Dan Hiebert

I've used both the Westley's Bleche-Wite and Simple Green. The Westley's product works better for me by virtue of needing less elbow grease, but I have no complaints about how well Simple Green works, I just up the concentration a tad for the WWWs. If I use Simple Green for the tires, its usually because I ran out of Bleche-Wite and am too lazy to run into town for some more. I kept the first set of WWWs on the ol' Dodge looking spiffy for just shy of 30 years with Bleche-Wite. I had some scuffs on one of the tires the last few years that I could find no cleaner to overcome, pretty sure they were scored to the underlying rubber. I wasn't too concerned with their appearance by then, so I didn't try very hard to dress the scuff marks. Only did it once for a car show by using white shoe polish, but it didn't last much longer than the car show.

Roger that, I just didn't know Chryslers had that much Bakelite on the dash. Our D24 has absolutely none. Must have been "the thing" for high end trim during that time. I really like how you went about the restoration, I'm thinking that process could prove useful on future projects.

I'm certainly not a brand zealot, to me those cars in the OP's post just look like almost every other hot rod out there. We would never part with our D24, but the one vehicle I still kick myself in the heinie for getting rid of was an all original '52 Ford F3, and that was over 30 years ago. My wife called it our "Clampett-mobile".

'46-'48 Chryslers' glove box doors have a Bakelite coating or cover? I was completely unaware of that, learn something new about these old cars on a regular basis.

Here in Maine the tourism bureau publishes a "Cruising Maine" book at the beginning of each year that lists just about all of the shows, clubs, cruises, date/time/location, etc. Available at all the rest areas on the Interstate, tourist info locations, clubs, etc. while supplies last. Perhaps Washington does the same?

Even with the theoretically more convenient access panel in later cars, I'm thinking your success in accessing the valves by removing the manifolds may be a good way to go about valve adjustment in later cars, too. It's not as if it's done often enough to make it a pain, and one gets a chance to fiddle with and tweak those removed accouterments if needed, too. The only downfall for the D24 is the size of the fender I'd have to lean over, but that is becoming more attractive than curling up in the fender to adjust valves that I do now. That nut starting tool is borderline genius.

A nice find, looks like you're starting with a solid and relatively complete car. We look forward to your progress and updates.

That has come up a few times, it's as PA noted, the dimmer switch for the dash lights.

Ah, yes. I remember doing the Pinewood Derby thing when my brother and I were Cub Scouts in Dallas...in the late '60s. Our area had the races at the Lenore Kirk Hall elementary school's auditorium. I remember that it was fun, and my car did not look anywhere as good as yours. Couldn't get my son interested in Scouting, though. Congrats on the placing!

Those are nice shiny cars, but nothing stands out about them to me, and probably a good wager that they both have SBC power. Meh.

I replaced the same plug about ten years ago, just the one. I sort of recall that the discussion at the time figured that there is a different gap between the cylinders in the water jacket there that tends to attract more crud. I flushed it out from both directions, first, I had already removed the thermostat housing and thermostat, so I flushed it out from the top. Ran the good ol' garden hose until the water came out of that plug hole clear. Then I flushed it back the other way, running the hose into the plug hole. That loosened a bit more crud, and I finished by flushing from the top again. Then you should be watchful on the rest of the plugs for a little while, because you may have removed some crud that was keeping other plugs from leaking. I haven't had to replace any of the others...yet.

I have several original full-page magazine advertisements for the 46-48 Dodge cars. They're all artist renderings and still have those artistic license cues to make D24s look sleeker than they actually are. Most seem to be stretching the front end out a bit. "SMOOTHEST CAR "AFLOAT""

Don't know if they still do it or not, I haven't been in there for almost 20 years now, but General Motors' Renaissance Center in Detroit (the five-tower building with "GM" on the side that tends to be in all the Detroit skyline photos) always had all the current year GM products on display on the main floor.

Not only do you have two Plymouths, you have at least two air cooled VWs - no loose screws in my book. At least you'uns in AZ have a climate suitable for outside storage if need be. That is a very nice looking car!

Similar deal for the lifters. Rattling after startup until they get oil. 60K miles shouldn't be old or worn out yet, unless rode hard and put up wet pretty often. Our 2017 Jeep Cherokee does that, dealer said it's normal to some degree. They said our 2019 Ram truck with a hemi should be doing that, but it doesn't. Off hand, I want to say 4-wheel drive shouldn't have anything to do with it, but with the way they engineer modern vehicles, it could be a solenoid that's set up to direct oil pressure from something in the drive train to wherever the oil starvation is that's making the noise.

I imagine a transmission jack helps immensely, but I don't have one, so I made my own guide studs. I measured how long the shoulder had to be to clear the transmission mounting holes and still provide enough room to allow for the input shaft and enough space to be able to pull them out when the tranny is set. The shoulders happen to be 3" like the Miller Tool guide studs. I ground a taper on the end but no slots or anything, I only finger tighten them in, and if need be, a pliers will loosen them up enough to pull out with ease. It just so happens that those studs I made about 30 years ago also work on the several Fords I've worked on, and our Terraplane.

Just finished putting a freshly restored radiator in our D24 this week, can't wait to get it out and about, but have to wait now for the mud to subside a bit (as some of you know, "mud season" is an actual thing in these parts). Not so much actual mud, but the ground is so squishy soft you can barely walk on it, and we have open ground from our shop to our drive. BUT, I did dust off the ol' Beetle and went bombing around town in it. Aside from the couple extra cranks needed to get it started, it ran like I just parked it a couple days ago, rather than sitting in the corner for six months.

That yellowish discoloration on the tank is just the paint coming off. The white stuff is deposits from water or coolant leaks evaporating. Looks like yours is seeping from where the core attaches to the top tank. So, yes, your radiator has leaks. If you don't actually see wetness after running the car, it's not leaking too bad yet, but it will only get worse. Shops up here test radiators by sealing them up and pressurizing with air, only a few PSI as noted above, holding them underwater and looking for bubbles. How much it bubbles and where from lets them know how bad it is, i.e., if they can fix it or need to re core it. You will get recommendations on shade tree fixes by adding stuff that will seal up the leaks, I've never tried any of that, so I can't say yay or nay. But - seeping like what you have there is usually due to corrosion. Corrosion can't be plugged, only delayed. There is also something a radiator shop may recommend (I don't remember exactly what it is) but it only works with a pressurized cooling system and won't work with corrosion - that's what a couple shops told me when I was trying to get my radiator fixed last year. You may get many more miles out of yours with only that seeping, but as I noted earlier, it will get worse. Our car had seepage like that for about 15 years, then finally gave up the ghost last spring. Had to replace the radiator.

Rabbit hole time... I worked on Grand Island when we lived in western NY, one Saturday every spring they close down a section of the river road that runs along the Niagara River for....lawn mower races! Different classes and everything. A real hoot to watch, and awful tempting when you have a couple old riding mowers lying around, because there's even a class for something you dragged out of the weeds behind the shed yesterday. There's a fellow on US1 north of town up here that has a small oval track just for lawn mower races. Lights, mini-grandstand, pit area, old mower on a pole for the sign, etc. There's some pretty tricked out mowers up here - custom paint, chrome stacks, the works. But they don't do the different classes thing here, you run what you brung, and a lot of them are downright scary just to even think about driving. None of these still have the decks and blades for safety, but you can't help wondering how quickly that mower with wheelie bars would cut your lawn.

I find myself doing some things a tad slower than I used to, because I know some of my senses have aged and I need that extra time to ensure situational awareness of hazards around me. I painted the tips of the fan blades in all our old cars many years ago, anything without a fan shroud. Cue taken from airplane propellers. At the time it wasn't so much for my protection but seeing that warning circle always makes me stop and ensure I'm paying attention to what I'm doing before I continue - you know, because there are shiny things in those engine compartments...

Thankee kindly! And right back atcha, and the rest of you! Turning into an awesome day here in the hinterlands of northern Maine. Crystal clear skies, very slight breeze, and forecast to "warm up" quite nicely (high mid 40's - several hours away yet). Still two feet of snow in the woods and muddy as all get-out where it's open, but for here, it's a good day that I hope is the case for all of you.

I know some of you enjoy old movies and such, in part for perusing old vehicles in vintage environments. The ambiance can also be quite refreshing. Anyway, just watched the 1949 "Batman and Robin" serial on Roku TV. Neat that this was a series before TV became prevalent, each episode was shown weekly at your local theater. Imagine the anticipation! I couldn't stop watching until it was done (15 short episodes) for fear of missing what would happen next to Batman or Robin as they faced off with their nemeses - "The Wizard". Cut to the cars...although not in the credits, the studio was obviously into Ford products...the batmobile is a 49 Mercury convertible, the villain's cars are primarily an early 40's Lincoln limousine, and The Wizard drives a 49 Mercury sedan. The police cars are all 49 Ford sedans. There is a GM armored car, and some Ford trucks. The titular car, a 39 Plymouth convertible is driven by Bruce Wayne's girlfriend and reporter, Vicki Vale. There are also two ever so brief cameos by a 46-48 DeSoto taxi. Robert Lowery plays Batman, and John Duncan plays Robin. Took a little while to get my head around the heroes not being played by Adam West and Burt Ward, but it was fun to watch.

As long as the fan still clears the radiator, you'll be good. It stands to reason (somewhat, anyway) that the radiator being closer to the fan may be more efficient.

It gets too cold in this region to rely primarily on heat pumps. I know of no one in northern Maine that uses solely heat pumps. Most install the split units to alleviate other fuel costs, something like over 75% of Maine heats with fuel oil. Although touted as the cheapest in New England, our electric is too unreliable (Maine has among the worst outage rates in the Nation), and 1/2 of the State does not have natural gas delivery. I primarily use coal in winter, many use wood. A lot of residents up here installed those split units when heating oil shot up about 15 years ago, but only as supplemental heat so their primary heat source wouldn't have to work as hard. I've been researching split unit heat pumps for a few years, there are manufacturers that list 10-15 degrees as the cut-off temperature for their units to heat in the winter, but I believe that is because up here they have to include an auxiliary internal heating unit for the heat pump to draw from, otherwise it will only work for maybe the first and last month of "winter". Cost is what is holding us back, I anticipate that the way things are going we'll have to convert to something other than coal / oil for heat in the future, but for now it is still far from cost effective.

Most US riding mower brands are made by the same manufacturer now. Just different levels of doo-dads, fit and finish, etc. We have a low end MTD Yard Machine "lawn tractor" that has a manufacturer's estimated "useful service life" of 7 years. I've never researched how they come up with that estimate, but ours is still going strong in it's 15th year. I don't baby it, and I've bent the blades a few times, but good old-fashioned TLC at the end of the day is keeping it quite reliable.