55 Fargo

Hi, is there anything that can be used on the fender and body of the car before installing the fender welting to help eliminate moisture from collecting in this area. I was thinking a thin coating of 3M Drip Chek, applied might help to keep water and moisture from sitting along the seam, and causing rust to begin. Any ideas or suggestions appreciated..........Fred

Thanx Jim, the way I look at it is this way, the fenders themselves are kinda beat-up on the rear bottom section, where the bumper hides them and so will some gravel guard before paint. I will smooth them out now with filler, and high build primer. If down the road I find another decent set of fenders, these can always be swapped out, nice part of the bolt on fenders........

Hi Jag, listen I was right where you are last spring, but with only 1 broken bolt/stud. I tried and drilled it out, by went off center, as I could did not seem to get a real dead on center punch mark, ( that is critical). I ended up having an expert come out, drill out the hole slightly larger and tapped to 7/16 for this 1 hole. Okay, so you need the following, cobalt or titanium drill bits, a center punch, drill, tap and die set. Make a dead on center punch mark, start with a small drill bit say1/8, you need to work up to 5/16 max. If you get your first drill hole right in the center, you can progresively drill larger holes, to the point that you can pick out the metal pieces, that remain. If all goes well, then run a tap through the threads, and your back in business. You can of course try the reverse drill bits too, but beware and take care not to go off center with your dilling, and egg shaped hole with half the threads cut out will make life miserable, and a heli-coil fix will then be necessary, that can be expensive, and sometimes they don't work that well. Good luck, plan this one out, take your time, use the right equipment. Also phone around and see if anyone does a mobile service, that might be an option................Fred PS sorry did not know you broke the easy out, hope you can get her out, as other have mentioned, pull the water tube. I pulled mune out a 2nd time last spring, the 2nd time out it came out with ease, as compared to the 1st time..........Fred

I've just about had it with B&Bs. I love running the original B&Bs for looks but learning to hate 'em. Hi Norm, and how long have you been feeling this way.......LOL Okay on the serious side, I experience some of this with my 1 bbl B&B too..............Fred

Glad things are looking up Allan, Ottawa is a great city, any of you southern boys get a chance, go there sometime, it's worth a visist...........Fred

Hi all, since my seat fire last Sunday, I have been busy working on the left rear fender, and inner wheel well. I finally got the both areas inside the fender, the outer wheel wells, prepped to a point of, it was driving me nuts. After all areas were stripped of rust, old paint, and undercoating, I then welded some holes and cracks. These areas were all treated with Picklex 20, they were then primered with rusty metal red oxide primer, then inner fender and outer wheel well are getting a coating of rubberized undercoating, then will be topcoated with a Black tremclad and hardener. The fender can then be bolted back on, the next step will be to do my filler work on the outside of the fender, that part I like. My hands are again full of tiny cuts, infections, and I am having a hard time typing this thread, but at least the worst of this is over. Doing the rear fenders, has not been my favorite job, it has been very time consuming and labor intensive, ths of course would have been much easier if I had a large media blaster, to blast all the metal for prepping, but no such luck. I do not have any progress pics, as my wife's camera is not working........................Fred

Hi Ony, it takes time to get our cars fixed up, thats for sure. I may not finish my car for years yet, as money is always the stumbling block. If things were different, I would have my seats, and upholstery done this winter, maybe the bumpers and some trim rechromed, finish all the body work by spring and get a paint job.But things will go at a lot slower pace$, if you know what I mean............Fred

Hi Ony, nice collection you have there, did you start this collection yourself, or were these cars in your family history. Wow you have to have the biggest collection of Vintage Chrysler Automobiles on this web forum. Most of us smucks have to be content with 1 car, let alone a fleet, and some us myself included don't even have our cars finished. A lot of works in progress, time and money permiting, such as the life of a working man. When did you start the collection, what shape were these cars? Did they require complete restorations, or were they in decent shape to begine with? I guess spending a few bucks on a paint job, isn't a big concern for you, as your collection looks to have some real nice paint jobs. Hope you enjoy our web forum, a lot of hands on guys on here, really know there stuff, with these old Mopars.............

Looks great Dave, will be real purdy when you polish her up, not that she don't look great now..............Fred

Thanx Johnny, the seat can wait for now, the priority is to complete the body work and paint by spring. I can either re-upholster the seats, or have them done later. I have a quote from 1 place already, about $1200 for both the front and back seats. For now she can be a biz coupe till I have more cash and time to deal with the seat, or when it is too cold to even warm up the garage in January and February, maybe I can try doing the seat myself, or pull em and send them in to be done..........Fred

Thanx Pat, River Road is about 10 minutes from my front door. There are 2 parts to River Road in St Andrews, the River Road from Lockport to almost the Winnipeg City Limits is a beautiful,scenic route, with many large homes, even a few mansions, as well as the famous St Andrews Chruch, built in the 1830s , many British soldiers are buried on it's grounds............Fred

Brendan my car is fully insured, valued about $5000.00 at the moment............fred

Hi Tim, yes I may have gone Insane if this car went up in flames. Although she ain't finished I have a lot of blood ,sweat and tears invested in her. I was welding on the exterior of the car, did not think I would have created a fire on the inside. I was filling in a few screw holes on the patch, when she went up. Live and learn, thank God it wasn't a catastrophe.........................Fred

Hi, the damage is minor eally, only wrecked is the seat, absolutely no damage to the inside of the car, tha is real luck, I feel very fortunate, this could have been a real disaster. I will try and do a re-cover on my seats by myself, what the heck if it doesn't come off well, it can always be redone by a pro. I have the seat frames cleaned up, still need to get a a little more of the burlap off, but will clean the frame, and then paint them. If I can get my car to be half as nice as your ride, I will be a very happy man...........Fred

Hi Guys, had a good look at the seat, the frame, springs should be fine for re-upholstery, they do not seem to be effected, just all the material is burnt off, and the padding of course, actually some of the material didn't burn, a few small pieces..........Fred

Pat, I likey the idea, you from the "North End Winnipeg", or as we call it here "Wholesale City"............Fred

The seat frame looks okay, will get all the burnt material off, and check things out later today. The inside of the car is all nice and cleaned up, you would never know there was a fire in there.............Thanx guys Fred

The question is? Can the frame and springs be recovered into a new seat. I wsas looking at the seat this morning, looks like it didn't burn completely, will pull all the material off them later this morning and have a good look. What or how can the springs and frame be prepped before they should be recovered, should they be acid dipped, painted or sandblasted?

Love the car Dennis, but would not ever ride on a set of 20 YO tires, espicially at high speeds this hemi could get to..........Fred

I have chased a '52 Canadian Dodge business coupe for 10 years and it is now at the point I think I'll quit chasing. Robert, there is supposed to be a decent 1949 or 1950 Plymouth Biz Coupe about 80 miles west of Winnipeg, in Westbourne Manitoba. Supposedly it isn real complete and decent shape..........Fred ps I spoke to the owner about 2 years ago, he wanted about $2000 to $3000 for it then.

Thanx Bob, I am a memeber of that forum also, usually don't go there much these days, as this website is much more fun. Will check it out, I am hoping I can find something locally or in the 500 mile from home range. How about you guys in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Sask, Alberta and Ontario. A seat form a sedan would be fine also...............fred

Thanx Guys, I'm okay, won't need to go to the Local ER. I have no damage in the vehicle, other than the back seat partially burnt. As I mentioned above, I washed everything inside of the vehicle, so it looks okay. Every Garage/house should have a fiore extinquisher, especially if you weld or use torches. I have a 20 lb and a 5 lb getting refilled right now, I only had a 5 lb one in the car, good thing. I am going to buy an extra 10 or 20 lb unit, and will buy a new 5 pounder to go back into the car. I repet this no garage or home for that matter should be without fire extinquishers. Do you guys think my seat can be re-upholstered if they get burnt up in a fire...........Fred

Hi all, was welding a patch onto the body in the rear whel well of the Coupe tonight, the patch went on well, the welds were decent too. I was welding in the last screw hole, when all of a sudden the back seat caught on fire, I immediately grabbed the fire extinguisher, and emptied it onto the back seat fire. The car was inside the garage, it is evening, and it is getting darn cold, there is now snow on the ground here in Manitoba. I had to grab hold of this seat and rip it out of the car PRONTO, then the upper back seat was smoldering, I had to unbolt the seat, I did this while breathing in all the fire extinquisher dust, and the smoke from the fire, go this seat out. Both seats caught on fire again, and I let them burn,my garden hose is put away, I through snow all over the seat, it just kept smoldering. I then went in the garage, cleaned everything up, drove the car outside, vacuumed the inside, blew it out with the air hose, and then brought her back inside the warm shop, I then washed it out inside, with warm water and Mr Clean. The car is now drying, with a fan blowing inside of her. If I was not able to get this seat out, or if I could not slow this firte down, I would have had to roll her out of the garage very fast, and let her burn,could not risk the gargae buiring, it is 10 feet next to my house. My 2005 Dodge Van was inside, my Garage and contents are worth about $40000 to $50000, with vehicles tools and such, the building is a new 24 X 36 fully insulated and heated. Wow, what a night, I am now out of a seat, I feel a liitle sick from the fumes, and I still cannot get this darn wheel well to bare metal. I am just going to prime and paint her as is with Rusty Metal paint and be done with it. Anybody got an extra back seat, I could sure use one..........Fred

I have spoken to the company Norm, the gent has a very thick foreign accent, had a bit of a hard time understanding him, may phone him again sometime........Fred

Thanx Norm, good question about why the product needs to be wiped off, according to the manufacturer, you wipe the excess off, then allow the solution to fully dry before priming. The solution needs to be dried off, without any residue or build up, the residue could cause moisture or poor adhesion for the primer/and/or paint. I tried it on a piece of tin, that had very slight surface rust, within a minute or 2 after applying on the Picklex, I wiped it off, the rust just wiped right off, the metal was a silvery grey. It worked very well on very light flash rust on a piece of sheet metal. This product should be great on exterior panels, where you either blast to the metal, or you have sanded it down to mostly bare steel, but rust pits existy, those little tiny black rust dots, the Picklex can then be used as a metal conditioner prioer to primer and paint...........Thanx Fred