Sharps40

With all the power looping thru the headlight switch and the high/low switch, I only receive 10.8 volts of power at the headlights with the engine off. Rather than fiddle with fuzes, I installed a 30 amp self resetting breaker to protect the circuit. Mounted to the radiator shroud and ready to wire up. A single 12g wire (top of breaker) taps power directly from the bulkhead connection which is connected directly to the + terminal of the battery. A pair of 12g wires (bottom of the breaker) out will send power to the High and Low beam relays. Now all the high amp load on the switches, dash harness, etc, (factory set up) is transferred direct from battery to relay. (Safer safer safer and more efficient as all the Connections/joints robbing power from the headlamps are now out of the feed stream to the bulbs) The switches are now operating at a single amp or so, just enough to trigger the relays and there is no LAMP Load on the switches, dash harness, etc.). Trigger wires come from the foot switch to the Low beam relay or the high beam relay as appropriate.. Use three wire headlamp sockets and ground both bulbs to frame. Ground both relays to frame as well.....ground, ground, ground....its old, everything is dirty brittle and corroded....ground it all or rip it all out and replace it. After double checking all the connections and tracing the wires one last time, I apply power. Zowie, 12.5 volts at the light sockets with the engine off.. Almost 2 volts gained at the lights where needed. And with the engine running, voltage at the headlight sockets is a full 14.5V. Should be blinding for deer this fall! Grounds grounds and then more grounds. Old cars need the benefit of lots of grounds. New cars can get by with just one but unless you are cleaning up the entire vehicle and replacing everything, add GROUNDS.

Use a 30 amp self resetting breaker and take power directly from battery for max volts at bulbs. Otherwise you still have all the power going through dash and switch first and high losses. Google it. Plenty of schematics out there. Simple to do. By going from the battery the only power on your switches and dash harness is the fraction of an amps to trip the relay And yes. Gen alt will sense the load and compensate/charge as normal.

Here is the drill....regardless of whether you run 6v or 12v or incandescent, halogen or led....the single most important things you can do is get max battery voltage to the lights. To wit. Good wiring, and clean tight connections + Grounds are mandatory. That will get you 4.5 to 5.5 volts at your bulbs, 10.0 to 11 on a 12v system....go ahead, measure it at the light to prove it to your self. To get maximum battery voltage, which is often higher than battery rating due to gen/alt in the system, you MUST use relays. Take all the amps (and thus resistance/losses) off the switches and run the lights directly from the battery to the lights through relays. Now the switch only uses a fraction of an amp to operate relays (one for low, one for hi) and you get 6-8v at the bulb or 12-14.5v on a modern system. Regardless of the lamp type, full voltage at the lamp is QUITE noticeable!

I used these fellas for my 65 Chevy truck when we put in the Astro T5. Perfect drive shaft, no issues, fast and fair pricing. Will use them again for the 37 Dodge. Beats the heck out of the old dodge ball and cup joints. No maintenance, no leather, no vibration and no failures.

Order the new driveshaft with slip yoke and spicers. The ball and trunions will give you problems later. (out of balance, broken boots, etc.) and you'll just be up against dual expenses. Google driveshaft specialists out of texas. Fill out the easy to follow form and less than a week later your new driveshaft arrives at your door ready to bolt in. link. http://www.driveshaftspecialist.com/

Agreed. Several are aweful. I ignore listed the worst of the lot early on since I found myself starting to shoot back at them. Better not to. Since, I occasionally post in my build thread. Somewhat less occasionally read other threads. And lately, I don't post much at all, even to answer questions. For me, those fellas pretty much kill the desire to participate. Its like finding a booger floating in the punch bowl at a party, after ya had a sip. Good for you BobK for bringing it up.

Well, I appreciate the value of the labor and parts, etc. But seems like if you want to sell it you must remember that you probably can never recoupe your investment unless you have one of the hi interest cars at the time. As I get closer to retirement, I am strongly looking at getting back into the hobby for fun and a bit of profit. But, I think I'm going to focus my efforts on start, run and stop to keep investment and market price balanced. i.e. Selling the vehicle totally reliable but with its body and interior as is and ready for the buyers attention. I have little interest in body and interior, lack many of the skills that make the showiest part of the car look good and I figure, that's a great selling point. Its totally reliable and ready for "your" final touches. I think it could work!

It was and Awesome day at GoodGuys in Raleigh. But I gotta tell ya.....whats being offered in the $25000 to $40000 bracket are not much more than/or should be priced lower as daily drivers with their heavily flawed repaints or very poor base body work. Folks, I didn't see a car worthy of a high price untill we were looking at vehicles in the $50000 and up price range. Dad and I were in agreement, what we saw at or below $40K was in large part much lower quality than even the amateur work we did on numerous cars back in the 1980s and 1990s. We look forward to having the 1937 Dodge home soon as we believe its professional body and paint work would compete much better than the many overpriced samples we saw. Neither of us was disappointed with the show, but rather shocked on our first foray back to Hot Rodding in over 25 years. We do not recall such overpricing of very poor quality work from our days trolling the annual shows and swaps of Hershy PA. And as for the old 37. Doors are on and aligned. Front motor mounts are out. Much of the antiquated suspension is loosened and the car should be in the suspension/motor bay next week for transplant of modern heidts suspension front and ford rear and then the 5.3/4L60E.

Talked at length with my builder on suspension for these old ones. Mine a 37 Dodge Sedan, 4-door. After figuring it out he recommended Mustang Front, Heidts. Ride height is adjustable so I don't have to live with a radical rake. As for the back end. Ford 8.8 rear. and, since I plan to drive the car a lot, with people in it, he recommended using the original semi elliptic springs with the updated axle. In his opinion, 4 link is nice, but nice for folks that don't travel much, haul much, tow much, drive much, use the car much, etc......Either way, both work.

Best start point is to unsieze what he's got. Might not need much more than cleaning out and some seals

I set the grill pieces in place in the spare nose, just to see how they'd look.

Sealed all the bare metal with rust convertor then top coated with primer and flat black paint. Por15 is for rich fellas! Should be good and no worries I think. Fortunatly, the thin metal was only along the edge of a portion of two of the bars. No compromise in overall strength for this part. All it really has to do is hang in the bottom so, should be fine for another 40 or so years.

It cleaned up good. I might go install it all in the spare nose and see what it looks like!

Part out of the vinegar. Came out about 95% bare metal with a hot water scrub. Got some flash rust in the oven at 180F for 20 minutes to dry it off. A quick shot of converter will lock it all down and ready for prime and paint. Some loss of metal on this lowest piece of the grill....also likely the wettest over the years. But, still plenty of study metal and the silver brazed joints are strong. So. Clean up and it'll be ready to ride again in Old Bessy's snoot. After cleaning and before taping off the stainless bars.

Dissassemble and rebuild. Its not a difficult tranny. Gears and even clusters are available. In any event, 36, 37 Dodge/Plymouth/Desoto for sure with some slight differences in u joints and brake drum band size/width, most of which can be swapped around. (for example 36 Desotos had cross type (i.e. modern) u-joints, Dodge/Plymouth had the harder to balance and weak cup and stick type u joints.) I believe this top loader three speed was used through 1938/9 in the cars. When ever they went to column shift, that's a general indication of when trans changed....some variances....i.e. fluid couplings, etc. But the basic 3 speed top loader was used for 3 to 5 years across makes.

It only took about 60 years to find one Dad and I could both afford and in good enough shape to restore and install. But....bought all of this..... To get this......The elusive crank hole cover. All the rest can be dispensed with, this is the gold/keeper from the auction. Its resting in vinegar as I type this to remove the bulk of the rust scale. In a week, we'll have, for the first time since we got the car in 1957, a complete grill for Old Bessy.

Email to Dad. Dad, Just finishing up the passenger side of the grill here. After the second coat of flat black paint but before removing the tape from the stainless steel bars. And here after removing the tape.... Just waiting on the crank hole cover to arrive from Oregon. Hopefully its in good shape. Had to buy an entire grill to get it but we'll see about getting that little bit cleaned up and ready to install on your car. First time in 60 or more years she'll have had a complete grill. Be nice to see it.

Drivers side grill half is completed. Locked the remaining and stubborn rust down with three coats of Loctite rust convertor. Followed by two coats prime and two coats flat black. Pulled off the tape and the stainless shines right out. One more side to go and then a crank hole cover to clean up similarly.

Woo Hoo....won the auction. Got a crank hole cover!

And. I just won an auction for a grill set that includes the ever elusive and nearly impossible to find crank hole cover. Soon, Ol Bessy will have a complete grill. Top to bottom, for the first time in years and years.

I got an entire stack of spares that will look just as good if anybody wants/needs them and is willing to put in the same effort cleanin em up. All in the for sale section and prices are OBO.

Begin the taping.... And after prime and paint, the vertical centerpiece looks splendid. Flat black brings out the stainless caps nicely.

Grill center piece is done. It looks excellent. Cleaner than I thought it'd get and plenty sturdy. Flash dried it after a thorough rinse at 180F in GoodWife's oven (She's out of the house right now) and set it aside. I'll straighten the teeth and mask the stainless toppers in preparation for rust block and prime and paint. As for the grill sections. Bottom halves are both done, cleaned and rinsed. The passenger side, normally the wetter side of a car, was more heavily rusted. But it came out fine and is still plenty strong. Driver side looks fantastic as shown in the photos below. Flipped em both over and dropped them back in the CLR to soak the top halves for a day or day and a half. After that, should be the same, rinse, dry, straighten, encapsulate, prime and paint. Gonna be a lot of taping before the paint, that's a lot of stainless steel bits to cover.

After about 18 hours in the CLR I pulled the parts, gave a light scrubbing with brushes in hot water and was quite pleased. About 90% of the rust is gone and bare metal is shining through. Put the parts back in the solution to get more working time on the more stubborn rust but I believe with a topcoat of rust converter, the grill will come out well. This certainty exposes more bare metal with less work and damage than wire brushing or bead blasting. Here, I flipped the center section. Except for the top, which is now in solution, its about as clean as I could ask for, though I see some adhering paint bits that I can clean off. Most of the adhering old paint bits softened up and floated away with the rust. In the background, the other center section, which was much more heavily rusted, needs more time in solution. But, even it shows marked improvement. As for the grill sections, they are looking marvelously clean. Still soaking, I'll rinse tonight and decide if they need more time on the first end or if its time to flip them over.

About 40 minutes into the CLR Soak and the heavy rust is already softened and in several areas it just wipes away down to bare steel. Here, the lower tab on the center trim piece, all rust gone, bare steel. Another tab, mostly clear of rust, a bit more soaking and it'll be fully bare too. Here the very heavily rusted side of one of the center pieces......already much off the rust is softened and wipes away leaving bare steel. The pits are still red rusted but I suspect they'll come clean too.