Dave Bohn

Thank you every one for the info - it helps.

I've sold my D24 sedan and have been looking for a Dodge pickup - one of my odd ball criteria is a windshield that cranks out. That limits me to up to 1947. I recently looked at a 38 pickup and found the cab to be quite tight - only 48" across. Does anyone know if the 39-47 pickups are much wider? Thanks & sorry to be OT.

I'm a dog lover and an old car lover so it's great to see the two together. My first dog would shake and whine when being put in the car and on any car trip around town, once on the highway she'd be happy as can be. Didn't make sense - finally figured out that short city trips in her mind meant going to the vet, long trips meant going out to visit my folks.

My D24 has factory turn signals - but only the one brake light in the center of the trunk. I tried to rewire it to have the two turns also operate as brake lights for safety - but no success. The current fed back through and operated all three at once when I used the turns. I ended up adding an extra bulb behind each taillight and connected those to the brake light.

James, I'm a novice lurker on this site - there are many great guys here (yourself included) that provide much information for me. I work in an extremely large company where most of our inter personal interaction is by email and instant message. We've been told many times that the exact same words said face to face where you can see the person smile and hear the tone of voice is taken differently when in an email. I know a handful of people at work who are decent and kind, yet it is odd that their emails so often seem the opposite. I appreciate all your information over the years and wish you the best. Please know that your contributions have been appreciated even if the "typing tone" in responses sometimes may not reflect that.

I think those of us with fluid drive would find ourselves in the salty fluid at the bottom of the hill if we didn't curb our wheels and relied only on the parking brake!

Great looking car - I like when the motor is upgraded but the dash is kept stock looking.

I'm always amazed how high the prices go on ebay for the 6v defroster fans with the rubber blades. I'd like one, but the price is a deal breaker. As high as they are I'd think someplace would reproduce them.

I normally enjoy the pickers show - but I wonder if they often list the "value" of items on the low side. Low, so future pickees won't be leery of selling to the pickers, pickee's thinking they're getting ripped off by missing the huge profit. On another show the pickers bought some metal signs that they picked for $25 and the value listed at the end of the show was 50. The same sign I see in antique malls normally for $150 or more.

I'm curious what are the benefits of a new sub-frame. My D24 rides extremely smooth but my only complaint is heeling over during sharp cornering. It has the front anti-sway bar already. Does simply relocating the shocks fix the heeling over? Or is that why folks go to a sub-frame? I always learn something here.

I hate to admit it, but my best cars have been modern. 2003 Ford Escape bought new, not one ounce of trouble so far (knock on wood). Jeep Wrangler, rough ride but the most fun to drive for whipping around corners and being windblown. The car that still my favorite is my D-24, after driving the Jeep driving the D-24 is smoothest experience, like manuevering a boat on a smooth lake.

Hot Rod Delux - Nov 2009. It has a great article on Edgy. I can't take credit for spotting it - someone here mentioned it a post in Dec or so. I was able to find a copy still on the newstand. There was also another magazine mentioned at that time but I could not find a copy.

Hot Rod Magazine had an article with that F-Head conversion - said it would be around $6,000 without the carbs. My concern is, with the carbs on the drivers side, how would you ever access or time the distributor? It's an impressive looking set up though.

Skinned Knuckles is a good resource too - I never understood how/why ignition points worked until they had a great artical explaining ignition systems recently. All in all they have a lot of good how to articles for doing it yourself.

For the few years Plymouth PUs were made the windshield cranked open. The Dodge PU cranked open up thru 1947. 30 years ago I had a 39 Ford and a great part of the fun of driving it was the wind in my face with the windshield open. One of my "wanna haves" is to get a Ply/Dogde with the opening windshield.

I have to admit I am guilty of lurking for many years. This site is the best and I have learned a HUGE amount of information - but I normally don't post because my technical knowledge is miniscule compared to others here. I'm trying to post when I have a bit to contribute - my goal is to upgrade my profile from junior member

I think the suggestion of living with it for a while is a good idea. I have fluid drive and did not initially like it - I've come to find it is very flexible. Use it when you want or not. When I want to shift through 3 speeds its available. When my knee is acting up and/or when I'm in stop & go traffic I leave it in 2nd and drive like an automatic. The main problem was when my parking brake was poorly adjusted - I carried a wheel chock for parking lots on a slope.

Grabbing the metal sparkplug wire connector on a flathead V-8 Ford while the engine was running. That woke me up - my arm tingled for a half hour.

For anyone who needs one, I found an OD cable with the handle labled "overdrive" from Concours Ford parts 49-59 catalog. The length was just about exact without any cutting fo my D24.

My 48 D24 has the "official" Mopar accessory back up light. There is a switch that mounts under the dash that you turn on & off manually. When on, the switch knob glows red. I guess that was supposed to reminde you to turn it off. Theres a pic of the ensemble, switch, wires, light, in the front of the parts manual. BTW-When I got my OD transmission from George Asche he mentioned that the 48 tranny did not have a mounting for a back up switch - the later trans do.

Speaking of floorboards, has anyone ever found a source for the cover for the master cylinder hole in the floorboard? I've never seen one from a vendor or ebay.

Mine was a 65 VW. Sadly it was the most fun to drive. The carb leaked gas into the oil, when cold out the wipers barely moved, also when cold I had to have an ice scraper for inside the winshield. When hot it was an oven inside. It was the best for getting thru the snow - I could leave it in gear, hop out the door & push, then hop back in once I pushed the floor pan clear of the snow.

I have an Asche OD. I also have the 3way switch - I needed to go that route as it is on a D24 and I don't have the kickdown switch on the carb. I visited with George and he took me for a great ride in his 50 plymouth. He explained that one position was for OD where it allows it to be activated when at the right speed and you take your foot of the accelerator, another position (middle I think) gives free wheeling and the third position deactivates OD and acts as a kickdown (without having to floor the accelerator). I only had it out for 2 rides before winter hit so I'm still trying to be sure which position on the switch does what.

I'm curious what weight lube others are running in their overdrives. I have a D24 OD built by George Asche. He provided Amsoil synthetic 10w-40 for the OD and transmission. My Dodge OD shop manual says to use 80 wt in both the OD and transmission. The Borg Warner manual I have says to use 40 wt in the OD or 50wt in hot climates. Right now I'm using the synthetic George provided in both - it seems OK, except sometimes downshifting in to first requires a wait at a stop to avoid clashing. It seems the oil is thinner so the gear takes a while to stop spinning. What weights are others using? Thanks.

I have a '48 Dodge with a standard 3speed behind the fluid drive (w/o the semi automatic tranny). This is a common set-up on a 46-48 Dodge. It is GREAT for city stop/go driving - I keep the 3 speed in 2nd in traffic and just use the brake & accellerator, no clutch. Then when out of traffic and I want more power I can shift normally.