rocknroad

Hey Andydodge! I've been looking at those aussie '54 diplomat Desoto's and would love to get one of those grills to bolt into the plymouth just to mess with people. But yeah frame swaps can be weird looking in my opinion. So one of the goals with this project is to maintain the old styling on the outside...ie interior, stock looking wheels etc. I would like it to pass as fairly stock to the average person. That being said this car was a little bit of a basket case but had really good bones. The fire wall and tranny tunnel were already hacked up, I think from the engine rebuild. The floors are also rustier than I originally thought considering its a SoCal car. It looks like they put layers of goop(tar like substance? and RTV?) to fix it some time ago, put outdoor carpeting on top of that and then the original rubber floor mats on top of that. So I do know it had a broken mostly missing windshield and passenger side front window. so that being said the firewall, trans tunnel and front floor pan will need to be fabricated regardless. The original rubber floor mat is in really good shape so I will be reusing that for sure! I'll be adding some pics in the next few days but to your point Andydodge we are grafting the front suspension of the ranger to maintain the stock wheel base. I've seen plenty of frame swaps where the front wheels are too far forward. Thats a hard nope for me on this. The other goal was to be able to run stock wheels without clearance issues. We test fitted the stock wheels while the ranger frame was in the yard still. One of my goals to is to have the ability to put stock wheels because I live in Los Angeles and there is a certain market for old looking cars in TV and Film...so maybe with this build it will get it a job before I do. So just doing a disk brake upgrade makes the front too wide and some kits don't allow for stock wheels. So we've spent the last 3 days marking out the floor of the shop, checking measurements against what the stock "advertised" wheel base and getting it all square. There is nothing that bugs me more than frame swaps where the track width is too wide or the wheels aren't centered in the wheel wells. We spent a lot of time measuring track widths on a bunch of donors, volare's are rare now, s-10 is ugly and wrong bolt pattern, dakota I think was too wide. When you cast a wide net, use your tape measure and the internet and look at whats available...there are some interesting candidates. The 2001 ranger is 5/8" wider.....a little over a 1/4" per side. The car I know was hit in the front(judging from the bent front bumper) so in doing our measurements the wheel base is different left to right by an inch. We put the front clip on and off a few times to figure out what looked best and what the "factory" spec was. The front is swayed to the drivers side an inch too. This car was repaired way before we had frame racks to pull everything back square. But we are basically cutting off the bent part and installing a subframe where it should be, it should handle and ride like a new car. Id rather do the sub frame and a rear swap and have it look right. I look forward to everybody following along. Made a bunch of plates and patterns to graft everything, we tacked it into place. We are wrecked..wil check measurements in the morning With cars this old the tolerances were a lot wider that what we are used to. I have a side business of repairing vintage (50's, 60's and 70's) tube amps...the highest quality components were + or - 20% soooooooo(military spec)...hey give me a dollar ....you could give me 80 cents or up to $1.20...now a days the tolerances for the cheap stuff is +- 1%. Give me a dollar is now just 99 cents, a dollar or $1.01....very different world.

I used these guys to get all the parts for my plymouth. Very knowledgeable and once diagnosed my buddy cadillac brake problems over the phone. http://www.chtopping.com also they do drilled drums (like vented rotors). You have to call them but they've been doing brakes since the 30's

So Its been awhile since I've been on this forum. Four years ago I got the '54 running and driving...then the wiring started on fire. So we pulled out all the wiring and it then sat in the garage. I got real busy with work(yeah!). Then the apocalypse happened and my entire industry shut down. So with all of that I pulled the car from SoCal to my brothers shop in Minnesota. He owns a tow truck building company with quite the fabrication shop and builds hot rods on the side. So I'm going to keep posting updates as I have time right now to do a lot of measuring and research. There are many swaps going on and I wanted to let you guys know what I found works and what doesn't. Also I want to thank my brother and nephew for putting so much time in with this build...It's been a rough year but this is definitely a bright spot. Day one: We pulled the front clip, pulled the motor and trans. Took some measurements and figured out he had a 2001 non abs 2wd coil spring ford ranger frame that was just 5/8" wider total than stock! After looking at rock auto to see what parts are available(everything! and tons of performance upgrades available too) we decided that would be our subframe. I don't know of anyone using this sub frame but it comes stock with big disks with dual piston calipers and rack and pinion power steering mounted on the front of the crossmember and the stock wheels fit! All of this would be upgrades on a mustang 2 sub and I don't think the cross member would be nearly as strong. The cross member leaves a lot of room for whatever V8 we end up with. Also I really dislike the way too wide subframes look on old cars since the classic look like chrome reverse wheels or something stockish tend to rub or hit the wheel wells. Spent the next 2 days cutting the 2001 ranger clip and cleaning off old brake lines, efi lines and motor mounts. Those motor mounts are Tough!!! The cutting torch quit working so sawzall and cutoff wheel and hours with the hammer and prybar where the way to go. If I had to do it again I'd get a spring compressor and take it apart, the bolts for the motor mounts are up inside behind the coil springs. Ordered new calipers pads and bracket assembly (on sale!) as well has hoses. Update soon.

I'd like to get rid of the adapter but not having good luck finding the 2bbl intake. The adapter was the cheapest fastest way to see how the 2100 would work. The flatheads don't flow all that well anyway so I figured if there was an improvement I'd know right away. Strapped it on and tuned the idle and mixture by "ear" and I lit up the tires trying to straighten out the bumper with a tow strap!!!

I just put a 2100 autolite/ford carb on mine using this: http://www.carburetion.com/products/productdetails.aspx?part=TD2041 and a 1/2" 2bbl holly spacer. You may have to fill two holes like I did but it gives you the option of mounting the carb 90 degrees in a different direction. The 2100 doesn't care which direction its mounted. Jeep guys use it for 4x4 because the can go very vertical without stall. I had help from: http://www.carbsonly.com/ To get a carb the right size since the 2100 can be 120 cfm to 424 cfm. Bought the 2100 rebuilt from them. I think it was a 1.08 v 2100 which should be about the same CFM as 2x 1bbl carters(maybe a little more). It runs smooth and easy to tune. I had a big 2100 on my 74 ranchero and put 60,000 miles on the rebuild. Tuned it once after the rebuild and it started in 100 degree to-30 weather in minnesota for years. I'm thinking about having a machine shop make an adapter/spacer for 230 flatheads. it worked so well..anyone interested? If I had to guess $100 ea. The adapter, spacer and the gaskets....to many parts and cost about the same. Im looking for reliability...less parts is better in my book. I'm in Los Angeles and it is Hottttt!!! Don't need the fuel boiling away!

Its definitely a powerflite. Just bought a 1960 shop manual...I hope it has some updates. I'm worried that someone put oil instead of trans fluid in it. Any damage possibility?

Is there a filter that works better with the Dex/merc fluid? I'm trying to get this car running and driving. There are only 64k miles on this car and hoping if I make some smart decisions about fluids it could last 40k more before a rebuild. Thoughts?

I was looking at my fluids and they all look good except the transmission. I'm thinking of changing the fluid out since I have no idea when it was changed last. It looks like really dark oil. One of my manuals says it takes 30wt. Is there a better option? Synthetic....ATF? I know its air cooled so I was thinking there was a fluid that may have been developed in the last 50 years that's better for it. Los Angeles is hot though and if a different fluid kept the heat down it might last a little longer. The pan is leaking a little anyway. The car has about 60,000 on it and it works fine.

Its a 2dr coupe? All the badges have been removed. The rear 1/4 window is shorter than all 2dr sedans I've seen. Anyone know if its a dodge 230 head or the 217 head on there? I would think bumping up the compression up to 8.1 or 8.5 or so would still be pretty mild since its pretty close to '58/59 specs. Still run on 87 octane too. If its stock 7 to 1 compression it would probably run on kerosene.

I came across what was supposed to be a 1.08 2100 but the one I found I think is a 1.14 but really clean. Just put it on and the 230 runs real smooth. The CFM should be close to what 2x carters should be. I have a 2100 that I got that has 1.23. I went to BFIC and Carlos told me that was waaaay to big unless I'm drag racing. But I got a rebuild kit and great advice and all the correct gaskets and spacers. Try getting that kind of service from your big box parts store. I've got to figure out the linkage next.

I've got a 1954 plymouth with a block stamped d42-420778 that makes me think it is a 230 dodge flathead. It's got a powerflite tranny. The head has 6 25*54 and casting # ??? 1554674-2 Anyone know what I'm working with here? I'm thinking of getting a '58 or '59 head to raise the compression. My other option is to mill the head that's on there. This is my budget daily driver so no $700 aluminum heads for me. I'm making an adapter to put an autolite 2100 from a ford 289/302 on it currently. Compression seems to be the next best bang for the buck.