David Maxwell

...I just ran a search using the part number P15-23350 and came up with the following link to a supplier: http://www.classicautopartsgroup.com/MUSTANG/hazel.exe?client=59219359&action=detail&item=P15-23350

The image on the website makes it look like the light has a greenish sparkly finish, but it does not. It is unfinished stamped metal just like the original. Apparently the same light was used in early Mustangs.

...I dug out the repro one I purchased for $14.99 a couple years ago and here's are the product part numbers from the package. Might help you track one down.

It is listed as an "Engine Compartment Lamp" however, it is the trunk light.

1956-71 All (although it is identical to the original Mopar light used in 1946-48)

Replaces: C2RZ-15A700-A

P15-23350 (ironic how the part number starts with P15)

...I dug out the repro one I purchased for $14.99 a couple years ago and here's are the product part numbers from the package. Might help you track one down.

It is listed as an "Engine Compartment Lamp" however, it is the trunk light.

1956-71 All (although it is identical to the original Mopar light used in 1946-48)

Replaces: C2RZ-15A700-A

P15-23350 (ironic how the part number starts with P15)

...would be for a vacuum leak somewhere. I was told by a shop that specializes in distributor repairs that even a leak to the windshield wiper might cause the car to miss. Make sure all your lines are tight.

...and it seems to light up pretty well just holding a light under it, but I should at least find a chrome hood ornament to mount it in for a better test and I have no idea how much difference there is in the light source from a 6 volt bulb.... so... I'd say this test was a little half-@$$ and unreliable. I try and set it up better this weekend.

I've noticed that a lot of the repros now being offered are solid, not hollow like

the one I bought. It might be interesting to see what a light placed under one of

the solid ones would do. Does anybody have one of the solid ones with a light?

...I've never really logged on to the HAMB, but I'll have to give that a try. Driving it home would be fun!!

David, over on the HAMB, there is a fellow who goes by "Sled" who has been living

in Mexico and hunting old cars for a while now. You might P M him to see what he

can tell you about getting a car from there to here. Seems as if he once said it

wasn't that big a deal. There's a long running thread as I recall about his adventures

and findings. Or, you may already be familiar with him. Just a thought.

Far as the 1700 miles -- just jump in the ol Dodge and drive it home.

...so my parents always had a station wagon. I remember whenever we all needed to go somewhere together, the easiset way to fit us in the 64 Ford wagon was to fold all the seats flat which created a large steel cargo area. We loved sliding back and forth with each turn, banging into eachother and screaming at the top of our lungs!! Child Protective Services would probably arrest my parents today, but we all remember them as saints for putting up with us and making life a joy each and every day.

...Thanks so much for the responses and insight. You each seem to match my gut feelings on this. The potential buyer is the husband of a former student of mine. They're a great young couple that love old cars. Her husband is currently selling his entire stable of 7 Mustangs. This is being done to make a major investment in his tile business. He loves all old cars, but Mustangs are his main interest. He is hoping to find one car to keep him in the hobby until his investment pays off and he can add more cars. Lately he has become interested in Mopars, in part because of my P15 and in part because he fell in love with the 58 Dodge on site. I will pass on the info. I hope he follows through with this purchase. If he dosen't, I might try and find a way to buy it though the cost of getting the car back home would be extreme. They are roughly 1700 miles from me and in another country to boot. Thanks again. If anyone has more input, please keep it coming. I don't think we can be over-informed on this one

Hi David,

I have a '57 Lancer which cost considerably more than $6500 and was still a good deal. I also had a '58 Plymouth coupe, I rescued.

Looking at the photos, the price is a steal - I can't quite make out the badge on the trunk but it looks like a D500 which is the rare performance model.

The mechanicals on these cars are just as cheap to work with and are as robust as P15/D24 stuff. The real problem lies with rust, which can be rampant and interior trim (about $3500 for a refurb kit) and exterior trim which can be very difficult to get hold of.

To me it looks like a bargain, these are great cars and are more advanced then contempory GM/Ford products of the period, not as well put together as our 40's MOPAR stuff, but still good.

I wish I could add it to my stable.

A friend of mine is considering trading one of his many 65-67 Mustangs for a 58 Dodge Coronet 2 door hardtop. He lives in Mexico and sent me a few pics. The car looks pretty nice in the pics, but he said it does need work. Very solid car that could be drivin "as is", but knowing him, he will want to bring up to more of a show quality. Anyhow, the seller suggested to him that it was worth $6500. Any thoughts? I'm going to do the usual vintage bluebook checks as well as ebay etc. but I'm sure those prices will be all over the board. It's really opinions I'm interested in more than asking prices which may be inflated. Thanks!

..and charged $475 at that time. I'm not sure what he charges now, but his contact number is in the links section of this site.

howm uch does hunley get?

...and I think his are the best, however, there is another place making them now and they put them on ebay fairly regularly. They are still expensive, but less than Hunley and the quality looks good from the images. Run a search on ebay for (194*, 4*) (plym*) (running boards,door sill*) If they have some listed, you'll find them.

Just wondering if anybody knows a good place where I can purchase the appropriate running boards for my Business Coupe. Thanks

The material he installed for you is a near perfect match to the V-105 option that was correct for P15s. So you not only got a great price, but a correct material as well! Congratulations!!

My front and back seats cost a total of $480 with material and labor. I had checked out LeBarron Bonney at first, but realized that I wasn't going to sacrifice two paychecks for interior. I also decided that the original broadcloth pattern used on the P-15's wasn't much to my liking, as it resembled a man's suit. I found an upholstery shop in Pomona, California run by a Mexican gentleman who had been doing upholstery since the 1950's. He saw my car and I told him what look I was looking for. He showed me a roll of gray striped hi-lo material that he had in the back. I was afraid he was going to bring out the typical crushed velvet crap, but what he showed me looked very period correct...almost like NOS stuff from the late-40's. I asked him how much he would be willing to sell 9 yards of material for my seats and panels. He told me the only way he would sell it is if I had him do the work. He quoted $4500 to do the whole interior (seats, panels, floor and headliner). That was way out of my range, so asked him how much for just the seats and he quoted me at $400. After all was said and done, he realized that he had undercharged me, but kept up his bargan because it's what he quoted me. He did exceptional work and the material is very well made and should last for years.

Maybe something to think about for a future car...

I decided to learn and do all my own upholstry work after years ago (1976 ) paying a small fortune to have some seats upholstered and realizing if I wanted to have more than one or 2 old MoPar cars and trucks I'd have to do all my own resto work. So I bought both a Consew and a Phaff industrial sewing machine to be free to do whatever I needed to do! Lots of satisfaction when you finish up a upholstry job. I've also made $$$ with the machines too.

...and will give you great satisfaction in addition to the savings. I considered it, but after spending that much on the material, I didn't want to screw it up and then regret "savings". I'm not much on sewing either lol...

Thanks for all the posts, that's about what I expected, expensive. I've actually been toying with doing it myself. With a lot of home work research and patience I think I can do it. My parts car still has the original interior, it's severely tattered, but I can use that as patterns.

I refuse to tell my friends I'm taking up sewing though.

Many items for the Mopars were made by 3rd parties and sold under the Mopar logo. The trunk light for the Mopars is no different than that which was used by Ford, Pontiac etc. Consequently, someone started remanufacturing them recently and sells them for around $15 brand new. I picked up a couple when they first came out a few years ago. Someone else picked up a bunch of them and immediately began selling them as Mopar replacements at around $100 each. Look around. You can find them cheap and in perfect working condition for less than $20.

when i was in hershey at the show i bumped into frnk mitchel, cool guy he had a trunk light for slae was debating on buying it, but he wanted 100 for it, seemed pricey for a a small piece of metal with a socket in it?

...right down to an exact reproduction of the pinstriped wool broadcloth which Lebaron Bonney and SMS both had. Lebaron Bonney was $10 per yard cheaper and much easier to deal with so I went with them. I spent around $1500 on materials and a local guy did and exceptional job for around $2800 for labor. So I'm into mine for $4300. For comparsion sake, I should note that quotes in my area ranged from the low price I paid to over $10,000 and I'm sure my guy did better work than any of the other shops would have done.

... that I found awhile back.

Here are some neet old photos that were sent to me.

Dennis:cool:

These and many other photos that might answer a lot of questions can be found in restoration photo gallery in my photobucket account. Here's two pics from the file. First shows the location of the compass and the second shows the turnsignal assembly.

where does the compass and the turn signal indicator get installed?

...hadn't even thought about that for a long time. Where in the world did you come up with that pic? Did someone sell one recently? Not an item I would care to have in my car, but historically speaking it is really cool!

Another P-15 accessory is the super rare "MoPar inflatable butt mat" !

Bob

what does that look like?

indicator. The P15 version looks just like the stock one with three ribbed lines except that it has the arrows as well.

Here's a couple pics of that P15 turn signal indicator/high beam bezel.

My father was a vet of WWII, Korea and Vietnam. Three brothers are Vietnam vets and my nephew is currently in Baghdad. On my Myspace page, I use a different version of the tattoo I designed of my wife over my P15's tire for each holiday of the year. Here is the Veteren's Day version followed by my Pearl Harbor version and my original tattoo version: In case you're wondering, the tattoo was based on a 1940s pinup image of Jane Russell who happens to live in my hometown now.

....as I have only seen two in my life. One is on GTK's (our generous host) dash of his P15. The other was on ebay and it went for a small fortune. The problem is that the P15 version is not interchangeable with Dodge, Desoto or Chrysler. It's unique and extremely rare.

Im going to say its the factory in dash turn signal indicator

...the official Mopar compass. They were rare to begin with and because they were made of soybean plastic, few survived. Last one I saw sell on ebay went for over $800 although I have seen them sell for $183 on the low end (that would be the one I purchased) so you never know for sure what they will cost you.

...of me and just about every kid at the high school I teach at!! Beautiful and a 4 door hardtop. I haven't seen one of those in CA in years!

it was a good event though attendance was low. Chance missed it altogether due to bad weather and traveling conditions, arrived late but did get here.. Gus woke up feeling ill and did not drive the P15 down..Billie and his dad was to ride with him..then nobuxrod sent word he did not get the brakes ready in time for the trip. Richie and his wife traveled down in the modern iron due to torrential downpour in Atlanta..Bob's car experienced trouble but he and the misses drove the modern iron over. Billie of little british car fame in the area popped in but was in the Miata..of course Margaret the second wife was here, thank her for all the pics....Louman and the big DeSoto..his two buds did not make it at the last minute. Weather was a bust in all the surrounding areas but true to form...Elko got passed over for the rain..

the short ride to see the other cars filled out the need to see other makes and models...their event had not yet kicked off, was later than evening so who knows what eventually showed up there..

here are a few pics..of course I posted the cars from the event earlier..notice Lou cutting donuts in the orchard..always a kid...

#1 Ms Betty, Sal and Bob..

#2 Sal, Billy (was at his homeplace working on LBC's and stopped by) Bob, Myself, Betty

#3 Lou shaking hands with Billy, Richie, his wife, myself

#4 Crime scene photo exhibit 1

...to be invited to!! Wish I had some acreage... I'd throw one! Most I think my little cul-de-sac could handle would be about 4 or 5 cars. Could put on a hella BBQ though