keithb7

When is the right time to rebuild an engine? Some clues: Low oil Pressure indicating bottom end bearing wear or oil pump wear. Knocking noise from engine bottom end. Excessive blow-by. Indicating worn compression rings or scored cylinder walls. Excessive oil Consumption upon acceleration Indicating worn piston oil Rings. Or scored cylinder walls. Excessive carbon build up behind and above top compression rings can also lead to Cylinder scoring. Also leads to raw unburned fuel entering oil pan and diluting engine Oil. Another leading failure of crank bearings. Excessive oil burn, while using engine to hold back car on long hill descent. Indicating worn valve guides. So many oil leaks that you are tired of cleaning up. That’s a leading indicator too! Excessive regular high coolant temps. Block corrosion? Poor coolant flow. Or burning coolant? Could be a cracked head or bad head gasket. Coolant entering oil sump? That’ll eat bearings and kill an engine. Failure to maintain valve clearances. Leading to: burnt valves. Flat lifters. Poor valve sealing. Camshaft scoring. Valve train failure, possible broken/bent part. Symptoms include low compression. Low engine power. Hard starting. A few ideas for you....

A well maintained old Mopar, in my opinion is pretty bulletproof. Whether its 1934 or 1954. Me? I’d likely go through everything, top to bottom. All the original wear and salvage specs are available. Put everything back to spec. Points and condenser need not be updated to solid state. A strong powertrain throughout. Top notch electrical system. Good Tires and brakes in top condition. It can look old and tired, yet be a solid reliable car. Best be sure to educate yourself and get dirty. Car owner mechanical experience, skill and confidence goes a long way here. Yes you can pay others to do everything. It’ll cost a ton. When/if the car does let you down you may find yourself stumped and waiting for a tow truck. That’s my experience.

You are very accurate @dpollo. Thank you for sharing your knowledge on this car. The original radiator and related parts are still with the car. The interior is original and yes needs work. My goal is to pick away at the car and slowly bring it back. Initially I’ll focus on the mechanics. Make it reliable and safe. Then I’ll get into the interior and body/paint. No hurry here. It’ll be a longer project that I’ll savor. Likely driving it along most of the the way. I will need a head as I hope to rebuild the original engine. I’ll dig into that once I get everything home here.

I attended vintage car show in Vegas a few years ago. I felt the time was right to get into the vintage car scene. I’ve always loved old cars. My kids were now grown up. It was time to start looking. Originally I wanted post-WW2 type. I like the design. I found a really clean 1953 Chrysler. Lots of chrome. Good price! I bit, and went for it. I’ve been really enjoying it. The whole plan worked out well. As you can see, I did not have a certain car in mind. I was attracted to its looks, price and nostalgia I guess. With one car being so fun, only way to have more fun is two cars. Right? I have been looking at other vintage car options for probably the past 6-8 months. Several options caught my attention. They never worked out for various reasons. Then, another Mopar struck me. Everything felt right and the deal fell together nicely. Pre WW2 this time. It seemed like the right fit for me. I bought it. So that’s two old cars in a row for me with no real significance. I have no idea if my Grandparents had one of either car or not. The way I see it....These cars will be of considerable significance to my sons or potential further offspring! If I’m lucky.

My ‘38 is indeed a Canadian built car. It is an earlier release. It shipped with the shorter block. 200 CI. engine It currently has a longer block D54 stamped engine in the car. Rad was moved forward about 2” I believe to accommodate.

I own one similar to this. It worked very well in my L6 Mopar engine. https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Vintage-K-D-Kay-Dee-700-Valve-Spring-Compressor-Lifter-Adjustable-Jaw-KD-700/264323183533?hash=item3d8ae3b3ad:g:MnwAAOSwdllc245E

Yessir. That’s the one. Like you, I am really looking forward to it too. Nice catch on that escaped silicone! Nightmares are made of that right there.

I drove a ‘38 P6 forward and back in the driveway many times. Through all the gears. It works well! Finally I said “wrap it up.” I really look forward to driving this one regularly. I’ll be a tough decision. My ‘38 or my ‘53? Darn I love these cars. Every single one of ‘em here. Keep the posts coming!

Worden if we ever cross paths surely you’ll be driving, and I’ll be grinnin’ while shot gunnin’. T’would be an honor!

Cool thread. Somehow it’s eluded me until today. @Worden18 has it figured out. He’s bang-on. Just recently for me, I struggled for three weeks about buying another old car I found. I “slept on it” 21 times. If by then you know you still want it, perhaps you should let down your inhibitions and go get it. Which I did. I am a cautious slow learner it seems. Lol. Life is ours to live. We work hard to get ahead. Whatever brings us joy. Do it if you can. I must have crossed the apex. I too feel I am now in the same place as Worden.

I didn’t sleep well in the hotel room last nite. Too wound up about the car I think. It seems these moments of “child-like excitement at Christmas”, happen too rarely in life as we age. I am there today. Some new to me is interesting stuff to learn about 1938 technology. The starter has a rod that comes thru the firewall. It seems that you turn on the key power, you push the rod, manually engaging the starter somehow. Is that right? When the owner started the car, I was taking in a lot of info at the time. The D24 engine in the car now is slightly longer than the stock block. So the rad was moved forward slightly to accomodate it. I was told that this was completed back in 1966. The original engine has been held with the car all that time. The head was found to br cracked, I was told. That head is long gone. Whenever I get to rebuilding the original engine I’ll need a head. I believe it to be a 201ci engine. I’ll keep an eye out for one. Looking in the cylinders of this original ,engine I was mildly amused at the bore. Quite a bit smaller than my 265. All the original parts are still there in boxes from the engine swap and rad move. Lots more stuff too, fortunately. The car had been sitting unstarted for several months. A little fuel in the carb and it fired up immediately and purred smoothly as these flatheads are known for. An electric fuel pump has been installed. I was happy to see that all the gauges worked too. The coolant temp gauge is labeled “heat” I think. Factory lettering. Lol. Good amps, and engine oil pressure reading. An interesting little bolt-in am radio was attached under the dash on the driver’s side. I have never seen one of these before. Looking at it I’d guess it may be a 1950’s aftermarket purchase? It sort of resembles the shape of a modern electric brake controller, mounted similarly. Appears to be a self contained unit. Thinking about it now, it seemed a little small to house tubes. Maybe it does. I can’t check it right now. I’ll post pics when I get the car home and start working on it. It’ll be another week likely before I get it home.

Thanks guys. I am pretty excited and elated about securing this car. It’s a 1938! That floors me. It needs some work but it flashed up in 1/2 a second and purred so nicely. To make it driveable shouldn’t take too much. Inspect brakes, new park brake cable. New battery. A good general cleaning. Some wire clean up. Service all fluids. Lots more to come!

Did the deal on this one today. 1938 P6. Great known history. Solid car. Original interior. D24 engine installed but comes with original P6 engine needing rebuild. Lots of spare parts! Good runner. Test drove it. Looking forward to getting into this car. No plans other than make it reliable, road worthy and safe. Picked up in Victoria BC Canada. I will trailer it home next Saturday.

Thanks folks. I appreciate the support. I did go buy a compact brake line tube bender. Same one seen below. I had to remind myself that bending brake lines is not like twisting bolts. You gotta add some finesse to it, like any art. It takes a little practice to get pretty good at it. I did one line yesterday on my 1998 RAM 2500 with the tool above. It worked, but the result was not great. Today I bought this tool and built line #2. Plenty of bends wrapping partly around the rear axle housing, up over the diff, then back down to the distribution block. The new tool helped tremendously and the job went quick. Must have been 12 or more bends, followed by another double flare. The new brake line bolted right back in. replacing of the old line easily. That's 5 lines I've made in past year or so. I see an improvement! LOL. I need to pick up the pace and do more to stay sharp at this. I am going on a trip tomorrow to view a 1938 Plymouth sedan. I may be doing more brake lines in the future.

I have tried my hand a few time replacing brake lines. Local auto parts stores only carry straight lines of various lengths. For example this week I needed a 22" long line to shape into a form I needed. They had either 20" or 30". So I cut one end off, double flared it myself, and got to bending. The bending tool I have, I do not like. I struggle to get what I consider professional results. What hand tools do you use, or suggest, for bending brake lines? Mine looks like this. I curse the job, using this tool. Tips appreciated.

This evening our 2 Sons and their ladies came over for dinner. Its so nice to have ‘em all around. My wife and I are so proud of them all. After dinner the six of us piled into the Windsor and headed to Dairy Queen. I could sure feel gravity pulling the full car down the hill. Low gear, she wanted to push right through it. The brakes did just fine. After DQ we had to climb back up 1,000 or so feet home. 3rd gear pulled us up fine. Not overly fast mind you. I eased off the throttle slightly and we purred up. Cool as cucumbers we were. 3 wide x2. The sun set and cooler air was felt. The girls loved the heat when I turned it on. “Roasty warm” they said. It was wonderful evening out with my family.

Fresh from the local printer. The 1953 Chrysler/Imperial sales brochure. The full line up with all the details. I was going to put this up in my garage. However it's too nice so it's going on the wall beside the billiards table inside my home. A great conversation piece.

I never thought this would happen... As fate would would have it, at a car show yesterday I met the two successive owners of my 1953 Windsor Deluxe! We all chatted about the car. We shared what we'd each done to help it along to its current state. It was fun learning about the car's history. The stars all aligned that day. No two had spoken to each other about attending the show. Yet we were all there. I asked the guys for a quick photo to remember the occasion. Left to right: 2 owners before me. He bought the car in Oliver BC. Brought it to Pritchard BC. Owned it for about 5 years. Middle: Owner previous to me. He bought the car from fellow on far left. This fellow owned it for about 2 years. He brought the car to Chase BC. Then far right, me. I bought the car 2 years ago from the guy in the middle. I brought the car to Kamloops BC. Everything I have done I pretty much documented it on this forum somewhere, or created YT videos to share with other Mopar owners. Far left fellow says he misses the Windsor. He shared a little regret in letting it go. Both were happy to see it in good hands, being well cared for. It was a pretty cool day with my Windsor.

Shot gunning! LOL. I suppose in some ways. Watching the video I see an entire gaggle of ducks.

Good point Plymouthy. I suppose it depends what the owner wants. Looking at video, I tend to jump onto everything I suspect it needs.

When you do get that gremlin out of the fluid drive be sure to update us. I am really interested to learn what it is. The surging carb could be several things. You’ll have to choose where to start and go through each to eliminate each variable. I’d pull the carb and disassemble, soak and clean everything. Jets, ports, etc and a new gasket kit upon reassembly. Set float. Compression test engine. Fuel pressure test. New plugs cap, wires, points and condenser. Set points and plugs gap. Then a timing light and set. Check vacuum/mechanical advance. Set valves, when hot. A good start.

Am I hearing what sounds like a 1/2" drive ratchet spinning, occasionally? At the .02 mark, .06 and .010 mark? Is that the noise you are referring to? It's terrifying if that is coming from your Fluid Drive.

I too watched the entire series and enjoyed it. By chance I happened to take a compression test today on my '53 265 engine. I am preparing for the inevitable. This video series was timely as I went through the process again. I plan to strip down, drop at machine shop, then do my own reassembly. It's been some time since I rebuilt an auto engine. Others, but not a car engine. The last one if I recall was a '76 or so Ford Capri V6 engine. As featured in the recent issue of Hemmings Classic Car.

Out for an evening cruise tonite. I hung out in the back seat with my Mother-in-Law. Let my son drive. His girlfriend in the centre. My Mrs. on the right. The back seat is so comfortable! Lots of leg room, shoulder space and headroom. I will welcome more time in the back. The centre fold down arm rest, so regal. A round of ice creme for all.

Yep. I like them as well. I had hoped I'd need to buy one for snow removal when I moved into my current house about 1.5 years ago. It seems a 1/2 acre is not quite big enough to justify a tractor for 6 snow plow sessions per year. I had my eyes set on a Ford 8N or a Jubilee with a back blade...Maybe some day.