New Guy

[Plymouthy Adams]

whichever way you do it..do document your every step on tear down..save, bag and identify all small parts screws and bolts as to their orgin..and pictures and more pictures..get a journal and write a small blurg on any step that may have seemed tricky else going back willhave you scratching your head..

Do enjoy the process...this is where I get the most of my old car fun..the actual "doing the work"

[my48soto]

Boston is the SanFrancisco of the east. All about money. Lots of kas here but very few oldies.

Let me understand this a bit. You want to do a body off restoration. A restoration brings whatever is being restored back to ORIGINAL.

Next sentence you want to upgrade the suspension but avoid doing a front clip. Is an upgraded suspension acceptable for a restored to original vehicle and a front clip not acceptable?

Next sentence you are looking at an air bag system. Now that is pretty much not original, nor restored. What is it?

But wait there is more. Other that the modifications you have listed the car will be stock from head to toe.

A good forum member has told the story several times about the hammer he has that once belonged to his grandfather. It is all original except the handle has been replaced 3 times and the head twice.

Have you ever done any work on an old car? I really hope your car goes to completion what ever that is for you. As it looks now I see a car in an unfinished workshop/basement that has been disassembled and may end-up in a crusher. Failure is not an option. Set goals that you can achieve and you will get lots of support from this forum. Tell everyone you are going to restore a car with air bags and you will get no support.

Wow thanks for the vote of confidence!!!! LOL, I thank you for your comments it helps keep me focused on my task at hand. So I will change my phrase from restoration to custum. I love everything about my car inside and out. I just dont like the suspension, thats my only complaint when I was driving her around. The suspension is just not myting. So my apologies it will be a custom and not a full off restoration LOL.

[my48soto]

By the way everyone Im Lee, I'm in the US Army and love working on classic cars. It started off as a hobby and turned into an addiction. But I enjoy everyone's input whether good or bad, please keep it coming in. I love critics, they make the wold go round. I also have reworded my work in progress to a custom build since I will be adding an updated suspension. LMAO, I still do not know what difference that makes but I will comply as to not offend anyone else. LOL, so to all have a lovely Mopar day:cool:

[Bingster]

And Lee, thanks for serving our country! We all appreciate it greatly!

[greg g]

Do a search for front shock location. There are a couple simple means of changing the location to frame mounted upper brackets. Makt that change and check out Old Daddy's disc brake conversion deal. Makes a lot of difference. With that changed and refreshed bushings and or other parts the front suspesion is as good r better than anything else you might put on. You can also get dropped spindles from fat man or other sources if you want to go lower. Either way you have an unequal length A arm coil spring IRS, whats so bad about that???

[my48soto]

Do a search for front shock location. There are a couple simple means of changing the location to frame mounted upper brackets. Makt that change and check out Old Daddy's disc brake conversion deal. Makes a lot of difference. With that changed and refreshed bushings and or other parts the front suspesion is as good r better than anything else you might put on. You can also get dropped spindles from fat man or other sources if you want to go lower. Either way you have an unequal length A arm coil spring IRS, whats so bad about that???

Hey maybe you are right I will look into that this evening. Wow, you guys are freakin awesome I never thought I would find this much help with a classic Mopar. I guess I was looking in all the wrong places.

[Bingster]

Lee, I used to have an early fifties Chrysler New Yorker and it rode great. These Desotos were a high class ride in their day, and quite possibly your shocks and/or springs plus worn front end parts need total replacing. I would think that if you got your front end in factory condition that the ride would please you very much!

[Bingster]

There are two other sites devoted entirely to Desotos. www.desoto.org and www.desotoland.org.

[Bingster]

Desotoland should be www.duricy.com.

[Don Coatney]

By the way everyone Im Lee, I'm in the US Army and love working on classic cars. It started off as a hobby and turned into an addiction. But I enjoy everyone's input whether good or bad, please keep it coming in. I love critics, they make the wold go round. I also have reworded my work in progress to a custom build since I will be adding an updated suspension. LMAO, I still do not know what difference that makes but I will comply as to not offend anyone else. LOL, so to all have a lovely Mopar day:cool:

Lee;

I truly hope you have the skills and motivation to complete your Custom car. In your pictures I do not see any tools, a work bench, or any thing that will be required to put your car back together. I hope you have this stuff.

What is your MOS? I was a 63B20 and cut my young teeth on Mopar Flathead powered 3/4 ton trucks. And I did a lot of unaurathized field modifications to these trucks that the brass did not know about.

Desotoland should be www.duricy.com.

If you really want to have some purist fun post on desotoland that you want to add airbags and suspension modifications to a stock original Desoto. I was almost banned from that forum because I posted that I installed a modified Desoto engine in my Plymouth. They do not like to talk about modifications there unless the webmaster or his buddies do the modifications. A 50 Desoto with a 58 Mopar differential is about as restored to original as my Plymouth with a T-5 GM transmission.

[James_Douglas]

Before you toss out the idea of keeping most of the original suspension...I urge you to drive a 46-48 Desoto with a restored suspension.

I drive a 47 Desoto that rides as good or better than most new cars. You can get a disk brake set up for the front as well as power rack steering that will BOLT on and be completely reversible. With better front brakes and steering the thing would need little else.

You will have a very hard time installing airbags and in an accident you could kill someone. Those systems are highly engineered as a PACKAGE with all of other safety components of modern cars. You cannot just add them willy nilly to an old car.

I am not a purist, however, if you want to really WOW people, figure out how to get all the modern convinces out of the car with the minimum of new parts. A clean sheet of paper is easy, doing it with the minimum impact on originality now that is a challenge.

Good luck, James

[knuckleharley]

Hey I thank everyone for showing support here. I most definately will keep you guys updated on all of my progress on this project. If anyone in VA know about places that soda blast please let me know.

There is a place in Norfolk called Flatlanders. He does media blasting. The new owner's name is Aaron and he is a young guy full of enthusiasm about old cars and he does very nice work. He doesn't use soda,but he is using some sort of soft media whose name I can't remember right now. I take him a couple of pieces each month to blast and prime with self-etching primer.

He also builds hot rods,restores cars,etc,etc,etc.

Tell him Arthur from NC told you about him.

flatlandersmediablasting@gmail.com

916 W.25th St

Norfolk,Va

23517

Aaron 757-440-1932

[knuckleharley]

Well here is Day 2 of my tear down. I have officially got to say this vehicle is very, very user friendly when it comes to the tear down process. I dont have any manuals to go off of so Im basically guessing my around and the car is guiding me through. I thank you guys for all the encouragement

BUY A FACTORY PARTS MANUAL. BUY IT NOW.

Seriously,there is not much worse than spending your hard earned money to buy a part from somebody,and then get it in and find out it won't work. The repo parts manuals being sold are one of the best tools you will ever buy. Not only does it show all the parts numbers and what the factory called those parts,but it also shows how they went together in many cases. You won't believe the amount of grief a factory parts manual can save you.

[PatS....]

A 50 DeSoto with a 58 Mopar differential is about as restored to original as my Plymouth with a T-5 GM transmission.

Don, that person ripped me a new one for painting my engine AND transmission Chrysler Blue, even suggesting that I was unpatriotic for destroying an irreplaceable piece of history!!!!

[desoto1939]

This guy owns his 48 Desoto. it is his car and not yours. He is spending his money not yours and he is doing this on his own time not yours. We are here to help and provide assistance. If we are true car guys and car crazy then we shoudl be willing to help.

When anyone of us can give advise that is great but lets be positive for this new member. If you are going to pay for the restoration out of your own pocket for this gentleman then you have the right to input what he should be doing to the car. Currently he owns the car ad is footing the entire expense to restore it to his liking not yours or my liking. I have gone to tooo many show where people are criticising everyones car on had they did something or did not do something. It is not our car and everyone has a budget to work with.

Lets be respectful of each other and pass our knowledge on so we can keep these old beauties running for everyones enjoyment even if someone has decided to customise a car to their wishes.

I bet that alot of your guys wish you had a custom street rod that was done by Boyd and some of the other big names. If it were not for some of these guys and some of our early car designers we would not have some of the great looking cars like the Desoto Adventurer.

I like both the originals and also the customs. Persoanlly I think it is much harder to customise a car then to bring it back to originality. These are just my thoughts and to the 48 Desoto owner do as you heart desires for YOUR car since you are the one that will be driving it and enjoying it.

I am a proud own of a 39 Desoto that I have tried to keep as stock as possible but that is my choice and not anyones elses to comment on or put me down for taking this direction.

This is a hobby and for some a way to escape the daily pressures of our lives lets all enjoy the expierences together.

I love smell of old MoPAr exhust. All comments welcomed.

Rich Hartung

Desoto1939@aol.com

[Don Coatney]

Desoto 1939;

Thanks for posting your opinion. I posted my opinion earlier in this thread. We are all allowed to post our opinions and agree to disagree with respect to each other.

[Captain Neon]

I love smell of old MoPAr exhust. All comments welcomed.

Rich Hartung

Desoto1939@aol.com

Funny you should bring that up. I once left my P15 idling in the driveway for maybe 5 minutes while I went in to get something. That afternoon I had a note from my landlady complaining that I had a strong exhaust and not to leave it idling at the end of the driveway again. Having grown up with old cars our whole lives, my wife and I never would consider my P15 as having a strong odor.

Now an ethanol-burning dragster has a strong smell, but not a well-maintained P15. We thought about getting the scented fuel additives after that just to mess with our neighbours.

[dndrodshop]

I can't leave a car alone.

I can always find something I would have ordered on a car if it had been available. My car is for my enjoyment and my use. I understand those who want prue restored automobiles, it not me. I run 3-400 miles in a day at highway speeds (when the cops are watching).

I always say "Build Your Vision".

• 
  Attached is my pure stock 1948 P14 Plymouth GTX.

• 
  A local Chrysler (2)
  

• 
  A shot of my Shock Mods (The Factry screwed up the design)

[my48soto]

I have finally started my job of teaching of future soldiers of american. But I got third shift wow its a drag. I cant get my mind focused for the timee being. Its trowing me for a loop since I have the 12-9 shift. So I will be kind of slow with this project for awhile until I can get my bearing.

[billwillard]

I am with Desota1939 ,not that anyone cares. The same thing hapened a few months ago with two disc brake co's some one used wording that someone didn't like and a half dozen people got all up in the air for what I don't know. We can't all use the right words,build our cars or use the right technical terms to please everyone however we can all have respect for each other and if you want to paint your car pink with yellow spots I will still help you if I can. I don't have to agree with your color choice. Don't we all love cars and yours DOES NOT have to be like mine. We can spend our time helping instead of categorizing.

Bill

[Don Jordan]

One of the problems with a forum like this is sort of the same problem with e-mail - TONE. Sometimes we say things with a different thought than others read. A lot of times that's why we use the smilies.

I think what we all agree on is most of us are nuts but we are still supportive of our fellow brothers/sisters.

Here's my question: after the car is finished - THEN WHAT?

My car has been "a work in progress" for years it's almost done - it's going to be like when the kids grow up and leave.

[Plymouthy Adams]

Then What.....get another project..the fun is in the building..

[BobT-47P15]

Yes, it does get tricky sometimes about the use of certain terms to refer

to what's been done with these old cars. A "restoration" typically means

one thing.....going back to exact original. A lot of people, escpecially in

their ebay ads, describe a car as "original" and/or "restored".....but when you

look at the pictures you see seat covers and door panels that are new, but not

done with the factory style materials. So, I would say it's been "re-done" or "refurbished" or

"reupholstered", but not restored. And the

idea applies as well to all other aspects of the car.

But, as long as we keep an open mind here and people can express their

opinion, no matter what it is, then the forum is a good thing.

I've been "tinkering" with my car since 1973. It's "like original" in many ways,

(suspension, brakes, trim, engine & trans), but has carpet on the floors,

"box" aftermarket covers on the seats, and a color of paint similar to, but

not original. So, it's simply been re-done to suit my tastes.

When someone asks if I "restored" it myself, I just say I did part of the

work and I had some of the work done by shops. It's kind of hard to

re-educate the public to the fine points of terminology during a show.

And, when you get your current car as done as you want it, then you

can simply go find another vehicle to work on. This was for sale not

far from where I live......and the only coupe I've found for sale close

by. Needs more work than is apparent in the picture.....but not a

disaster either.

[billwillard]

THEN WHAT? Youll still be a NUT:D

[BobT-47P15]

True, Bill.

However, I would probably keep this car for a while, unless something

causes it to be sold (translate that as wifey).

I know some guys who seem to enjoy the building process more than the

having and driving part. So, when one gets done, it soon gets sold.