knuckleharley

You got lucky when you found a tudor that nice. They seem to be a lot rarer than the coupes and 4drs.

Seems like the smart move to make to me. You won't notice any power difference when driving.

No harder to do on a 40 Dodge than on a 63 Dart. Maybe even easier because I'm not sure you can find rotors to fit the 63 Dart spindles.

BTW,for any of you that live in or are going to move to NC,it is possible to get a unique NC state VIN number for your antique car with the correct year and company name if your antique car or truck is a collection of parts,IF you have receipts for the major parts. For example,my 1937 Dodge truck is titled as a 1937 Dodge truck,but has a unique NC VIN number tag in the door now. This was necessary because the original engine was long gone,and so was the serial number in the door jamb,yet it had been titled in another state as a 1937 Dodge. Basically,the only 1937 Dodge parts are the body parts. Even the chassis is different. It is a 70's 4X4 chassis. Having the clear title for the 70's donor truck as well as the original 37 Dodge truck title were key to this being possible.

Of course. Someone will need them both,or someone will just want them as spares to throw in the trunk and take with them on road trips.

I'm from NC too,and the number game can be a nightmare if you get a DMV inspector new to the game and ignorant,or one who doesn't really give a damn. My suggestion,and worth every penny it cost you,is to be as nice and reasonable as you know how to be if he gives you any grief over the unusual engine serial number,and POLITELY point out to him that the car was legally registered with that number in South Carolina,so North Carolina has a legal obligation to issue you a clear title with that engine number. When doing this you might consider POLITELY suggesting to him that an alternative might be to issue you a title matching the serial number on the door jamb to lessen confusion and make sure your car is titled as a 1938 Plymouth. If he is one of those arrogant pricks on a power trip that insists you "Respect MY authori-Tay", inform him that you will have your lawyer send the head of the DMV a formal letter asking him why he thinks he,as the head of the NC DMV, thinks he has the authority to give his field agents the power to violate the Commerce Clause to the US Constitution. I'm betting he will immediately become more reasonable. Do NOT start with that as the opener,though. It's your "if nothing else including reason works" option. No need to antagonize anyone needlessly and make a badge-carrying enemy out of someone who might just be operating out of ignorance instead off someone on a power trip operating out of arrogance. MOST of those guys are just there to do the job,and trying to do it as well as they can,but in any field you might mention there is always the possibility of catching someone when they are having a bad day and they just don't feel like doing the necessary research needed to dot all the "i"s and cross all the "t"s. It happens. Chances are if you point this out to him in a reasonable manner even if he gets a bit tiffed at that moment,that he will be grateful to you later on after he has a chance to think it over because what you are actually doing is making his job easier and more pleasant for him. BTW,the first thing you should do is crawl around under your car and see if the brakelines look new of if they look old and rusty. Or in the case of the rubber lines,old and brittle. If they are,the very next thing you need to do is replace both and make certain your emergency brake works. If you can,pull the brake drums and see if everything they are hiding looks to be reasonably new,or decades old. If it looks old,plan on doing a complete brake replacement job from the master cylinder to the wheel cylinders. I know it seems like a pain in the butt,but it's cheap insurance. BTW-2,you need a special puller designed for old Mopars and Fords to pull the back drums. They go on tapered axle ends and are a press fit. Don't think you can use a modern brake drum puller to remove them. You can't. Do a archives search her for "brake jobs" and you will see that puller,which can be bought new for less than 50 bucks or rented,as well as full instructions and photos on how to do everything. Remember,these are old cars with single outlet master cylinders,and if a brake line fails,you are screwed if your emergency brake doesn't work properly.

I'm betting he was more interested in changing his drawers.

The fenderless Dodge coupe with the hemi is a 33-34,and I suspect it is a Plymouth. That sure looks like a 33 grille to me.

Yes,but did you run a load test on the battery to make sure it is producing the amps needed,and to see how quickly the amp "surge" falls away under load? I have seen fully charged 12 volt batteries that would read fully charged all day long with a voltmeter fail the amp test. They seem to have plenty of power at first,but after they get hot from being drained to start while cold,and then getting hot again as the charging system works to try to restore them to full power,they will NOT start a car that just shut down and is hot. IF you have had someone run a load test on your battery and the reading shows it will throw out a full load of amps while under drain,ignore everything I am now writing. If you haven't done this yet and are just relying on a voltmeter to tell you that you have 6 volts,have your battery checked with an amp meter under load.

I am always amazed that any of those things managed to survive. They had a resale value of approximately "I will tow it away for you and not charge you very much" once they were about 10 years old or the wood started coming apart. Weren't even worth much for scrap because there wasn't much steel,and nobody had any interest in fixing one up because it cost so much money. Yeah,they are worth "stoopid money" now,but they had to survive long enough to reach "now". I still remember having a chance to buy a rust-free with original paint 48 Mercury woody that had a 324 Olds V-8 and hydromatic trans in it for 500 bucks when I was living in Denver in the mid-70's. It was a running and driving car with current tags on it,too. If I had a time machine,you can bet that time and place would be one of my stops.

I don't know how much they are paying that guy on the top forklift,but it ain't enough.

Get the right carb for it and be done with it. Right away you will have eliminated the problem of having to adjust a carb designed to use on a more efficient design that iss 30 percent larger than your engine. They are not hard to find or expensive. When you keep running an engine that runs that rich,you are flooding your base with raw gas,and risk ruining your bearings,and are even risking a base explosion.

I agree. I would rather see a old Mopar (or anything else) running around being seen and being enjoyed by both the driver and the observers,than not see it at all. None of us really own these cars,anyhow. We just have temporary possession of them. The next owner can do whatever they want to do with them,including restore them with the correct Mopar engine if that is what they want. They can't do that if the car was never preserved to start with. PLEASE note for the record that rat rods preserve nothing.

The first thing I would do would be to run a load test on your battery to see how many amps it's putting out. You can have a fully charged battery with check the grounds on both the positive and the negative battery cables by cleaning the connections of all corrosion and using new washers and nuts to tighten them down after cleaning. While you have them off,check them volts,but if the plates are corroded inside the battery you won't get the amps you need to operate your starter. Next,check your battery cables to see if they look burned or brittle. If there is any doubt,replace the correct "0" gauge battery cablles. It MAY be "00" gauge,but I am sure someone will pipe in and correct me if I am wrong. Battery cables fro 12 volt vehicles just won't stand up the amp load. If the cables seem fine,clean the ends and the area where they bolt to the starer or the ground,and then use new washers and nuts when re-attaching them.

It may not be stock,but it sure is purty!

Pretty ingenious.

No problem. Look in the local yellow pages for "radiator repair",and drive it around and get quotes from the pros to do the repair. That's a LOT cheaper than buying a new one.

If it's nothing more than a minor leak,why not wire brush it,acid etch it,and solder ithe leak up? Done properly,this will last years.

I had a couple of VW bugs in the early 70's. Don't remember the HP of the newer one only a couple of years old,but the first was a 61 convertible with 36 hp. That was when I found out I was driving uphill to get home. The car would actually run 5 mph faster going away from home than going back home. The old bugs were truly fun cars for young people to own,though. You could take off and play Boy Racer with them every time you left a parking spot in perfect safety because they wouldn't really go fast enough to hurt you. Yet you still had all the fun of winding it out and speed shifting,just like you were accomplishing something. I remember getting drunk one day and using a hammer and chisel to cut away most of the fenders,and putting the wheels and tires from a junk Pontiac on it so I could go riding on the sand dunes and the beach. It didn't last long after that. Weak transaxle.

Don,Christmas and Dec 31 is coming up soon,which means tool supply outfits will be trying to dump year end inventory to avoid taxes. You might want to start checking the Northern Tool,Eastwood,Sears,Tool Planet,and other web sites for year end sales on a decent cherry picker. Maybe even check Sears now because they are having financial difficulty and closing a lot of stores.

Don,generally speaking,Harbor Freight/China's Outlet Mall, is where you buy tools to loan out to relatives,or otherwise plan to only use once.

" I imagine that they would be suitably interested in my (Aussie) DeSoto truck/s at the convention. " Yeah,I guess "interested" would be one way of putting it.

LOL! Thanks for the correction.

Ya just gotta something the 49 caddy fins. I'm shocked a VW bug has enough power to move all that bondo.

Some people actually take nice cars these days and sandblast them so they are rusty. Speaking as someone who has fought rust my whole life,I just don't understand that mindset.