busycoupe

We used Autosol polish on my son's Mazda headlights. Worked great, just a little dab on a cloth, no power buffer. I don't know how long it lasted, he sold the car about 3 months later. Dave

The 39 showed up on the Boston craigslist last week. They listed the vin # in the ad. I did a Google search and found the same car in an Ebay auction from two weeks previous, supposidly bid up to 32k. The same car, with the same ad was on the Cincinati craigslist at the same time as Boston, also listed for $18,500. The person who listed it on ebay claimed to be from North Carolina. --- Very fishy! Dave

An antique plate in Massachusetts costs $40/yr. In addition the car hast to be inspected annually at a cost of $29. We also pay an annual vehicle excise tax, but that is pretty low, it is based on the book value of the car. It cost me $7 for my 48 Dodge.

There is a large parking lot behind Doyles and a second lot across the side street from the main lot. - Have fun! Dave

Jacob Wirth's probably hasn't changed! It still has coat hooks around the walls with a shelf above for hats. It's a great place to go for lunch. Dave

I live just west of Boston. Unfortunately I will be working on Thurs. I'm not familiar with Victoria's Diner, however, Roxbury can be a rough part of town. Boston is not a large city in terms of miles. Here are two places I recommend: One is Doyles's Cafe in the Jamaica Plain part of the city, at # 3484 Washington St, Boston, MA 02130-2602. Doyles is an old Irish pub. It has lots of old Boston connections. Nearly every politician for the last 75 years has visited there and has their picture on the wall. If you have seen the movie "Mystic River", then you have seen the Doyle's bar, it is where the girl danced on the bar before being killed. Doyles is also a couple of blocks from the Sam Adams brewery. The other place is Jacob Wirth's. It is closer to down-town, a couple of blocks from the Boston Common. http://www.jacobwirth.com/ Hope this helps. Dave B.

We had record rainfall over the weekend here in the Boston area. My town had about 8 inches, just north of here had 10 inches over a three day span. Places flooded that hadn't flooded before in living memory. I was lucky, no water in the basement. Things are starting to dry out now, most of the rivers have crested. Funny what a difference a couple of days can make. Today it is sunny in the 60's. Dave

Thanks! I didn't think that I would have a problem, but I've found that you can't always count on the registry of motor vehicles to be entirely logical! Dave

I'm considering moving to NC. My '48 D24 is titled in Mass. in my name. The number on the title is the SN from the door frame. The engine is an old rebuild and has an odd number. (it is actually a 1951 Ply. block). Do you think that this will be a problem? The car runs good and has a current Mass. safety inspection sticker. Thanks, Dave

I'm a high school science teacher. Over the years I have taught general science, physics, and earth science. -- Looking forward to retirement this June! Dave

Can you see the motion in the steering without taking it apart? I have a 48 D24 that had very loose steering when I got it two yrs ago. I had my son wiggle the wheel while I watched under the car. Everything looked OK but there was still a lot of slop in the steering. I replaced the kingpins and then adjusted the worm adjustment on the box. Now the steering is better, but I think it might still be a little loose. I'm not sure how much slop is considered "normal" in a 62 yr. old worm gear steering set-up. The car is driveable, but it does wander a bit. I think that may be due to the bias ply tires. Is there a way to check for normal play versus too much play in the steering? Dave

Yes, it was a compact car from England. It apparently came from the factory that way. There was a slotted hole in the front bumper and a fitting on the front of the crank shaft. The crank was carried inside the car and inserted through the bumper to start the car. The car had Lucas electrical parts, including the starter. Perhaps they thought it prudent to plan ahead.

My first car was a 1960 Hillman Husky (sort of a small station wagon) that I bought for $65 in 1969. The ring gear had the corner knocked off of all of the teeth and the starter would not engage it. I did buy a ring gear but never got around to installing it because the car came with a crank. I got used to starting it with the crank, and never put in the ring gear during the 6 months I ran it. The ring gear in that car was just a friction fit. The service manual said to heat up the ring gear to expand it, then slip it onto the flywheel.

The odometer in my 48 Dodge coupe said 57,000 miles when I bought it a couple of years ago, but the title said 257,000 mi! No, it does not have the original engine. The engine in it is a 53 Plymouth engine, and it had a rebuild plate riveted over the original engine number.

I think the green coloring is so the instruments will have a soft green glow at night. The bulbs aren't tinted in the instruments.

The ads look great! I'm looking for an ad that shows a D24 3 window business coupe. I've seen lots of ads for D24's, but none that show the 3 window business coupe. If anyone has one I'd love to see it. Thanks, Dave

If you have oversized wheels and tires you could be going considerable faster than the speedo says. Perhaps 52 on the speedometer is more like 70mph on the road. You could be near top speed. Check it with a GPS or have someone follow you.

The knob looks great! I have not tried toothpaste, but I have used Autosol metal polish on plastic pieces with good results. It also can be used to clean up plastic headlight covers on more modern cars. Dave B.

I don't know if this will help, but it is worth checking. My signals and brake lights were dim. I had a woman at a stop light tell me that I didn't have any brake lights. When I got home I checked them, they were working, but only dimly. I didn't find anything wrong with the wiring in the trunk, so I just left it alone. About a month later I changed the ignition switch in the dash. When I took out the old switch I discovered that the main power feed to the switch (which also powers the lights) had broken so that only a few strands of the wire were carrying current. I redid the connection, and suddenly all of my lights were brighter!

I have a 6v pos. ground to 12v neg ground converter and a new Sony radio/cd/mp3 player. The new radio fit into the glovebox of my D24 with only a small hole cut into the back of the glovebox for wires. I use a small, 3 inch long, powered antenna which sticks to the inside of the windshield behind the rear view mirror. The speaker is a dual cone stereo speaker that fits behind speaker grill in the center of the dashboard. The dash is untouched, the old radio is still in place for looks. The whole set-up cost about $200. The only down side is that I have to open the glovebox to adust the radio, or insert a CD. This is not a problem for me, but something to consider. I bought the converter, speaker, and antenna from this site: http://www.soundmove.com/index.htm The radio came from Best Buy. Not a bad solution.

Thank you to everyone. I will hopefully take it apart Sunday or Monday. I'll let you know what I find. Dave

Ok, I've the pan gaskets and a rear main seal ready to go. I'm going to try to stem at least one of the oil leaks under my car. Now, my question is do I need to take of the center link on the steering, or can I drop the pan without removing the centerlink? There is a couple of inches clearance, but I'm not sure that it will be enough. I have a '48 D24 coupe.

The doors on my 48 business coupe are 47 7/8 at the belt line, and about 52 1/2 at the bottom. Also, according to the parts book, both coupes use the same doors. Left door assembly #1064 825. Right door assembly #1163 444. Dave

Don is right. Old generators with brushes and old motors cause minute quick fluctuations in the current. A digital meter will pick this up and sometimes flicker, sometimes just read wrong (and you won't know it). An analog meter kind of naturally evens out the reading. The needles on an old meter are damped so that they won't bounce around, this helps when reading old car circuits.

The speaker in a 48 D24 is 7 inches in dia. The mounting bolts spacing is 4 1/4 inches up and down, 5 3/4 inches left to right. I mounted a 5 x 7 dual cone stereo speaker in the dash opening of my car. I used 2 pieces of old Erector set (handy stuff!) to span the bolt spacing to attach my new speaker to. Sorry, I don't know a source for a direct replacement.