Dan Hiebert

I've always had pretty good luck with Andy Bernbaum. Other sources may be Kanter auto products and AMS Obsolete. Kanter has everything listed online, but phone calls sometimes help, and they'll note when a phone call is really needed. AMS (amsnos.com) often has hard to find parts, but can be expensive, especially if it's a really hard to find part. Phone calls and patience work best with them, they get new inventory all the time that won't be on their website.

This project proved to be interesting, if not really as hard as I anticipated. I think the hardest part was getting the cowl trim pieces off - had to break out the list of appropriate expletives. The rest was just carefully unbolting stuff so I could remove the doghouse. I didn't have any help, so I took everything apart, as opposed to removing the doghouse in one piece. The frame metal moved easier than I thought, but I still had to apply good heat to the passenger side frame horn to get it to move without ripping more that it was, it was really bunged up. The bottom quarter or so was actually torn apart, I had to use some 1/4" rod to fill in the gap along the bottom, and patch a hole in the side. I used a 4-ton portable ram, a couple BFHs, heat, and a prybar to get the metal where I wanted it, then a mig welder to keep it there. The passenger side isn't perfect, but the front frame measurements are now where they're supposed to be, so my bumper will sit straight, and the passenger side won't jiggle. Clean, prep, and paint, at it looks pretty darn good. Alas, I did not see fit to take any photos. The take-away is that it was not that hard with the right tools and a bit of patience. I was expecting a fight, since I had recently tried to fix some of the banged-up frame on our Terraplane, and that wouldn't budge. While I've got it apart, I'm fixing some small stuff that I didn't know how to fix, or have the tools to fix, the last time I had the doghouse off 32 years ago. Some of it I forgot about, none of it can be seen under casual observation, but I will feel better knowing it's fixed right.

Big ol' Chrysler like that was probably rode hard and put up wet working in the tater fields for years before that photo was taken. Sagged the springs a bit. That or the trunk is full of beer, coffee brandy, and firewood. I get a kick out of the family sedan being used for mundane stuff like ice fishing. Our ol' Dodge was a ranch car for a while in southern New Mexico, it went dove or quail hunting at least once...as evidenced by the 20 gauge shotgun hole in the rocker below one of the rear doors. Someone had an AD either taking the shotgun out, or putting it back, in the back seat. How do I know it was a 20 gauge? When I was working the hole back closed before I put new rocker trim on, the wad fell out of the hole, along with some #7 shot. I didn't know what had created that hole before that... We have less than the normal amount of snow for this time of year up here, but we've got plenty of ice. 8 to 12 inches on the lakes in The County. We're not the brightest bulbs, tho. A few years ago we did our ice fishing trip to a lake that had a foot of water on the ice. All it did was slow the sleds down and make everyone grumpy. "Mundane" is a poor choice of word, I mean using a car for what we normally associate with trucks or off-road vehicles...

Since you're an LEO, I'll point you back at vintage police car clubs, not just for the authenticity check, but for potential availability of cars for sale. They'll tend not to give you the flim-flam because it is a small market. My older brother (by 9 minutes) is a retired Texas Highway Patrol Trooper. He was in a local antique police car club in the Houston area for many years, and they helped immensely with finding some authentic police package cars for him to ponder. I'm retired Border Patrol, I was involved with fleet purchases for many years, which got me interested in vintage police cars, although I never toyed with getting one. The main problem I see with authentic vintage police cars is that, depending on the agency, they tend to get used until the wheels fall off, then you have to buy two or three just to make one.

Tracing it with the period license plate may be problematic, paper records back then, and a lot of DMV's purge their systems after a while. Worth trying, though, nothing ventured - nothing gained, won't know unless you ask. You may have better luck with the serial number as it changed ownership over the years, there may be a trail of registrations back to when new that could have the license plate number issued at the time. Kind of depends on how Minnesota does their DMV. I was lightly surprised when I first registered our Terraplane here in Maine, not that they had any title or registry information, but here we pay an excise tax based on the MSRP of the vehicle when new, even for antique autos, and they had the MSRP of a 1937 Terraplane Deluxe 4dr Sedan virtually at their fingertips. No such depth of information when we registered it in NM, MI, or NY.

I had the same issue with rust when we lived in Michigan and New York, not so much here in Maine since we're over 100' from a not so busy road. Whatever is used for de-icing the roads turns to dust, that dust gets carried on the draft created by passing vehicles, even at 35 mph, and you're pretty close to the road. Humidity makes that dust stick to things, especially metal. The salt or calcium chloride then does what it does to metal. There can be more humidity in winter than folks realize, for example, it's 20 degrees here now, but we still have 86% humidity. Even come springtime there will be a fine layer of that dust on everything, then when the humidity really kicks in - presto - rust. That'll happen when it "warms up" during the winter as well, especially if the car stays really cold while it warms up around it. Ditto cleaning methods listed above. I use 0000 steel wool and either chrome polish or Brasso (leaning away from Brasso lately because they changed their formula to having more abrasives in it, it cleans well, but makes brass hazy now). What's important is that coat of wax afterwards.

These are just what I need! Thank you so much! The ones on the D24 are an inch or so longer, but what I really needed to see is the area just ahead of the crossmember. Time to go work some metal, thanks again!

I think that's what they're called. 1948 Dodge 4dr sedan. They're the portions of the car's front frame that extends past the front crossmember that the front suspension is attached to. The sway bar and bumper brackets bolt onto them. I've got the measurements, what I'm looking for is relatively clear photos of undamaged ones if anyone has some / illustrations from a MoPar manual / or directions to an appropriate manual. I've only got the MoPar sheet metal catalog that does not show frames. I'm still looking, but figured I'd query you'uns while I'm at it. I'm venturing into straightening mine out. They are both pretty banged up from an ancient accident, such that I can't compare one to the other. I didn't have the knowledge or means to straighten them out 30 years ago, remains to be seen if I do now, but I'm giving it a shot. Even though the front bumper has been a bit cattywampus all along, I'm surprised it is as straight as it is given how bad the frame horns are. Thanks in advance!

Welcome! Cars were not built specifically for police service until the late '50s, although Buick made some special order cars for the California Highway Patrol in '55 or '56. Meaning your car may have been used for police service, but none of that police stuff would be original to the car. MoPar did make commercial service cars with sturdier components, but not specifically for law enforcement, think "taxi service". Before the advent of police package cars, agencies usually went with the lowest cost alternative, and then added the police components. We can certainly help with the '48 Plymouth stuff, but best bet for the police equipment is to find one of those vintage police car sites, or a police car club (those do exist). The equipment agencies put in the early cars was all over the map, depending on needs, and primarily...budget.

I just installed a new Raybestos master cylinder in our daughter's Falcon a couple weeks ago. The instructions specified that it had to be bench bled...or else. Says the component could be damaged if not bench bled and won't be warranted if you don't. I've installed several new master cylinders over the years, that was the first one I'd ever bench bled. No reason for not doing it before that I can remember, probably just a tad lazy. Never had any problems, although I will note that bleeding the system afterwards (all new brake components in the Falcon) went far easier and quicker than those that I hadn't bench bled. There are two ways to do it, but I would think either would be really difficult while mounted in our cars, since the master cylinder is under the floorboard. One is a la Sniper's video with the return lines, the other you plug all but one of those outputs, fill until the fluid runs out the open one, then plug it. Both methods then require that you slowly pump the cylinder until there are no bubbles, with the plugged method, you have to keep adding fluid, with the return lines, you don't. You have to secure the cylinder, I used a bench top vise. Just have to be careful not to damage the unit. It doesn't take long.

Oh, I don't doubt it. Here's the training document I was referencing. The way it was written, it seems these chokes were initially installed without the gasket when they first made the scene, then based on problems reported from the field, the gasket was added - note the date of the document is 1938. I certainly don't intend to omit it as I suspect that not having it is one of the reasons why my choke wasn't working way back when. Autolite Sisson Choke Training.pdf

I have a copy of the Auto-Lite training material for Sisson chokes. I think I got it from here. I've read in several places that the choke won't work right without that gasket, but the way that document reads, it was added to keep rust from the manifold and other contaminates out of the mechanism, which isn't a precision instrument by any means, but does need to be clean to work right. No mention of proper heat transfer, etc. I've been laboring under the assumption it was for appropriate heat transfer, too. Since it sits on the exhaust manifold, that gasket has to be heat tolerant. Regardless, no one around these parts has high temp gasket material (exhaust or otherwise) in stock, so I'm waiting for NAPA to get some that they ordered for me. That gasket is all I'm missing to complete the project.

...to which hole in the choke lever, the outer (drivers side) or inner (passenger side). I know the fast idle rod goes in whichever one the Sisson rod does not. None of the materials I have show where the rods go, none of the threads I found on the automatic choke topic have a clear view. I took this apart and installed a manual choke a tad over 30 years ago, so I have zippo recollection. Other than the fast idle not being functional, I'm not having any issues with the manual choke. I had installed it because the automatic choke was not working. I've since ascertained why it wasn't working (thanks to this Forum), but since I wasn't having any issues, I left it alone. I recently rebuilt the carburetor and decided that since I have all the associated stuff disassembled to tidy up, that it would be keen to put the original choke back in the car. I don't know if it will work or not, the bimetal arm is a bit rusty and I don't know if that will change its reaction to heat.

No-smoke additive will not increase the longevity of an engine. All it does is cover up whatever issue is causing it to smoke, the only prolonging it could conceivably provide is with the need to fix something. I agree with the good folk here, I don't see any issues with your compression numbers, and while a little smoke could still be annoying to some, it really isn't indicative of any issues - as noted, these engines aren't as "tight" as more modern ones. One thing to keep in mind when ruing a valve job is that these engines were intended to have regular maintenance done on the valves, every 10,000 miles I believe is the factory recommendation, so you do have to open it up once in a while. A valve job on these is relatively easy.

Ditto joecoozie, that is where the original speaker plugs in.

So, no answer yet to your no-smoke additive question. As above, the best thing to do is find out why your car is smoking and fix that. As to your question and maybe get some discussion going, I don't technically know how a no-smoke additive works, I only vaguely recall seeing some advertisements in the past, but common sense tells me that it does not work by magically keeping any contaminates in the air/fuel mixture from burning, that it stops the smoking by plugging up any gaps where oil may be entering that mixture, whether that be the valve guides or piston rings/cylinder walls. So, to me, (and what the others are alluding to), it is not a fix but a temporary solution that may lead to future problems due to whatever affects the additive has on the rest of the oiling system. I think sludge would become a problem, and you'll still need to eventually fix the initial problem anyway. The fact that this stuff works in more modern engines doesn't change the notion that the problem hasn't been fixed, just delayed. So, I don't think it will hurt these engines, they tend to be rather robust, but you'll still have whatever issue is creating the smoking, it just won't be smoking for a while. The valve guides are worn in our D24, I leave a cloud of blue smoke on deceleration everywhere I go, I imagine it annoys everyone behind us, but until I fix it, I chalk it up as "character".

Ditto Plymouthy's response. Assuming your Dodge is a D24, the grills will not interchange between a 48 Dodge and Plymouth. If your Dodge is a D25, then it's a Canadian car that is essentially a Plymouth with Dodge trim.

I used a Wix 51080 cartridge for my last oil change, maybe you can reference that for a German or European equivalent. Also, it was not listed at the car parts store as an automobile filter, it is listed for industrial applications. There are a few threads discussing oil filters on the Forum, too, if you care to search.

I do not believe that the grill guard implies a commercial vehicle, per se. While it may well have been a standard item for commercial vehicles, which were basically "ruggedized" versions of the regular cars, the same style guard was available as an accessory item, too. I've seen them on Dodges that were just family cars.

I don't recall off hand what the designation for what is currently DOT3 brake fluid was when these cars were new. But the brakes in these cars are/were engineered to use what is now designated DOT3 brake fluid, so the "proper" brake fluid to use would be DOT3. There is no added performance benefit for these cars to use anything but DOT3. As an aside, I put DOT5 in our D24 when I rebuilt the brakes about 20 years ago because it does not draw in moisture like DOT3 does and we were not driving the car much in a humid climate, and it does not damage paint. I check the brakes at least annually, the internal components are still pristine as of last spring, and I have had no leaks at all. That said, I would now only recommend using DOT5 in these cars if it is a show car and not driven regularly. I would best describe braking performance with DOT5 as mushy.

Ditto andyd's info. For what it's worth - there is a file in the Downloads section of the Forum, under "Highest Rated" called "MoparSheetMetal", it lists the sheet metal (duh) components of multiple years of Mopar products. If nothing else it is interesting to browse through.

Judging from that old photo, that has the makings of a really sharp looking ride! Welcome to the Forum, I, for one, look forward to your progress.

Nice car, and welcome to the Forum! As Los_Control notes, several original options for a heater, but unless you're going to be persnickety about original stuff on your car, there are a few aftermarket options as well. It'll be interesting to see how you accomplish that.

I tell people that you can't do winter stuff if it aint winter! Of course, if you don't like winter stuff, that's a different story.