DJ194950

My friends 47 Ply. Bus. Cpe. had some damage to the stainless grille parts. After looking on Ebay I found some reasonable prices (about $ 30 per piece, per side) to replace the damaged (5) stainless parts. After further inspection it was discovered that the sheet metal under the grille stainless pieces also had some repair work needed. My question is -- The sides of the sheet metal parts that mount all these grille parts looks to have a slight curvature from from top to bottom (matches the fenders curvature) which are undamaged. The middle part of this grille sheet metal portion was hit almost dead center top to bottom and pushed back about 1"?? and has lost any curvature on top of the set back. My question is the center peaked out area of the grille mounting the same curvature shape as the fender side area?? Thanks, DJ

My first thought when I read your post was that if you have purchased new plugs that came with a 50 thou. gap and need 30 thou., you bought the wrong spark plugs for the application! They Almost always come new set at close to the proper gap for the heat range and application of that plug. Occasionally you find one that got hit in storage and the gap is somewhat closed. Just my experiences. DJ

On this 47 Ply. the cracks ran in to the hub area and were also at the holes were the horn ring screws held in down onto the steel wheel. These cracks (mostly one of them) was slightly raised at the screw hole (slightly) and caused my problem, like I stated it was hard to see at first,touchy. Just thought it could also be your trouble area, if not oh, well, just a thought. DJ

Oh, Don you are so sentimental about the past! No name!

Had a horn honking to easily-- liked to stay on after first push after trying adjustments. Problem turned out after days and days for trying ,studying parts, etc., to be the cracks in the inner part of steer wheel caused several slightly raised areas that did not allow the contacts to have Just the right clearance to make contact when it Should- When ring was pushed anywhere on the ring and Only when pushed. The clearances were stupidly touchy! MY opinion! Since you mentioned cracks in your wheel, could this be your issue?? DJ

Has Don ever gone back to AU.?? I hear he still drives on the wrong side of the road sometimes--in the US.! Andy I only drove a short distance and parked on the wrong side of Race St. in Brisbane once. Could not understand way cars were honking their horns at me?? Cops are most likely still trying to figure out were to mail all the tickets I should have gotten for not stopping at YELLOW stop lights! They have what we call red light cameras at most stop light intersections and mail out your ticket. Who from the US ever stopped at yellow lights??? NOT ME! DJ

Andy I was there in AU. back about 20 years ago working 6 days (well really 5 1/2) a week. Was mostly there as a mechanic working on high-reach equipment as the country was building stuff for the olympics. 6+ months in Brisbane then 4-5 months in Sidney. Enjoyed Brisbane time, not so much Sidney. Too much traffic, poor roads around town. Smaller/older version of L.A. back then-now?? DJ

Does the wife know about the second loan on the house that was required to pay for new parts and machine work on the hemi?? Don't worry honey I am saving a lot of $$ by doing the assembly myself. DJ

Do you need to keep the Learners License Tag for the brake operato s on the bumper or what?? Some times I miss the changes ? of rules/regs over there, definitely kept things interesting! \Maybe be not so much for the natives as I drove there!! !! DJ

The passenger does the car braking Andy?? DJ

Got a piece of pipe that the OD is close ( within 1/2" to the ID of the cap? Put it in a vise to hold the pipe at 90 degrees to the vice tightly - slowly/gently take a small hammer to the outer edge of the cap while it is held about 1/8"=1/16" into the pipe and slowly hit the cap just inside the where the pipe rests against the pipe outside the dust cover while it is held at a ( approx.) 30 degree angle to the pipe. This will expand just the edge slightly and make a tighter fit to the inside of the hub. Then maybe the same tapping the other side just outside of the formed ridge to create a raised ridge. Find a socket that fits the OD of the cap inside the socket as tight as possible and tap the cap into the hub! Have done this Many/many times at work, seems to have worked good. Hope I have made some sense of this!. Another idea, hope to be of help! DJ

I saw the New Yorker name and the very beautiful wood on Santana's guitar did I miss something? DJ

My 50 Ply.manual says to to 50 wt. oil in the air cleaner but I received a free 12 qt. case of 20 wt. oil which I decided to try. Seems to have worked fine over 3 years (low mileage -2-300 miles) no problems like smoke and none disappeared! Now time to go ahead and change the oil and this time I have some unused 60 wt. from my old Harley and some more 20 wt. to mix to make a 50 wt. air cleaner oil! Whatever works now as I only drive on paved highways. DJ

Yes the car in Marty's pic is the car now in my garage that a good friend purchased from Marty. I Believe the front rims are 15x6?? You are probably right about a 75, series height tire would most likely be closest to the original sidewall height. The 75 series would be best in my opinion but May look odd with the wide 60 series rear tires. not sure a this moment as to rim width but the tires are even somewhat wider. The new owner is concerned about the LOOK with any change in front sizes. I thought he was more concerned about steer effort!? I kid my friend a lot but he is a very, very nice, considerate person just fairly new to upgrading old cars but has has owned a 71 Buick Skylark Convert. for about 30 years that is also getting some updates. So money does come up very often! Thanks for the responses Andy! DJ

The front tire are currently 215/60/15 radials which have a good squat on the road contact patch. Thinking a 185 or 195 /70 with a smaller contact area may still be easier to turn when going slow/stopped. Those sizes are still wider than the stock size/type??? DJ

The owner and talked after I posted that and for now that $1k electric steering is off the table. So he has decided he just might try the skinnier tire I suggested before.! He has a habit of saying go ahead and spend what is needed and then second thoughts happen! Some narrow used tires for trial basis will be fine! Marty's car is NICE! DJ

Well the PS addition became my problem not the owners when I told him that this car Could be a every day driver before he purchased it. But my idea of a old car with No PS is still a good driver even with the fact that Marty Bose just had the steer box totally rebuilt so that is not a problem. The new owner (a friend) has now decided that PS is necessary to be a every day driver. So my posted Question. I think he may be the first (at least on this forum that I know of) to get one of those fancy,expensive electric steering boxes! Looks the easiest to me. I Can spend his money to make him happy! Suppose if I really wanted to spend his money we could be doing a Fatman stub MII setup! I saw the other posts on this issue and the horn connection in the tech section which will needed for ant type of PS setup using the stock wheel/column and shifter. Glad it was brought back up. I was going to go searching fot that info. DJ

Can anyone post a link to a start to finish post to a r&p change over with the corrected steer radius problem with most changeovers fixed? I know some of the pulley problems and steer column to r&p /horn issues. All solutions to each welcome as long as on topic. I have 2 -50 Plym. vehicles of my own but this is for a friends 47 Ply. Bus. Cpe. mostly stock (flat 6, 3 spd. OD), that just today told me he wants a daily driver with PS! What next?? AC? Navigation? ,Power seats?, and on and on! Well he does make contributions to my bills fund! I know in the past Fatman did make a Cavalier rack setup for early Ply. but could not find it OL.? Thanks for any leads. DJ

Removing undercoating-- I have used a Aircraft Paint remover many times. MESSY and may take several times but metal comes out mostly clean and no heat to distort large areas of sheet metal. Use heavy coats-wait-scrape with putty knife-clean off crap unto old cardboard--use a old wire brush (large) ,repeat as needed. Overall quickest method I have found to a perfectly clean undamaged part of hood. fender, etc. Leftovers of undercoating usually cool off hard and easily sand off to very clean sheet metal. DJ

Well in this part of Ca. (central) were had a %75 eclipse they say, it did look like early morning out my window but I saw %100 eclipse In my house-- On the TV. Coffee and the couch was the best viewing to be Had! DJ

Take a look a look at what VPW sells and maybe a call to check the specs on their HP cam and spring setup- https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxzO_Oy1EMLIWVFzSHRzNjlOMWs/view Its in the engine section with stock cams. I personally have no experience with VPW or the cam but many others on the forum have over the years have had good luck with them as posted. DJ

Something this table? https://www.boltdepot.com/fastener-information/bolts/US-Recommended-Torque.aspx I searched online: max. torque values-bolts by size/thread I believe if you to also want something like this for metric sizes I would just add to above, -metric This search should get you that info. Hope that helps DJ

Paul small correction on your posts about Mare Island- There is no (S) on mare as you posted several times. It was last used as a Submarine repair facility. They built subs there for many many years. Closed-non active at this point. State may buy it someday. DJ

http://www.championradiators.com/plymouth-coupe-radiator-1947-1949 I am ready to pull the trigger on this one for a friends 47 Ply. Bus. Cpe. in my garage. This radiator can be had on EBAY for a few $ less but if you read closely on warranty it is way less than the one posted that is a life time warranty and guaranteed to cool up to 600 HP. So unless your planning on a blown hemi in your future I'm sure this will work out. Don't like the aluminum look? Paint it with a radiator black spray paint, Not regular black paint as it will reduce the cooling ability of the radiator. DJ

You have been blessed with more important work to do, but take it easy and Enjoy life! DJ