ssnowden

I dropped the oil pan as suggested in this thread and checked it out. There wasn't really any crud in the pan, but the oil was a bit thicker than normal and sticky in bottom of the pan. It came out easily. I looked up in the engine and could see some surface rust on the cylinder walls of the pistons that were up. You can see it in the middle of this picture.

Beautiful car. Mine was painted gray 30 years ago and I think that is still my favorite color for the P15. Right now it's a little gray, the original blue under the gray and rust, but I'll make it one color again when the mechanicals are reliable. I like that backup light. Mine doesn't have that, but I remember now how much I wanted one when I tried to back it up at night. Is that original for only the early 49's or was it an option in the 48 year too?

I enjoy your progress thread too. Simply put, more of us are closer to your expertise level of metal work. This thread is more like watching an artist do a metal sculpture in the shape of a Plymouth.

This guy does a pretty good demo of how to do a double flare. http://youtu.be/4fmF9mm3hsM

I think if the hood was the same color as the roof, the two tone colors would look good.

That would be good to see your schematic when you get time to post it. Thanks

Thanks for the virtual tour.

I just received the Rebel 9+3 kit for my P15 and have never done a re-wire before so I really am a bit like the dog that caught the car I was chasing. I have the P15 Wiring diagram and I really like how the Rebel wires are labeled every 6". Dumb question time. Since you've used the Rebel kits before, did you follow the wiring diagram or follow more of the way the wires are labeled in the Rebel kit or some combination of the two? The car had already had a semi-done 12V conversion 30 years ago that sorta worked (basically some new wires ran that bypassed the old wiring to get it running) so there isn't really anything that I would want to follow and replace as far as the existing physical wiring.

Congratulations!

Looking great. You're really making progress!

As always, thanks for the help guys.

Thanks!

Not really, but since the engine is a 230 from a 53 Dodge M37 or similar military truck, I just wanted to know as much as I can about it.

I did a quick wire brush job on the right side and found this number where you said it would be Tim. Looks like 853853-17. Here are a couple of full pics of the rusty and greasy beast.

I'm cleaning up the car (obviously not done with all the crud still in the pic) and wanted to determine as much as I can on the transmission. The gearshift housing has 853855-63 with PF I think above and I don't know what the symbol below is. On the case near the extension it looks like the numbers are KP15C 220 48. There is another number on the extension 853880-32.

Impressive woodgraining. It looks real.

It's really coming together. Great work.

Thanks. I'm getting to know my wire brush wheels quite well.

I know that the 230 engine was completely rebuilt in 1980 and we only put about 3000 miles on the rebuild, then it was parked mainly because of the brakes and needing to drive longer distances for work. When I checked to see if it would turn over, it did and the oil pressure gauge showed it has oil pressure. I'm wondering, is there any need to open it up and check anything? Or should I just clean it up, change the fluids, plugs, etc, check compression and if the compression is good, use it?

I was looking around to see what would be good to soak my old carb and other parts in to get them clean. I found this thread where a guy used Pine-Sol successfully. Any of you guys tried this? http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=560117

I found the year of the engine too. It was made in 1953.

It looks like the engine is a 230 out of a Dodge M37 or a variant military truck from the serial number I found on the block that started with "T245-" . I found a good reference on this page http://www.t137.com/registry/help/otherengines/tengines.html . Considering this is all new to me, is that a good thing, bad thing or no big deal? Wikipedia says it has 78 hp, so thats less than the 218.

Yes. I'm glad I took the front fenders off where I could inspect it and stop it from getting worse by welding in metal and putting in rust preventative.

I checked with the Mitchell motor parts, and it turned out that they didn't really have them even though their database showed they did, but they did have two MC pins in stock. They were $89 each, so I passed. Instead, I used my Dremel tool with a brass brush to be as gentle as I could be on the bushing and the brake pedal cylinder it goes into and it really cleaned up both of them nicely. I then used the Dremel and got the MC pin smoothed it out where they went back together very well. I greased them and the grease spread like it is supposed to inside, so I it's all in good shape now.