IMHO it will be easier and faster to unstick/rebuild the flat head in 90 days than to swap in a different engine. (unless you go with another flathead) Joe Lee

Hallelujah!! Got her running. Essentially I had to disconnect the flex line and made a make-shift siphon to get the gas up from the tank. Then put it back together and started feeding the carb as Los_Control mentioned. Noticed a small amount of gas in the glass filter bowl and figured it was close. Kept doing it until it fired up. What a process. Thank you guys for the suggestions. Now I can get it to the shop for the brake adjustments. Running a little rough but no surprise after a few years of sitting.

met a major mile marker today setting the carbo box onto the cab and chassis and bolting them together....not heavy, but bulky....person at each corner...set within an inch....inserting alignment pins and then shift it against the seal....fitted the bolts...about 1 1/2 hours with all the bolts

I was planning to do a more comprehensive write-up, if people are interested. Just let me finish it completely first 🤣

I am a fan of the chrome smoothies ... I think they look good. Think painted wheels are my favorite. You can paint them the same body color as your car. Solid chrome is nice, the paint just adds a little more zing to them .... thats just my personal choice. This photo is from summit racing website. They sell the wheels shipped in primer you paint. Then the hub cap & trim rings they offer also. Many places offer and sell the same or different wheels. I only chose this random photo because is painted wheel, modern tire you can buy from anywhere, installed on a old car. I think it looks great.

We had our annual cruise and show this weekend in little town I live in, someone took this picture of my 50 at the cruise and posted it on bookface, I was pleasantly surprised

both are perfect plans to retire! I can´t move since 1982, because of a stationary model railroad. So, I must make do with 3 Garage places 3 mintutes in bicicle from my house plus this summer awning in my yard as shop and for the cats. If interested in my friends Egon and mine model-RR, here is the index of my postings: https://www.drehscheibe-online.de/foren/read.php?10,6607746,6607803#msg-6607803 Here is a choice: I love 50ie´s cars! Greetings from Düsseldorf! Go

Some are already gathered at the host hotel. Mark and I are doing a pretour through northern Ontario.

Hello all, On August 18th, 2023 I purchased and brought home a 1953 Dodge B4B Truck-O-Matic 1/2 Ton truck. The previous and also the second owner bought the truck from the estate of the original owner with 47,330 miles showing on the odometer and went about taking the truck apart down to the bear frame. The PO did provide a video of him driving the truck before taking it apart. I usually would not buy an old vehicle that someone else took apart but he did a really good job of documenting and bagging the parts with many photos. He had also already purchased new springs and shackles, a great looking tailgate, and a few other items. There are a few small non-structural rusted out ares on the cab and front fenders at the mounting points with the carriage bolts and the running boards are pretty much shot. the bed and rear fenders have surface rust but no holes. All and all is appears to be a nice complete truck and an interesting project. The good news is that PO saved me the of taking it apart!!!! I have started the following preliminary activities: Made wheeled dollies to get all heavy pieces on wheels Cleaned the engine in preparation for an internal inspection Cleaned the front and rear axles Started going through the boxes and inventorying the parts. Initial plan of action: Inspect the engine to see what needs to be done. Minimum will be new gaskets and seals and paint. (need recommendation on silver paint) Have the frame media blasted to better inspect and paint Clean, inspect, and paint the axles Replace the seals, bearings and bushings as required, and all brake parts on both axles I would like to install a dual circuit master cylinder (will need guidance on that) Make and install new brake lines Clean, inspect and paint the fluid drive components. (will need guidance on this) Install a new pilot bearing, clutch plate pressure plate. and throw out bearing. Resurface flywheel if needed Clean inspect and paint everything attached to the transmission and bell housing. Install engine, transmission, and axles onto the frame with new rubber mounts and radial tires to end up with restored rolling chassis. The wheels are out getting media blasted and will be primed and painted the original ivory (need a paint code for the color) Once I have a good rolling chassis, I will focus on the body, bed, interior, instruments and trim. The original body color is dark green with a black bed and rear fenders. I will paint it as it left the factory. (need paint code for the dark green) I will update this post regularly and add photos. Right now there would only be photos of parts in boxes. Please feel free to ask questions and make suggestions and comments. I know there is a lot of experience and wisdom on this forum that will need and appreciate. The more time I spend with this nice old truck the more I think I made the correct decision to rescue it and get it back on the road. I am retired and need to stay busy and I am looking forward to the challenge! I will be doing all of the work myself with the exception of media blasting, paint and upholstery. Dan

Chrysler created 81,065 DeSoto Sixes in 1929. In 1934, Chrysler prioritized DeSoto’s over Dodge branding and gave these cars Airflow bodies which induced a smaller wheelbase. In 1935, Chrysler introduced the Airstream, which sold better than the Airflow models. The Airstream design was similar to past Desoto’s though slightly modernized. However, the most significant change in DeSoto Sixes came with the 1942 model with pop-up headlights. It was the first mass-produced vehicle in North America to include them. DeSoto sold the addition as “Air-Foil” lights.

Hi all just wanted to wrap up this thread, as D35 and Dodgeb4ya suggested I installed a speedi sleeve and a modern SKF seal which completely solved my leak issue 1000 miles later and shes still bone dry. Thank you all for your assistance and feedback!

Since you can see my shadow box I will show those too

Wheel vintique smoothies, 15 x 5.5 3.5 back space. These are drilledfor mopar ford amc bolt as well as small GM. Pin fits through one of the gm holes. Stock lug bolts no problems. 45K miles zero issues.

Here is the shield I use, it is isolated from the carb. I don't know how effective it is but I've never had vapor lock problems. But that may also be due to running a full-time pusher electric fuel pump. Spacers are usually a phenolic material, but most of these cars probably never had a spacer.

None of that matters, the flywheel is now physically closer to the block than it was originally, which means the bell housing is too deep and the clutch assembly won't work. Your machine shop screwed you. https://poly318.com/poly-318-crankshafts-transmissions/

Wife and I just moved from Massachusetts to Eastern North Carolina (New Bern area). At least five or more regular cars and coffee and evening cruise events every month throughout the year. Took me a few years to figure out after buying the house in 2014, that I’m surrounded by car guys and most of them are from the northeast! I just built a 32’ x 64’ pole barn shop for my cars down there. We have property in Maine and a cottage in Mass for the summers. Options are always good, so there’ll be a classic dragging behind me for the next 20 years.

Yeah probably should have included that, it was early in the morning, during not after coffee, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it, 5/16 of an inch

Well that wasn't too bad to do once I popped the old seal out. All good now and the steering gears are properly adjusted. Handles great

I have been otherwise occupied so I just now am reading this thread. Very nice work and good detail on what was done. My only comment, one I expressed in other threads some years back when looking into this is that the conversion using this rack may well be fine on the "lighter" cars, but not on the larger ones like my '47 Suburban. In fact, when I contacted Uni-Steer and also Flaming River they both said they do not make any racks for cars over 3500 pounds. There is a lesson in that. I always worried that a caviler rack in the 5000 to 6000 pound loaded Desoto Suburban on a trip at 70 MPH may fail if I hit a big pot hole. The Uni-Steer and also Flaming River folks on the phone when pressed said that their custom units gears, the actual rack teeth may not take a hit on the larger cars without a failure. They are just not designed for the weight. I suspect, but I do not know, that the same may be true with the caviler racks. The experience of racer-x is a warning shot on this. I am not saying it would fail, but on the larger sedans, station wagons and limos like a Suburban, I suspect that the loading may be close to a danger zone. Something to think about. James

If the seal is dependent on tight threads, use sealant. If the seal is dependent on a tightly fitting flare, sealant on the threaded nut holding the flare together is not needed, the threads aren't forming the seal. A highly regarded sealant:

The static issue arises when there is a difference in the electrical potential between the tank and vehicle which can result in a spark during fueling. The plastic tank sitting in the bed of the truck, even if it is wood, would drain potential and come to equilibrium with the truck so static discharge wouldn't be a concern. The danger with filling aircraft (or boats) with a plastic can (and I've done this many times) is the aircraft immediately after flight can be holding a static potential that built up while rapidly passing through air molecules in flight. The plastic can isn't grounded to the airframe and a potential difference between airframe and can may exist resulting in a spark. The solution is to either use metal cans that are grounded to the airframe or make an effort to have contact between the plastic can and the airframe (or boat) so hopefully a potential difference is dissipated. I've used a welding rod inserted into the can and connected to the airframe with a cable and clamp to dissipate static potential. This is why the gas pumps at your local station have a placard warning us NOT to fill our plastic cans when they are in the bed of our truck. They should always be on the ground which puts them at the same potential as the grounded pump so static discharge won't occur. Now back to your regular programming.

Hello all. Just started on our newly acquired 1953 Dodge B4B 1/2 Ton Project that we bought in bits and pieces so I only have photos of bits and pieces to share at this time. This is a great forum, Dan

These are just the usual little car "mysteries", nothing extraordinary about them; usually explained by the laws of physics and thickness of one's fingers 🤣 For example, I dropped a screw into the engine bay, the other day, and could not find where it went. Ordered a flexible magnet but still could not find it. The thing just disappeared. Then, being a practical DIY'er, I dropped an approximately the same screw from an approximately the same location to see where it goes. On the third attempt, it bounced of the engine block and landed inside the frame rail, on the opposite side to where it was dropped from. Found my missing screw in there as well. I like them carbs with a sight-glass in the bowl. I might even put one into the B&B when I have nothing else to do

Yep, Tractor Supply. I like this set because it has the 90 degree plug boots like the original wires. https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/tisco-spark-plug-wire-set-sws260 I doubt wire sets with the plug connectors already attached will fit through the loom tubes on the engine.

On my last Dodge I decided to replace all the tune up parts and after much frustration I ended up with all the old parts anyway lol.

Been running a universal 6 cylinder set of copper cores from Tractor Supply. Been in there since 2002 and 50k miles. Still nice and pliable, boots on both ends still good. No light show after dark. They were 20 bucks 20 years ago.

some parts back from the plater: rear door inner handle vents valve cover

So I’ve had my first real load in Big Ben. There was some discussion how it would handle a load in threads past when discussing tire size. Recall I had wheels made to put 9r22.5 radials on it. They are about the same diameter as the 8.25 20s that were on it. But about 30 pounds more of unsprung weight. In this picture I estimate about 2.5 cords of Red oak, some split and semi seasoned, but underneath a lot of rounds that were still wet, so I think probably 4-5,000 pounds of weight. The overloads were pretty well flexed. Did a couple, loads like this and put about 100 miles on him in the process. In short Big Ben handled it with no sweat. Pulling up hills honestly to me was not much different than empty. I did use the two speed rear more than I would driving empty, and did start out in first. Usually driving empty my shift sequence is 2L-3L-3H- 4H. Sometime 3H -4L -4H on a hill. With the load I started out in 1L then used pretty much used all 6 other gears and probably did downshift the rear more than normal. Without the two speed rear it wouldn’t be great driving a load like this. The dump didn’t even seem like it knew a load was on there. I don’t know how much this piston could push but I imagine way more that the truck could safely carry. what was hugely different was the ride quality- so much smoother with a load. these trucks can still work.

And here is the result (see attachments) 😍 These are quite visible in daylight too!

The dwell reading should be around 38 degrees, keep adjusting the gap.

Dwell meter came in. Gave it a run out and it read 65 degrees. Pulled the distributor out. Turns out the Points had closed up... alot. adjusted points to 0.20, Put her back together, Reset the timing, adjusted air fuel mixture. She reacted well to adjustments, Checked the dwell. Down to 25 degrees, running great!

My latest toy is a valve grinder mounted on an old sun cabinet. Now I've got to get an old sun machine.

Over kill on amperage is ok when talking about relays. I run 30A ones even though I have LED headlights, GE Nighthawks. Not sure what headlights you are running, but current draw specs should be available whatever they are, just remember to double that number because you have two headlights. The stock head lamps for a 48 Plymouth draw 8.6A on high, that is 17.2A for the pair. If you have converted to 12V then it is 5A per bulb, 10A total. Do not forget to to protect the circuit with a fuse or fusible link, maybe a self resetting circuit breaker.

JMHO, but I chose to do the slant six conversion. Using a GM HEI module to switch the current. All stock parts that can be replace in minutes on a Sunday if needed.

Again my 1939 DeSoto is now 84 and 3 months old since it came off the assembly line on May 13 1939. It has always had points and condenser in the dizzy. It has run just fine with the original Autolite electrical parts. Last summer I drove the 39 Desoto from Philadelphia pa to and from Altoona PA to attend the National desoto car show and convention. I traveled at 50 mph and got between 15-18 mpg and did not have any overdrive with the std 3 speed trans and a 4.10 rear end. I had no problem with any cars or trucks while traversing the PA Turnpike. even the cars and truckers gave me plenty of room and showed alot of respect for the car. Even one tractor tailer drive stayed behind the car all the way from Harrisburg to the Valley forge Exit of the Pa turnpike to act as a buffer for any car or semi that was traveling inthe slow lane on my way home, so could not ask anything better than that. And people say that the tracker cause accidents. So even converting to a Petronixs system can have issues but I believe in the tried and true points and condensers and the good old Autolite components. I carry spare parts for my car at all times which are alot cheaper that a spare petronix system. If you get your car well maintained then you will get good service. So I guess the guys that want to switch over to petronix might not understand the older systems. I might be wrong but this is just my take on the issue. Comments are welcomed. I now have over 101000 miles on the car. Rich Hartung

Is the step up valve functioning properly? Should be closed at high vacuum situations like idle. If open it will cause fuel fouling.

Black and satin is too rich. Black and glossy is oil burning. Dude, that was three and a half years ago. Past Sniper is kicking Now Sniper's butt. Future Sniper is in trouble, lol.

One of the most basic checks is check the plugs right after a miss has developed. Are they wet, are they crusty and oil/carboned, or are they a nice coco. Mark how they look and position then switch them around and recheck.

I had never heard of this. I've been doing this all weekend and not 1 grind. It has been eliminated. Thank you for suggesting it!!

Well Happy Day! New fuel pump. carb, starter, plugs, wires, coil, and condenser. Engine would not start, absolutely nothing, not even a single "putt". Firing order 153624. We looked at the distributor to make sure it was spinning counterclockwise like all the diagrams. Of course it was. My brain could not accept the fact of what it was seeing. Put the cap and wires back together for counterclockwise firing order. Nothing. And finally, reality sank it. The distributor is spinning CLOCKWISE! Quick re-ordering of the wires and the engine started right up. No misses, or noises, just PURRS!

I think unbolting cam gear will allow access to the retainer. Probably the easiest course of action is to have a machine shop replicate the part. If its like the 218, pan has to come off to completely remove timing cover.

The pump will only pump a maximum amount per stroke. As long as the feed line doesn't restrict it. At idle, the engine uses the least amount of fuel, if you wanted to try a WOT 5 mile long test, then yeah, you should probably use the same size, otherwise I wouldn't worry about it.

It could be a Suburban which had 3 seats or a Carry-All which had 2 seats' (like a regular 4-door sedan) I had a 49 (real 49 not an early one) Suburban Sedan of which there were only 129 made. I have not seen another one I also had a 1951 Carry-All I wish I had kept them.

Well I'm busted. Been on the forum so long Tim is on to me. I guess I get bored sometimes and just try to have some fun here, too serious at times. Just old cars we spend too much money on. But can not seem to help ourselves! 😉 DJ

Nicop nickel - copper .

Yes, excuse my excitement, but when I put the dist back in and turned it over with a shot of starting fluid, took right off. played with it some more and got the fuel pump to pick up gas from a gas can, then the carb sat there and leaked. I let it sit for a bit and BS with the neighbour. Came back and no leaks, and it started right up and ran for quite some time, the motor sounded good and was responsive, the gauges seem to work and it had good oil pressure, the temp I think will be a issue and going to hook a hose up to the flushing T I installed. But yes, I can say that I have a good running 218. All my neighbours may have a different opinion, with all the smoke running out the back door of my shop, I did fill the cylinders with atf and let soak for a few days before turning it over. Tomorrow will be another day.