desoto1939

Norm: The reason why I piriganly posted the information about the speciality company is because of a gentleman asking which insuracne to use for his antique truck. An d from my attendance at the AACA conventions I thought it was important to let the members know the difference between stated value and cash value. Just trying to save someone from thinking that they have coverage and then later on find out that they do not have coverage. JC Taylor is about 20 miles from my home. When i first contacted them years ago they did have a limit on the amount of miles that you could drive your car. I also had insurance with Congdon and Skelly and they had a 2500 mile limit. One year I went over the 2500 miles and they wrote me a letter informing me that they were going to drop me because of the mileage. Hense forth I dropped them and went with Grundy. My father in-law had JC Taylor and at one point i remember when completing my application they asked for an accounting of the odemeter reading each year. They might have changed this over the years but this is what I was presented with when I was looking at a Antique car insuracne company. Rich Hartung. desoto1939@aol.com

This has been posted on both forums: Please beaware of a major issue that you all need to know. There is waht is called inthe insurance world as stated valued and cash value. With the antique car specilatiy companys like Grundy, JC Taylor they have what is stated valued. This is the value that you and they have agreed upon when you filed you application. In this type of insuracne the car is not depreciated like in you regular car insurance as in a cash value. If you have had an accident with your regular car the car has a blue book value and it depreciates over time and with milage and condition. This is just like when you take the car off the delaers lot and the car is not worth what you paid. If you insurace with a cash value company then you have an old car that is used and they go by the blue book value. A 1940 Ply is used even if restored and is worth nothing. There is a major discussion ob this every year at the AACA convention that is held in Philadelphia in Feb. The stated value is the only way to insure your car. The cost is very cheap I have my 39 Desoto insured for 15K with full collision and comprehensive and it costs me $115 a year. The compnay that I use is Grundy. They do not have any limit on the amount of miles that I put on the car each year. JC Taylor has a 2500 mile limit. Please, and I again please check your policys to make sure that if your car is totaled in anaccidnet that you will get the entire amount that you THINK again what you THINK it is insured for you might be in for a very big surprise and find out that the car has no value. Call several antique car insurance companies and get a quote. I had an accident and crumpled a rear fender and Grundy paid out with out any question to the tune of 1500 and the policy was never increased. Call me if you want to discuss. Rich Hartung desoto1939@aol.com

This will be posted on both sides of the forum: Please beaware of a major issue that you all need to know. There is waht is called inthe insurance world as stated valued and cash value. With the antique car specilatiy companys like Grundy, JC Taylor they have what is stated valued. This is the value that you and they have agreed upon when you filed you application. In this type of insuracne the car is not depreciated like in you regular car insurance as in a cash value. If you have had an accident with your regular car the car has a blue book value and it depreciates over time and with milage and condition. This is just like when you take the car off the delaers lot and the car is not worth what you paid. If you insurace with a cash value company then you have an old car that is used and they go by the blue book value. A 1940 Ply is used even if restored and is worth nothing. There is a major discussion ob this every year at the AACA convention that is held in Philadelphia in Feb. The stated value is the only way to insure your car. The cost is very cheap I have my 39 Desoto insured for 15K with full collision and comprehensive and it costs me $115 a year. The compnay that I use is Grundy. They do not have any limit on the amount of miles that I put on the car each year. JC Taylor has a 2500 mile limit. Please, and I again please check your policys to make sure that if your car is totaled in anaccidnet that you will get the entire amount that you THINK again what you THINK it is insured for you might be in for a very big surprise and find out that the car has no value. Call several antique car insurance companies and get a quote. I had an accident and crumpled a rear fender and Grundy paid out with out any question to the tune of 1500 and the policy was never increased. Call me if you want to discuss. Rich Hartung desoto1939@aol.com

Please beaware of a major issue that you all need to know. There is waht is called inthe insurance world as stated valued and cash value. With the antique car specilatiy companys like Grundy, JC Taylor they have what is stated valued. This is the value that you and they have agreed upon when you filed you application. In this type of insuracne the car is not depreciated like in you regular car insurance as in a cash value. If you have had an accident with your regular car the car has a blue book value and it depreciates over time and with milage and condition. This is just like when you take the car off the delaers lot and the car is not worth what you paid. If you insurace with a cash value company then you have an old car that is used and they go by the blue book value. A 1940 Ply is used even if restored and is worth nothing. There is a major discussion ob this every year at the AACA convention that is held in Philadelphia in Feb. The stated value is the only way to insure your car. The cost is very cheap I have my 39 Desoto insured for 15K with full collision and comprehensive and it costs me $115 a year. The compnay that I use is Grundy. They do not have any limit on the amount of miles that I put on the car each year. JC Taylor has a 2500 mile limit. Please, and I again please check your policys to make sure that if your car is totaled in anaccidnet that you will get the entire amount that you THINK again what you THINK it is insured for you might be in for a very big surprise and find out that the car has no value. Call several antique car insurance companies and get a quote. I had an accident and crumpled a rear fender and Grundy paid out with out any question to the tune of 1500 and the policy was never increased. Call me if you want to discuss. Rich Hartung desoto1939@aol.com

At our local car club meeting they showed a video of this scanner. Jay had an exhust valve from an old Locomobile car and this was a sliding value that had developed a crack. They scanned the valved and then the machione then made a complete working copy of the valve in plastic. The valve did even work and slide up and down. The example was used to show that in case if you had an old part you could make a copy and then take it to a tool and die maker and get a new part made for you. They then took an 8 inch adjustable wrench and scanned this and made a fully working plastic copy and the wrench worked and the adjustement barrell made the jaws move in and out. It is amasing what the high tech industry is coming up with. Rich HArtung desoto1939@aol.com

Mike: You should beable to unscrew the knob off the element which is the part that goes into the dash. This is the small wire coil that get red hot to light the cigar or cigarette. Then all you would need to find is just the correct button end. Try to get some interior pictures or a factory catalog for your car at a swap meet. This will help you greatly when looking for parts. Do not feel bad we all have done this very same thing over the years. A vendor will tell you what ever he thinks you will beleive. You have to know your car and this willtake some time and you will get the hang of going to Hershey. When goint ot Hershey if you find a part do not offer full price. Hershey always has inflated prices just because its Hershey and this is where the big guns come out to play. You could have seen this just buy looking at some of the cars that are going to be judged. Alwasy try to barter for a lower price and if they will not move on the price then its up to you to accept their price or move onto another vendor. It also depends on how bad you want the part. I have been doing this for over 20+ years. Here is an example i found a complete glove box lid with the clock for my 39 Desoto and it was complete and notheing was broken. The vendor had $150 on the item. I looked it over to insure it was complete then put it back down and then looked some more at his site. I then took out a $100 bill and then put this on top of the item so he could see the money, remember the movie show me the money. I did not put the $150 on the item. He saw the 100 and took my offer. But i started low and was willing to come up to his price. Play the game it can be lots of fun bartering and you will get good at doing this. Rich Hartung

I am not saying that we do not have the younger generation no interested in cars. But the opportunity for the non car guys that could change an air filter or change the oil and filter has been made tougher because the cars have been made not to permit us to do this type of work. And when our kids can not see this being done by their dads and when they only can take the car to the repair shop and the repair shop will not permit anyone into the repair bay then how can we transfer the knowledge of a hands on experience. The cars of yesteryear were alot easirer to work on and you could see the parts and could identify the parts. Now when you look in an engine compartment all you sometimes see is a big black piece of plastic that covers the entire engine and only a few things are labeled such as the oil cap, windshield water reservior, brake fluid, trans stick and automatic steering fluid. As a mater of fact my 2009 Volvo v70 does not even have a dipstick for the trans and its an automatic. Volvo does not even want you to touch this area. So this is the point that I am trying to get across that if our kids do not see us checking these items then they do not even know that they exist. Rich Hartung

I have seen several guys glue a thin sheet of plastic to the back of the backer board to goes against the door. Thsi helps to stop any moisture from getting to the board when the windows are down and whenthe rain goes down inside the door. Glue your padding maternial onto the backer board and keep it tight and pull it with some vise grips that have the wide flat metal on the ends to stretch the material. Then you beable to find a person that has a commercial sewing machine and then stitch the outer ends to the backer board with the trim material. Just some thoughts. Also might stop and ask a car upholstry guy for some ideas. They are alwasy glad to provide help when they see what you are doing and might even provide some tricks of the trade. Rich Hartung desoto1939@aol.com

All of the Antique car clubs are having this very same issue including the AACA and there might be serveral reasons for this situation. When we were all younger our dads, uncles or whatever could go out and lift up the hood of the car and we could identify the various parts of the engine. Dad was able to change the spark plugs, put a new air filter onthe carb, Adjust the point and put in a new condensor. We could even remove and replace a carb and if dad had some talent we could even rebuld the carb. We would help out with the oil chaneg and filter and lube the car. We would even check the trans fluid and then rotate the tires and put on snow tires in the winter and put on new wiper blades and all of the stuff that dad felt was good for us to know about a car sh we could take care of our car when we had enough cash to buy one. Now in the modern world there is electronic ignitions, we do not change points, condensors or even dizzy caps. When was the last time that you changed a spark plug, or should I say was able to even locate them inthe engine area and then if you could find one how the heck did you get to it without standing on your head or have to have your arm contoured in several ways just to feel where it is. We can no longer get under the cars to even change the oil and filters and if they are being change this does not happen until we have hit 5-7 thousand miles and then take it to the oil place since we need a lift. Where the heck is the air filter, it is located behind headlights and you have to disconnect so many black tubes you are afraid that you might break something in just trying to do this simple task. In some of the newer cars we do not even change the radiator fliud until the car has hit 100k. I remember doing this every other fall with my dad. We do not even change tires to winter tires since we have radials and now we can get 60-80k on a set of tires. Basically the cars have become so effiecent and with better technology we do not have to or even in some time want to try to attempt to fix a modern car. So since there is no longer a transfer of knowledge to our younger generation they have lost the interest in old cars. Lets all hope that we can get some kids or even our kids interested in keeping the old cars running because they are the future of the hobby and this is changing very quickly. I attended the Hershey meet and yes you do not see the young generation attneding the event and this is how the hobby is progressing. The young kids are into theser high rev tuners and now have more money than we did as kids and just want to make them look great and sound great and just drive the heck out of the cars. As the old guard its up to us to keep the spirit alive of getting your hands full of grease and tinkering. All comments welcomed. Rich Hartung Desoto1939@aol.com

The seller is Frank Mitchell in Georgia.

The tag is the production date. The part number is cast into the head rich Hartung desoto1939@aol.com

There are several questions that need to be answered. 1. Do youhave the original Lockeed brakes with the eccentrics. 2. Did you move the eccentric pins 3. HAve you made the minot adjustments on the shoes. I have the Ammco brake gage that is needed to get the proper arc on the shoes with the inside diameter of your drums. Contact me if you want to borrow the tool. Rich Hartung Desoto1939@aol.com

Mike I have delat with Rhode Island wire and have had the tailllight and wiper motor harness made for me. The people are easy to work with. Several years ago that made a harnes for a 39 Dodge that was covered in cloth tape. I took my original wire harnes with the loom with the blue stikers on it to shown them an original and now they have corrected their wire harnes at least for the 39 Dodge/Ply/Chry and Desoto. They use to be at Hershey but have not been there for the past two years. They will listen to you if you can provide the proff if they need to change an items. Rich Hartung Desoto1939@aol.com

The 40-48 desoto all used the same front wheel bearing and they are a tapered timikin bearing Inner 14125A-14276 The first # is the cone the seconfd is the cup. These are Timkin Numbers not Mopar factory numbers and were taken from the Hollander cross reference book. Outer 09074-09194 same as the above for cone an cup number They should have these or be able to get for you. They should also beable to get brakes hoses. Do not have nuymbers on these. rich Hartung Desoto1939@aol.com

Clifford: Does your truck have the lockheed brakes in which there is a pin that holds the shoe and the shoe pivots on this pin. This is called an eccentric pin. The pin is not equal in diameter. It is an oofset pin. When turnign this pin it moves the shoes in and out and also up and down to be concentric to the drum. The tool that was used is the mIller MTC brake tool or the Ammco bake gage. If you put on new shoes then you should perform a major adjustement witht he tool to get the shoes in the perfect arch to the drum to get a good contact with the drum. If you have not removed the shoes but they need an adjustment because of a low pedal then the upper cams which have a cresent style arch on them are used to move the shoe closer to the drum. This is the big bolt onthe back of the backing plate I think it is a 7/8 inch bolt. Jack up the front on the car or truck spin the wheel move the bolt sho the wheel locks or stops turning. Then back off the same nut a little so the wheel spins with a little drag. Then do the same for the other shoe. This is called a minor adjustment. I have the two brake adjustment tools if needed. I will lend out but need a deposit on the toolto insure that I get the tool returned to me. Do a search on Ebay for Ammco brake gage and you will see the tool a model 1750. They go for $400 and up. Rich Hartung Desoto1939@aol.com 484-431-8157 cellphone

There is a great item on ebay for a 1938 Dodge Offenhauser twoCarb Intake for 1938 and up. The item ends today it even looks to have the throttle linkage included. do a seach on 1938 dodge This is a great buy Rich HArtung

Need input from the forum members if I should pursue getting a supply of new style replacement metal throway oil filters. These filters will have a rating of 10 microns in filtering material size. The standard NAP filter at 30 Microns. I have to purcahse a mimium of 25 units to get a price that would permit me to sell the units in the 30 dollar range plus shipping. The filter would be a little different in that the flange would not be at the top like the original style Fram PB1/2 but would be in the middle of the unit. If you are not concerned about originality then these will do what you want it to do for a driver car. I have attached a picture for your viewing please. I need to get some feed back from the members so see if I get enough guys interested to purchase the minimum because of the cash that I need to spend on my part. Please respond with some either positive or any neagative answers. I wil not be affended either way. Just trying to help out. You can also send to my home email at Desoto1939@aol.com Rich Hartung

Rustygrain: Here are some pictures of my woodgraining using the grain-it kit. This is on a 39 Desoto using curly maple graining. You can call me for more information. I will be going to Hershey on Thursday and Friday Rich Hartung desoto1939@aol.com 484-431-8157

The big block engine had a standard hp of 92 and with the aluminum head you would get 100hp not sure on the ci. I have a MOPAR factory Aluminum head that can be used for any big block enginee from 1938 and up. It has been milled and is in great shape. the small block dodge/ply had a hp of 85 which was equal to the ford v8 engine of that time. So the Chrysler/Desoto engine produced more HP that the Ford V8 and had juice brakes and was much easier to work on the engine because of the location of the Distributor on the ford was so close to the fan blade that you had to send the dizzy out to be timed. rich Hartung desoto1939@aol.com

In the older cars the kickpanels were of a colored cardboard material with a piece of welting sewed to the edges. On cars these were matched to the color of the interior. On my 39 Desoto these were gray to match the orginal color of the exterior. If you go to restoration supply company.you can get any color that you wnat for your car. Rich Hartung

I use Grundy Insuracne company. They are a great company and they do not care how many miles you drive your antique vehicle each year. I had a fender bender and they were very quick in getting me the money after having an estimate done on the car. They did not even come out to look at the damage. here is their link www.grundy.com They are also old car owners so are great to work with and you are smart to have the truck insured by an antique car insurance company and not your regular insurance company. This is a major topic at the AACA conventiion every year that is held in Philadelphia. Rich Hartung desoto1939@aol.com

On this unit there are several selinoids and a push pull rod that hooks to the steering column. Great buy for who ever got it. It would have fit in my 39 but you would have also needed the drive shaft that went with the car to make it a complete unit since the drive shaft is shofter that on the regular car without the overdrive unit. The overdrive had the cross style universal on the front and the detroits on the rear at the pinion. Yes he is rodding the coupe. Rich Hartung Desoto1939@aol.com

Dan: Attached are two pictures of the paper air filter that I am currently using on my 39 Desoto that stil luses the stock factory oil bath air cleaner housing. I am using a NAPA paper filter Hope this might help you, Rich Hartung Desoto1939@aol.com

I was member of the NAtional DeSoto Club and ran the 98 Convention here in Philadelphia. Our NAtional board communicated every or every other month via a mialed package or via emails to the board members. The local chapters were not involved with the day to day decisions that the board of directors vote on. If the Board had enought input and they decided to make a bylaw change then they voted the measure into effect. They are the govenroing body fo all of the local and set the policy for when a local club holds a national event. When I chaired our convention we created a new class for previous winners. In this class if you were a previous winner from the pior year or a Senior AACA winner then you had the option of being placed into this new category. The thinking on this was to give the other participants that have not won a trophy a chance to get one and It also took some of the pressure off the guys that had the strictly show/trailer queens. For them they could then sit back and show there cars. They were awarded a special plaque. In this class we had a car that had won its AACA seniot and was a White Post resotoration. The gentleman that owner this car was the first one to volunteer to go into this class and it was a big success and has been adopted from then and is used at all of the Desoto events. The President adpoted our request on a trial basis at our convention and then it was passed as a by law change. The POC should permit experimental chnages to see how this affects attendance and how the members that attend take to the change. We also published this in the advance registration packet. You have to keep thinking out of the box. The clubs are getting older. Plymouths are no longer being produced so eventually the cars will not be restored and the newer 80/90/00's are soooo hard to work on that these might not even be worth the trouble to restore. All clubs need to get there heads out of the sand hole. If they do not then they will die. We are seeing this in our local clubs and even with specific marquee clubs. Wake up and smell the roses before the pedals all wilt and get thrown out in the trash. Comments welcome. I am an outsider to the POC but from my reading on this forum the members have some good suggestions and they need to keep pushing the current President to respond. If you let them off the hook and do not force them then they will never have a leg to stand on. Rich Hartung Desoto1939@aol.com

Mike: You could fly into HArriburg, PA airport and then drive two exits west on the PA turnpike to Carlise. The event ends on this weekend and then the vendors move over to Hershey on Wed, Thursday Friday and the Show is on Saturday. Most of the vendors are packing up and Late Friday becasue most of the people come to see the show on Saturday. If you plan to come then come on Thursday/Friday. Bring a rain poncho and good walking shoes since the enhtire flea market is on asphault, Hotel rooms are next to and I realy will say impossible toget for a night so you have to go out of town for hotel. Rich Hartung Desoto1939@aol.com