Eneto-55

No harm in asking. I wondered the same thing back when I first got my 49 P15 parrts car, because someone had cut off the front spindles (for a trailer, I suppose). I got the parts from a 53 my brother scrapped, and so I had it apart anyway. But with the parts in your hands you can quickly tell that it wouldn't work. Not just the alignment issues already mentioned, but it would lower it too much. (I don't like them low anymore myself - that was when everyone was jacking up the rear end on their cars, and as my sister tells me, I guess I "just always have to be different".)

I don't have one of these printers myself, but have seen some of the stuff a guy I know has made. I wonder if there are plactics available that would make good replacement control knobs. like the one for the wipers, that sits on top of the dash. Mine crumbled to pieces, and I've not found a replacement yet.

That has also been my experience, until I moved to the "salt belt". I have had to replace calipers because the slide area become so rusted that the floating section constantly bangs back & forth when you go over bumps, or potholes. And forget about getting the bleeder valve open after years of salt baths. I realize we are talking about cars that are generally only used in the good season, but for general use (daily drivers), it's what we have to put up with here.

Nothing wrong with the way you phrased it. Just joking.

I sorta' got hung up at the part about "girlfriend for the day".

Weren't those called Beauty Rings? (If I understand correctly - the rings that went on around the hubcaps, actually making it look like wheel covers. Were those original equipment, or later aftermarket parts? Like the wheel covers on the 53 DeSoto, that had a chrome center the size of a hub cap, and white rings around the outside of that.)

I don't know about tractors here in the States, but I had a Yanmar Micro-tractor in Brazil that I bought in 89, and it used an oil bath filter. I tend to think that they work better than a paper filter, even with the oiled foam sleeve.

I know that some say you should not remove the thermostat for the summer, but my dad always did. He would flush the system (like Plymouthy Adams describes), then run straight water until Fall, when he would test the thermostat for proper operation, and re-install it. (This was of course before having a car with AC - he stopped doing it sometime before - maybe after the last flat head.) I should also say that our water was pretty low in minerals, and he may have added a rust inhibiter.

I have heard this before as well, but I don't recall if it was on some sort of official site or not.

Iron wood is toxic?! I sawed up a whole lot of that stuff while we lived in the Amazon. Stinks when you saw it, but I didn't know it was toxic. But then I also sawed asbestos sheeting for shower walls in our house. Just tried to stay up wind of the dust. (The roofing was also corrogated cement-asbestos.)

Wouldn't brass be the better choice in terms of dissimilar metals? Has anyone ever had theirs plated, with say, cadmium, and then honed back to specs? (Or even nickel or industrial chrome)

I have never seen any. Back when I got my 46 I keyed the ignition cylinder to the key from my 72 Dodge Coronet. I think I just selected pins that were close to the right length, then filed them until the cylinder worked smoothly. I also made keys for some cabinet locks that way, too, back when I had more time than sense. I sold the 72 years ago, and I still haven't finished the 46, and don't remember now if I even still have a key for it. (The car still sits in my Dad's shop, over 900 miles away from me.)

A lock smith should be able to get the code by measuring the length of each of the tumblers. My dad, who worked in the parts department of various US auto dealerships for pretty much his whole working career, cut so many keys over the years that he could just look at a key and "read" the code (going by the relative height & depth of each of the cuts).

You just let the cat out of the bag, I think.

Not sure what you could do about the Indians, but I suppose you could use a lug bolt with the head cut off as a temporary guide to get the others started. But I would sooner drill holes in what ever wheels I planned to use rather than cutting the guide pins off. Just me.

I will confess that during college & after I had a huge afro (Spring 1975 - early 1980), and wore flarelegged pants, some with big bright plaid patterns. I wish I had pictures of me wearing those, but I don't. Now I just have one pair of flair legs (bell bottoms flaired below the knee, and flairs started just above the knee), that we found in a barn on the property my daughter & husband bought. I generally wore cowboy boots (my Oklahoma heritage), but for dress shoes I had high heeled black patent leather shoes with swede inserts. (The main part of the sole was also really thick - I can't quite describe the style, exactly.) I had picked up a Ikie jacket (short-waisted air-force dress jacket) in a GoodWill, but once wore a cut off black chior robe as a shirt (tucked in) on a trip from Minnesota down to Oklahoma. Some guy came up to me at a rest stop and asked me if I was "traveling with speed"....

I'd like it as ASAP as possible.

I had a nehru style shirt back in the 70's, and living in Amish country I see the basic same as nehru jackets all the time - they call them straight cuts around here, and many of the local congregations require them. About the shirt buttons - in my HS days (Oklahoma, in the early 70's) the dress code required all but the top button to be closed, and belts if there were belt loops on your pants. Come to think of it, some guys did try to pull their shirt collars back a bit like that, but it was so that their hair wouldn't hang over their collar in the back, because the hair code said no hair on the collar in the back, over the ears on the sides, or below the eyebrows in the front. And yes, that was public school.

I was in our local store on Thursday morning, and the guy there told me that it was going into bankruptcy that day. This whole store won't close completely, as Radio Shack was just a section of an electrical store. He said that there was the possiblity that Amazon would buy it.

If the above hints don't show anything, and it was actually repainted, then they were probably also careful not to get any overspray on the frame, but that would be a clue as well. If it was an old frame-off restoration, then there may not be any indication of a repaint. (Unless someone knows how to detect if the paint is enamel or lacquer, but of course they could have also repainted with enamel, but that would have been a specific choice, or done very long ago.) Also, you could search for indications of leading anywhere on the body.

It would be out of your way coming through this part of Ohio, but have you ever visited Amish Country here in Holmes County? (We are in Berlin, the "cultural center" of the Amish settlement in Ohio - the largest in the US. - more in population than in Lancaster County PA.)

This reminds me of a short article in the Readers' Digest back in the 70's or so, called "Like, I Mean, You Know, Right?"

Holmes County - village of Berlin.

Was this in a HS shop that closed there? I saw one advertised up in Canton a few months ago. - I'm just about an hour south of there. If I had a place to put it, I might have been interested, too, but I was more interested in the metal lathe that was also selling at the same place.

I prefer the P15 design over the 2nd series 49's & up at least till the 57's thru the 61's or 62's. After that (with a few exceptions) none of them do anything for me. I also like the P15 over the D24 because of the older look. (The front fender lines on the Dodge ease back into the doors, where as the Plymouth's front fenders keep their shape completely ahead of the doors.) As far as the ride quality between the postwar vehicles and the early 50's is concerned, what could create any difference, unless the center of gravity is a bit lower on the later models? I have the front suspension out of a 53 Cranbrook under my 49 P15, and I'm pretty sure there is no difference at all. I was going to put the rear end out of the Cranbrook under it, too, but the saddles were at a different place. I'm pretty sure that the track is the same, but I might be wrong on that.