Eneto-55

Yes,the P15 design uses two tabs, one at the rear and the other at the top front, that fit into slots. (Without going to look, I think the rear one is a bracket welded to the wheel well, and the front one is a slot in the inner body body panel.) Then there is a single screw that holds it in place (at the lower front corner).

My 49 Plymouth is a P15 (First Series 49). I just thought the photos of the "bones" of the arm rest might be helpful in constructing replacements. Obviously, it would be best if someone could supply detailed drawings of the frames for your model of Dodge. I would think that as many of these vehicles are parted out, someone would have the parts available. Of course, finding that person is the difficult part. Too bad your employer didn't at least ask around before tossing yours.

The first three are the left side, and the 4th one is the right side, which is in much worse shape. I want to keep the left side as it is, but further disassembled the right side, in order to be able to show the interior frame work. (I have more pictures, and I'm not finished with disassembly, either. Had to stop & fix the lawn mower..... I will post more if you think it would be helpful.)

I would guess that the arm rests are the same, for both 2 & 4 door vehicles. I don't have a Dodge, but here are some photos of the ones out of my 4-door P15. (I also have a 2-door, but it's at my brother's place, over 1,000 miles from me.) The P15 4-door arm rests stick out into the door opening a bit. That's why I would guess that they are the same. I think that if you had pictures of a 4-door Dodge, you could determine if they are the same. But as far as the construction, these photos may help.

Never tried it, but to get old undercoating off, I've heard that using a quick freeze spray works well, because, they say, it makes it not so sticky. I think they say you can freeze it, then wack the panel with a rubber mallet, and the stuff cracks up and breaks loose. I don't think I would want to try to dissolve it. Seems to me it would make it worse, unless it was a very thin layer. I have never tired to get any off, so I don't know what works best, just some ideas I've heard over the years.

I looked at the license plate mount this afternoon, and tried to get the old plate off to be able to get a decent picture. It isn't quite as I remembered. The center (vertical) bracket hooks under the bumper, and the center bumper bolt passes through it, securing it to the bumper. Then there is a horizontal c channel bracket fixed to it (welded?), with long slots, to accommodate various mounting points for the different shapes of license tags used during that era. This is the best I could do, as the tag mounting bolts are rusted fast, and just turn on the back side. (I could have broken the tag off, but didn't want to ruin such a perfect license plate.... )

My 49 P15 came from a state that required a front plate, and it has a sort of clamp on system that hooks over the top & bottom edges of the bumper, then the tag is attached to that. (On our 2009 Dodge Journey, which came from Florida, I used pull-ties to hold it in place. (Ohio discontinued the requirement for the front tag a couple years ago. But already a fair number of people didn't mount the front one, even though it was the law. My niece's husband has some sort of Camaro or something that he considers a collector car, and he never put one on.)

Reminds me of a related question I've had - Has anyone used a small spot welder to weld in replacement brackets in situations like this? (The hand-held spot welder I used to borrow from a former employer is too large for this, but I've seen videos of how to build small spot welders, especially as related to welding the contact strips to replace batteries in battery drills, etc.)

I thought of that too, but in my case, we only moved back to the States in the Summer of 2003, and didn't have internet for the first years. Then when we did get it, it was dial-up, so no one could use the telephone while anyone else was on-line. Also, I had no idea of what all was on the internet, either, nor would I know how long I "lurked" before joining. I finally started joining various forums after I decided that I wanted to do more than just read what others had written, to also contribute in some way, and ask questions from time to time. (I keep a spreadsheet record of checkbook activity, and I easily found that we had dial-up until January of 2008. So that's likely when I started finding out about internet content, and I reckon that it was my younger brother who told me about this site.)

According to an on-line search FB opened to the general public Sept. 26, 2006 (after starting sometime in 2004). I don't know when I joined FB (at the urging of family members), but apparently first posted a comment there (on a FB group my brother started, called "Kustoms are Way Cool") on Dec. 4, 2007. It was in response to a picture of a mildly customized 2-door P15 he saw at a car show. I apparently joined the A Bodies Only MoPar forum before joining here, after buying a 75 Dodge Dart. (Still in my name on the title, but now belongs to my oldest son.) I was also on a couple of other old MoPar forums that are no longer operating, before joining here, March 30, 2010. (I can only remember the name of one of them, 49Plymouth.) I also was a "lurker" here for quite a while before joining, at least that is the way I remember it, and also did the same on RatRodsRule. Also lurked on the HAMB, but never joined there - too much drama. There was also a really great Australian old car forum, lots of metal work threads, before it eventually closed down. I have found a fair number of useful photos on the FB group, and copy those that show original detail and things like that, because I bought my 46 as a "basket case", and then disassembled it even more. And that was all in 80-81, and then left it in storage until 5 years back.

Machinery's Handbook. They do say, however, that if it is necessary to ream sintered bronze, to use a very sharp tool that has the cutting edge cut in a certain way, and (if it is to be used for a fast & constant rotating shaft) to recondition it (I cannot recall the exact term they used) by heating in a pot of oil, or something like that. (I don't have time to look it up in the book right now. I also saw similar notes on-line, as I recall.) Like I said, I'm not a machinist, so (as "Oklahoma's favorite son" always said) "I only know what I read in the newspapers."

I thought it was perhaps because I blocked up the front BEHIND the front wheels. And it sat that way for over 30 years, until my brother hauled it to his place, I think around 2017 or so.

When I suggest coming here (on a FB post) I also do not post the link, only the name "P15-D24". One person sent a note back to me and told me that they have joined here. But I don't know who it is here, and he probably doesn't know who I am, either, because I use my nick name here, and FB is tied to my legal name.

After my folks' 53 DeSoto was put out to pasture, having heard that it's not good to leave a vehicle in one spot with the weight on the springs, and also to keep the bottom of the floor farther away from the damp earth, I put it up on blocks (stacked cement blocks, 2 rows high, 4 at each corner, with a wood plank on top). I had them under the frame, just behind the wheels in the front (and not sure where exactly I put them in the rear). So the suspension was just hanging. Some years later, we noticed that the windshield had a long crack in it. Always wondered if the weight of the front of the car (flat head six still installed) caused the breakage. So now I think I would also block up the suspension some, so as not to just let it hang. (Of course it also completely smashed the control arm bumpers.)

I understand the spot you are talking about, but I cannot remember if there is any provision for adjustment there. I don't think there is, but if so, a nylon rub plate would do the job well, I would think.

If it's going to be for outside use, I would be very hesitant. The wind may move the tarp around just a bit, but it's "sanding" the paint off as it does. For inside use, I just cover my car with old cotton bed sheets.

If your bronze bushings are "oilite" or sintered bronze, it's not advised to ream that type of bushing. (I know, not a high speed spinning shaft.) I would suggest finding a shaft the right OD, and long enough to go all of the way through, so that this rod can be used to keep the two bushings aligned while your epoxy cures. (Oh, and ideally there would be around .002 'interference' between the OD of the bushing, and the ID of the bore. So a reamer of about 1/64 less would be about right, I think, without doing all of the conversions. The bushings are probably also about .001 over the nominal OD size.) DISCLAIMER: I am not a machinist, so take it all with a grain of salt. But I do have the Machinery's Handbook that my son used when he was doing machinist training, and have done a fair bit of reading-studying in it.

If you've ever run a commercial sand-blaster connected to the kind of huge air compressor Los_Control is talking about, you'll never be satisfied with one of these small orifice blasters. (I never really looked at it closely, but I think that the compressor at the plating shop where I worked back in the 70's and early 80's was probably a two stage screw type, and BIG. A big part of the reason I never looked it over is because it was in a separate building, way back in the corner, to keep that noise as far away as possible, I suppose. I think I was only back there once, that I can recall.) I have a small one that I bought at an auction, but still don't have an air compressor that can actually run it well. The blasters we had in the plating shop were the type where the tank depressurized each time you let up on the foot pedal. That allows the hose to clear as the tank blows out the built up pressure, but the down side is that the air compressor must have enough capacity to quickly get that pressure back up again when you start blasting again. I suppose that's why that type of blaster has a quite small pressure tank.

Closest I've seen was in the Rockies, in the Westcliffe - Silvercliffe area. But it was back in 75, too, so who knows now. (Not that it was really all that remote, but the altitude must have helped.)

The Indian village was around 500 miles from Manaus, the capitol of Amazonas state. On a clear night we could see the light pollution on the horizon. Porto Velho (Rondonia state capitol, to the south) was much closer (to the village), about a third of that, but I do not recall ever seeing the light from PVH in the night sky. Much smaller city.

I never had any issues with it either, just a bit of oil on the threads; that is, until I moved up here to Ohio, where the Rust Devil also lives. But graphite sounds like something I should try instead of axle grease.

Go some place far from any cities, then look up at the sky on a moonless cloudless night. The stars are so bright, and the whole sky is full of them. Too much light pollution around here.

Bought a 2019 Dodge RAM Classic (4th Gen) last Fall. Up here in the "Salt Belt" wheels are sometimes a bear to get off, even after the lugs are loosened. After getting one off with a bunch of kicking, I had to do the "pop the P15 Drum loose" trick to get the other front one off. (Loosened the lugs, and drove up the street, whipping the wheel back & forth. Finally heard it pop. Then I go to the back. Seems I did the same for one of them, then tried the other. No way would it come loose. Finally snugged the lugs back down and drove to my son-in-law's place, and we used his hydraulic ram to get the other loose. (Or maybe we had to do that for both rear wheels?) Anyway, so I slathered a bit of oil on the mating surfaces, and drove back home. Couple of days later I was going to finish the job, cleaning the rust off of the inner wheel hub circle. Kicked them, Beat on them with a mall for splitting fire wood. No go. Had to put the lugs back on loose, put it back on the ground, and go whip around in the store parking lot up the street. I was ready to give up when I turned sharp enough on a slight hill that it popped loose again. It'll be interesting to see if they will come off easy next time, or not. (This PU has steel wheels - aluminum wheels are even worse for "bonding" to the steel hubs.) I might catch some guff for this, but I don't use a torque wrench. I have one, and used to be able to feel just what so-and-so many foot pounds it like. I'm not a big guy, nor am I a"muscle man", so they have to be so that I can get them off again. (I don't have an impact, and wouldn't have on on the road with me anyway.) I run them down snug, then work my way around and around a few times with a large X wrench, just a bit more on each, till it's to where I can just get them off with nothing but a 1/2" break-over. The only time I've had a wheel come loose was when I had a tire shop swap some tires around for me. And it was still well within the 50 miles they always talk about. But I should put the torque wrench to them once, and see how tight I've been making them.

Some of those FB groups are really trying hard to weed out the scammers, but this place, as a sort of "community", makes a person a whole lot more at ease to make a deal with someone you don't know face to face. But I watch those groups mainly for photos of the cars, mainly detail pictures that might someday help me (or someone else) know how things go back together. Then the interior photos, for original detail in cloth pattern, etc. (I don't really look twice at the heavily customized cars. Not that I exactly despise them or something, but there's no need to know "what it's supposed to look like" if it's going to be a custom.)

Cool Beans!