Norm's Coupe

Fred, My kick panels are mounted with four stainless screws. One at the top and one at the bottom along the door edge. The other two mounting screws go through the heater/fresh air ducts vent cover at the door edge, that is slipped over the kick panels. The vent has a grove that the kick panel slips into. That was the way my originals were held on, so that's how I put them back on.

I never noticed the headlights because to me one headlight is as good as the other. Even if that bulls eye headlight is supposed to brighter, wouldn't matter. Had my coupe for 15 years and only needed the headlights about 3 times. I could put candles in mine and it wouldn't matter.

They call it windlace. It's advertised in their catalog in the same place the headliner for old cars are. Just below it. Don't know if it's on their website. As I recall it wasn't very expensive at all through them. But........we're talking back in the late 90's. It's still in the catalog but since I no longer needed it, I didn't pay attention to the prices today. I'm sure it's gone up some since I bought mine.

As mentioned, JC Whitney has it in either original type cloth or vinyl. As far as yardage, you'll have to measure that. Just measure the distance around each door where it goes, then divide by 3 to find the yards needed. For amount of feet needed, divide the distance by 12.

Yep, the grill is worth at least the $1500 to a street rodder, if not more.

Fred, You may be surprised, but actually that looks about the same shape as the P15 coupe kick panel. I had the originals to use as a pattern. Looks like the only difference would probably be the size.

That was my first thought too. He used fiberglass. But.....then started thinking about it. If that is all one piece across the top, the weight could cause it to fall, especially after the car is bounced around driving. Don't know how you could secure it without seeing fasteners of some kind, if it were fiberglass. That's why I said it's probably steel welded in, then painted. Bottom line. I'm like you, I really don't care for chopped tops either.

Andy, not sure how those books would sell on ebay. As usual though ebay is full of surprises on anything you put up there. But.......If my wife or I want to buy old books, paperback or hardcover, we usually go to a store named Half Priced Books. They buy a lot of books from people too. Usually by the bag or box full. They don't give you much for the books. However, if they don't sell the books within a short period of time for half price, they will lower the price down to as little as $1.00 per book. So.........why go to ebay? Half Priced Books also has a website you can order from if you don't have a store nearby. Back in the mid to late 90's I even found the sought after book "How to Build Chrysler, Plymouth, Dodge Hot Rods" by Tex Smith. Original retail price was only $19.95 for that book. Mine was brand new from Half Price Books for only $9.95. Some have said that book sells for $150 or more today. I've found other old car books, even original factory service manuals there real cheap too. At any rate. Tim did reply to my post about donating the books. Just got confused and put it in another thread. He's going to donate them. That's what I'd do too. I'd rather see someone in a nursing home or VA hospital, etc. have something to enjoy reading too, than to make a couple of bucks. To me, that would make me feel better and happier knowing someone who can't get out or afford to buy a book, has something good to read.

Not sure, but I do have a guess. If you blow the picture up on your computer you can see some weld joints around the edges. To eliminate putting a headliner in, I think they just cut some flat steel to fit, then rolled beads into the steel for extra strength so it wouldn't sound like a drum hitting bumps (like you would to prevent panning on the floor). Then welded that piece into the top around the edges. Not a bad idea, and if one wanted, they could now install a modern flat type headliner over that.

Think it's about 500 lbs. without the tranny.

That's true, and you hear about those people who do fall for it on the news a lot of times. Even professional people like doctors, etc., have fallen prey to those schemes.

Fred, If you have no stainless strip that goes along the top edge of the carpet, then you'll have to sew the carpet onto your door panel material prior to installing the covering. If you look at the door panels on my website, you'll see some flat material, plus the pleated material. I had to sew those together first, prior to installing the covering on the backer board, then add the stainless over the sewing joint. In your case though, without something to cover that joint, you will need to turn under the edges of the carpet to get an even good looking joint between the two.

Fred, on the P15, that lower section (carpet area on yours) has a stainless strip that it's attached to the top section of the panel covering with. If you rip off the cloth section on top, you will see that the covering is only clipped onto the stainless strip. So..........you have to raise those clips off, clean out all the old material from under them, then attach to your new panel covering the same way by bending those clips down. To get the material down into that embossing strip. Find something that fits in that grove real nice to use to press the covering in as you cover the panel. Actually, you could use a small dowel if nothing else. Just grind it down on the tip until it will seat down in that grove, then smooth it off on the point of the dowel so it doesn't cut into the material. Then you can drag it along those indentations to seat the material into the panel.

People even get those when they place an ad in the local newspapers. One of the giveaways on this one is he's sending you the money to pay the freight company. When making deals like these, I always verify the information given to me, like the address and phone number of the individual I'm dealing with. Even money orders can be bogus, so I verify the addresses on those too. We even do that when we take a credit card order from a new customer. We check to see that the addresses and phone numbers match up with the company involved, prior to processing the order or credit card.

Fred, Do you have the door sweep for the bottom of the door? It goes between the door panel and the door. It's there to prevent air and water from getting into the car. It's just a thick piece of flat rubber that goes along the whole bottom edge of the door. It's also held on by the same clips as the door panels. Holes in the rubber line up the same.

OK, but forgot to mention, make sure to take the bracket, even if it's not very good. That way you'll have a pattern to make a new one, if needed.

Ed, don't know about the 46-48 Chrysler motor. But........since that model Chrysler had the same basic dash, I would imagine it would fit OK. I'd grab that if you could. Would be worth the effort a money to try it anyway. But.........make sure you have the arms attached and the switch with it. Suppose you could use some other switch if necessary, but would be easier with the original one. The arms are a must though, unless you want to try and fabricate them.

Fred, I would go ahead and mount it to the door to make sure you have all the holes in the proper location, etc. This is new backer board and it's a lot stronger than the old stuff you took off. You don't want to put the covering on, then find out you have a hole in the wrong place. I think I had mine on and off several times before covering them. Just remove them carefully. Place a screwdriver or putty knife between the door and the panel right next to the clip and pry it off. The clip will pop right out of the hole without damaging your panel that way.

Bill, that's why I decided to put the old ones back on my coupe after doing the interior. They looked better, more like they belonged there. I still have the aluminum ones though, just need to polish them and they would look close to what stainless would look like. Will hang onto them just in case. Of course, if I wanted to, I could also simply paint the center part creme color so they would look close to original, since they are the same pattern as original.

The 52 DeSoto wiper motor will also fit the P15. But.......if you also need the arms and switch that came with it for it to work. Then of course, you do have to make a bracket to mount it onto under the dash. Also, it will usually mean you have to remove the P15 radio or speaker to make it fit. I had one at one time, but......decided it wasn't worth the trouble since the vacuum wipers worked OK. So.........sold the whole DeSoto set up.

Fred, I just checked and I can't access my site now either. Can't access the mail for the site either. Must be having some sort of technical difficulties there, or in the routing between us. If it continues, I'll give them a call. Otherwise, when this happens it's usually up and running shortly.

Fred, Evidently you have not visited my website. I used the same backer board for my coupe several years ago. Just click on the link next to my signature. I think mine was about 1/16th thick, or just under that.

Personally, I've never owned an Optima battery. I stick with the old acid batteries due to the price difference. But.......my brother in law had a 6 volt in his 36 Ford and my son had a 12 volt in his 80 Firebird. Both took a dump in about the same amount of time the old liquid acid batteries would. So.....really, the only difference is the fact that the Optima is a little cleaner because it has the gel in it. Otherwise, a battery is a battery. My son did buy another Optima, but my brother in law went back to the old batteries.

Kanter use to have drums listed in their catalog for $150 each for new front drums. Don't know about the rears. Might want to check them out.

You could donate the books to a nursing home.