TodFitch

At my local hardware store I found a roll of sticky back sand paper. For each drum, I cut a strip of sand paper long enough to go around the full inside of the drum and stuck it in. Next I used a sharpie to mark some cross hatches on the shoes and then put them in the drum and rubbed them back and forth until the cross hatches were gone. That only took a minute or two a piece. I did each wheel separately so the shoes were lapped/arced to the drum they were being used with. At this point I knew that the shoes were arced to the radius of the drum minus the thickness of the sand paper. The paper I got was a little thicker than I wanted but nonetheless the result was a lot closer than I started out with and it got the shoes close enough to allow me to use my Ammco shoe aligning tool. Total cost was a couple of bucks for the roll of sand paper and I only used a little bit off the roll. Since then I've acquired an Ammco shoe grinding tool but I haven't used it yet as the above has been good enough to get me the best brakes I've had in years on that car.

P14 and P15 are the engineering codes for the different cars. These are quite different from the names used by marketing Anyway, the P14 models were built in the 1942 model year while the P15 models were built from 1946 and into early 1949. I have a table on my web site at http://www.ply33.com/Misc/vin that lists all the various Plymouth model codes along with the marketing names for the cars up through 1958 (after that they used VIN number rather than serial numbers to track things, so a different type of table would be needed).

For what it is worth, the Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942 shows that there were 5,821 P14C four door Town Sedans built.

Pretty amazing! I'm going to have to try that stuff on my daily driver.

Coming back from a couple of errands today I noticed that my '33 is ready to turn over another 1,000 miles, so it is time for the next scheduled maintenance. For years I didn't bother with doing scheduled maintenance on a formal basis. Sure, I checked the mileage and changed the oil. But I didn't worry about all the other stuff in the manual as I was tinkering enough with the car that I felt that I got everything greased and checked often enough to avoid unnecessary wear and/or caught failure ready parts before they failed. But one day a couple of years ago I realized there are some tasks I just don't feel like doing, so they weren't getting done. One example of that is pulling all the brake and clutch springs and the lower transmission rest/frame cross member so I can remove the flywheel dust cover and grease the throwout bearing. So now I am on a formal scheduled maintenance regimen and am wondering what what everyone else does?

Nice video!

Fun ride although I don't know how you can stand to listen to talk radio: Had you been playing some oldies on the radio it would have been great.

Ahhh. Studs instead of nuts. I think those are pressed in, so maybe an appropriately sized drift and a hammer could knock them into the drum. But then you'd be left with the issue of no way to bolt the puller onto the hub. I hope someone else has a better idea, but I think you are looking at some skillful use of a cutting torch or a replacement axle.

All five lug bolts broken off? Sounds like someone didn't know about the left hand threads. Wonder why they didn't stop after breaking one or two. . . About all I can suggest is to carefully drill the lug bolts using a left handed drill for right hand lug bolts and a right hand drill for left hand lug bolts and then use a misnamed "easy out" to remove the bolts. Once they are out then you can remove the drum with a puller per usual.

Do you have a wiring diagram? I don't have that model or that style fuel gauge system but my understanding is there should be three connections on the dash unit where one connection goes to the ignition switch for power and the other two go to the tank. If it is the same as the similar era Plymouth, the wire to the ignition should be blue and there should also be a brown wire on that same terminal that goes to the starter switch. The other two terminals on the gauge should be labeled "1" and "2". A blue wire on #1 goes to the one side of the sender and a black and yellow wire on #2 goes to the other side of the sender. And, of course, the sender should have a good ground to the frame. (All the above from the Plymouth service manual as my older car is totally different in this area.)

Maybe not on a Mopar flathead, but I did have it happen on a Mopar 318 V8. Fortunately, it was on my '63 D200 and it was pretty easy to remove enough stuff from the front to get access. Probably took 2 or 3 hours including going to the part store to fix. If it ever happens to the engine in my '33 it will mean pulling the hood, radiator shell and radiator. If I'm lucky, jacking the engine up enough to get access would work but given the relation of the impulse neutralizer and the front frame crossmember I'd might have to pull the engine.

What does a '26 Plymouth look like?

+1 and I like the link too.

About four years ago I played around with a speedometer/performance app for my smartphone. Three run average a quarter mile for my '33 was 25.2 seconds with a final speed of 55.7 MPH. 0 to 60 was about 37 seconds. Since many modern cars, including generic family vehicles, will do 0 to 60 in under 10 seconds it is mildly interesting to me that in normal traffic the 37 second time is usually sufficient.

Is 1123332 the "that part number"? I see it listed in part type code 5-62-7 as the "Brake Flexible Hose Gasket" for all models 1938 through 1948 in the '36 to '48 parts book. I had found interchanges for my '33, which lists part 79192, as follows: NAPA UP 1243 CarQuest W30 Raybestos G1243 If 1123332 superceded 79192 then those numbers will probably work for the later applications too.

Since my '33 with its stock drive train including a 4.375 rear end is fully capable of cruising at between 60 and 65, it seems highly likely to me that if your '47 is "maxed out" at 55 then something is wrong with it. It should be able to cruise at 65 in stock configuration with no problem if it is in good repair. Now I'll step aside and let others tell you about transmission and rear end options that can reduce the engine RPMs at speed.

Don't know about the weight but with the top down I wouldn't be too surprised if the aerodynamic drag on the convertible is higher than on a sloped back two door sedan.

If there is an older public library in or near Jefferson, IA then contact them and see if they have newspapers and/or a city business directory from that era. The newspapers should have ads and the business directory should list the addresses, etc. of the dealer.

Factory service manual says thermostat to start opening at between 157° and 162° and is fully open at 183° and 187°. I think that the opening temperature is the one that is listed on the box so that makes it a 160° thermostat from the factory. Never really looked into that before to see what they actually specified. Interestingly, the 1934 service manual lists opening at between 150° and 155° and fully open at 172°. The '33 and '34 engines don't have the full length water jackets nor the water distribution tube so maybe the slightly cooler thermostat was needed to keep the hot spots in the engine at bay.

Same part number for the "Housing Vent Assembly" from 1940 through 1948. The '36 through '39 used a different number.

My car was shipped to Lang Motors in Rochester, NY. A 1934 business directory for Rochester shows Lang Motors at 777 Culver Road. There is a building there that looks like it could have been an auto dealership in that era: https://maps.google.com/maps?ll=43.129052,-77.525711&spn=0.306186,0.617294&cbll=43.159026,-77.566624&layer=c&panoid=r0iGET-p71obWyVDfcw9Xg&cbp=12,287.67,,0,-7.42&t=m&z=11

Apparently this AAA authorized service station is the oldest in the country. Logo for the AAA on the building is the 1920s and 1930s one for the California State Automobile Association which covered Northern California (the Automobile Club of Southern California covered the south end of the state). https://maps.google.com/maps?ll=38.035653,-122.764664&spn=0.347207,0.541077&cbll=38.067853,-122.805686&layer=c&panoid=dU_BawyRjfcEuypuQuEpFA&cbp=12,192.6,,0,2.15&t=m&z=11

The "instruction book" for my '33 Plymouth makes no mention of running without a thermostat. One reason for older cars using a lower temperature thermostat like the 160°F was to reduce the rate of evaporation of alcohol from the coolant to keep freezing point low. That is not an issue with ethylene glycol. So basically, you should run a thermostat year round and if you are just using water, then you should use soft water and add a rust resistor/lubricant to the water.

This looks like it could be an interesting place to visit for those in or near the western part of Upstate New York: http://www.pierce-arrow.com/frank-lloyd-wright-filling-station

Yes. And probably cheaper than putting a 12v battery with a limited service life in the trunk with a Harbor Freight solar panel on the tray below the rear window. Especially if, like me, you have no trunk and no tray below the rear window.