55 Fargo

Evercoats kitty hair, will work, fills holes up to 3/8 or so. Possibly you could clean up the back of the panel, use fibreglass and cloth,then go over the top portion with a thin layer of kitty hair, or metal to meatl filler. It is always best to weld in holes, but there are other ways to fill holes if you can't weld them in...........Fred

Hi Dave, You know anything worth doing/having deserves a little sweat equity, I don't mind doing the job, I just love seeing a finished product, after it looked like crap and ends up looking good. Zero Rust is a good product, but so is Tremclad, and thats what I will use, I also plan on uding the 4 inch foam rollers, a brush and spray bombs where necessary...............Thanx Fred

Hi Wrightkoss, I thought you would have had a process of elimination for me to help you troubleshoot this problem. Maybe you haven't had a chance to try this yet. Let me(us) know how it works out............Fred

I like OT also, but this is my regular shift. It goes like this, 4 shifts on 3 days off, 4 shifts 7 days off. Next to where I am posted at the med/max prison, you can work all the OT you like, some guys earn $120000.00 per year. But I like my sanity....LOL

Tim, I had the same shift for years, 0600 to 1430, mon to fri. Today and the next 3 days, I work 0700 to 1930, 12.5 hour shifts..............Fred

Lots o fun, thats for sure, but let me tell you, fabbing little ptch panels and welding/riveting them to the bottom end down below the kick panel was the most fun I ever had, besides putting my trans back in by hand.........LOL

All the undercoating is off, a little grease and dirt around trans tunnel, gonna just keep hitting it with the wire wheels and brush attachments, use a little varsol, and paint with black Tremclad (Canadas Rustoleum)............Fred

Thanx Guys, BTW James what are you doing up so early, I know my excuse, going to work, but being a carnut, just had to look here first..LOL

Hi all,today I started my undercarriage clean-up. My plan is to wire wheel and scrap all the rust, dirt and crud off, then to prime/paint and undercoat where applicable. This is tough job, there are many areas around the frame, I have started at the back end of the car, where the gastank is normally hung. Once this is cleaned up I will do little more forward and the outer sides, hoping to eventually get all the floor cleaned up and de-rusted, I will also need to seam seal, my panel joints I have welded in to repair the floors, they are seamsealed on the topside, but I would like to do the bottom side also. This car will not be winter driven, and I wouldn't be driving through torrential rain storms either, not sure rain water would really do much damage, as salt, snow and crud like you get here in winter. I know guys who have done no prep under there cars, they don't seem to care, and because the cars are not winter driven, they don't seem to be rotting away either. So many of our cars have done there major floor rusting when they were allowed to stay on the ground in some field where the grass and moisture and wet mud you name permeated the undercarriage. My car had it front suspension in the mud, but the back end was propped buy a steel barrel, it was like that for years, before I got it. What have some of you guys done, I am not going to sandblast under there, and it won't be chemically dipped either, just hope to clean it up and topcoat...............Fred

Okay, get a meat thermometer, and put it in the top of the rad, this will give you a temp reading, even though you don't have a gauge yet. If you have filled your rad right to the top, and there was no coolant in the system for a hwile, the engine warms up, the t/sat opens and the coolant belches out a quart, could be too much coolant, it will find it's own level. The t/stat housing is attached to the top rad hose on the front top of the engine, maybe just leave it for now. What is the outside temp in your area today, idling usually overheats the engine, when it is very hot outside, and the engine is idling a long time. Don't forget, when idiling, there is not much work on the engine, less work=less heat, unless you block and rad are so plugged nothing can move. Get it running again, feel the rad once the engine is warmed up, is it warm/hot at the top, and progressively cooler to the bottom, are there cold spots indicating plugged passages. Not sure how you will check your block for crud, try and drain some coolant from the petcock on the block, on the drivers side of the engine, just infront of the distributor, if it seized don't force it too much and break it. See what flows out, if it opens, it should be a good stream. Try this and reprt back what you discover, if you would like to send me a PM, I could give you my phone number if you need a better explanantion.............Good Luck

One more thing, this threadis going to be a year old in November, didn't think it would get past last November..........LOL

Norm, overcast, the odd shower and low 70s here today, Friday it was around 90, that is hot enough for me, 110 to 115 is not my idea of fun................Fred

Okay, you say at an idle only, what about driving, -whatabout driving -what temp are you running, (check with thermometer in rad also) -is it boiling over - is the t/stat working -is the rad plugged, do you have good flow -is the waterpump working, is the impellor stuck - are the waterjackets filled with crud, has the water tube been pulled and examined, has the block been flushed _ is your timing to far retarded -is the gauge accurate Let us know all the symptoms, what work has been done on the engine and cooling system to date. This way we can advise accordingly...............The Rock

Dave, thanks for the explanantion n the heat riser's function. Got me thinking, I had a 79 Furd Fairmont some years ago, on the highway in Winter when the outside temp was just around freezing it would ice up, as the heat riser wasn't working right. But when it was colder out, which in Winter in Manitoba it usually is, there was no icing problems, only around the freezing point, especially if there was alot of moisture in the air. On my 47 Chrysler, I am sure the heatriser is stuck in the cold position, allowing hot air up and around the carb. I do plan on eliminating the heatriser and welding a plate to allow the exhaust to exit directly out, for 2 reasons, mine is a summer car, would never be winter or cold damp sloppy weahter driven either............Fred

Greg G. Quoted this on an archived thread, should answer your question. Rotated clockwise closes the heat riser. That is the flap wil be in aposition to NOT Direct exhaust gas into the intake heat chamber. the at rest position is the open position, the bimetalic spring shoud turn it clockwise against the counter weight when the engine is up to temp. A stuck heat riser may cause higher under hood temps as there are two cast iron masses exposed to exhaust gas temperature, but is shouldn't have much of an effect on engine coolant temp. Have you checked the actual temp of the coolant with a reliable thermometer? A small cooking thermometer stuck into the radiator fill will indicate colat temp. This will be slightly cooler than the sensor temp as it is pretty close to where the coolant flow is the hottest. but your gauge may be off. Have you checked your radiator flow? High temp speed usually indicated a coolant flow situation, is your stat opeing all the way? What happens when you run with out a stat?

Jeff, I noticed the same thing when I got a bee sting a few years ago, it was also on the hand. Too bad you didn't have the beer before hand, they say urine will ease the sting and bring down the inflammation........LOL........Rock

Hi, was there more than 1 length of e-brake cables for 1946 to 1948 PDCD. The reason I ask, my car was originally with a fluid drive, which of course would position the ebrake assembly further back then a standard and regular clutch, which is what I have now. The ebrake cable seems a little long, I have adjsuted it to make it as short as possible, but there is still slight slack, when the ebrake is off, thus not giving me enough range of motion to tighten up the ebrake fully, when I pull on the ebrake handle. The ebrake band is set at .015 clearance, with a slight drag, as it details in the shop manual instruction. Should I just tighten up the ebrake band slightly more, to allow the brake to engage better when I pull the ebrake handle, but it will create a little more drag on the ebrake band.............Fred

Sounds like they might be rare cars, being only 300 to 400 built here, possibly special orders. I stand corrected then Rodger, we had D24s

Hi all, installed the clutch pan, this was all that was left from my Freeze plug, clutch flywheel, starter repair. The car drove nice, shift into all gears correctly and easily, nothing jumped out of gear, no noises. A nice smooth ride, no clutch chatter. Touch wood, it seems to be a good fix. I did discover a slight gas leak at the line from the fuel pump to carb, will replace with a new steel line...........Fred

Rodger, just for info sake, there were no D24s built in Canada, they had the D25, which was a P15 body with Dodge trim. In Canada since 1937 they built only one block, the 25 inch, all the engines ie 218,230,251,265, were all the same block, different bores, cranks and connecting rods to make the different dsiplacements. Maybe Mopar should have done all Flatties the same size, either 23.5 or 25, just for uniformity sake and interchangeability. BTW, Minot is fairly close to where I live 4 hour drive, you don't here it mentioned all too often............Fred

Thanx Greg, this is good info

Everything was original, they are not metrics, in fact all the heads are 1/2 inch and all the threads are 5/16 coarse. Just different lengths, ie short ones for bottom of the clutch pan. Anyway, I got everything installed, they were 3 different lengths,,discovered as it was obvious, what went where, once I got down to it. I had previously cleaned up the bolts, they went in nicely, when the pan was lined up of course, the bell housing threaded holes for these bolts were cleaned up by me, when I had it out about 3 weeks ago. Thanx for taking the time to answer my thread......Fred

Hi all, I have 8 bolts to install with the clutch pan, 4 are marked on the head L 3.5, 2 are marked M or W, 2 are marked F. The 2 marked m are shorter than the rest. Any idea what goes where, and what the codes mean. I should have paid more attention, when I removed them from the clutch pan. I plan on re-installing the clutch pan tonight or tomorrow, so I would like to figure this out first....Thanx Fred

Pat, the starter was in really good shape, other than the drive problem, bushing, armature, brushes, all in good condition and didn't need replacing. The outside case I had cleaned and painted all purdy black, with my favorite Tremclad paint........Fred

Hi everyone, picked up my starter from the shop today, he repaired the drive, installed a new overrunning clutch, and gave everything a good clean, and replaced what was necessary. Total price $65, installed it, turned the key and magic, it starts great, problem is gone, the ring gear was not a problem after all..............Fred