46DodgeDeluxe

Is there an easy way to tell what is stainless and what is plated or aluminum or otherwise? I'm going to polish all my stainless and chrome while I'm waiting on the rewiring job. Could anyone give me a rundown on what was generally done in these years? Some pieces are obvious to me, others, like the horn ring, switches and hooks inside, dome light bezel, and dash pieces, I'm not sure. My guess was plated, because the pitting in it. Stainless usually has no pitting correct? Would the bumpers have been plated? I'm not really trying to spend that much money to re chrome, wondering if working from 80-3000 and buffing would give a nice enough finish. They are straight and smooth.

All the others seems to be a pretty small number. 1800~ club coupes produced, who knows how many in this color WITH AC. I wonder if there is a way to find out that kind of stuff for these cars.

Thank you! I tried a different paint place and they tried 10x harder to help me. I have request in with the color library and they should be receiving the formula from them in the next week or so. I gave them both the Dupont, and PPG codes I was able to find, not sure which one we're getting at the moment. I will report back once I have a sample. Will be worth the work when the color is perfect!

Found that page also, thanks for sharing though! PPGs system returned 0 results when I gave them that code. So I'm working with an app on my phone called color grabber to convert hexadecimal color codes to paint codes. It's a really useful tool once you play with it for awhile. Going to take my top 3 in tomorrow to get a few samples mixed up. Gotta start painting my trim and dash so it can go back in!

Well that's a fun bit of trivia! Thanks for sharing, if these are like a lot of the other chrome on this car, they should polish up beautifully. With the exception of a few dings and scrapes, it's all there and just needs some elbow grease.

Could anyone offer any advice on getting my hands on the factory Sea Island Green? The PPG/Ditzler number doesn't come up in their system with any results. When the scanned my cowl tag, it came back as Aston Martin Almond Green, which is close, but too much flake, and a little too blue to my eyes when comparing to the parts on my steering column that have never seen the light of day. Which they couldn't scan apparently? I found a HEX code and am trying to figure out how to convert that into a code that they can use to mix up a paint, but I'm going to have to try a couple different ones I think to find the perfect match. Has anyone already gone down this hole? Are there resources for these kinds of things so I don't have to reinvent the wheel? I would prefer to paint these things the correct color and be done, but a one year only Chrysler color is eluding me so far. Thanks in advance for any help, advice, encouraging words, or happy thoughts!

Speaking of dome light, I got a replacement lens coming that was 3d printed last night! Found a guy on a Facebook group who has a 54 and has been printing or molding new parts he needs! That's how I got new front turn and park lenses, and he's working on making a mold for the steering wheel next! Thanks technology!

They are just OK, older cosmetic restoration (non stock materials and patterns unfortunately) that looks fine but is falling apart in places because of poor installation or materials or both. I didn't know this car had a dome light until I looked through the service manual. Went out and felt around and they just put the headliner over it. Headliners coming down soon to replace the body harness, so we'll see what other surprises await us! I personally would much prefer to fix up a molested interior, than the running gear or body being hacked up or half a$$ed! Fortunately, both still have their innocence! I took some today for you! I intend to do a seperate post for the AC when we get there, because I'll need all the help I can get, and I'm sure many would be interested to see more! I can hardly find any info on the web about it. Got some books and service manuals on the way though. The fans still work in it! So that's a plus, everything else will need gone through. My mechanic who's helping me said he'd switch to R134, but I've heard varying opinions. Biggest con I've seen mentioned to using the old refrigerant is cost, which is what he said. However, I've heard that R134A doesn't work as well, especially in these older systems. Any insight on that? I figured if we are rebuilding the whole system, than the likelihood of an expensive recharge is pretty unlikely? I will take more detailed pics once we are at that stage and get pics of the inside. For now, it will have to wait. Will be researching and planning though. Gotta find someone to send my compressor into for a rebuild. That's in the trunk for now. Fortunately, all the lines look great and intact though! The ducts did not survive the heat over the years and have crumbled as you can see from the interior pic of the vent. Gotta find a replacement for that too. On and on! Enjoy, let me know what you think!

Oh, there it is!

Hey Andy! I was stoked to see you reply! One of my other projects is a 46 D24 Sedan that is about 1/2 way through a 5.9/auto/8.8rear/4wheel disc/ power steering mod on the original frame. This forum was instrumental in guiding us in the right direction with that build and I recall getting a ton of great information from your posts, THANK YOU! One of the main reasons we ditched a front clip swap was your story of driving yours for decades. Now I feel a little silly that I didn't come anywhere near that conclusion. But hey, gotta be humble to learn! I was shocked to see factory air on a car of this year, 1952 was the first year for Chrysler, and they were the first post war. It came from Arizona and was well cared for for years it seems. Only rust appears to be where the cowl vent was letting water in, and the drain hose for the air box wasn't intact letting water into the passenger compartment and onto the floor. Fortunately, it spent only a few years in the rain it seems. I am going to start a build thread this week to keep it in one place and show it off properly! The system is really interesting! I'll take a bunch more photos next time I'm at the shop and detail those in the thread. I can't tell you why the trunk isn't worse. The AC unit in the back does have a drain in the bottom so any condensation or water from the vents will drain out. However, the ducts from the fender vent into the box have been shot for who knows how long. I was expecting the same thing honestly. Once the car is rewired and running reliably and we've recuperated a bit of money, we're going to tackle the AC and restore it to as original as possible. I have to. Hagerty doesn't even list this model as an option and I about fell out of my chair when they reported back what they wanted to insure it for. Even at condition 4, it's a higher value than all 6 of my other cars combined... and I paid almost the least for it. Take away the brand new Cokers they put on right before I bought it, it is the cheapest classic mopar I've bought so far! The more we tear into it, the more pleasantly surprised at it's condition I am. Thank you again Andy, I genuinely appreciate your input and look forward to learning more from you in the future!

Hey Keith! It is! It is complete, but in need of restoration. The fan and controls still work though! I believe as far as I know (waiting on my build card) it was purchased in Arizona and think they were only offered from dealers in select regions. That's just what I had been told. The more I learn, the more rare it appears to be! This car is amazing. Thanks for sharing! I have a service bulletin and a manual for the AirTemp coming my way, so should give me a lot more info than I currently have. Thanks for looking, I've figured out that the interior was 2 tone green broadcloth so I'm making progress! I'm going to start a thread here soon on the build. Hopefully share our journey and continue learning about it!

Hey Den! Thanks! It is an AC car, and all the pieces are there! Getting that working is on the list, but we're not quite there yet. Runs and drives but we are putting in a Rhode Island Wiring factory harness throughout and sorting some minor issues. Power steering box is off to Steer and Gear for rebuilding, but nothing else major needed. New windshield coming, all new rubber seals all around. Painting interior pieces, dash, and column. The door panels, seats, carpet, headliner, and dash were redone at some point. It looks nice, but not stock. As those are in need of replacement, we'll be converting back to the two tone green cloth and green vinyl. It doesn't appear to have ever had an antenna, but it has a radio! I have a service manual but no owners manual. Do you know if there is a manual for the AirTemp system? I found the build card info recently and sent off for that, I'm excited to learn more. Thanks for commenting!

Hey folks! Changing this thread over to a general build thread to keep from making a bunch of seperate threads, and keep the relevant info in one place. Hope this is OK. Will reformat the info on this first post soon and hopefully get some help and provide a resource for others along the way! Thanks! I've got a 1954 Chrysler New Yorker Deluxe Club Coupe that I am working on refurbishing and need a little help getting all the details from the cowl tag. I know the paint code is for Sea Island Green. But haven't been able to figure out on my own what else I can learn from this. Any help I can get would be great. I would love any resources or guides for this. Any insight on what the extra tag that says "REF UNIT" means? Also, would the dash, window surrounds, and column have been painted Sea Island Green as well? Extra picture to show off a little! Thank you all so much!

Very intrigued to see how you will be modifying the column shifter to work the automatic. Doing a 5.9 magnum swap in my '46 D24 Sedan. Was contemplating trying to find an automatic column with indicator that I could fit my steering wheel on.