busycoupe

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.

I have one of those in my D24 coupe. It works great and powers my new Sony radio/CD player just fine. It is not super powerful however. Remember, 2.5 amps at 6 volts is only 15 watts. At 12 volts it is still only 30 watts. You aren't going to run your floor shaking woofers on that!

Shel, The set screw does tighten up against the lock body, but in the 4 door, the piece that the screw is threaded through is a tab cut into the door sheet metal. I was able to reach into it with a thin screwdriver and pry it up. I don't remember if the access was from the edge of the door, or through a hole on the inside of the door. Dave

I removed lock cylinders from a 48 D24 that was on its way to the crusher. I wasn't concerned about the doors, so I simply used a flat bladed screwdriver and bent back the metal tab that holds the set screw. The lock cylinders slid right out. I didn't try it at the time, but I wondered if the tabs could be pushed back into place to hold the lock again. Has anyone tried this approach? I know that metal will fatigue and eventually break, but it may survive one bend and return, especially if the tab is lifted only enough to slide the lock out.

Be careful! I had a spare speedometer for my D24, and I tried to take it apart to clean it, and touch up the color on the needle hub to make the safety colors at night more visible. It thought that I could pry the needle off, but when I tried it simply broke the needle shaft. That speedometer is now junk. I don't think they come apart.

I got the speaker, hideaway antenna, and power inverter from a place called "Soundmoves". They sell Custom Autosound products, and others. Service was quick and good. I bought an inexpensive Sony radio at our local Best Buy store. http://www.soundmove.com/radiofront.htm Dave

I left the radio face plate in place and mounted a new Sony radio/CD player in the glove box of my D24. It is a very simple installation and I didn't have to cut anything except for a small hole in the back of the glovebox for wires. I mounted a small, powered antenna (about 3 in. long) inside the windshield behind the mirror and ran the wire under the garnish moulding. For a speaker I got a dual cone unit that mounts in the dash in the original spot. It is true that to turn on, or adjust the radio I have to open the glove box, but you would have to open your radio faceplate to adjust the radio in your installation. Just food for thought. Dave

Just last week I bought lap belts and those anchors from Juliano's. They work great! The anchor plates are substantial, far stronger than the floor sheet metal. I just hope I don't have to test the belts and floor anchors in ernest!

Tim, if you do want to restore that radio you may not want to just plug it in to see if it works. Check with radioguy, but from my experience with tube jukebox amps I would recommend not turning it on if it hasn't played for years. The old capacitors in these sets decay over time. If the filter capacitors are shorted then you can burn out the output transformer in minutes. It would be better to have the capacitors replaced and the rest of the set checked before plugging it in.

My best car was a 1994 Dodge conversion van. I drove it for 11 yrs and 115,000 mi. It was hard on brakes, had them done 3 times. Other than that the only other maintenance was to change the oil and 2 sets of tires and one new battery. It ran great! After 11 New England winters it was just starting to show dime sized spots of rust on the rockers. -- Sorry I sold it.

I just saw this ad on Craig's List for a 48 Ply 4 door. Oxford is near Worcester, MA, about 45 min. drive from my house. http://boston.craigslist.org/bmw/cto/1076744584.html

I keep looking for an ad for my D24 business coupe (3 window). But I haven't found any. Does anyone have one? I would like to get a high res copy to print out. Dave B.

Looks like your bad weather is heading our way. It is snowing lightly now, about an inch on the ground, but the heavy snow is supposed to start tonight and continue until Tues. They say we will get a foot! I'm kind of bummed out, the warm spell last week melted nearly all of the snow banks in my yard. The garage was actually warm enough to work in, if only I didn't have to go to work. Oh well, spring is coming!

I use flash drives daily in my work as a teacher. They are great for storing pictures, word files, powerpoint presentations, etc. They are fast, cheap, easy to use. They are great for transferring files from one computer to another and are compatible with Mac an PC. As YoungEd says, they are simply a storage device. Your pictures would still have to be uploaded to the forum or photobucket to be visible on line. Also, I have heard that they can be somewhat volatile, in that they can be accidentally erased. I have not had this happen, despite using them daily for the last 3 years. However, I would not want to rely on them for long term storage of important pictures.

Thanks for the info. Dave

Dennis, I am thinking of adding a lift to the garage. What kind is yours? Are you happy with it? Do you have any sage advise? It would be used only for working on my Dodge, and any other old car that may follow me home. Dave

Title laws vary from state to state. Here in Massachusetts it is almost impossible to get rid of a car without a title, you can't even junk it. My cousin was given an MG for parts, but then he was stuck with it. He finally ended up cutting it up into pieces to take to the dump. Check your local laws.

When I took the nose piece off of my 48 D24 last summer to have the car painted I'm pretty sure that it had 3 clips like the one in your picture. -- That said, I'm not sure that means much, because the car had been painted at least twice before and includes parts from several cars. It is far from unmolested. Can you check your parts book?

I used Interlux polyurethane paint on the interior of a wooden boat I had a few years ago. I brushed it onto wood that had been painted with enamel years before. It does shine up well. The only thing that annoyed me a little was that it did not settle into minor cracks in the wood, instead it kind of beaded up and sat on top. Not sure how this would affect a car. It may accentuate any imperfections in the surface. It did cover well, and is very durable.

No picture, just a line of dots (periods?)

I find it interesting that people name all of their vehicles. I've owned cars, boats, motorcycles, and haven't named any of them, ... until I got my D24. I am in the Masons, and my car and motorcycle display a little Masonic emblem on the back. When I got the coupe my wife said "You know, sooner or later you are going to put a Masonic emblem on that car. We should name it Hiram!" And so, our Dodge has been Hiram ever since. Somehow it seems to fit. (Masonic brethren will recognize the name.) Any other named cars out there?

It is snowing here in Massachusetts -----again! Schools are closed today. There is not much on the roads yet, only a couple of inches, but it is supposed to change to freezing rain after lunch. That is probably why the schools closed. There is about a foot of old snow in my yard now, layered with ice. It looks like it will be a while before I get the Dodge out. Not much to do but read the forum and Hemmings Classic Car. ... Not such a bad day!

I don't think that they use the plastic model to make parts. It is simply used to check the scanned dimensions. The part would be machined directly from the digitized file. One thing they didn't show was how the digitized file could be corrected. The digital file of Jay's valve showed the crack in the original. I believe that flaws like that, and distortions from wear, could be fixed in the digital file with software similar to photoshop, or a cad program. The corrected file would then used to manufacture new parts.

The castlenut on a D24 needs a 1 1/4 inch socket. I bought a puller from a fellow that has an ebay store. It was an inexpensive puller, about $45, but it works well. I recommend buying one rather than renting. At $15/day to rent one, it would only take 3 days to cost as much as buying one.

I have a 2004 Victory Kingpin. I don't ride it as much as I would like to, but retirement is coming! It is a great bike, comfortable, powerful, reliable. I recommend Victory motorcycles to anyone who is looking for a big bike. Norm, There are Harley shows around here too. The Larz Anderson Museum had American Motorcycle Day on a Saturday in 2006, followed by a European Motorcycle Day on Sunday. There were hundreds of beautiful bikes on both days, some owned by the same people. Japanese Motorcycle Day was held earlier, in August.