Hubler13f

This is actually my first Mopar, I have owned a pile of cars since I was 11, yes 11 I used to cut about a dozen lawns a week and I bought my first car an 84 trans am off my uncle when I was 11 for $800. I have mostly owned GM products with the exception of a couple of Fords. When I got the 70 tempest I was searching eBay for a 66-67 (my favorite years) Bonneville, Grand Prix, GTO, Tempest, Lemans, but I found the 70 in New Jersey for the right price and went with it. I actually started the 47 international kb1 back in August 2011 after I was retired from the army, but that poor truck keeps getting bumped. I got it out of Bangor, Maine area for $600.

There he is! Thanks again Dan!

I wish I could remember his name. LOL. I posted a wanted ad that he replied to and it has since been taken down. I cant thank him enough though. I drove down there and he met me and the parts he gave me were nice, I cleaned them up and rebuilt my front end, it gave me a new boost of motivation to get this car done. I know he has a few Mopars of this era, the wife and I are racking our brains and can't remember his name.

Thanks, I got a few more things done this week. The temperature gauge graft went well, the ice and salt mixture wasn't quite cold enough and I caught a whiff of ether when I cut the new gauge tube, after I soldered it on and stuck it in boiling water I realized the gauge wouldn't go above 200 so I went and bought another and stuck in in the deep freeze for an hour before messing with it. This time I got no smells of ether when I cut the tube. I left the capillary and most of the tube in the deep freeze while cutting and soldering the gauge on, I used the top of the deep freeze as my work bench and it came out great, works great and is accurate. I also tackled my headliner and package tray the last couple days. The headliner took maybe 3 hours and turned out great. The toughest part was stretching the fabric down far enough in the rear to lock into place with some wire, the metal tabs and spray glue, but I got it. I used fabric paint on the sun visors which were still wrapped in the original upholstery. I don't think they turned out bad at all. For the package tray I used the crumbling original as a template on some 1/4 OSB board. Then used the Loctite 300 spray glue to attach the carpet and cut around it with a utility knife. Here are some pics of how it turned out.

The lower thermostat temp might help but I thought I read somewhere on this forum that it is better to run the higher 180 to 190 thermostats in the flat sixes because running the higher temps allows more of the moisture to evaporate and reduces the sludge build up in the engine, especially in the valve train. That post I read was the sole purpose I run the 190 thermostat, because when I tore this motor down the valve train galleys were full of sludge between 1/2 and 3/4 of an inch. If it's bad info then it's bad info, now I have to research more.

Hello Folks, I have been lurking around here for about 2 years searching through info to guide me through some work on this car. This website has been amazingly helpful, a forum member out of Locust Gap, PA even donated a full front suspension and steering gear to me for the car. I bought this 48 Plymouth P15 Biz Coupe about two years ago, I watched it on Pennswoods Classifieds for about 7 months before finally taking a look and buying it from a guy in Watsontown, PA, who bought it from an older gentleman in either Maryland or Virginia. The exterior looked really good, little did I know all of the gremlins and bad workmanship that laid beneath. Some of which I have griped about on this forum. This year I have really been able to get a lot done though so it is finally road worthy and I look forward to enjoying it and driving it as much as possible. Heres A few pics.

I went with Rusty Hope for my Plymouth a couple months ago and would recommend his kit, I picked the parts i needed off the list from Rock Auto it went together easily and has worked great. Although mine is the small pattern I know they advertise for the large pattern. I would recommend getting a good quality tap if your tapping your own spindles though, I wiped all of the cutting edges totally off of a Harbor Freight tap before going to a local fab shop and purchasing a good one for $25.

Dr. That's a beast of a cat Lol! I am going to reconsider what I am using. I have a 47 International KB1 I have been building from the frame up, so all of these lessons learned will be considered. Don, If I had felt anything, I would have stopped and checked it out. The car shifted through the gears fine, and accelerated well. I realize this is a dumb mistake on my part but that warning light probably would have saved my carpet. Dan I am definitely from the "yinz" belt (western PA and Appalachian dialect), I was stationed in Louisiana for 9 years though so I really mess people up when a "y'allinz" slips out. Quick Story, When I was in Afghanistan in 2006, we were in contact and I was coordinating an airstrike with our JTAC and a team of A-10s. When I returned to the FOB I was surprised by a full bird colonel asking "Who was talking to those birds" my CO pointed him my way, and he asked "where around Pittsburgh are you from" I told him and he slapped a coin in my hand and said "I knew it as soon as I heard your ass on the radio" and walked away. So I'm guessing I talk with a thick western PA dialect.

There are so many points here that apply to my cars past and present Ill try to hit them all. I did have a small ABC fire extinguisher on hand that I keep behind the seat along with some tools, luckily I did not have to use it. A couple miles down the road who knows if I would have been that lucky. I lost my first car an 84 Trans Am to an engine fire, burnt to the ground at the bottom of my dad's driveway. I bought this 48 P15 BZ CP over 2 years ago as a partially done project and on one of the first shake down runs I took it on the pinion bearing locked up solid on me at 55 MPH, talk about a wild ride. I used on my floor what many guys on these forums have been calling the original Dyna-Mat, You know that peel and stick stuff that you get in the roofing section at Lowes. I can tell you that I am rethinking my actions because that stuff turned to sizzling tar and is part of what trapped the heat and ignited and took the carpet with it. in fact on second look I am wondering if I hadn't used it, if the carpet would have been touched at all. My first car was an 84 Trans Am and I lost it in a fire due to a quadrajunk carb sitting on a worn out 305, it backfired through the carb and away she went.

On the lighter side of things, have any of you just had one of those brain fart kind of days where you just couldn't win. Well today I back the P15 down the driveway to the mailbox and proceeded down the road to head into town by the time I got 1/8 mile down the road I smelled something, I thought that was odd because I just ran my stepson into baseball practice the other day with no issues. By the time I reached the stop sign at 1/4 mile the rear of the car was engulfed in a cloud of smoke. I began to hear something sizzling and looked down to see the carpet melting in the middle of the floor!!!! WTF!?!?!?! and then it hit me, the emergency brake, I forgot the dang emergency brake. Here is the visible aftermath. Things got so hot under there it melted the carpet and I could hear the throw-out bearing ticking when I would push the clutch in. After it cooled down the throw-out bearing quit ticking but the softball sized melted area in the middle of the floor remains. Let the flaming begin!

Keep up the pics, I'll be doing this next week when I get my new tack strip in. I have a new headliner and windlace that came with my car that seems to be made out of some sort of neoprene. I think I have a handle on it except at the rear where it mounts at the package tray it looks like some sort of wire and tab configuration.

Thank You for your service, I didn't make it that far, I made the list for Sergeant First Class in 7.5 years and got pinned at a little over 8 years. When I got home from my 3rd deployment I ended up having 4 seizures and a bunch of other issues and they diagnosed me with a Traumatic Brain Injury so they permanently retired me at 11 years 4 months in 2011.

What you are referring to as your fan housing, is your water pump. Your water pump was probably on its way out before you greased it, and you may have knocked some of the junk loose that was blocking the coolant from coming out when you greased it. You should be able to take the fan off and replace your water pump without pulling the radiator, I don't know if they are a rebuildable part.

13F was my MOS designator or job description in the army, a 13F is a Fire Support Specialist or Forward Observer also known as a Fister, In the end my full identifier was 13F4OL7

Here is what I did today. I had a 4'x6' piece of 3/8" thick Stainmaster carpet padding that I picked up from the flooring scraps at Lowes. After lightly sanding the ceiling I used the 3M 90 adhesive and sprayed the ceiling and let it tack up. I then cut strips and sections of the carpet padding and sprayed them with the adhesive on the plastic label side and allowed it to tack up. Then I cut and pieced and stuck the padding to the ceiling as needed. I had tried spraying the padding on the foam side but it didn't adhere as well. I also tried sticking it as one large piece but again no luck so I cut it into smaller sections.

Just an update on my end, I mounted the vega 140 box with a similar adapter plate as junkers, however I used the stock isolators and bolts for mounting the stock box. I had to have my pitman arm modified because the vega 140 box has a smaller output shaft and splines. I also had to shorten my steering shaft and outer tube in order to have a workable angle for the steering u joints. I took it for a ride and besides needing an alignment , I had plenty of turning radius and everything cleared and worked well.

Junkers72 Sounds good Ill be looking forward to seeing how your test drive goes. My cars front suspension and steering was hacked on before I bought it, but fellow forum member from Locust Gap, PA was kind enough to donate a full front suspension, uprights, spindles, all the steering linkage and a steering box housing for my car. So last week I rebuilt the front suspension, installed the Rusty Hope disc brake kit and Moog cc850 springs with a full coil cut off and now I am waiting on a Vega steering box. I went with the Vega GM 140 box instead of the heavier GM 525 box but from what I read the mounting holes are the same so it should fit well once I make my adapter plate.

Hello, any updates to how this worked out for you? I'm in the middle of rebuilding my front suspension and am considering ripping out the omni rack (poorly mounted with little turn radius) and replace it with a setup like this.