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SonomaJim

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About SonomaJim

  • Birthday 10/01/1946

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Not Telling
  • Location
    Sonoma County, CA
  • Interests
    Grand daughters, Mopars, home remodeling, carpentry.
  • My Project Cars
    1946 Dodge Business Coupe

Converted

  • Location
    Sonoma County, CA
  • Interests
    Woodworking, genealogy

Contact Methods

  • Occupation
    Retired
  1. For late model front seats try Chrysler Sebring convertibles. They are still common enough at pick-a-part yards and have built in shoulder harnesses. Of course this requires substantial floor mount reinforcement. I scored some for my D24 business coupe but haven't put them in yet.
  2. You've earned all the above complements. Your documentation and photos are a great help and inspiring. Now that I'm retired I will begin assembly with similar modifications to a '46 D25 business coupe I've been accumating parts for and had in storage for 10+ years. PlyDo disc brake conversion, Intrepid/Concorde center pull rack, Sebring convertible seats with integrated belts, Magnum 360 and A518 tranny, '71 Dodge Coronet 8 3/4 rear end (same 47" spring perch and 62" wheel spacing as the D25). A California car, only the floors and trunk have limited rust through. Everything has been removed from the body shell and the shell has been soda blasted. All the sheet metal has been acid dipped, neutralized and primed. Chassis is in the side yard. First order of business will be assembly of the suspension on the chassis. I have and am planning to use 3" drop spindles in the front suspension rebuild. You used new Aerostar springs in yours. How much drop did that give with the stock spindles? How much of that drop was due to repositioning the spring buckets on the lower arms. Can you comment on the advantages/disadvantages of the these alternatives and specifics about the springs? (The drop spindle instructions require modifiying and swapping sides for the steering arms.) After lurking on the forum for years, this spring I'm kicking my wife's PT Cruiser out of the garage for my bizzy. Thanks for your insight.
  3. Measured my '46 Dodge to find the easiest mopar 8 3/4 swap, just took 2 straight edges and a tape measure: Spring perches 47" center to center and track 62" (from the face of the 2 brake drums). Closest fit is a '71-'74 B body. The track is listed as 62" (although mine measured 62.5) and the spring perches are 47.3" center to center. The perches are wider than the original springs. It's easy to shift the center hole over ~1/8" on each side with a grinder and a little MIG fill in. I will either use a spacer to take up the additional perch width between the U bolts and the original springs on each side or redrill the perches so the U bolts will be tight to the springs. Seems even easier than cutting off, repositioning and welding the perches, then cleaning out the axle housing for the cooked lube creating by the welding. Jim
  4. Waverider, Are your rockers and sills solid? If so, no problem removing the body to replace any rusted floors. If not, and you will be replacing rockers and sills, it may be advisable to weld some bracing in. Without this your body is at risk of distorting when replacing the rockers and sills. Then it won't fit the chassis mounts when you go to put it back together. I am replacing my rockers and sills so I used 1" square tubing diagonally across door openings (both ways, both sides), horizontally across each side (from the corner where the rear package shelf is attached at the inner side to near the upper front door hinge mount), and then diagonally across side to side. I put the body up on tall STURDY sawhorses as Bob Westfall suggested, lifting it off the chassis by putting an 8 foot clear 4x4 across, under both the front and rear body-to-chassis attachments and using big washers and screws throught the body mount holes to keep it on the 4x4's. I drop it down on lower sawhorses to a convenient height to work on the sills and rockers.
  5. I beleive Chebby wheel bolt patterns are different than Mopar so you will need to have a solution to this with a Nova rear end. I have a 46 Dodge business coupe doing a similar swap (magnum 360),same rear as yours, and just measured it. Spring perches center-to-center = 47",wheel track = 62", housing flange-to-flange = 56 3/4". The stock brake backing plates have essentially no "backspacing" with very narrow rear brake shoes. I will be using a mopar 8 3/4" rear end to keep the bolt pattern the same front and rear. According to Tex Smith in How to Build CPD Hotrods (pg 76), 71-74 B body 8 3/4 rears have the same track and the spring perch c/c = 47.3" (with wider perches for the wider springs), no listing for flange-to-flange. If you keep the narrow 48 springs, the 0.3" difference is easy to adjust for. With the 318 an 8 1/4 rear end would be adequate, unless you are going wild with a performance engine build-up. These are sometimes easier to find in junkyards. Tex lists the dimensions for this B body rear end as identical to the 8 3/4 and shows brake flange-to-flange as 57.8". Depending on rear brake width, the brake backing plates will have different "backspacing". A half inch backspacing on each side will make the distance between the backing plates essentially identical to stock. One inch backspacing will make the distance 1 inch narrower than stock, but this will still easily fit between the inner body wheel wells. Hope this helps.
  6. Arthur, I got my upper shock mounts as part of a kit with dropped spindles and disk brake conversion from PlyDo, so don't know the cost of the mounts alone. Unlike the ones shown in Don's picture, where the bracket is attached to a plate which is welded to the side of the frame, the brackets I got had no such plate, are notched to overlap the frame top slightly and are welded directly to the frame top and side. I've just installed them to the stripped frame so have not had a chance to judge any improvement, and the car won't be drivable for another year. Jim
  7. BUILD IT!!! Don, from your photo it looks like you have the space. If I had space on my little lot, I'd build just what you described in a heartbeat. In wine country small lots and high housing costs are the price we pay for zoning to protect open spaces in an attempt to rein in urban sprawl. A two car garage is just not big enough. I feel the same way you do about access to tools, workbench and walk-around space. My wife expects to park her car in one side from Labor Day to Memorial Day. Some nerve. To go to work she doesn't think she should have to get into a cold car, squeege rain or dew off the windows, or scrape the frost off on the few days we have it. My half is filled with a workbench and a multitude of tools for woodworking and cars. Her half is now filled by a '73 Challenger project belonging to my son who doesn't have room for it in his garage in San Francisco. He used to live just a few miles away. Before he moved his garage had a 12' ceiling and I was lobbying him to put in a lift. My '46 Dodge coupe body is on a trailer on half of the driveway, just having been soda blasted two weeks ago. I'm praying for a delay in the NorCal rainy season. It's chassis is next to it on the other half (almost stripped for powder coating), in process of welding in transmission and motor mounts for a 360 and A518 transmission. Our drivable cars are parked on the street. As you might guess, she is losing patience as Labor Day is long past.
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