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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.

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.

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.

luckily no my first set of front sheetmetal didnt show any damage to the radiator but the hood was cracked worse than the replacement I got. I ended up getting a custom made aluminum radiator from DCM as I was worried about cooling capacity of my transplanted diesel engine, but I likely could have kept the radiator. keep up the good job thus far!

Very exciting! Because of your high ceilings, I would recommend LED High Bay fixtures for your general lighting, rather that the 4 foot LED tube fixtures. The high bay fixtures are extremely bright, put the light where you need it, and use less energy than fluorescents. I built my shop in '08 and have since switched out my 8 foot industrial fluorescents to LEDs, as they burned out. Here is a good website LED Light Expert that talks about choices: color temperature, CRI (color rendering index), and lumen output (how bright they are). As for task lighting, say over your workbench, the 4 ft LEDs will work just fine. Good luck!

Back in the day, ppl would climb all over these buggies while they were a-raisin he11...these flimsy hoods getting tweaked does not surprise me. Until ya get that flathead purring, you could probably roll up a hand towel and place it between the rad and hood...that'll get any squeaking to simmer down a tad.

yep you found the cracks....pretty common on these guys.

Thanks. Front wheels are good. I'm running 215 65r15 up front 225/70r15 rear. Wheels are 15x7 with 3.75 inch. No rubbing up front. Have a little on the driver rear, car leans a little to that side. Thus fr/rr spring replacement is on the list.

The Newport wiper motor would be a new 12 volt motor. I think I’ll keep looking for an old 6 volt mopar motor. Step up converters may be ok for a radio but when it’s raining or snowing, I don’t want to count on one for my wipers.

Rear mounted shifter means e-body. To the best of my knowledge there are no different length input shaft. They are all the same length. As for your gear ratio concerns before you spend any money just put in what you got test driving to see if you like it or not if you don't then you can think about a gear swap.

Other things that can cause issues pumping: An air leak on the suction side of the pump. Collapsing flex hose. Clogged fuel line from tank. Clogged filter in tank.

Yes, for the preservationist it can be a "bitter-sweet moment" - get the now un-wanted parts to complete or improve one's own vehicle, while "mourning the loss" of another "original".

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.

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.

My clock has been working on 12v - ground for years now. All the points do is wind the clock

My 1938 Plymouth sedan had a stock 201 ci 23” long engine when it was new. It currently has a 25” long 237 ci Desoto engine in it. Its fantastic. Stock 3 speed, 4.11 rear end, she makes good torque! The rad was replaced with smaller one and pushed forward into the rad enclosure. The cross frame member cut out a bit to allow for front crank pulley clearance. Custom fabricated font engine mount to account for engine mounts on the block being 2” further forward than stock 201.

I've not read anything to confirm my suggestion but I suppose that the use of the 25" engine instead of both it and the 23" was possibily due to Mopar trying to use the one engine, ie the 25" in all Canadian Mopars as a cost cutting exercise due to the smaller market.........tho' here in Oz we got BOTH engines, the 23" and 25" in the same model from 1957-62 in the Oz only Chrysler Royals which were essentially 53/54 Plymouths with 55/56 Plymouth front & rear fenders grafted onto the early body shell.........depending on what gearbox was ordered, ie standard 3 speed then you got that behind the 23" 230 cube engine but if you wanted the overdrive gearbox or Powerflite or Torqueflite Auto then that was attached to the 25" 250 cube engine ......and if you had a need of a V8 then you got the 301 then 313 Poly but only with the 3 speed Torqueflite , no manual V8's were sold in Oz..............the 25" engine basically fitted in the engine bay that had the 23" engine with the extra length projecting forward by virtue of relocating the radiator.

My understanding of the rear mounts is that the top spacer assembly that has the Crush tube attached when the engine & gearbox assembly weight is placed on the top of the top washer the weight compresses the upper rubber insulator enough so that the upper washer and tube pass thru the lower rubber insulator sufficently to allow the tube to bottom out on the upper side of the lower steel washer......when the bolt is then installed thru the "ear" of the bellhousing into the upper & lower insulator it is long enough so that when the loser spring washer and nut are installed they do up sufficently to tighten the whole assembly.......I have seen bolts used here that have a hole for a split pin and castellated nuts also used here......if you can't find a spacer you could use a large body washer of sufficent diameter to cover the upper flat surface of the upper insulator or even make one out of 1/16th-1/8th sheet steel........there must be some sort of steel "washer" used otherwise with just the bellhousing "ear" on the rubber mount it will damage to rubber and fail.........the tube piece can be just a piece of 3/8" ID tube if all you have is the 2 rubber pieces, upper & lower, sit them together, measure the total thickness, add about 1/16th for the steel lower plate under the top rubber and make the tube about 1/8th less in total length to allow for the compression of the total assembly...............unfortunately the washers tend to stick to the old rubber insulators and get thrown out with the "babys bathwater".........lol.........dunno if any of this helps..............andyd.