DonaldSmith

Last Fall, I drove my 47 DeSoto Suburban out of the garage, with the right rear door open. Suicide door. Bad. The Bakelite panel was damaged, but we will leave its repair for another story. The door over-opened, creasing the fender behind the door, and throwing the door out of alignment. The door hinge was bent, as evident from comparing the swing to the left rear door, shown below, left then right. I removed the left door panel and made a made a casting of the good hinge, using Durham's Water putty and fiberglass tape. Then I removed the right door hinge. (The fourth screw was within the hinge.) The casting of the left door hinge shows where the strap of the right hinge is bent out of shape. I think I'll take the strap to a local blacksmith for some gentle adjustment.

Cab? Is it a truck? Or do you mean body? You lost me.

For replacement battery cables, i settled on Tractor Supply Co. cables for 6 volts, which look more like No. 1 than 0 or 00. Readily available. So far, so good.

Several years ago, i was privileged to get a close, hands-on look at the 1947 DeSoto Suburban in the Gilmore Car Museum. I took note of the door sill replacements, which were cut to size, but had the wider ribs at the inner and outer edges and at the windlace. Does anyone make something like that? Or I could settle for the 18-inch running board called out in Post No. 1 above. It's way down my to-do list, but I can have my mind games.

Canadian Plymouth? 25-inch block.

I'm guessing 1949 or later Mopar. The heater hose tubes would indicate that the heater mounts on the engine side of the cowl. The top opening might mat with the cowl vent that opens outside the windshield. The side opening for the air duct would be consistent with the cardboard duct that ran along the right fender. That's my wag (wild a$$ guess).

You still call it your Plymouth. And for good reason. Much of you is in it. I've had my DeSoto Suburban for about twenty years, but at shows where the PO (previous owner) is there, he shows "his" car to the meandering crowd. No problem.

You have to realize, it's not a garage, it's a wide-door storage building.

Transmission relay.

My 47 DeSoto Custom Suburban, in 2009. The back end seemed a little high, which would make sense for a hauler like this, for up to 9 passengers (a squeeze) and luggage, from the train station to the resort hotel. I added 2-inch lowering blocks, to level the car for my uses. "After' shot to follow.

Here's an enlargement of the Traveler article:

I have a magazine article on the DeSoto Suburban that briefly covers the Traveler. It's a Chrysler sedan, with a folding back seat and a cargo floor in the trunk. Like my Suburban, but with two seats instead of three. DeSoto had a similar version, called the CarryAll. The page shown below features the Traveler in the sidebar, and the Suburban in the other pictures.

i found some auto-boat carpeting in 2006, from a local carpet company, that was a close match to the hogshair carpeting that was still on the kick panels behind the seat. I fitted the carpet to the hump as best I could, hand-sewing the joints. The standard carpet had a flap with serged edges. My car. I have to dig through ancient files to find an example of factory-fitted carpet.

I rigged a backup switch for my Tip-Toe transmission. Since the shifting linkage doesn't use the usual First Gear position, I only needed a switch for the one shifting arm. For a standard transmission, you would have to add a switch for the other arm, and wire them in series. Gearshift lever back and up, both switches closed. The switch is an after-market brake switch, using the Common and Normally Open posts. Slightly out-of-focus photo follows.

Woodward runs north-northwest, so it's a 6- mile treck from 10 Mile Road to 15 Mile Road. Then some of the names change. 15 Mile Road is Maple Road. 16 Mile Road is Quarton to the west and Big Beaver to the east. Then come Wattles Road, Long Lake Road, Square Lake Road, and South Boulevard. On DreamCruise day, free shuttle busses run (?) the distance. If you get tired of walking, you can take ths shuttle bus. But it would be quicker to walk. If you do the Cruise on that Saturday, August 17, 2019, be prepared for slow travel and many delays. You will wear out your clutch foot and pusher fan. But hey, go for it.

Hmmm. I live near 12 Mile Road and Woodward, halfway between Pontiac and downtown Detroit. Sometimes I get the 47 DeSoto Custom Suburban out, and do the DreamCruise. Not much, cruise from 12 Mile to 11 Mile, and take the local streets home. Sometimes the best time to cruise is the evenings before the official Saturday event. And I might visit the basilica. The National Shrine of the Little Flower Basilica, at 12 Mile and Woodward, is a destination in itself, plus a Friday Night chicken dinner tents at the school, and Saturday activity tents on the church lawn. Contact me if you will be around for the WPC Meet.

"Inch" in some languages is the same as "thumb". "Foot" is obvious. Twelve thumbs in a foot. What could be more natural? I remember a spoof on Noah and the ark, where Noa asks, "What's a cubit?"

I wouldn't touch the metric system with a 3 meter pole.

I don't have a wiring diagram to show you, but I have an explanation for wiring a single-wire alternator in the post-war DeSoto (and Chrysler, I suppose). The voltage regulator will not be needed any more. Disconnect the wires. Connect the Black wire from the "B" (Battery) post to the Red wire from the "A" (Armature) post. (This wire will run to the new alternator.) The Green wire from the "F" (Field) post will not be used and can be abandoned. (The voltage regulator can be kept in place for show.) At the generator, disconnect the Red wire from the "A" (armature ) post. Connect this wire to the single wire of the alternator. At the generator, disconnect the Green wire and Brown wire from the "F" (field) post. Abandon the Green wire which ran to the voltage regulator. Connect the Brown wire to a suitable ground (earth). This wire comes from the starter solenoid. (In my car, I grounded this wire at the solenoid.) (Chrysler grounded the starter solenoid through the generator field, so that if the engine were running, the starter could not be engaged.)

The "Continental" tire mount fascinates me. Ingenious, but troublesome. The continental mount gets the spare tire out of the cargo compartment, or out of the passenger compartment, but creates a very high tailgate, which looks too prominent, makes for a heavy lift to raise and lower the tailgate, and requires the extra step of swinging down the ingenious center section of the bumper before lowering the tailgate. As cars got longer, with lots of space in the fenders behind the wheels, the spare tire for a station wagon found its traditional home in the fendr,on under the floor. Now, station wagons are gone. The minivan or SUV may have a mini spare under the floor, or a puncture- sealing tire inflation can in a fender.

What happens to the bumper when the tailgate is lowered?

"Now I need to drain the trans. Put in about a 1q of the GL1. " The shorthand confused me. I thought "Put in a 1 q..." was a command, and was about to scream "No!" But it was past tense. "I put in about 1 q...." OK, GL-1 comes out, 10 weight oil goes in. Whew.

That elongated clock would fit a DeSoto.

The grounding circuit from the steering wheel controls the horn relay, which switches the heavy amp power to the horn(s). With the horn control circuit grounded at the steering wheel, the heavy wire to the horn is live, and the horn sounds. The horn body itself is grounded, to complete that power circuit.

DeSoto U-joints are the modern Spicer type, aren't they?