whtbaron

x2 on the melatonin... get the 10 mg tablets. Cheap and non prescription. I didn't like the prescription drugs because they left me too drowsy the next day. I was getting as low as 3 hrs a night and these really helped me get back to a more normal sleep pattern.

I'm curious to know what your mileage numbers were, and in what car? The bone stock (and well worn ) 218 in my 52 Plymouth sedan got around 22 mpg on the highway, and I'm wondering if expecting another 20% in fuel efficiency is even practical. Excellent post all around.

He's got that right... I bought a running (a very nice runner at that) 228 with the 4 spd truck tranny out of a plated pickup for $300 Cdn. and prices tend to be higher up here. I'd have a hard time getting excited about a 218 even being a dyed in the wool junk fanatic.

Being a farmer, I've always had a healthy mix of cars and trucks around, but I never really thought about a convertible. I think that 41 could help me deal with the messy hair...

I know others have had luck soaking the cylinders in PB Blaster or Marvel Mystery Oil and turning the crank with a breaker bar on the nut on the crankshaft pulley, but I must say I've never been that lucky. Remember to leave the plugs out if you try this or you could get a fluid lock. I've always had to remove the head and tap the tops of the pistons (go easy or you'll break things) with a BFH and a wooden plug to fit the cylinder. Often you will find that the rust has formed where the carbon holds the moisture at the top of the cylinder. Hopefully it's not from moisture sitting on the rings, or the cylinder walls may be pitted beyond repair.

I shot these pics of the 54 Dodge Firearrows in the Imperial Palace in Vegas a few yrs ago. I never saw them with the hood up, but I think these 2 had Hemi's in them. Very classy little sports cars for their time. It's too bad Ma Mopar never marketed them with Hemi's against the Corvettes and T-birds of the day.

With 19 degrees of frost, anything that was going to freeze is probably solid now. That's probably all you're going to get unless you put them on the barbeque next...

I went through the same learning process when I was 12. Nothing like an old car to teach you how things are built. I've never heard of the bread system for pilot bushing removal, but it can't be any more messy or undependable than the shaft and grease method. I like the idea of using the right tool for the job, so I might have to keep my eyes open for that puller setup.

If you go to the year on the site that SSnowden provided, they give a PPG code of 41636 for Tamiami Green (code 615), so mixing that code shouldn't be a problem. If that chip is anywhere close to being accurate I would think it could be mixed in any system. We used to have a book of what we called "fleet chips" that basically started at white, went to black and gave you every code in between. Even if the fleet chip was off a little, it's no big deal to lighten or darken it a bit, but that will make it harder to match down the road. You just need to find yourself an experienced paint mixer with a good eye for color and forget whether or not it's the "original" code. Most manufacturers in those years probably had a color very close to that.

Bring one over here and we'll give it a real test... supposed to hit -30C with a windchill factor hitting close to minus 40. Those are pretty strong little tanks, they might just stretch and not rupture.

I assume that's different than a pacemaker? I have an aquantaince on another board that farms with a pacemaker. He avoids electronic welding equipment, but other than that he still leads a very active lifestyle.

Well yea... but I'd have a tough time jumping out of a perfectly good airplane!

Still debating in my head if it goes in the stock frame with the straight front axle, or a dakota front clip. A Dakota 318 4x4 chassis would be nice too... too many ideas with too little budget...

Not real pretty at this point, but I don't see many Fargos on this list so I'll include it. It's a 48 that came replete with torched out mounts where the power train used to be. I'd like to see it with a 318 and Torqueflite ... some day.

To each his own, I suppose. Not my cup of tea either, but the only real loss was the old cab... everything else was crusher material anyway. The biggest problem I have with these unsafe and sloppy builds, is that they are going to make it harder and harder for the rest of us to license modified vehicles.

Seems like a waste of a nice, well equipped shop...

Early 60's pickups are listed at 60" for the rear, but I still haven't found front axle numbers. I'll have to find one and measure it to see if it's narrower than the rear like the early 50's pickups are. Might have to update the brakes on a 50's version yet. That being said, a 60" front wouldn't be a bad match for the 60" rear axle out of a 52 car, which would also have a 3.73 axle ratio. Early 50's Mopars used a 4.1 or 4.3 with their overdrives and had shorter tires than what I'm proposing.

The Whippet frame is very similar to the Dodge of the era, somewhat larger than a Model A. It's original wheelbase is 112.5 with a 56" track width front and back. I've got a fair amount of fudge room there since I won't be running the stock fenders, but with our gravel roads I'll need to make or adapt some motorcycle style fenders to fit it. Going slightly wide will just increase stability, but I would like to keep things lined up fairly close from front to back. With the speedster look I'll be running narrow wires, so no offset, and probably about 4" wide tires with something like an 18 or 20" wheel. Everything is in a snowbank right now so I'm looking at Googled numbers but the Granada/Versailles 9" is listed at 58.5" with most likely ratio being a 3.75. A 70's Mopar A body 8 1/4 runs around 55.6", but both of those rears are a little more modern than the look I want. The one in my 52 should be around 60". The biggest issue right now is finding a cheap junk yard front axle that will work with fairly modern drum brakes, and not be out to lunch with the rearend width. Otherwise I'm stuck going to an aftermarket axle that will look more "hotrod" than speedster, and paying through the nose with our 70cent dollar to get it imported and then buying all the expensive brake kits that go on it. The Whippet chassis is designed for parallel leaf springs front and back so I will most likely keep it set up that way. If I have to go to an aftermarket front axle, it would likely be easier to adapt a Model A front crossmember and go to the single leaf Ford system... another minus in my books because it takes me one step closer to a belly button car that I don't want.

Thanks Dave, I'll check that out. Once I decide on a front axle, then I'll have to sort out what I want for a rearend to hopefully keep the gearing right and maintain the same bolt pattern. I've got an 9" Ford out of a 76 Granada but I'd like to keep it all Mopar and the little 6 won't need anything that stout. Another option would be to use whatever is in the parts pickup but that will likely be quite low unless I get into the 60's. The overdrive tranny starts to make sense if the rear is down around 4 to 1. The 3 speed is also an option but then I'd likely go to something like a 52 Plymouth car rear. I can remember when everyone sold floor shift conversions for those, but finding one now might be a bit of a challenge. The taller tires would effectively raise the final ratio some, but the light car should keep it liveable. I don't anticipate a lot of extra cash going into the motor, but I will probably shave the head for starters. Listening to Fargos go Far has me thinking that the stock 4 speed isn't going to work as well as I had hoped. The crash box doesn't scare me too much, I've driven old trucks since I was 10. It's a definite disadvantage down-shifting into first, but with a little practice you can do most of the upshifting playing by ear and not using the clutch at all.

Ok, this story is a little convoluted so bear with me. I'm collecting parts for what I hope will some day be a vintage racer styled speedster. To date i have a 29 Whippet frame that I had originally mistaken for a DeSoto unit. Since Whippet was bought out by Willys, which became Willys/Overland, eventually Jeep, AMC and then Chrysler, I think it deserves a Mopar power train. At this point, you are probably wondering WTF is this guy doing in a Pilothouse Site? Well, I got a 228 long block flat head 6 and 4 speed truck transmission from a 52 Canadian Dodge pickup, but now I need to think long and hard about axles. Plan A was to use the truck 4 speed, some 61 to 64 Dodge pickup axles and tall wire wheels to increase the effective gear ratio. Not actually having owned one of these early 4 speeds before, I thought increasing the final drive would bring the granny gear first up to a decent launch speed for the light speedster body. Discussions here and on the HAMB with Fargos go Far and others have me rethinking that plan however. Maybe I should be looking at one of the adapters to go to either a T-5 or the A-833 from the get go since I will be making motor mounts to adapt to the Whippet frame anyway. The second and more pressing question is track widths of the axles. Does anyone know how the track width compares between the early 60's trucks v.s the late 40's early 50's units? I can find lots on wheelbases, but nothing on track width or axle width. I would think they would be similar up until the 65 run, but those 61 to 64 trucks look quite wide as well. I'm also not too impressed with the steering box being in front of the axle line. Trying to tuck that in behind the frame on a fenderless car or moving it to the back could really mess with the steering geometry and I would like to avoid bumpsteer. My plan is to keep the dual leaf springs front and back that the Whippet had (very similar to 20's Dodges), but if this car is capable of 90 mph, it will need decent brakes and steering. I was thinking I could retain the drum brakes front and back, but hide a power booster under the floorboards. I'm still working on my heated shop between snow storms, so this is all very early in the planning stages. Other than accumulating parts, I don't have much other than a blueprint for a low budget, Indy style speedster in the back of my head. Lets open this one up for discussion and see where it goes.

Similar story with the Chrysler slant six in a John Deere swather. In my case it was a BB of solder rolling around in the tank from it's original construction. Took me a while to figure it out too. It would just roll around until it finally got sucked into the fuel outlet. Once the engine died it was free to roll away again.

The top left (towards the steering column) bolt on the tranny can be a real bear to get at depending on the model. Lots of old Mopars got a window cut in their transmission tunnel because of it. My preferred approach was an impact U-Joint and a 30" extension.

Glad to hear you got it going better. I'm almost 2 hrs SW of Winnipeg on the escarpment. I'd be up for a beer, but I'm not sure when, Things have been pretty hectic lately.

Reading your comments about it running hot in the summer if you used lighter oil, and I'm wondering if this could be a timing issue with the advances. Memory is fuzzy, but it seems to me that I had the centrifugal advances jamb up in an IHC 6 and it ran really hot. Rev the engine with the timing light on and see if it's moving the advance off the mark with the vacuum plugged and unplugged. Running 10-30 in that motor really shouldn't be a problem. Those compression numbers really aren't horribly bad for a motor that old. If you've already run the seafoam through it I would pour engine oil down the carb until it stalls for a couple times and then head out for a good run down the highway. I'd also be a little suspicious of the new spark plug wires. I've picked up some of the new Chinese crap and they weren't worth bringing home. If there's no radio in the truck I'd be looking for some good old Mallory wire cores or something equivalent.

I think it's crying for a 383. It demands more class than a typical rat rod. I was thinking a mild roof chop, fill the aluminum windows, lower it, channel it, big mags, shiney dark blue or black paint with a gold business insignia on the side. Everyone seems to think that ratrod is the easy way to go, but when you get right down to it, all you save is some clear coat and a bit of interior cloth. Do it, but do it nice.... something like those old 60's show vehicles when things got strange... but more modern.