Cpt.Fred

now that was fast! thanks a lot, Fargo! this looks excactly as i imagined. helps a lot!

Hi all you nice people, does anyone here have a picture of a front motor mount originally used in a canadian-built P10? Not the rubber part itself, but the big support bolted to the frame that carries the rubber mount on top. That would be nice... Just curious what the difference is. Best, Fred

Looking great, as always! Lots of work and thought in those a-arms! Maybe you can just cut the bump stops down a little, or use an extra pair of upper stops instead, since they're smaller... that way you'd gain a little extra travel. Me i stay with my nose bleeding tail dragger stance, just love to follow the nose down the road see where it takes me, hehe.

Very cool, Brian. You're really going the shiny route here, man, look at all that chrome stuff... wow. ...i bet AndyD's gonna love this Hope you find a way to put those wheel covers on, i think they'd be perfect on you car. Nice 50s look on a lowered coupe. Funny how different the dash looks without that big speaker grille mine got in the middle, next to the ash tray, i always thought they were there on all 40 models. Very clean though, i like it! The dash trim polishing made a huge difference to the interiour.

getting better and better! those covers will cause some head scratching

changed it! stupid me...

Bmartin: The ribbed thing is a (dealer installed?) radio unit, "Firestone Air Chief". Containes both tubes and speaker. I kicked it out and installed a Motorola 802 unit from a P15. That big switch up front left top of the picture is connected to the antenna and the radio, but i don't know what it was about. The rod in the middle is just a support providing rigidity to the dash. tucked away beside it with the yellowish knob is the cowl vent lever, like Deathbound said. The heater / fan unit is called "Tropic Aire" and came with a fany push button control panel: Unfortunately the bakelite is broken and crumbles away, so i didn't get it to work again and the whole unit is disconnected since i do not need a heater here. Maybe i'll try to change that some day, but not now. Thanks for the link, Deathbound!

Rich, of course you're right about that, but sometimes i'm my own judge here, and if can get brown pedals i'll try hard... I don't know any other car that has them, reason enough for me to get them Just got off with Andy B and they said the rubber mats were show quality reproductions and available in brown. hmmm.... tempting. I'm putting together a list here and will contact several other places. Just sent an inquiry to Mr. Goers as well. Wasn't there also a place that sold those dreaded dash knobs (for a ridiculously high price of course)?

That is possible. They're still in there now. Anyone got pics of how they should look like?

Thanks for the good info everyone! Bmartin, originally the firewall is covered by a molded piece of cardboardish material (like on the inside of the a-pillars)with a rubber lip on the bottom and a thick layer of insulation behind it, i guess horse hair or coconut fibre or whatever they used back then. maybe you can see it here. the rubber lip is hard as old bread and thus crumbling away, of course...

just to avoid misunderstandings, since i'm no native speaker, but why does me mentioning carpet point away from originality? the rear floor in my car is covered with carpet and i thought maybe someone reproduces them close to original in shape and material. were they not original? cause mine sure looks like it would be. just curious. maybe someone can chime in who already bought one of those reproduction rubber mats, they are pretty pricey at 300+ dollars so i'd love to have a second opinion before i order one. i' call those other shops on the list casper made. thanks!

thanks for the links, casper50! plymouthy: like i said, upholstery will have to be done by a professional. actually i am aiming towards originality when it comes to the interiour. so i thought i'd ask if there were good reproductions and of what quality they are. (like rubber floor mats and molded carpets that cannot be done by an upholstery shop) the interiour of my 2door sedan is very original and i'd love to keep it that way. if possible.

I can no longer close my eyes to the fact that my original interiour is falling apart more and more and i have to start looking for replacements. Now general upholstery work will have to be done by local shops here in Germany, but some things will have to be bought in the US. Can anyone here tell me about availablity and quality of parts like the rubber floor mat covering the foot boards? Or the rubber grommet that seals the steering column and shift linkage against the fire wall? Are there any carpets available? What about headliners? I have seen some parts like the rubber mat and the grommet at Andy B.'s, but there are no pictures, so i thought i'd ask here first before i take any chances. I hope this is OK to ask here, i'm not asking to buy anything specific now, if it's not OK please remove it to the classifieds. Thanks, Fred

nice story and pics and glad you liked it so much! if you ever get to Berlin, let me know.

This car is getting better and better and even better... You're definately not scared of details Cool journey to follow, i always like to come back to this thread and see your progress!

Nice thread with good info and pictures. Great car you got there, color and stance and all... very cool!

thanks, bones44! i finally managed to get the car to the alignment shop. the ride there was rather delicate, rain, traffic jams, car ran crappy because it really hates stop-and-go with the 3 carbs, aaaand my rough axle "adjustments" weren't really accurate. i could tell that pretty well from the way it handled. Nantucket sleighride my steering box is shot and i will have to rebuild it very soon, but i think it will do for the rest of the season. it has to. after quite some time we settled for this: that was as good as it going to be. as you can see it's pretty wild. car handles fine, though. maybe i'm too picky. camber/caster angle adjustment is a real pain, let me tell you. next time i'll rework the mounting holes on the pivot bars to allow some adjustment. since i didn't drive the car for more than 6 month now i actually cannot tell how much better things got with the overhaul, but i don't have a choice and it'll do until i get to the steering box. next thing will be piling up parts, i've seen some new threads here dealing with the same issue. good info there, as always. best thing about the whole process is the brakes. they're really great now. finally. the old (new) rubber hoses seem to have been the culprits here, i never had a decent pressure on the pedal until now. no chance of flooring it and no pumping and nothing, and the tires finally scream when i slam the brakes. happiness. feels so much safer now. thanks to everyone following this and contributing parts or info! special thanks to Andy for phone support and parts donation. best, Fred

Very cool, Robin! Thanks for sharing. I envy you guys for having such a great event over there. 77/80mph on sand is mighty fast in my opinion. Hats off!

i adjusted the steering box until i thought the play would be gone. afterwards i finally dropped the car on it's feet and found the battery had left me during the last 6 month. after some swearing and recharging the car fired right up and i rode around the block carefully to check the new front end and brakes. brakes seem fine, of course i couldn't really slam them with the new linings and all, but they are definitely better then they ever were before. for everyone reading this thread later to do the same things to his or her own P10 that i did here: the front shocks i used are too long for a car that is lowered. or maybe even for stock height too. they bottom out about 1 1/2" before the rubber bump stops on the a-arms do, so the chance of braking a mount might be given. my front end sits about 2 to 2 1/2" lower than stock, Moog Aerostarsprings with 1/2 coil cut off. no chance of using the Gabriel shocks here, nearly zero travel is left. so i put the (5 years) old oem oil shocks back in as a start, and it works fine. these are a little too short, but i think the car won't ever rebound that far, unless... sadly that means no more canyon jumping for me i'll look around for other shocks that have the right lenght, something in the middle between the Gabriels and the oem ones. the car seemed to steer and handle fine, though i had to readjust the steering box a little bit, because i found it was a little too tight now. turned the screw back out a smidge and it's as good as it gets with the worn out leaky old box. already on my list for next winter... i'm looking forward to my ride to the alignment shop!

Robert, i had the car up on chassis stands all the time. maybe you're right, i should try to get grease in there again when the car is down on its wheels and the weight is on the control arms. the culprit is the front lower bar pivot bushing on the driver side, so that should be easily reachable. normally i lift the car up on chassis stands, take all the wheels off and then i do all the greasing and check wheel bearings and brakes all in one turn. thanks for your input! any more thoughts on wheel alignment?

Pete, i'm about to do the same thing here. Here's what i have for the up to '42 models, should be about the same for you, i guess... Hope this helps, let us know how it went! Fred

finally managed to get the brakes done. the steel flex hoses seems to do pretty good, i haven't had so much pressure on the pedal ever before. hope it works well on the road. then i put all the missing things together, secured all nuts and bolts, lubricated everything. wheels back on and struggling to get a rough alignment helping me survive the 50+ kms to the alignment shop. i'm still worrying about one of the pivot bushings on the lower a-arms, i can't get any grease in there. the grease nipple works, so i'm afraid the preload on the bushing's thread is too high, but i don't know how to solve this nor do i know how i could have done the assembly any other way. so i'll try again after i put a few miles on the car. anyone here ever done the alignment on his own who can give me some advice? camber/caster angle setting seems a little edgy on this construction... i hope i didn't blow this when i assembled things. pretty nervous at the moment. appointment for the full alignment is either this or (most likely) next saturday. until then i have to get the wheels to face foward at least roughly...

Looking good, Robin! 6V pos ground? I will have to check that website out...

Robert, the brakes are right ahead of me now, too... i've done them 3 times now, and i didn't like any of them. bleeding is a real pain... right now i am digging into axle adjustment and measuring. here's what i have for plymouth passenger cars from '36 to '42: