GlennCraven

Thanks for that input, Harley. The undercoating was mostly gone from the frame rails themselves, and while it's worth checking the thickness of the metal everywhere, the rails don't look nearly so bad anywhere else. (That doesn't mean there might not be problems inside as you note.) The undercoating was generally more prevalent the higher up under the car you looked, but cracked in places and in places had been holding water. What models would be most compatible frame-wise for a graft? There's actually an early '50s Plymouth Cranbrook sedan on the property, but I know it sat on the ground at least for awhile recently. And I don't know if it's available. And it may still be too solid for some people to cut up. It went through the auction but may have been one of the few that didn't meet reserve. (Or, like some, it may just have not been picked up yet.) ... It may have been supported off the ground in the past (the salvage owner would know) and it's resting on rims and tires now, but for the couple of weeks leading up to the auction it was on the ground like this.

That's absolutely the main frame rusted out. When we found that, we went over all of the rest of it while on the lift and that appears to be the only part of the main frame that is in such a state. ... Not that "only" this much would be good news. But yes, we have gone over the remainder of the frame, me, the welder and another employee in the shop. The welder suggests boxing that part of the frame with steel. The car was never on flat tires or in the dirt since this seller had it. For a long while he had it under a carport and later he pushed it to the other side of his acreage and into a shed that had a concrete floor, picking up a lot of mud and grass on its tires along the way. But while he's always had it on rims and tires, he's only owned it a couple of years and that accounts for just a tiny fraction of its 64-year life. So it's entirely possible the car sat flat on the ground, or that this part of it did, for a length of time in the past.

Congrats on getting the car street legal, and congrats to you, Casper, on the purchase. Good luck to you both.

P.S. Learned something new about the auction-buy drivetrain. According to one of the guys at the shop who drove the truck it came out of -- which was destined for a Cummins conversion -- the 727 has a Cheetah Pro Street manual valve body. ... They make a dual auto/manual, but I don't know if that's what's in it. He was too busy shifting it and ripping up the highway around the shop to know if it would have shifted on its own. So there's that.

Picture time. First, dangling the 360 in place to level things out and line up the locations for welding motor mounts and a transmission crossmember. My reprint shop manual arrived in the mail Friday afternoon, too. The position of the GM one-wire alternator will have to be adjusted to give fender well clearance. My comment: "Wow, she's snug." Welder's comment: "There's a lot more room than I thought there'd be." Now the bad news. ... Ouch. ... Driver's side, beginning about even with the front door edge and running back about eight to 10 inches. The welder will box this with steel for now. ... While there is surface rust in many areas on the frame, this is the worst area by far and hopefully the only actual rust-through of the rails. And the front driver's side body mount isn't good, either. (Nor the one at the rear of the passenger compartment, though it's slightly better than this.) Many of the surface-rusted areas were missing their undercoating for some time. Many of the badly rusted areas were revealed by peeling away still-existing undercoating, particularly in the case of this body mount, where some of the undercoat can still be seen. The inner rockers were just not good in general. For a car that looks pretty good from the outside and that has better floors than you might expect for 64 years of age, this was disappointing.

Good question. Lifted by the frame. But there's evidence of prior rubbing on the tires, which are clean and black on the inside side walls and muddy everywhere else. So it's possibly rubbing worse now that the suspension can sag, but it seems the tires did rub a little bit anyway.

Progress and problems with the '49 Windsor today. The engine swap kit from Butch's Cool Stuff really is a nice piece of work, and with an experienced welder handling this while I watch and help (otherwise known as occasionally getting in the way and messing up the shop) the installation shouldn't be a problem. The welder is confident and that helps me be confident. Unfortunately, while considering the rear axle swap and to facilitate welding the new motor mounts and transmission crossmember, we put the car up on the lift and really gave the underside the once-over, twice. As I feared, there are rust issues I hadn't noticed prior to purchase. I was concerned about this after we finally picked up the car when the yard around the shed finally dried out. But they aren't necessarily what and where I expected. I was concerned that I'd underestimated the rust in the floors, but the builder and other employees at the shop commented how solid the floors are for a 64-year-old car. We punched them from below and they sure seem better than I thought the second time I looked at them (on retrieving the car); more like I the condition I considered them to be on initial inspection. The trouble is, there's some rust in the frame and body mounts on the driver's side. This car was undercoated. Don't know if it was when new -- I believe that was done even in the 1940s and '50s, though I don't know how frequently -- or if it was at some later point in life. In some places the undercoating remains remarkably intact, looking like it might have been on the car only a few years. In other places, it's flaking off or long gone. Which of course means that in some areas, we've peeled away what appeared to be good undercoating that was (of course) trapping moisture that entered from elsewhere rather than protecting the car. The rust is significant in a few places that can be more readily just cut out and replaced, like the rockers behind the nice-condition lower trim pieces as some have cautioned. But it's also in a place or two that can't be as easily rectified. In one location, on the driver's side beginning about even with the leading edge of the door, there's a hole in the underside of the frame about the length of my hand. (I have good-sized hands; that's about eight inches.) The driver's side body mounts at the front and rear of the passenger compartment are also shaky. The builder says he can box the frame rail at the weak point and he thinks it will be OK, but it's discouraging of course. I'm researching body mount solutions. In other news, the gas tank is one of the areas in which the undercoating seems most intact. I'm not sure that's a good thing, though, because if any water got in at all, it's certainly been trapped. We'll find out later when I drop the tank and check it for leaks. But that's way down the road, now further down the road even than before. And while nobody seems to know the last time this car operated under its own power, the rear Monroe shocks don't really look that old and are in fairly good shape, and the tires (beneath the mud) have a lot of tread and hold air very well. The tires, however, rub against the tie rod ends, which we didn't really notice until the car was lifted. The car rolls and steers so easily it's hard to believe it was rubbing or binding, but it is. So whether it was a bad choice of tire, wheel or both, whomever put this combination on there made a mistake. I've taken some pictures that I'll upload to my Photobucket a little later this evening. I just stopped for now to vent before cleaning up and getting to work on a weekend of solution-seeking.

Looks red to me.

I wasn't familiar with that source before, but found them linked from somebody else's page and they look like a help for a lot of these cars.

I'm also a fan of this color. Well done!

Very resourceful. Good job!

You're right. That side was much better. ... Keep up the good work and keep the pictures coming.

Fantastic car. Congrats! ... Can't wait to see more.

My mother tells me now that Laura may be the assistant store manager. ... I see her a couple of times a year at family events and haven't talked to her much about work. But I've always liked her a lot and I like her husband, Scott.

Sounds like small-town Kansas and a lot of landlords everywhere, yep. My brother's niece is a department manager at Walmart there and her husband is something of an old-car guy and owns a wrecker service. He's a good guy and knows his work, so if you ever need a rollback to get 'er home, call Hook-Up Towing.

Just turned up a $125 Explorer axle with 3.55 gears about 45 minutes from home. There's a $60 axle down in Oklahoma, but it's about 220 miles away, so I'd burn up all the savings in gas by going to get it. Up in Minnesota and Wisconsin there are a slew of $50 Explorer axles. I've seen axles at coastal salvage yards for $500 to $700. ... Interesting how vastly the prices differ by region.

You might be right. And I just noticed you are in Hiawatha! ... I have kinda-kin in Hiawatha.

Very nice. The antique effect worked well. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks, Ed.

I'm sure it will help to see. ... We've sort of hit the "embarrassing" part of this thread, since my original intent not to change the rear axle has been replaced with indecision about whether I'd benefit enough from the swap to justify the cost and the detour from original plan.

I'd miss it, too! I like the car and its stance. Looks like the work is going well. I'm glad you are pleased with the kit.

Thanks. This helps.

Lots of good work. ... Good luck finishing!

I've not been asking them and relying on you and the folks here. I just have friends here in town who go the drags every year and say it's fun.

Beautiful car and pictures! I love the Power Wagon, too!