blueskies

Great thread, brings back lots of memories of tearing down my '50... Pete

I mounted my rear seat belt retractors in the trunk, and ran the belts up through the package tray. Works great. You can see a bunch of pics here: http://www.50plymouth.com/08-uai/uai.html Seats look great JD, wish I could have finished mine before I sold the car... Pete

One thing I understand is snow... I live in Hailey and have three to four feet in my yard for months on end. Even so, it is pretty dry. I've had bare metal on my '53 chevy truck since I bought it in 1983, and it still looks the same as it did 29 years ago. Granted, it's not sitting at the bottom of a pile of rocks... but it is stored outside year round. Most of the dirt around here is free-draining river cobble, so even when there is water, it disappears quickly. I find stuff like this all over Idaho- Been sitting there for 50-60 years, and nothing but minor surface rust... If you dig up the vert, I want to come check it out! Pete

But there isn't any water in Idaho. Might just need a paint job... Pete

What part of Idaho are you from? I'm in Idaho too... Pete

The R-10 differs from the earlier R-7 in more ways than the speedo cable... The primary difference is that the R-7 does not have the governor which controls the OD automatically, engauging and dis-engauging the OD electric controls at about 28 mph. Pete

I used ARP head studs on my '50 with a finned aluminum EDGY head. The studs do not have a tapered shank. I put a bit of anti-seize on the studs before I installed the head. I had to pull the head after about 8 years and 12000 miles. One good whack with a rubber hammer to bust loose the head gasket and it was off. You can see the studs are clean aside from a bit of anti-seize here and there. Not sure, but it may be that the EDGY head has a bigger tolerance around the studs than a vintage head. Pete

Got an email update from the new owner yesterday. They drove the car 1,854 miles without any real issues, from Idaho to Texas. Said the brakes needed an extra pump (they needed a minor adjustment before I sold the car), and that it got a little hot in the Utah desert heat. Other than that, trouble free. Plymouth built great cars... Pete

Here's how I did mine. The secret to getting them dialed in was revealed with the secret decoder ring that came in the Ovaltine.... Pete

My old Plymouth spotted on the Salt... I haven't heard from the new owner, but I'm assuming he made it to Texas without issue. The Willys has become a much bigger project than I'd hoped... a bit of a can of worms really. It's going to take some time to sort out all the bugs. Have the rear axles out and re-doing the spring perches. They were cut off at some point and put on top of the axle for a spring-over-axle poor-man's lift, and then put back. Problem was, they were welded off center by about 2 inches... the passenger tire rubbed the body . My boys and I are enjoying the work though, and we'll get it fixed and on the road shortly. Pete

Joe- I installed all of my glass after paint. I don't remember the rear door windows being an issue. If it were me, I'd test fit before paint to see how it works, and then install after paint so the paint gets under the window channels. No masking that way either. Pete

Plenty of agitator left in my Willys... Pete

I plan to run it as is until it needs something major. Then, if funds allow, I'll likely dive into something "extra"... Pete

Pat- The boys are old hands at old cars... Joseph started wrenching on the Plymouth when he was 2 1/2, Ben was a few days old at the time. The are now 12 and 9... They were pretty sad this morning when I drove away in the Plymouth to deliver it to Boise, but they are fired up about digging into the Wagon. Joseph wants to find a Willys pickup right away to start tinkering on so that when he gets his license in a few years it will be road worthy then. I said to him, what would we do with it in the mean time, and he said "we'll just park it out back, and when my friends come over, I can show them my pride and joy!" I think I have successfully passed on the old car affliction... The wagon has a laundry list of fix-it stuff. Most of it small, but a few big issues. It looks great in the pictures, but it's a 20 footer to be sure. The first order of business is to pull the rear axle and re-do the spring perches. Seems that the axle was replaced at some point, and the spring perches weren't welded on. The result is that the axle has slid to one side about 1.5 inches, causing the tire to rub the body. One of the issues the seller failed to mention... I will be posting a build thread on my Willys site, if anyone wants to follow along. www.oldwillysforum.com The Plymouth will officially change hands at 6pm tonight... I hope Michael is happy with his purchase. I'm very sad to see it go. We'll just have to build another kick-a$$ Plymouth in a few years when Ben is ready to drive... Pete

That's funny Ed, maybe I should name it the "Tub".... It's certainly got some good, bad, and ugly. The ugly is unfortunate, but buying sight unseen it's hard to expect much more. The seller wasn't completely honest and lied about a couple of things. But, overall, its in pretty good shape. Pete

My wagon has arrived... Shipping was an ordeal, it took nearly two months... The wagon is a bit rougher around the edges that I had hoped, but I suppose that gives my boys and I more to tinker with. I've only driven it around the block, but in comparison to the Plymouth, it's a lot like driving a tractor... Here's a couple of pics- Sadly, I will drive my Plymouth for the last time tomorrow. I'm driving from home to Boise, ID, 150 miles, to meet the new owner. He is going to drive the car to it's new home in Arlington, Tx. I have no doubt he will get there without issue. I'm sure we will shed a few tears as it drives off into the sunset.... If he ever sells, I get dibs on first right of refusal... Pete

Happy for you Don, the work pace you were on the last few years must have been tough for both you and Lisa. Hope you have time to make it to Speed Week now that you aren't running around the country for work.... Pete

The string is to rotate the absorbent mat inside the cooler through the reservoir of water to get it wet again. The air blows through the wet mat, and the evaporative cooling cools the air. As the mat dries out, it stops working. Pull the string and start the process over again. Pete

Here's my "book", for what it's worth http://www.50plymouth.com Pete

It took me two years to sell my '50. And it is still sitting in my garage waiting for the new owner to pick it up a month from today. Doesn't seem real, and it probably won't sink in till it drives off into the sunset. If you can swing it, hang on to it. I'm trying hard not to think about the seller's remorse... Pete

What a drag Joe... I feel your pain! I'd bet the assembly lube separated and lost it's consistency and drained out into the pan over the 8 year time span. Resulting in a dry startup. Coupled with the oil pump issues you had, it wouldn't take much to score the bearings... Pete

You don't need no stink'n brakes... Full steam ahead! Pete

With a bright light, you can see quite a bit from the bottom... If you can't see anything obvious, then you will have to start removing parts... I put my camera on the close-up setting and took a bunch of his res pictures with a flash, and studied the pics on my computer. I was able to see things in the pics that I didn't notice while under the car. Pete

Mine would make more noise when it was cold... I would cringe when I would start it up and hear that little hammer rapping away in there. Once it warmed up, it would go away. At first anyway. As I put more miles on it, it got worse until it was ever-present. I would pull the pan first and inspect the bearings. If they look good, then I would pull the head and remove the piston/rod and inspect the wrist pin and wrist pin bushing and the keepers. From the bottom, you should be able to see the cylinder walls too. If one of the keepers has come loose, there should be evidence of scoring on the cylinder wall. The bearing and cylinder walls were clean on mine, so I knew it had to be the wrist pin bushing. Pete

Maybe the guy was afraid the blower would blow the guts out the other end of the engine... Been working on that for a while now... I stared www.oldwillysforum.com to educate myself as much as possible before I bought. I didn't plan to buy a wagon for a couple more years... The wagon I bought is fairly complete, so I probably won't do another website like I did for my Plymouth that covered the entire project. Might just do a page for road trips and outings, small projects, etc. Or maybe nothing more than post on the new forum, time will tell. I wasn't planning on buying anything for a while. Feeling a bit guilty about spending some of the Plymouth money on another ride, but decided that it was probably now or never. It won't be long before that cash is long gone, and the right wagon came along at the right price so i jumped on it. Decided that getting the wagon here before the Plymouth leaves for Texas on the 1th of August would be a good idea to, so that my kids will have something to focus on when the Plymouth drives off into the sunset. Ed- I certainly enjoyed the process of putting my '50 together along with it's website as much or more than the finished product. The wagon still needs some work, but it is pretty much a driver as it is. I didn't want another full blown project, no time or money at this point to take that on. Just want a weekend tinker rig and something that I can run around in the rest of the time that looks decent. I'll post a clip or two when it gets here... Pete