GlennCraven

Welcome, from a fairly new guy who has a '49 Windsor coupe. You'll have fun here and the information is priceless. On my way over to look at your gallery now!

I love you guys. I should host a cookout here in the middle of America and invite everybody; see who shows up.

I'll second the recommendation on checking the frame, even if the rest of the car doesn't look so bad.

That vintage Hemi would be sweet in this very special Dodge truck.

I missed a fantastic Westfalia opportunity about two hours away from me earlier this year. Just couldn't pull the trigger on it immediately and should have. Only $1,200 for a '73 tin top, a 10-year-old interrupted restoration with a nearly rust-free body and an EMPI crate engine that had never even had the carb appropriately tuned. Wasn't running, but would with a little effort. Needed an entire interior, new brakes, tires and paint -- someone had tried to replicate a Champagne Edition, badly, on an original orange and white bus -- but just the 95-percent rust-free body was worth a grand I suppose. I got home, thought about it a little while pricing parts including the things I'd want for a custom camping interior, then called back a couple of days later and left a message saying I was coming to pay for it but would have to return on the weekend with a trailer. I was going to do it up over the span of a year or two and give it to my daughter, like she always wanted. (Except she'd rather have a pop-top.) The seller's wife called back as I left the driveway to say she'd just been out in the yard with her husband watching the bus leave on somebody else's trailer. ... I'll admit, that one really hurt.

Doesn't look like the C45 models are in that edition. Were they not sold in Canada or Australia? ... Unless I'm mistaken my car is a C45. That might be part of what's limiting my original frame search somewhat.

I believe that's a no.

Back to this note: It seems there are numerous differences between Dodge-Plymouth-DeSoto (in Australia at least) and the U.S. I do note that your book doesn't cover Chrysler, so maybe the frames were all the same on these three marques in Australia but not the States. ... Did DeSotos have 23-inch flat-six blocks in Australia instead of 25s like in the U.S.? As noted, there are numerous differences in the measurements, some as little as a quarter-inch, but others -- like the overall length -- more like five or six inches. A lot of them have to do with body mounts and hole locations, but that would be a lot of measuring and fabricating to change. At that point I really might as well go for a custom frame or a late-model vehicle frame. Thanks for the pages. Unless the books (and cars) in the States differ considerably, DeSoto frames are not an option, even from seemingly near-identical body styles and year.

I'm pretty sure 1939 is correct, but I'm going Chrysler. The Plymouths and Dodges had horizontal grille bars. DeSoto and Chrysler vertical. But I think the horizontal hood trim, the bumper, the fog lights, etc., more closely resemble this Chrysler (above) than the DeSoto (below).

Rock Auto seems to be a good source. Also, The Plymouth Doctor is out there and very well stocked in certain areas of need, but the prices seem to be on the higher end. Congrats on the "new" car, by the way.

Thanks for the scans. That's super of you. I'll set about comparing these. The reason I wonder is this DeSoto I pictured from my sightseeing tour of my region Sunday is a lot closer than the South Dakota four-door Chrysler parts car, and this car is known to be for sale. For a while. A long while. ... Whether it's the right price or its frame is any better than mine remains to be seen, but it's available. I believe this car below is a 1949 DeSoto, same year as my Chrysler. The parking lamps were horizontal on the '46s-'48s, vertical (like this) on the '49s and round on the '50s. ... Also, I believe the two-door club coupe and four-door models used the same frames, at least across models, such as the Windsor. But this car does strike my eye as longer than my car. And I do know there are some '49 Chryslers listed as eight-passenger models and their frame dimensions in my shop manual are slightly -- very slightly -- longer than my car. I would make a similar assumption. I'm checking all available options. Thanks again, everybody.

Does seem to be a diesel engine. The Fiat Ducato is a large van and some versions came with carburetors and gas engines and others with indirect-injection diesels.

Don, how big was the shoehorn you used to get that engine in your car?

That's what I'm wondering. Does anyone have a 1949-50 DeSoto shop manual for frame photos and measurements? There's a six-cylinder DeSoto 500 miles closer to me than the potential Chrysler parts car I've found in South Dakota.

The more I think about this, the more I'm surprised the corresponding DeSoto models didn't use the same frame as their Chrysler counterparts. ... Why is that, I wonder? How much difference could there be?

Yes, that car needs hauled out to see what's left of it. ... The thing doesn't REALLY look all that bad, considering.

Holy cow! ... Crazy! How long ago was this photo taken?

You're really amazing. ... And thank goodness your son emerged unscathed.

The remainder of the available P-1800s.

Wow, I didn't even recognize the rat as a Pilot House. And I also don't like the glasspack zoomies. This is all in southern Missouri. But yes, that would make a good Amish fueling station. There are nine P-1800 Volvos at this location, but one was just sold pending pickup. An older gentleman has worked on Volvos there for decades and has two fenced-in lots full of parts and potential project cars. He recently told the young guy (Chris, in his 20s) who has kind of been mentored there that he was ready to sell everything. ... I saw the gold or silvery 1800e out of the corner of my eye from the highway about 100 yards off a few months ago and finally went back to see if that really was an 1800. It's almost impossible to see the cars from the highway; you get a split-second glimpse between a couple of berms and through trees. There are five remaining 1800 coupes and three ES wagons. I adore the P-1800. Definitely the engine is out of the metallic one, but the young man who has been mentored there by the older man (and who was pulling later-model turbo parts for a project car while I was there) said the engine for that one is up the hill in the shop. You could take the three wagons and come pretty close to making one. You might be able to make two cars out of the five remaining coupes. ... There's quite a bit of rust involved and several of them have been stripped a good bit, especially of chrome and other small bits. The older man also has a 262c Bertone coupe and a potential parts car, and the young man was telling me about another car in the yard that from what I can gather must be a 1985 240T "evo" car, one of 500 built to achieve FIA homologation and compete in Group A racing. If so, that would make it the street-going version of this below. ... Sources say 477 were stripped of much of their race equipment when sold for the street, but that leaves 23 that were not stripped. If what they have is one of the 500, it's something. If it's one of the 23, it could be really something.

Yesterday I needed to meet my girlfriend at her folks' house in Springfield, Mo., but not until nearly 11 p.m. as she was driving back from a job interview in Wisconsin. So, Springfield only being about 2.5 hours from where I live in Kansas, I started early and took a circuitous, scenic route. I managed to stop a couple of places I'd always wanted to gawk at, but never had time. Two of these are shops (one Volvo, one street rod) with a lot of old cars strung about. I veered off the interstate and found an old military Jeep rig (slightly restored) for sale (no price) at a closed junk shop among tons of concrete lawn ornaments and a 67 Chevy pickup cab just sitting on the ground. I drove past a frontage road field full of buses and old cars to photograph a DeSoto near the front gate, and a very odd rat rod behind it. I also saw an early 1960s unibody Ford F-100. And, at a farmhouse with an old Massey Ferguson tractor being sold and carted away out front, I picked up two 1960s Mopar factory intake manifolds -- a two-barrel apparently from a 1962 361 Chrysler (2205737, a hard casting number to trace) with an old Holley still attached and a 2206000 four-barrel they *thought* was from a 413, but I see also fits the 1964-65 426 street wedge and 1966 440. Here's a bit of what I saw.

Welcome, Mike, and good luck. LOTS of good advice here. You've come to the right place. (For the same reason I did.)

Good luck with your new business venture and enjoy the "new" Dodge business coupe!

What a fantastic build and a fabulous truck. Beautiful work. Take note of all the turning heads as you enjoy the drive!

That was my favorite part. I love that they rolled it onto the roof and all the way over to get it righted because that was the downhill side and easier than just standing it back on its wheels. The vehicle showed a lot of structural integrity. The fenders were dinged up a bit from all that tumbling, but the roof looked great.