DonaldSmith

A more visible parking brake light would help. My DeSoto had one of the turn signal indicators wired to be on when the parking brake is on. I added a light to shine under the dash to alert me of the brake-on condition, instead of the turn signal indicator. Not good enough. So I incorporated the light into an auxiliary panel. Very visible now.

My WAG: The milky white appearance is due to the sanding. Put water on them and the milky white should disappear. Also, put a light behind the surface, and some of the red should show through.

3.1417... there's a Greek letter for that. Sounds like something to eat for dessert.

My shop manual uses the term "steering tube" for the what I called the shaft, and "column jacket" for what I called the "steering column tube". The jacket can be removed with the steering gear housing in place, but the inner steering tube is welded to the worm gear. You could remove the jacket up and out through the cabin, and the inner steering tube and worm gear from the bottom of the gear housing,and then down and out. But it mightbe easier and less messy to remove the whole steering gear, tube and jacket down and out. I cut the tube as part of a conversion to power steering, so I was able to remove the jacket and tube up through the cabin. Maybe some of the boys can chip in with their own experiences.

There was a recent thread on removing just the steering column tube, for repainting. The shaft is attached to the steering box and is not removable separately. I think that when the body was dropped onto the frame, the steering wheel and shifting lever were off, but the steering and shifting shafts were in place, and the shafts were threaded through the cowl opening that gets covered by the large grommet. You may have to lift the body up and back, thw same way it went on. Or first remove the steering box with shaft.

I see that the blue car has the grille shaped to the prow of the hood. The green car has crescent-shaped fillers between the sheet metal and the straight tops of the grille. I have no idea whether it was manufactured that way.

Be clear whether we are talking about the fluid coupling, which puts the "Fluid" in "Fluid Drive", or the gearbox. Some Dodges had a standard 3-speed transmission mated to the fluid coupling. Use the clutch to start off, but you could drive around all day in third. DeSotos and Chryslers had the four-speed semi-automatic, sometimes called the "Klunk-O-Matic". Use the clutch to start off, usually in the "Drive" range, and drive around without shifting. The car starts off in a less-than-blistering 3rd and upshifts to 4th. The fluid converter takes a special hydraulic oil. There are threads on this. The gearbox itself, if manual, would take the usual manual gearbox lubricant, SAE 80 or 90. The four-speed semi-automatic transmission takes 10W engine oil.

Ain't these cars fun? I feel for you.

10 gauge wire should do the job. I have my 6 volt fan and inverter controlled by a relay triggered by the Acc/Ign switch. So my fan stops running and the inverter is off when I shut off the engine. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to have the fan run on, but the inverter has to be off or the battery will run down. (I left the Acc switch on once, so I know.) I have the power coming directly from the battery, but I could run it through the ammeter. I have 10 gauge wire powering the ammeter. The fan is controlled by another relay, triggered by a manual On switch and by a coolant sensor.

Thanks, ssdave and Young Ed. I'm guessing that the skins were sold separately, to refurbish the whole unit? Let it rust inside, or prime it, and snap on a new skin. (I've heard somewhere that it takes a bit of skill to do.) I've led a sheltered life. Never re-skinned a hubcap.

What's a hubcap skin? Is that like a leppo? What's beneath the hubcap skin? The PO of my DeSoto suburban mentioned something about the hubcaps for long wheelbase cars being heavier, and something about replacing skins. But I inquired no further. Now, inquiring minds need to know. Photos would be good. Anyone, anyone?

Did you remove the large grommet at the floor? The photo from the engine side shows the shifting mechanism. The little arm has to come out before the shaft jacket can be pulled through the opening. Here's the jacket shaft with big grommet coming out.

Back in 2009, I sacrificed a binder clip handle to made a spring for one of the window rollers. It's still working. The broken clip is under the transparent tape, and the reworked binder clip spring is to the left. The spread out safety pin was too short and too thin to use.

Source for 6-volt 1-wire alternator: Try a local auto electric repair shop, the more hole-in-the-wall, the better. Starters, generators, alternators repaired. 12-volt off-the-shelf alternators converted to 6-volt. Pulleys switched as necessary.

That photo of the line of cars filing between the snowbanks- shocking! The people in the first are are lighting up cigarettes!

Smarta$$ answer: Very carefully.

For my power steering project, I've got various belts from Grainger Industrial Supply. They seem to be international. I would order a belt on line and pick it up at the store the same day or the next day. If the belt was too long or too short, I would return it for another size. As the project evolved, I would order a few different sizes at a time.

Maybe it's "AK", Alaska, instead of "SK". Only one keystroke different. I frewurntlu have troublr hitting the wronh keys.

The thermal grounding sensor that I used taps into the cooling stream. I used a cast iron tee with bushing. I installed the tee in the top radiator hose. I had to add a ground wire to the sensor, since the hoses would insulate the sensor from ground. (Yes, the fan clears the sensor.) The sensor that Don Coatney describes has a thin probe that goes through the radiator (between the tubes). That type of sensor has its own relay. I have a separate relay that is tripped by the sensor grounding the circuit.

Speedway Motors sells a thermal switch that senses coolant temperature. The thermal switch grounds a circuit. Cooling fan sensor: 91064026-185 or -195. (I got the 185; could have got the 195, since water boils at 212 at sea level.) (I got a 6-volt, 16-inch fan from Speedway, garage sale, $90, otherwise on sale for $120.) Add a manual switch if you want. Have the switch(es) trip a relay to control the fan power. I added another relay, controlled by the ignition switch, to power the fan relay and an inverter (for 12 volt electronics). Fan can run, and inverter is on, only when the key is turned to Ignition or Accessory. Speedway had some mis-marked 12-volt relays which I returned. I got the relays and connecting sockets through Amazon- search for 6-volt relays.

Another thing to notice in the diagram of the 1942 air conditioning system is how high the compressor is. We are used to the low hoods of newer cars, and would try to keep everything low. But it looks like the compressor is way above the engine but still fits neatly under the hood . (Kudos to AndyDodge for clarifying the sides of the car for us U.S. folks who do not have our steering wheels on the right side of the car.)

When I added power steering to my 47 DeSoto, I added a pulley to the crankshaft end, and had to move the radiator forward and wallow out the crossmember. I ran across a diagram of a 42 DeSoto with air conditioning. It looks like they added the extra pulley to the water pump, avoiding the crankshaft end and the crossmember. They mounted the compressor on the passenger side of the engine. Hmmmmm... I wish I had thought of that. (Might still have to do something so that the fan would clear the new pulley and belt.) (That's the U.S passenger side, per Andy Dodge's recent clarifications.)

In the selective attention test, i saw the gorilla because I was expecting something like this. However, I lost count of how many times the people in white passed the ball.

As the wise men say, this too shall pass. Much easier to zap the stone into a million pieces than to pass it whole. (Ouch!) Think giving birth. 14 millimeters - more than a half inch. Much larger than the occasional boulder I find in my shoes. Glad the procedure went well.

Yep, it's the elusive Jiffy-Jet windshield washer system.