thrashingcows

Well that is an ambitious project....but if the car is as rare as they say it might be worth it. But then again most of us don't restore and fix these cars for the resale value...it's for the love of the hobby and the cars. I think it's great you have a long history with this car. To me that makes it that much more desirable to restore. Get your addition built, pic up a little Lincoln wire feed welder...take some night school welding classes and roll up your sleeves and get to work. I'm sure other more knowledgeable then myself will give you better information...but I'd suspect a lot of the mechanical parts as interchangeable with Dodge/Plymouth/Desoto from 40-50? And the body parts would have to be from similar cars...Chrysler and Desoto I'd think.

I just spent today going through this entire thread...absolutely an amazing trip!! Thank you for the updates, and letting us live vicariously through you. I would love to do something like this one day.....Think I will try and plan something...eventually.

That is great info. I will keep my eyes, and PM open if anyone can help...

I also go the 3 speed installed. Here is a couple pics of the tranny and drive shaft. I'm now working on the E-brake and the column shifter and clutch rods and mechanisms.

I also dis-assembled both U-joints. Some of the grease was hard as a rock, but all the needles were in great shape. SO everything just needed a good cleaning, the re-lube and assemble. Here it is all done...

Well with the 1/4" (.250") of spline extended past the end it still left 1 3/4" (1.75") of spline in the drive shaft. I was concerned that the travel of the suspension would cause the splines to extended out too far and perhaps fall apart. So I first loaded up the car with as much weight as I could find...about 1000lbs of bricks, sand bags etc. Then jacked the back end way up and let the suspension hang at full extension. The splines only moved less then 1/4" in either direction. So I figured I'd be safe driving it this way. But now I was faced with a problem. How do I keep the grease in and around the splines when I no longer have the threaded end and seal to do this for me. Man hours of thinking...I'm a trucker so have a bit of spare thinking time on my hands....I came up with an idea of using a replacement CV joint boot. I went down to the local jobber and asked them is I could get one with a 1 1/2" x 2" openings. He looked through the catalogs and could find anything with sizes or measurements. I was about to leave when another idea flashed into my head....how about a shock boot like they use on off road trucks? So he ran up and got me a shock boot...I checked it out and figured it would do the job. First I had to clean the two ends of the drives shaft, wanted to get all that old grease out of there. Shock boot number... The front part, or top of the boot was a little snug getting over the splines of the front yoke..but eventually with some grease, and a bit of luck, it slipped on and over. Then it was repack everything and slide the front yoke into the drive shaft....make sure to orient it properly before doing this...I didn't. Then I slipped the lower section down and over the cleaned exterior section of the drive shaft...again a little grease helped things. I found that the boot was a little long. I ended up initially cutting off 5 ribs. and after final assembly...and installation I cut off one more.

Been up to a bit more over the last week or so. Moved on to the next part in the hook up of the motor and tranny. I needed to see if I could make the current drive shaft work...or figure out if I had to get a new one made up. Well here is the original drive shaft. It has a splined section at the front , near the tranny, that slides in and out with the movement of the rear suspension. The rear section is your standard U-joint style. There is a threaded collar, and seal, at the front that helps keep the two pieces together...and provide a sealed area for the grease to be held. The splined section is about 2" long. I initially installed the drive shaft unaltered and found that it was going to be short. Then I removed it and proceeded to be sad..thinking I was going to have to spend some big bucks on getting a new drive shaft made up. Then I had a thought....what if I unscrew the threaded stop, therefore giving the drive shaft more range of motion, and extra length. I did this and re-installed the drive shaft. I found the drive shaft only needed about an extra 1 1/4" (1.250") more length over stock, and the splines only extended about 1/4" (.250") past the threaded stop. Pic shows what it looked like.

Thank you Darren...you summed up my thoughts exactly...although I was born in 1974...

Well as long as I don't loose my pic account on-line these will stay posted up. If anyone ever needs any specific pics just drop me a PM or e-mail and I can send you the pic.

That's a clever design...I like it!!

The original 251 motor that was in my 48 Desoto had wide pullies, and a harmonic balancer.

Congrats on getting out with the top down. I was the exact opposite to you. I restored a 68 Coronet convertible years ago and never did enjoy driving with the top down..especially when the sun was out. Turns out I'm a hard top...with A/C on...kind of guy.

Very nice...and 6 strombergs!! Ditching the bellybutton SBC is a no brainer IMO. I'd spend what ever it cost to run something unique before I'd ever run a SBC.

And today i picked up my new Coker Classic 7.60 x 15, 3" wide white, Bias Ply tires. Now I have to pull the old rims and tires...sand blast and repaint, before I can install these beauties.

After cleaning up all the parts off the fluid drive tranny I then had to trim and shim out the original 3 speed bracket on the pass. side. And then trim the bracket on the drivers side and straighten it. Then it was install the bigger e-brake drum and band...line up the pass. side original fluid drive bracket with the other bracket and tack into place. The the driver side I had to cut off one of the top mounting hole on the original fluid drive bracket. The it was line things up and tack it onto the cut and straightened original 3 speed bracket. Then I adjusted everything and it all seems to work properly. Just have to remove everything and do a final weld on the brackets.

Well since the original E-brake system that came on my 3 speed tranny was incomplete I decided to use the complete system off the old fluid drive. Really it was not that hard to make things work. Here are the original 3 speed brackets and small drum... And here is the system on the original fluid drive...

Well the other day I picked up my new tailshaft seal...Thank you to our forum members for posting up this info. The old one put up a bit of a fight... The new one fit perfectly and has not leaked...Part number is SKF 15620... Then I decided to pull off the side cover...since I couldn't figure out exactly how the shift arms worked together. I now understand how things work but since I had the cover off I decided to replace one of the shifter seals that was leaking. Here is the old seal, which is cork, and other parts... Since I didn't have any original seals available I did a little brain storming and came up with a potential solution to my problem. I would dig into my jar of new/used misc O-rings and see if I could find one that would work. I did eventually find one. Then installed it and needed a very thin washer to cover it, and protect it from the movement of the shifter arm...so to my tin of misc washers. Here it is... No leaks yet...

Well I'm going to link all my posts on Fernando into one thread, and in the future all updates will go into this thread. This will make it easier for those who wish to follow my progress. Original post about Fernando...Feb 01/2010...and picking up new motor and tranny... http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=19876 Lubing engine cylinders....Mar 09/2010... http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=20514 Engine ID'ing.....Mar 06/2010... http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=20453 Bringing home Desoto from Portland OR.....Nov/08/2010... http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=24476 Cleaning up Fernando....Nov 15/2010... http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=24572 More Cleaning....Jan 19/2011... http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=24572 Why Fernando was abandoned...Feb 07/2011... http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=25741 Master Cylinder rebuild...Feb 07/2011... http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=25742 46-48 Desoto designations and production numbers...Feb 14/2011... http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=25841 Back up lights...Feb 21/2011... http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=25943 Wheel Cylinder rebuilds...Mar 12/2011... http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=26228 Little more brake work...Mar 22/2011... http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=26369 Rear axle removal..tech..May 03/2011... http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=27044 Front and rear brakes...axle pinion seal...May 03/2011... http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=27036 Rear axle yoke questions...May 11/2011... http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=27187 Flathead to Slant 6 distributor conversion...Dec 15/2011... http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=30308 Old engine removal...Feb 05/2012... http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=31051 Rear engine mount removal...Feb 21/2012... http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=31297 Motor going in and rear mount reconstruction...Mar 03/2012... http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=31468

I just watched the vid and I have to agree with FatFreddie....your needle jumping like that at idle means you have a loss of vacuum at a particular cycle of the motor. And with the ticking sound I'd say you either have a loose spark plug, or a valve that needs adjustment, or worse case would be a bent valve. The reason it's jumping, as stated, is that one cylinder is not getting a good seal during it's cycle and is loosing the vacuum it's generating. Other then that it looks, and sounds like things are OK with your motor....and BTW it's sure a nice looking car!!

Thanks for the info, and pics!! I think I might have a solution to my problem...but need a few days to work on it. As for a battery...I'm putting mine in the trunk, so don't need clearance for the battery tray. And yes I will check my fan for cracks...

Thanks for the info on proper alignment method. I looked at it again and it is definitely out. I was trying to use the stock generator lower mount...but it obviously is not set up for an alternator. Will probably have to build something from scratch...or heavily modify the stock bracket.

RoadKing...I couldn't agree more. I have paid through the nose on restoring rusty cars...not worth it IMO. I will search for a good rust free car and pay accordingly for this car, which is usually high due to the rust free nature. But even with the higher initial value, and shipping costs factored in, you will still be farther ahead on the overall restoration costs. My last 3 cars have come out of the US...from dry western states. Another thing I noticed in the pics is that it appears the roof is kinked on both sides? Maybe someone used a forklift to move it at some time?

Well kind of hard to tell from the two pics how complete it is, or rusty...but I don't think I'd pay more then $1000 for it on the very high side. I'd probably want to get it for $500. Does he have registration for it?

I will double check the alignment. I thought I had it pretty straight while working on the brackets...might be the loose belt and lighting..??

Here's the mount just tacked together... All welded up.... And painted and installed.... And here's Fernando with it's new motor. No idea how long it's been since it has had a motor that could run in there? ....Now the fun to bring things to life begin.