55 Fargo

Here is a pic of a Detroit Plymouth tag, a guy in Sweden has done the repro, he has a few for sale. Not sure of the price, will find out particulars, if anyone is interested. He is a member of the Walter P. Chrysler club.

Happy New year Bob and Mary Ann, all the best in 07..............Fred

Thats allright Claybill, but what do yall think of my new repro tag........rockwood

Hi all, yesterday when another fellow old mopar collector cameover , I asked him what the correct procedure to install a hood spring. He explained that I could hang a chain on the bottom hook on the spring, with the top hook of course in the hole on the hood hinge. The chain should be long enough to hang down to the floor/ground. I then wrapped it around a 2x4, about 3 ft long. With the chain sinched around the end of the 2x4, I was able to stand on the 2x4, which pulled/stretched the spring downward and I slid it on to it's mount. I then took the chain off and the spring was in it's place, I tried many methods before this, no doubt some of you already knew this trick, but I didn,t...................Fred

So far it's been a beautiful winter here in Canada, so if you have no snow and temps in the 50s you are lucky. If we had that kind of weather here in winter I could get many things done around here. I have my car in a heated insulated garage, thats no problem, but to pick parts form my donor car, not likely, it's still too cold. Last night it went down to 0, its about 15 right now, we haven't had snow in weeks, we are supposed to get 1 to 2 inches possibly tonight and tomorrow. This time of year we can go down to -35 at times and I have even seen it hit -40 at my place 15 minutes north of Winnipeg, even though we were -40 that morning it was only -30 in Winnipeg 15 minutes away. In 1996 we had a brutal winter here with 3 weeks of -30 and colder at night, good thing there not all like that..............Cheers Fred

Robert, if it's the same as the one in the pic, I can probably get you one. They were about $20 to $25 each plus postage of course.............Fred ps these are the only ones he makes at this time

Hi all, today a fellow old mopar car guy dropped by for a quick visit and to check my progress to date. He has restored and owned a number of 48 Chryslers, he has even transplanted a 48 New Yorker Convert onto a 48 sedan floor one time, in order to save the car, the car turned out great and is still being driven in Minneapolis. He brought me a gift, which is the Mopar tag, he repros these as well as a number of other items, and he has done a great job with it. I feel fortunate to have Ed nearby as he is a knowledgealbe guy with the old Mopars as well as a generous person. He thought I had made a lot of progress on my car so far, as he saw it from the beginning, he even said my floor weld job was good and he gave me a number of pointers on doing my body work...............Fred

Looks like the front outer floor support that supports the inner rocker and floor at the front and is under the A pillar. If this is damaged you should be able to fab something to replace the channel steel and metal support. You want this support good and strong as well as fitting correctly in order to to keep your doors from sagging and to have a good support for your rockers. I am not sure if this what I saw, i downloaded your pic and magnified it to have a closer look, but it was very distorted..................Fred

Rodney, looks like you are movin right along, how do you plan on tackliing this area, are you going to sand blast it and weld in new metal as required. I am always interested in the auto body part of the restoration.........Fred

Hey Bob, I like it, nice gifts. My wife and kids got me a new floor creeper, a work stool, with wheels and a place to put some tools on it. I ordered myself and early Christmas present, about a month ago it hasn,t arrived yet, it's a 33 gallon upright Craftsman Compressor, supposed to be here Jan03, can hardly wait, Sears even reduced the price by $40.00 for the long wait, it's coming from the Devibliss plant in the USA..........Fred

And a Very Merry Christmas to you too Frank, did you get to go for a Christmas ride in the Desoto............Fred

John, I will try and post a pic of mine as I have re-installed mine fairly recently, this is on my 48 Chrysler, should be the same as your Plymouth....................Fred

Allan, you are correct, you don't want to stretch or dent the metal even further than necessary. The hammer is used differently than a BF ballpeen, thats for sure. But have you tried to hammer and dolly these old mopars, with the heavy gauge metal, mine could,nt be hammered out with light autobody hammers, but you are right you have to be mindful of creating more damage, this is where experience helps, I have little experience but so far have done not too badly....................Fred

Merry Christmas to you and yours Charlie, the car started well , the throttle is a little hesitant at this temp, as I have no heat riser, but after 5 minutes she warms up good. Even though it's not finished by know means and not officially on the road, it's still fun to go for a cruise. The car now has windows and seats inside, sure beats when I used to go for a ride with an old 7Up box and no windows. I am currently working on the body, doing some welding on external panel patchups, not a whole lot, but some, when that is done plan to start the hammer and dolly, followed by the filler treatment, this is fairly uncharted territory for me, but so far so good.

Hi all, decided to take the old girl out of the garage and start the engine, then I figured I bettter go for a ride. It's about 28 degrees here this morning and the ride was bone dry, so awy we went down the road about a mile and then returned. I know my car isn't much yet, but it's sure fun to go for a ride.

May you and all of our members have a Safe and Very Merry Christmas and an equally prosperous New Year.

Yes I do, send me a PM or Email and I can give it to you, if you meant the car I mentioned, if anyone is interested I could take pics, have a look at the car, and let you know what I think......................Fred

That's true I have welded with both, I find I can pull off not too bad a welds with flux core, if very careful. It is a lot more expensive for sure, but I don't weld all that much, so I don't mind paying the extra price for the wire, the brand of wire makes a big difference IMHO, I prefer the Lincoln wire.......................Rockwood

Check with Bill W., he's on the Walter P. Chyrsler website, it's hosted by the AACA. Bill is very knowledgeable with these engines whether they were used for domestic or commercial duty. I would think the Industrial engines were 251s and 265s and probably different CIs with the earlier models. The CI numbers were reflecting 6 cylinder engines and not the Straight 8s..........Rockwood

Tim, not sure do you want me to find out, it's located about 30 minutes from my place, near the town of Teulon Manitoba in the interlake district.............Fred PS this car is in nice shape, originally from Manitoba it was in Alberta when present owner bought her and brought her to Manitoba

Johnny, we don't even get that kind of snow in our part of Canada all in one shot. We sometimes get 10 inches when real bad, can't imagine 24 to 28 inches, was it with a driving wind also. Hey do you have any pics of the aftermath, to show us here on the forum, glad to here you are okay though..............Fred PS it's 32 and sunny with crystal clear skies and no wind today

There is a Dodge D25 in my area, it's a 4 door sedan, has great Chrome and Stainless, decent paint (may be original), new interior, 77000 miles, new coker tires, and has a current DMV safety certificate. This car is in real nice shape and the owner was asking $5000.00 for it, I was mighty tempted, but I would abandon my current(48 Chrys), if I bought it. Fred

Larry, it's been absolutely beautiful here, it's only about 30 to 34 daily, but sunny with clear blue skies, and the forecast is for more this week. Understand Denver go walloped with a major blizzard, it even snowed in Vegas yesterday. I am quite sure we will see some -25 to -30 in January or February, but we are in the prairie region of Canada.........Fred ps did some welding in my garage today with heat at 55 inside, so I can get things done at least

Hey Rodney I can relate to being in the country, I am 5 minutes from a city of 12000, and 15 miles north of a city of 750000 (Winnipeg), but we have only a volunteer fire dept in my county ( we call em municipalitys). But 2 years ago I accidently lit a grass fire and had to call them, they were here in 5 minutes and the rest of the crew within 10 minutes, so not bad. But like you I don't want a fire , so get a large ABC type fire extiguisher, keep a bucket a water handy, for grass if it catches on fire, when your outdoor welding, and keep combustables at a safe distance, always keep and eye your area after welding to make sure nothing is smoldering. And of course follow all safety for yourself, using good eqipment and working safe..........Fred

Rodney, both are wire feed arc welders, one is mig, using steel wire and gas, say co2 and argon, this is for a shield during the actual weld to keep impurities of the molten weld, it's a gas shield, that is for Mig. The flux core is also a wire feed arc welder, however, it does not use gas for shielding, but has flux in the center of the wire, thus named flux core wire welding, it's size is .030 and .035, Mig wires are usually .023, .025 or .030. The mig produces nicer, cleaner and more nice looking welds, the flux core is rougher and the welds are not as nice,the flux has to be wire brushed off after the welds, they produce more heat, so light gauge tin it will burn through easily. On old mopars with 16 and 18 gauge tin, I had no problems welding with flux core, although I did burn through at times. When you buy your welder,many smaller machines, the hobbyist/home use type can use either wire, some are strictly for flux core and some can be converted to mig use. The choice is yours and whatever your pocket book and future use of the welder dictates. All the best from The Rock of the North