falconvan

Let's hope mama bear's not too close by.

Hey Tim, I was looking at the pictures of your wagon; are you pretty happy with that Dakota clip? It looks like it came out really nice. How is it on highway driving? I'm considering it for my 49 next winter with a 318 swap.

This guy did a Dakota frame swap and it looks pretty nice.

I've got a few days off so I got a little garage time in. Note to self: Check if fabricated motor mount is going to hit the header before you weld it all the way around. This sucked! I had to cut the whole thing loose and move it forward. Live and learn; it wont happen again. I also took another 3" off of the steering column; it fits really nice now and plenty of header clearance on the drivers side.

Hey Don, did you extend your rockers down to meet the fender edges? What did you use?

Matt, for what its worth I decided that the main problem with my 1949 brakes is that the technology is 60+ years old. Even with everything working and adjusted right I'm not very happy with them. I'm going to live with them for this summer but some kind of upgrade is definitely in the works.

Fantastic job, Bill. I wish I had done my 48 this way. What did Kuegal charge you for that setup?

We're here in Festus; 30 miles south of St Louis.

Come on, Cass. It's been over a month; let's get to work on this baby!

Not sure what I'm going to do with it but I picked up this 360 really cheap off of Craiglist yesterday. Im hopeless.

I love the grill on your car: looks great with the chop!

Here's the Dolphin power window kit I ordered last year. The only complaint I have about this is that there were no instructions at all. That said, once I laid it out it was pretty self explanatory about how it should go together. This kit was perfect for this door. One side of the upper support bolted right in where one of the old window stops were located. From there I just made a couple of simple mounting plates for the other three mounting points. The kit had two different size spacers to set the glass angle. I tried it with the plywood mock up glass and after some minor adjusting it went up and down smoothly with no sticking. Now onto the other door.

On these old Mopar three speeds is one shift arm R and 1st and the other 2nd and 3rd? Which arm is which and what gear is the forward position on the arm?:

I'd go for the $600 model!

That's a nice job, Don. I may try that; can I message you for assistance if I need it?

Im hoping it doesn't do that but I will have A/C just in case it does. Regardless I would think around town driving would be OK.

It's a big commitment; pulling the body usually adds a significant amount of time and $$ to your project. But if you want a really nice resto; it's the only way to go. I'd investigate the body mount situation; you're going to want new rubbers for the mounts when you put the body back on. They can be tough to find for some old cars so a bus might be a bigger challenge. Maybe someone like Steele Rubber Products could make them up if they're not available. If the thickness is off, it can throw off the front clip re-alignment on assembly. I'd line all that info up and see if you're willing to add that cost before you make the choice to pull the body. Plus, you know once you pull the body and get a good look at it, you're going to see things you want to fix that you might not have seen otherwise, you're going to want a nice, clean, painted frame, etc, etc. It has a way of snowballing. If you're willing to make the time and cash commitment, I'd do it. A Desoto bus sounds pretty rare so a nice, fully restored one should be a great investment.

Yeah, the first pic is of the stock rear glass channel. The next ones are of the front channel from the kit and the last one is of the kit itself. It's made by Hagan and I think it was around $120; I bought it a year ago and cant remember exactly. Their instructions are pretty good but I had to build an adjustable bracket for the bottom of the front channel to make it work right; plus I couldn't see the reasoning for replacing the back channel when it was in good shape and the same dimentions as the one from the kit. It's hard to get pictures inside the door; I wish I could have got some better ones. I kind of like the vent windows, too; but it's going to be my wife's car so i'm letting her make some of the calls. She liked the full window idea.

Here's an interesting experience I thought might be useful: when I put the radiator back in I looked in one of my goodie boxes and pulled out a 16lb radiator cap that looked pretty good. After driving this a while I noticed my water pump was leaking. I swapped to a 7lb cap just to see if it helped and no more leak. I guess these older systems don't like the high pressure caps.

Last few.... feels good to be back on this one. We had a great holiday today; 60 degrees and sunny so I took the 49 out for a while this morning. I think its dialed in pretty good; it drives out really nice for a 63 year old beater.

A few more....

Thanks for the high rating, all! I guess it's time to get back to the 48; she's been feeling neglected. Here's where I left off last time. My next step is to get the vent window eliminator kit and the power windows installed. I bought a kit from Hagan to do the vent widows. Basically it's just four pieces of track with 4 pins and some misc hardware. You could probably built one out of Home Depot parts and do just as well. Also, I did not follow Hagan's directions to a T. They called for replacing the rear track but it was the same dimensions as the original so I just used the factory rear track. Didnt see much sense in making more work than necessary. In a nutshell, you cut out a window pattern from thin plywood ( I used some leftover underlayment), then cut out another piece 1/4" longer as a locator for the front track, use a pin to secure the top of the front track, and adjustable bracket for the bottom, and finally weld in a small filler piece. It took about 4 hours to get it all lined up and welded; and the plywood widow mock up slides nicely up and down in it. Next step will be to install the power window on this side and then do it all again on the other side.

I used an 87 Dakota 8.25 on my 48 and it was pretty much exact on the width. Just had to relocate the spring pads.

My 48 was a gift from a friend and my 49 was $400 bux.

Very nice! Should make a great driver once you get it on the road.