falconvan

No, it's pretty easy to line up before you weld the bottom of the center post down. Just hold the bottom of the post down tight with a good welding clamp, open and close the doors a few times to make sure you'rer straight and tack it down.

I got the rearend temporarily mounted with my rebuilt springs, new bushings, and 2" lowering blocks. It's got a nice squat in the rear now; I'm planning on dropping the front to match. Next step is to get the floors in shape; I cut out the old inner and outer rockers along with one side of the floor. First is to build new inner rockers with 16 ga and repair the floor braces. Once I've got both sides done, I'll go back and put in the floorpans and the outer rockers.

Looks good, Scotty. Guys like us painted cars in their backyards for years; no reason why we cant still do it and have good results. I like your truck, too. Were those an updated version of the Little Red Express?

Here, I found it. This is off of a 84-2001 Jeep Cherokee and here's what the guy wrote about it: This particular bar is from a 6-cylinder Grand Cherokee, and is 1" in diameter. As you may notice, it is mounted upside-down from the Jeep application, for a better fit.. The "drop" in the bar is facing upwards. As you can see int the pictures, the anti-sway bar mounts have to go as far forward on the frame as you can. This does mean that the forward hole is pretty close to the edge of the metal. This is fine. Just put a good, Grade-8 washer on top. The car in the pictures has been set up this fashion for years, and is a daily-driver. You can use the stock Jeep ones, or Poly ones. Mount the bar on the frame first, and them put the end links on. That will show you where the control arm mounts need to go. Do this with the wheels on the ground. The mounts on control arm, on this car, were made from 2" square tubing (1/8" wall), split in-half, and welded to the bottom, of the control arm. The hole needs to be the size of the shoulder on the bushings. The anti-sway bar end links have a sleeve length of 1", and are Energy Suspension part number 9-8122R(Red), or 9-8122G(Black) respectively. You can junkyard source the end-links too, if you are patient. I mounted the control arm mounts to the end-links, and then pushed them up against the cleaned-up control arms. Where they landed is where they got welded on (after making sure they were in the same place on both sides).

I cant remember if it was on here or the HAMB but someone used an inverted late model Jeep Cherokee swaybar on theirs and it worked great. Plus it's about three times thicker than the stock one and made a noticeable difference in handling.

Yesterday I cleaned up the rear of the frame from in front of the spring perches all the way to the back with an air grinder and hit it with a coat of POR-15. Access was easy at this point so I figured I'd do it for future rust prevention. Today I spent most of the day cutting off the old spring, sway bar, and upper control arm mounts from the Explorer rear; and cleaning it up for a test fit. I dont have my springs back from the spring shop yet but from mocking it up on a floor jack, centering it, and taking a few measurments; it looks like it'll be a pretty good fit. Once I have my springs back and get it set up permanantly, I'll paint the whole works before it goes back in.

I'll be darn; I've seen them on mobile homes, never knew they had them for cars.

Very nice! That's one fine looking cruiser. OK, what's that thing hanging off the window? Did they leave the drive in with the speaker still attached??

The green one is gone, Cass. I sold several parts off of it, saved a bunch for this car, and had the carcass hauled off last night. The motor I got from you is going in this one. Are you ready to road test that 48 yet? It looks like you're coming along pretty nicely on it.

Yeah, I like to keep my projects moving. My brother in law is just the opposite; he'll buy a project, work on it sporatically for a few months, then sell it off, buy something else and start over. I've known him 8 years and he's yet to get one on the road; it drives me crazy. Each to his own, I guess. Tim, I guess someone already repainted this as it is glossy paint on top. After further investigation it looks like It's going to require some metal surgery to make it fit anyway.

Ok, the 49 has been dismantled and disposed of other than several parts I sold, saved to sell, or saved for this project. The only bummer is I'm letting a friend use my spare garage bay for another month so my car is stuck outside in the 100 degree heat for now. So I figured I might as well start on it where it's at for now. I pulled the rearend and springs tonight. The springs are headed to St Louis spring for freshening up and I'm going to start getting the Explorer 8.8 ready for transplant. I think I'll hit the underside with the powerwasher and some POR-15 while I've got access.

May we have a moment of silence.............

Id have to agree with Tim; shoot them with a couple of coats of etching primer if you're starting with bare metal. Then I like either three coats of high build primer or there is a new product out called Slicksand that is a high build sprayable body filler. This stuff is great for blocking and really makes for some really smooth, straight panels after blocking.

Very nice coupe, Walt. Bizzy coupes are extra cool; I hope I end up with one someday myself.

Great looking old Dodge! It's nice to see the young guys keeping up the the old Mopar hobby.

Very cool story; good for your dad for hanging onto it so many years and sticking with it. How about some more pictures?

I'm going, Cass! It's time for a nice break so I'm going on vacation! My wife and I and some other family members are heading to Seattle for a 7 day Alaskan cruise on Wednesday. It'll be nice to get away from work and from the 100+ temps we've had for a week. Bon Voyage, all. I'll try to log on while I'm on the ship and see what's happening.

Finally after 4 years I got some paint on the car this weekend. I think it came out nice; next step to finish up the doors and decklid and shoot them, and then onto the front clip.

I know 46-48 Dodge will. They got a little narrower in 49 so I dont believe that will fit. As for pre-war Dodge; I'm not sure on that one.

Id check your local Craigslist for someone doing it out of their home. There are lots of small operators out there who just do a little here and there for extra $$. A friend of mine found a guy with a little basement shop that did his front and back seats for $275 and they look sharp.

Great! By the way, you've made a mark with this swap. A guy from Quincy, Il contacted me on the HAMB and drove out here to buy some 49 parts from me. We were talking shop and he asked me what drivetrain I was going to use in my 51. I told him about the Ranger trans and he said, "Is that the swap the guy from the P15 site came up with?"

Nice job; looks like it coming along.

I went down to Autozone and borrowed a 3 footed 4wd hub puller. I tightened the puller tight, heated the hub, tightened a little more, heated the hub; after a few times alternating between heating and tightening it came off. Beware; it came off as a projectile! if I had been standing in front of it it probably would have broke my shin bone.

Any more road test updates, Robert?

I noticed that, Ed. It looks like the whole thing will bolt right in without any mods if I'm measuring right. If not, I got a welder so it's going to fit.