mburtis

I'm not worried about the front frame horn if that's all the more extensive it is. To me it looks like they clipped something with the front drivers corner hard enough to buckle that front horn. If it's just the front frame horn I will rebuild the bumper bracket to make it sit right and leave it. What I'm worried about is that the drivers frame rail is going to be shoved back pushing the frame out of sqaure or it will be twisted. When I was trying to block it all up level it seemed like I was seeing a little bit of twist but that was before I noticed the damage so I wasn't looking that close. Just don't want goofy alignment/handling issues

Thanks for the information. I have a book but it's down at my dad's shop with my motor. I'll have to go get it. It's a 49 plymouth 4 door. Based on some rough measurements I took last night I'm highly skeptical it will make that 1/4 inch tolerance.

My plan is to get it set up so I can take serious measurements and see if it's twisted or out of sqaure or if it's just the front frame horn. Any input on what points are the most important to measure between and what the limits would be. I realize these frames were probably not dead straight from the factory but how far off can they be before it starts having an adverse affect on alignment, handling etc.

So the further I get into my 49 plymouth the more I realize I should have bought a different car. Any how, I started pulling the front fenders off as I prepare to start fabricating an entirely new floor. Looking at it tonight I realized that it has taken a significant hit to the front drivers corner. The bumper bracket is bent and the frame horn in front of the crossmember is buckled. This in itself isn't that big of deal other than I will have to customize some to get the bumper to look right. However if it hit this hard I'm really wondering if the frame is going to be twisted or way out of sqaure. Anybody want to wager a guess on if this frame will be salvageable. Guess I'll pull the body so I can actually inspect the whole thing. Building this as a driver so I don't want to deal with weird handling issues or alignment issues or stuff like that. If it was a show car who cares if it drives terribly or eats tires, but I want to drive it to work and on trips.

So I'm starting to look at the body work on my 49 plymouth. This car has been worked on previously and the front end was only half assembled when I got it. The rockers have been replaced but the floor is super rusted. Other bits are pretty rough too so I'm kinda guessing as to what things should look like. I'm starting this thread to ask questions about the parts as I take them off. First up is the front valance ? (The piece between the grill and the bumper. Mine is bent up somewhat but I'm assuming it's supposed to be flat? Tried to take pictures showing the bent up piece but may not show up very well.

Multimeters are classified by they voltage and the location in the electrical system they can be used in. These are known at the CAT 1 through 4. Basically CAT one is electronics and CAT four is outside utility power. It basically corresponds to the amount of current the meter could stand without becoming a fire ball in your hand. I'm an industrial electrician at work and I have some nice fluke stuff that is CAT 3 1000v or CAT 4 600 v rated because I work on mostly 3 phase 480 stuff that could have a lot of fault or surge current, so I need the higher rated stuff. For home automotive I would pick up a cheapy at home depot or napa or wherever as there is no need to pay for the higher rates stuff. I have a 30 dollar Klien from home depot at home and it works just fine.

Very interesting thoughts on the all cast drum vs the two piece construction. Hadn't really thought of the heat sink affect. Had been pondering if there would be a strength issue going from steel hub to cast.

Found brand new 10 inch brake drums from moparpro and am wondering if anyone has used these that could attest to the quality and fitment. I know I need at least one drum and all 4 probably wouldn't hurt. I found a drum off of a 67 fairlane I think I could make work with some machining and obviously mounting to the old hub. The repro ones are expensive but they are a one piece cast with the hub and would save me a lot of work and time trying to adapt something. Wondering if the quality is up to snuff and they actually fit and function well enough for car I hope to drive a lot. I considered the disk brakes but would really rather keep it original. Thanks

I'm planning on putting a porter on my car when I get it running. I have them on my 64 ford pickup and think they sound good, and the build quality of them was great. Not some cheapo thin gauge thing that will rust out in a couple of years, porters are heavy.

So I pulled the gas tank out of my 49 plymouth 4 door yesterday and its got about an inch long crack in the top of it. Probably could fix it but I figure if one spot is fatigued enough to crack then other spots probably are as well. I have been looking at the various reproduction tank available, many are available from ebay, I found one from a place called Vans auto, Bernbaum lists them as well. Are any of these tanks of good quality and can any one recommend one supplier over the other. Any chance any of them are made in the states or are they all coming from the same factory overseas? Thanks for any help.

If the pictures in the service manual are to be trusted, it looks like ten rivets per shoe, a wider pair at each end and in the middle and then narrower pairs in between. Hard telling how accurate that is though. It appears that the cores I have are likely built for much thinner lining than the original 13/16, which would make sense seeing as the cores were originally bonded instead of riveted.

I haven't managed to find a source for pre made linings for these cars yet, maybe there is a source out there I haven't found yet. Countersinking the holes shouldn't be to hard, I can put it on the mill to do them and figure how deep they need to be based on the rivets I end up using and the total clamped thickness. I very well may give you a call as I get closer to tackling this project, always good to have first hand information.

So getting parts together for the brake rebuild on the 49. I think I'm just going to reline the brake shoes. It appears a fairly appropriate lining material as well as the rivets and the punch can be bought cheap enough via mcmaster carr or others. My car had bonded brakes on it when i got it and it will be easy enough drill them but I have a few questions to make sure it will work. First question is how many and what size are the rivets on original brake shoes? second thing just to put my mind at ease, how thick is the metal (face) plate on original shoes. Just want to make sure the shoe cores i have arent way thinner due to being bonded originally. Would be happy to hear from anyone who has relined shoes for these cars, as far as what materials and techniques were used. Thanks

forgot to mention that luckily the car came with a factory service manual lots of neat special tools in there that i will have to build. Would like to keep the original brakes just because they are a little different and would be fun to tinker on. Always been a ford guy so having to learn everything about plymouth

this might explain why you cant find them at the parts stores like you can the rest of the parts

I am aware of a couple of the disk brake swap kits available (ie rustyhope, scarebird, etc.). Ive never felt the need for disk brakes like some do but if it increases longevity due to parts availability... I would like to hear from anyone using a manual master cylinder on a disk setup. I have heard mixed thoughts on it in general through the years due to drum brakes being self energizing, disk systems requiring much higher pressure, etc, etc. I considered trying to reline the shoes, got several buddies who have old obscure cars too so might be a useful skill to have. Would be interested in any recommendations for possible friction material. I have heard that for these cars you want the older style softer woven style friction material vs the harder ceramic type stuff typical of modern shoes. May have to find a set of original shoes to reline, as the ones that are on the car do not have the rivet holes or drill the existing ones. I will have to do some digging at the parts stores and see if i cant come up with a drum that i can modify to rivet onto the old hubs, luckily i got a machinist buddy with access to some very large equipment so modifications are possible. Discussed welding the drums up with a welder buddy of mine, the engineer in me has a bad feeling it wouldn't work very well and even if it did may not provide very good performance, on the other hand the industrial mechanic side of me says it may be worth a shot.

New around here but I bought a 49 plymouth special deluxe the other day and now am now starting to dig into it with the goal of getting it back on the road. Car was a project that the owner lost interest in for about three previous owners, so hasn't been on the road in some time. Right now the car is basically all original with the flathead 6 and three speed. I have been tearing into the brake system lately and it needs a complete rebuild. Haven't taken the rear drums off yet, but the front shoe lining just crumbled and appeared to be stuck to the shoe with double sided tape, and one front drum has a huge groove in it probably at least a 16th deep, front wheel cylinders rusted, about what i was expecting. The master cylinder and wheel cylinders are no problem, local napa can get those. Found the shoes online (expensive but available) or i could figure out how to reline them but seems like the front drums are hard to come by and likely really expensive. This brings me to a sort of impass. My intention is to drive this car a lot, year round and I live in Wyoming. Not exactly a parade car, so I really don't want to have to always worry about wearing out hard to find brake parts. Preferably i would rather keep it original but due to parts availability I am contemplating other options. Seems the wheel bearings are pretty standard sizes so disk swaps are pretty common. Are people around here running the front disks with a manual master cylinder? Im normally not a real big fan of disk brake swaps or power brake swaps but disks may be the easiest. Likely will investigate adding a dual master cylinder and building a bracket to remount the pedals anyways. Also been browsing through various car wheel bearing sizes and brake parts to see if maybe a later cars drums could be adapted (may be able to adapt bigger or wider brakes). Seems it could be possible however it would require a lot of trail and error to get parts to fit right, adapting the backing plates and a lot of other little details that would take a long time to figure out. Just looking for opinions on whether finding stock parts is worth it and how well the disk set ups work without adding a power booster.