Robert Horne

I love my little 38 Coupe I bought in 1986, but I would never invest a large amount of money in an interior. With my headliner, I used a quality blanket, from Walmart I believe for material. I kept pulling and clamping the material a little each day, until I was happy with it. After a few years, it looks as good as new. Not bad for a hundred dollar investment......

Well anyway, with my 38 Coupe, I did not soup up the flathead, but did modify the trans with a TK5 Ford Ranger 5 speed to make the Coupe more driveable for me. On my 37 Coupe or 37 sedan, I have other options, Jeep inline, or Ranger V6, or Chevy 350. Just waiting on cool weather to get started. There are plenty of threads on here where the guys here have installed a lot of different engines, and transmissions.

http://www.por15.com/POR-15-Cleaner-Degreaser_p_14.html Found info that says Por15's present cleaner degreaser, was formerly "marine clean". Even is cleaning greasy parts with not flammable cleaners and heat, we need to be careful. The grease from the parts could be flammable. I use an old cooking grill out back of the shop to warm up soapy water to clean greasy parts. I read on the net, of heating up antifreeze as a parts cleaners, since the boiling point would be much higher than just soapy water. I have not tried this yet...

I am 66, pretty much in the same train of thoughts for these old cars as you. My two Uncles traded a 36 Plymouth Coupe back and forth for over 40 years. They were my heros. I have had my pair of 38 Coupes for 28 years, (nothing like a pair of 38s), still not beautiful, but driveable. It has always been my therapy when difficult time came about.

Looking at my Plymouth repair manual, the 39 to 41 brake/clutch assembly is a little different than my 37/38s, but is very close...

The 86 MC was an easy install. I made an adapter from a piece of angle iron. Worked good for 10 years, then I installed a 94 Bronco MC, which has a bigger bore. One worked as good as the other. With the Bronco MC, it is easier to see the fluid level...

Here is a photo of my 38 brake/clutch assembly, with a 86 Dodge master cylinder. Is the 39 assembly different than the 38?

I believe the Mazda hose did have metric threads. I had to run new hard lines anyway, so worked out ok.... I would not trust the quality of ebay or other rubber lines that are over 50 years old, with 40psi of pressure.

Here is a photo of a similar hose to the Plymouth hose, I took off a 1992 Mazda pickup truck.

The starters from each may still work though. On my 38 Coupe, I have the 38 bell housing, that has had the 38 starter, 37 starter, a 54 starter, and finally a 56 starter(12 volt). They all fit ok....

I am using a 12 volt 1956 starter in my 38 Coupe several years now. The 12 volt tags are green, 6 volt tags are red, easy, quick way to tell volts....

My 82hp/5speed Ranger trans, 3.7 Ranger rearend combo, does 55mph at about 1800 rpm, with no strain. Going up a small grade, still do not have to downshift to 4th gear. With the Ranger rear, I had to use wheel spacers. The 95 and up Explorer rears have disc brakes, but nothing wrong with the 94 and older rears. I have a 98 Jeep Cherokee XJ rear, 3.55 gear, drum brake, I would like to try next. There are several people on here that adapted modern master cylinders, and still used their same brake/clutch pedals. I used a Mustang II MC on my 48 Dodge, easy install, worked great.....

A long time friend of mine had this one for several years. It was titled as a 49 Plymouth, but looking at it, it seemed to be a 50 with the bumpers and tail lights...

The 3.9 was too low for me, even in hilly Virginia, with the 3 speed. At 55 engine was doing a lot of rpm, had plenty of power to go to 65. The 3.9 was to low also with the 5 speed, in that first gear was like a "granny gear", but the rpm was better at the 55 and 65 speeds, still plenty of power from the engine. With the 3.7 rear, the first gear is great for uphill starts, or dirt/gravel roads, 4th gear great for 45 speed limit areas, and 5th gear great at higher speed areas. At 30mph I can still go up a few degrees incline without going to 4th, and not have any problems. "82hp" seems great for the type driving I do, no Interstate yet. The tach I installed reads about 1500 to 2000 most of the time, power is real good. The engine feels like a truck engine, more than what I would consider a car engine, in that it has plenty of torque. The 46 Plymouth car I would think, would be a heavier car than my little Coupe, so a different situation there. I believe the 46s may have 100hp, so with the right rear/trans upgrade for the LA area, a good running 100hp engine, would be good....

It took me very much time to finally get my 38 brakes good. I installed a small 86 Dodge master cylinder on to the original brake pedal assembly. It worked good for 10 years, and then I installed a larger Ford Bronco MC, that worked about the same. Where my problems were, was the new brakes lines had a small leak, replace one fitting 3 times, and the driver side wheel cylinder, rear, always had a small leak. One of my brake drums was out of round, even after it was shaved, so I replaced that. First,I adjusted the brake adjustments just to where the wheel would only move a little, made sure the MC push rod had a little free play, and then I bleed the system. The past couple of years, full pedal, after 20 years of always having to checking the system.... I installed 70s Granada linings on my Plymouth shoes, good fit...

I have a 3:55 Cherokee XJ rearend for backup, just incase my 3:73 Ranger rear did not work out. The XJ would be a closer fit, over the Ranger with spacers. The stock 3.9 was too low with the stock 3 speed trans, and the 5 speed Ranger trans, even in hilly Virginia. .

My little 38 Coupe at 55mph was doing a lot of rpms, 3 speed trans, 3.9 rear, 235 tires. I installed a Ford Ranger TK5 five speed trans, 3.73 rear. Now the Coupe at 55mph is doing about 1600 to 1800 rpm on level road..

I have run my 38 Coupe for a lot of years without a thermostat, 50/50 all winter, all water all summer. When I finally got my Coupe on the highway, I used all water no thermostat, all summer, and changed the water about every week or so until fall. The car ran about 160 on hot days, and 130 on cool day, to the cruise ins on Saturday evenings. These were short distance, about 25 minutes, so really not much time to heat up the engine mass, and about 4 gallons of water. In the fall, installed a 180 stat, drained as much water as possible, including heater, and installed 100 % antifreeze. As an experiment, I am still running all antifreeze. The Coupe runs 180 on cool to 85 degree days, and runs up to near 190 for a couple of minutes, and then back to 180. I do not drive on hotter days, as I would not do as well as the Coupe. On a 100 mile road run, the Coupe run 180 all day, with 100% antifreeze, 75 degree day. I will have to try a road run on a hot day to see how the Coupe does, and I can take plenty of ice for myself............

Your dashboard looks great. On my 38, I have a hodge podge of gauges. My originals are working, and I added a boat tach, volt meter, and mechanical coolant temperature gauge..........

I believe the cheap type paper is what is required. If the large roll is too large, take some of the sheets off.

The Frantz oil filter system takes a toilet paper element. That may least expensive way to go. You could always pickup a filter almost anywhere....

Yesterday, my friend brought over his new Dodge Ram with the 3.6/automatic. Drove real nice, plenty of get up and go, trans very smooth. Sure would like to have a setup like that in one of my Plymouths, but I am happy with my 82hp/5speed setup,,,,,,for now...................

The torque numbers are amazing on the 3.7. The new Dodge Journey with the 3.6 has a 6 speed automatic trans. drives great...

I drove a new Dodge Journey today, that had the 3.6, a big WOW with this engine. The paper say 283hp, but feels more like 200, but still a great product....

Here is a photos of a sway bar from a 98 XJ Cherokee. I plan on installing it on my 38 soon. The original 37/38 sway bar is very weak. There was a thread on here not long ago of the install....