Olddaddy

I just picked one up yesterday. It's a WW, but it must have been on a V8 as the choke assembly will interfere with the head on my flathead six. Do you have any better pictures of yours? I might consider selling mine as I am thinking of using a later model Carter or even a Holley-Weber 2bbl.

Hey, tried to respond on the spindles, but your pm box is full

I need a pair or even two pair of Pilothouse Dodge truck spindles. I have people who need them to install disc brakes on their trucks where the spindles are damaged or broken. I can use Plymouth car spindles as well for people in the same boat with their car spindles. I can pay cash, or give you a discount on a disc brake kit. Thanks for the help.

I grew up in a 49 Plymouth Suburban and have owned several of them since. My 50 Suburban is a lifetime keeper. I've owned well over 100 cars and trucks in my 55 years and most of them have been Mopars. There is just something right about the Mopar engineering, style, and logic.

Dave Kruse of Metal Rubber Corp makes them, and most every other rubber item for our cars, he has a web page, email is krusn64@aol.com. He has a cool Plymouth himself and is a great guy to deal with.

Somewhere over the years my old thread guage moved on to a better life somewhere, perhaps into witness protection someplace. I'm about to start assembling my Suburban and need a good thread guage for sae automotive bolts and nuts. I want to use as much stainless as practical and being able to order by size would be a great help to me. I know you guys are a resourceful lot, so what have got in your shops? Also, any sources for the hardware? I know all the big places, but if you've got a good one that you use, speak up!

There are no good solutions. When I was looking I found a guy in Canada who rebuilds them, but the cost was around $200. I beat the bushes and lucked out finding two nos hinges for my 50 Suburban. Barring that a hood prop is a good idea. I installed one on mine just for safety sake, nothing worse than the hood coming down hard on your noggin or your new painted fenders. I have also noticed over the years that junkers sometimes have good hinges. If the car was wrecked early on or not used a great deal sometimes the hinges are still pretty strong.

I recently spent two very cold dark evenings rebuilding the septic drains at my house thanks to the wild pigs living in my woods. A few years ago a sow and piglets turned up and now there's a pig village in there, probably upward of 60 or more. I hate to think about shooting them, but it's getting to that point. Maybe we could have a Plymouth Pig Shootout and Barbecue at my place sometime soon.

Really well done! I have always loved the lines on these cars and the work you've done on yours sets them off nicely. It gives me hope for my 50 Suburban. It's finally in paint after three years.

It doesn't do anything, it just holds the drive pin in place till I get the proper steel collar for the pin. On the slant/6 they are the drive gear for the distributor and the pin holds them on the distributor shaft. On the flathead it simply keeps the pin in place where the drive shaft is mated to the distributor shaft.

I used the non-lean burn distributor. What I liked about the swap was that the distributors are common, cheap and easily adapted to the flathead drive foot. The slant/6 distributor even uses the original hold down for the flathead distributor. As mentioned before I will replace the plastic drive gear with a steel collar before installing. I'm about as far from a running engine as I was when this first came up, but someday..........if anyone has a running engine and would like to field test a distributor let me know.

As far as installation effort, my kit does require drilling and tapping three holes to 5/8" fine thread. You are actually only opening up the existing three holes about 1/16" to reach tap size. There is no reaming or grinding necessary with my kits. I can do the work for you if you ship your parts to me. It's a toss up whether buying a drill and tap, having it done locally or shipping to me is better, one over the other. However, at $160 including shipping I think my kit is the least costly on the market. The parts needed to complete the installation are also economical, under $200 is possible depending on your location and how well you can shop for sales etc. I believe the Scarebird kit is a complete bolt on, no drilling or tapping needed. As far as master cylinders, I ran my 50 Suburban wagon for seven years on the original MC. I did not have residual valves, or a proportioning valve installed. I did remove the internal valve from the MC. The only difficulty I experienced was that in a hard panic stop the rears could lock up, but only did so once in the seven years. Having said that, part of my rebuild on the car is to install a dual reservoir MC, with power boost, and residual valves up front. I will not need a proportioning valve as my car is four wheel discs. If it were rear drums I would want the rear valve also. You don't need power boost, manual discs are fine, but the pedal is softer with the boost. I used an MBM brakes bracket, but ECI makes a nice one also. I chose MBM because I am running an automatic trans and the bracket was a single pedal. I believe ECI has brackets for both single and double pedals if you are running an original manual trans.

Tim, as a fellow Suburban owner, and West Virginian I applaud you for your incredible fabrication ability. I hope you are keeping copious notes, and patterns so that I might follow in your footsteps. Sadly I am still unable to get email to reach you, but follow your every move here on the forum.

They look like polyurethane which is very tough, but squeaks when it's cold. It makes for a harder ride as well, great for a race car or small sports car, but I didn't like it on the Plymouth I rode in that had it. I used rubber from Metal Rubber Corp, Dave Kruse, krusn64@aol.com.

My wife loves the car and tolerates me................

I am the Preconstruction Manager for a General Contractor. I estimate, contract, source, purchase, and manage refurb projects in resort settings.

Tim, anticipation is half the pleasure.............

When times are hard you don't build projects, you dream about them......So, I'm dreaming about one right now. In addition to my addiction to old Plymouths, Triumph 650s, and Power King tractors I'm pretty fond of Dodge Vans. My current van is a 93 Ram Wagon, the ultimate station wagon. I've always wanted to graft a dually bed and rear frame onto a van making a very DeLuxe King Cab pickup truck. I'd really like to see how it would look if anyone here has time to kill and skill with photoshop. I can keep this slightly closer to on topic if anyone could also photoshop my 50 Suburban wagon into an El Plymino for me. Now, I would never cut my wagon, but I do have this spare Suburban in the side yard, and good times will come again someday.

I'm just doing a disc conversion on a 47 Plymouth Convertible in my shop here in Orlando. I should be under $400 for everything including the $160 cost for the kit. The two big cost items are rotors and calipers. If you can turn in some junk calipers for cores it saves you about $20. If you don't have large diameter drill bits and 5/8-18 taps that will increase your cost. The hard decision is whether to go with Napa for better quality at a higher price, or one of the cheaper parts houses for lower price. Either way the discs are an improvement over original without any visible change in the car or truck. If the above price of $165 for a drum is right, then discs are a bargain by comparison. Nothing against anybody who runs original drums, they have worked find for over 60 years. I just like the dependability and better braking of discs.

The adapter that Wayfarer makes will mount a 904, or a 727 behind your flathead. Either one will do fine. The 904 is lighter duty than the 727, but will push your Chrysler down the road just fine. Nothing against Wilcap, but Wayfarer is a Mopar guys and his adapter is a really nice piece of work.

Greg, You are a Prince! I will immediately undertake salvaging my little compass thanks to you!

My sad compass story..........found on years ago on Ebay. Spent more than I wanted, but it was what I wanted for my car. Got it here and opened the box to find it had been battered around to the point the the wheel was out of place. Never have been able to work it back and it sits there reminding me every time I go in the shop........

I really enjoyed working with Dennis on his installation. I learned a few things from him and that is a good thing. The kits are as close to being "universal" as I can make them, but there's always something that can be done better or differently. That is what hot rodding is all about really. The kits are $175 including shipping to lower 48 US addresses, higher elsewhere. I'm always happy to work with someone who is figuring it out and making it work, a real pleasure. These kits make owning my 50 Plymouth wagon affordable, and possible really. I appreciate the opportunity. Thanks, Charlie.

Kroil is King at my shop, use it on everything. I like the Wintergreen oil idea though, sounds kinda...........festive! They also did not include my favorite tool, the gas wrench. Heat them bastards up good and red and they fly off the bolt.

I built and run a lot of slant/6 engines over the years. I have a seriously built engine in my shop right now that is looking for a home. I would not run headers on a street vehicle, but to each his own. My friend Terry Bogusz is a slant/6 master with a wheelstanding A100 pickup and he recommends the following: Use the STOCK hyd push rods. They work excellant up to 6500 rpms. What carb you going to use? Even a 500 Holley 2bbl, without bigger valves and some HEAVY porting, is over doing it. The old factory 273 and 318 Carter-Ball & Ball or Stromberg is only 290 cfm. Work good. Don't foget these motors don't breathe too well. Headers are even an OVERKILL now. They only help at 5000 rpms and up and that's at wide open throttle. Use the stock exhaust manifold but open the outlet up to 2 1/4" (in as deep as you can too) and then use 2 1/4" ID pipes all the way back. WORKS GREAT, Cheaply, and you don't lose any torque. I have about seven exhaust manifolds if you want to make up a dual outlet manifold like the ones I do for flatheads. I also have 25 years worth of slant/6 stuff in the shop if you need anything for an engine.