Ulu

California doesn't weigh non-commercial vehicles. I don't have a clue what it really weighs, and no way to tell as it's currently in 1000 pieces.

Hell, by that philosophy, I should just buy a Ford. Nah...this is sorta run whatcha brung here. What ever I do, I do to this car.

Thanks for the suggestions folks. And Don, I'll certainly run an alternator, but I'm probably not going to cut off the roof. At one point I was wanting to build a shaved roadster with a Duval-style windscreen, but I've totally chickened out. I certainly want to lighten the brakes and wheels. Unsprung mass is just more work for the antique suspension. Frankly certain people may find themselves upset by reading this; but since I can afford a new Tacoma, I'm considering parting out my lo-mileage '09 and filling the Plymouth with Mexican-made Japanese aluminum and computers. Anti-traditional at its extreme! I don't give a hoot about what engine goes in what car myself. See, I'm not in love with the things. It's just machinery. But the complication of all that conversion is very off-putting; even if it would net me a weight drop plus an extra 130 HP.

Plymouthy, you are a real card. Ummm....That makes one of us..... Actually, most of my stripping has been ZipStrip, DA sander, wire brush & scotchbrite so far. But there's been lots of sparks & there's serious body work that'll require sanding for sure. ...but WTH is Tiara trim? The backlite garnish? I got no clue there. Re making the car lighter: Any racer will tell you that reducing weight is the cheapest performance improvement you can make. Once I started doing it, it was far more effective than I'd previously imagined. I can't stop now! Re time: Time is no issue. I already drove this car 65,000 miles so it's not like I'm wetting my pants because I can't wait to drive it again. This is my hobby and I do it to occupy my time (and for exercise.) It'll take whatever time I let it take & that's fine. While some folks maintain that there's no substitute for cubic inches, I suspect this car will never wind up with some porky elephant engine in it. I'm leaning toward modern aluminum under the hood if I can bring myself to spend the money required.

It's been "restored" before so the body has been sanded & is getting sanded some more. I suspect it'll mostly be rather thinner than stock before I'm through. I've considered paying to dip the body, but I'd hate to get acid into all the creases and seams. It's hard to get back out of the old dirty seams. What I'm really thinking about is lightening the frame a little. This car has a very stout frame. Of course in the old days I'd just throw away the hood too, but that's not in the cards.

HehHehheh...remember when the Allstate was a Puch? Even in her porkiest day Edith would easily outrun my buddy's dual-carb flathead Ford 2dr sedan (well I did have over 8:1 compression, straight thru exhaust & a holly carb.) As for curves, the handling improved a lot when lowered a bit, with the addition of KYB Gas-A-Just shocks, and a rear sway bar from a '74 T-bird. It would be even better with a front shock relocation kit. So while it'll never be a Porsche, that doesn't mean it can't be improved. Oh, yeah...aluminum wheels. I'll probably run aluminum wheels to save weight.

One of my goals in stripping Edith d' Plymouth down to the bare frame is that I wan't to lighten the car a bit. So far all I've done is strip off 50 lbs of dirt & bondo, and there's at least another 10 lbs of dirt to go. But I also intend to strip the bumpers and aprons, because not only do they weigh a lot, but the Edith handles much better without the weight of those bumpers at the extreme ends of the car. If you must add weight the very middle of the car is the best spot, and if you're removing weight, the extreme ends (and in fact the whole periphery of the car) is the best place to remove it. Swapping to a modern engine and trans could shave a lot of weight, but I may decide to keep using the flathead, so I'm thinking an aluminum head would be nice & a light modern starter, reworked to fit the 230 six. Also, I want to replace the boat anchor radiator with an aluminum one. That front seat is very heavy too, and it may get tossed out. A modern rear axle would mean I can ditch the stock parking brake band and drum assy. I'll put modern disk brakes in with aluminum cylinders, so there will be some savings from the porky stock pedal/master cyl arrangement. So aside from leaving the back seat, jack and spare tire out, where else will it be practical to shave some weight off this old gal?

Very nice tag. The Pendine run is just 1/16th mile? I'd have thought you'd be doing the flying mile there.

The trick is to get the puller on there pretty tight, then smack the big center bolt head with a MINIMUM 2 lb hammer. a 4 lb is better, but I've used an 8lb as well. If a few good wacks won't loosen it then, heat the hub with a torch & hit it again.

I'll post some details later, but so far I've stripped off 50 lbs of dirt and bondo. I'll probably ditch the stock bumpers.

The convertible models must rather heavy compared to the coupes. Clearly not the fastest of the P15s. I've never driven one myself, but the first time I drove a P15 4-dr sedan, I could really tell the difference in weight. One of my goals is to lighten my P15 somewhat, because it makes lots more sense than hopping up the engine past a certain point.

That seems like an older design than the contemporary Mopars. My guess would be to look at the light trucks for the worm then graft it to your shaft.

They both have electromagnets, but a solenoid's moves a mechanism like a lock or gear, while a relay just works a switch. It does get cloudy when the solenoid does both, (ala Chevrolet-style starters for most of the last century) and IMO if it does both it's a solenoid. A relay is like the runner in a relay race. It "hands off" one circuit's "signal" to another circuit.

Yeah, $2500 is a real ripoff. Here you can get a Turbo 400 rebuilt for around $700, so a Mopar trans will probably be about $800~900. Of course things may be more or less expensive where you live. I'm in a modest priced area, except for gasoline. (Our gas prices are pretty close to the worst in the nation.)

I was at a local tool store yesterday looking for a similar crow's foot, and they had nothing even close to that size. I'll probably just cut one from plate & weld it to an old socket.

As I recall, they're spring-loaded to the plates as well, so they really shouldn't have any funny wear from vibration. I dunno....Unless there's physical damage (like the adjuster is tweaked or the backing plate is dinged in just the wrong spot, or a shoe isn't going fully into the slot) I think this either points to something getting loose, or rapid wear due to poor initial setup. Maybe something wasn't seated solidly at first.

'47 Studebaker Starlite Coupe?

hmmm...I forget the exact mechanism of these. Are the adjusters "handed"? That is to say, Is it possible to put a left adjuster on the right side & vice versa? I wonder now if there is an assembly error or maybe just an adjuster worn sloppy in its hole.

Well it doesn't sound like steam if it's not soft. I'd say adjust them a couple times to see if the shoes will bed in, or just take the brakes apart and see how well the shoes are really arced. I've done a few brake jobs where a machine to arc the shoes wasn't available, and I arced them by hand, matching them to the individual drums, which were each turned slightly different diameters. You don't get a perfect job by hand, but if you make a few hard stops without glazing things up, they will take a minor adjustment or two, then be fine after.

$600 is less than I'd imagined, but still, that ain't peanuts and I can well see how ticked off you'd be over the whole business. But I would at least spend the $60 it costs here to file in Small Claims Court. You can file for up to $7500 here, so it would pay to ask for recovery of any incidental costs too.

Yes, it's dangerous, and cheap quality wheels/cups can make it much more so. I wear a face shield and a leather jacket, and it's peppered with wires when I'm done. The knotted style wire cup is much sturdier, but it's too stiff for certain use. I like to use the little air grinder and throttle the RPMs down so I don't trash the wires.

I've been avoiding this job, because I wasn't going to re-use that flathead, but now it appears that I may. Since my engine is on a stand and I can rotate it, I thought I might be able to put it upside down and partly fill the block & head with acid wash & let it sit there a couple days first, then rinse with neutalizer, dry, and re-soak with breakdown oil. I'd hate to have to take mine out in bits, but I did try semi-seriously to jerk it out with a slide hammer and it didn't budge. This engine's a little rusty inside, but the tube seems quite solid still. Just solidly planted as well.

I changed out all my bushings & kingpins in '88, and I aligned it myself with the magnetic angle finder, fishing line and stanchions and a 10' trammel made from ET. But I don't recall using any special wrench to turn the cam, and mine is right inside the a-arm too. Now I'm wondering what I did! it's been 26 years. LOL I know I don't have a crow's foot that big, but a box of my tools was stolen in '2000, and that might be one of the things I forgot was even in there. When everything's new and lubed, those cams turn pretty easily. I might have just used pliers.

I don't doubt the OP has a claim on the installer and perhaps the manufacturer too. I hope he gets a good resolution. And while I wouldn't bother to picket some small business, that doesn't mean I wouldn't do anything. (I might actually hire someone to picket them. You can do that here, but I don't know your local laws.) I'd certainly file against them in small claims court & I'd spread their miserable story around the internet. Being a professional computer bum sometimes comes in handy when you want to find things out about other people, and I'd make sure they felt some pressure. Also I know a local code enforcement officer that could probably scare up something. There are ways... But every effort would depend on how much I'd spent, how much my time was worth, what I might recover, and also how much fun it might be to cause trouble for some doofus. See, the "fun" part can make some efforts worthwhile that mere economics might otherwise not support.