Worden18

Wow! Awesome! Nice work

Awesome pics fellas, thanks for sharing

That's looking really nice. The mat in my car's trunk is original, and in really bad shape. Looks like you have an awesome replacement there

What an awesome car! Congrats on bringing it home. Oh, the whole 2 door/4 door thing is a personal preference; I love the 4 door cars

Some more pics:

More pics:

Just wanted to update everyone on where I'm at with my 51 Dodge Meadowbrook, and give you all some pics to look at. In the last month I replaced the front wheel cylinders and brake shoes (and one new line), repacked the wheel bearings, hit all of the cars grease zerks, rebuilt the carb, complete tune-up, new tires, and oils changed in the tranny, rear axle, and engine. The car really runs good now! To tell you the truth I don't even know how it ran before I tuned it up....the previous owner had the spark plugs gaps set at about .020, and the contact points were NOT EVEN OPENING. A true testament to how awesome these old Mopars really are LOL. They'll run even if the points don't open up and the spark plug gap is half what it should be ha ha. The carb was THE WORST I've ever seen as far as dirt and sediment buildup. I got it all cleaned up and put an extra inline filter between it and the fuel pump, which is also new. Anyway, me and my wife and kids have put on about 1,000 miles in the last month! Its so much fun to drive we take it everywhere. Today we took a lot of back roads, but we also hit Hwy 61 and drove it 55mph up to Wabasha for a Mother's Day lunch. It runs and drives just as sweet at 55 as it does at 40. It does use some oil, but I keep an eye on it and have a stash in the trunk to add when needed. I was really impressed to finally use the Fluid Drive; the car will idle down to 400rpm at a stop sign and not die or chug. Its pretty amazing; I've never had a car with Fluid Drive before, and that was one of the main reasons I bought it. Speaking of which, I still need to check the oil level in the Fluid Drive....must be ok though as it works flawlessly. The car really is whisper quiet; you almost don't know its running sometimes. I'll have to say I'm impressed with the old flathead, and the 6 volt system works just fine; I have no intentions of messing with it. Here's some pics for you guys. I had it up on a friend's hoist when I changed all the oils and hit some of the zerks underneath. Its been a lot of fun so far both working on it and just enjoying driving it. Its all original (well, less the modern radials) and I intend to keep it that way and just drive it. I chose to ditch the collector plates and put a 1951 MN plate on the rear. The state has strict rules on some of these old plates. They wouldn't allow any plate that was all numbers. Well, that's a hard thing to find in a 1951 MN plate. This crusty old plate was the only one I could find on eBay that had at least one letter in it, which the DMV accepted. They didn't care about the condition of it. Neither do I, it matches the patina of the car LOL And oh, I've been averaging 15-16mpg

Looking good! I hope it turns out exactly how you envision it will

Awesome read, thanks for posting

Very cool car; you did good IMO. It looks a lot like my Meadowbrook. Love the dog dish hubcaps...

Wow! That is just spectacular...love it! Nice work

Looks awesome!

Wow it looks great!

Not too sure, but first guess would be that it must have come out of a Service Manual. I could be way off. Check out this link and description: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Plymouth-Dodge-De-Soto-1946-53-Service-Manual-/252334999749?hash=item3ac05688c5:g:3ycAAOSwpDdVSEFo You could certainly ask the seller if the manual shows that exploded view you're after....

Very cool car; congrats on the purchase! I'm new here, too

Wow, your Meadowbrook sure looks a lot nicer than mine! I would agree with some of the other guys that if its not the original interior it sure is a very close match, and nice looking too. Here's a couple of pics of the seat fabric in my '51, which for sure is original. The mannequin in the back seat is part of my gameroom decor; I moved him into the car for some creepy pics for a friend LOL, pay no attention

Wow, just wow! I like to see this kind of photo documentation. To take a car apart like that, restore and fix everything and put it back together is amazing to me. Thanks for sharing, its looking great!

I've owned almost 50 old cars since I was 16 (I'm 46 now). My first one was a '59 Studebaker Lark VI with a 3 on the tree. Some were more memorable than others. But one thing I enjoyed no matter the make, model, or year was just sampling each one to see what it was all about. I'm not restoring my 51 Meadowbrook, but I'm getting it reliable and roadworthy again, and fixing what previous owners have neglected over time. When I bought the car I felt that it was slowly working its way toward that everlasting "its been sitting for 20+ years" thing, and then the owner dies, leaves the car to his unappreciative children whom call the junkyard to come get it so the eyesore is removed from their property. At least I'll be driving it again soon (currently working on the brakes). I'll do other things to it like rebuild the carb, remove the radiator and have it boiled or recore it if needed. Tune-up, new radials, fluids changed, everything greased, etc. is probably the most I will do to it. The car is basically all original, so I plan to just leave the original paint and interior and all of the scuffs, scrapes and dents that go with it. As long as its mechanically sound, and not dangerous to drive its ok with me. Even though I'm no great mechanic (I usually get help from others), I enjoy working on these old pieces of history because their design was fairly simple. NO COMPUTERS or any extra-complicated BS is what attracts me. I always wish that the car could speak to me and tell me it's history. I also like the feeling of accomplishment when I work hard to get something fixed right.

Thank you for sharing the pics and story. The work you have done is amazing; wish I could see it in person

That'd be awesome Harold. I'm only 15 minutes from Minnieska. If you get to that point shoot me a PM!

Hey fellas here's a couple pics of the original keys. On the front of each key you can see the "T" and "I" for trunk and ignition. The little Dodge medallion is just plain awesome. One the back of it the original owner's name is stamped, and he put his address on the backs of the keys: 1859 W 5th St. Winona MN 55987. Pretty cool! And oh, the background is a Champion Spark Plug ad from a March 1949 Life Magazine I happen to be paging through LOL

Open up a Photobucket account (its free), transfer the pictures from your computer to Photobucket, then copy/paste them from Photobucket to here. Its pretty easy.

Ok, thanks for the info

Hey fellas I do have one quick important question I'm hoping someone can answer. Can the oil pan be dropped without removing the swaybar (I think that's what is underneath it)? I want to take it off and clean it inside and out, put a new gasket set on, etc. Just curious as to what I might be up against if it doesn't just drop down without removing other things first....

I'm in the southeastern corner near Rochester and Winona, about 2 hours south of the Twin Cities. I'm kinda looking forward to taking the car to some shows this year; I suppose it could be entered in the all original class, or the "what the hell did you bring that here for?" class LOL. I'll have fun with it either way. Thanks for having me here on the forums.