My 54 Cranbrook

[Plymouthy Adams]

on the knave plate...sorry, I have no idea at times what car terms that are of UK origin apply to the lower hemisphere...on the average a good deal of them...the knave plate is the hubcap...having a number of British cars here, I am on the average pretty much up on Lucas and of course with my German cars, Bosch...I do like fitting the Lucas (logo embossed on the glass headlights) in my LBC's or the PL700's....have Hella and Cibie on hand also...the H4 design is very hard to beat...many of my fog lights are H3 elements, effective and low cost replacements elements

Edited December 26, 2017 by Plymouthy Adams

[Plymouthy Adams]

12 minutes ago, dpollo said:

The poverty caps (as PA calls them) are carry overs from what was used in 50. These were to be found on Canadian 54s.

 

 

 

that seems to fit the look of the ones on his car....thanks...

[knuckleharley]

5 hours ago, kd1975 said:

 

the majority of electrical parts - distributor,  coil, headlights etc appear to be Lucas.

You have our heartfelt sympathy.

[Andydodge]

The rear seat armrest I was refering to is the one in the centre of the rear seat, NOT the door armrests...........I don't think any Plymouth had a centre armrest..............and the cracking and tears in the front seat do look like the upholstery is leather but will stand corrected, if its vinyl then I doubt very much if its the original Oz factory upholstery........when its all said & done it doesn't really matter a lot just trying to improve the general knowledge of our mopars.............andyd    

[Plymouthy Adams]

Thanks for the clarification Andy, I do not have a center fold down armrest in my 54 Plymouth back seat but my 47 Dodge has one.....personally I like them especially in a front bench IF YOU HAVE TO HAVE a bench...

[kd1975]

49 minutes ago, Andydodge said:

The rear seat armrest I was refering to is the one in the centre of the rear seat, NOT the door armrests...........I don't think any Plymouth had a centre armrest..............and the cracking and tears in the front seat do look like the upholstery is leather but will stand corrected, if its vinyl then I doubt very much if its the original Oz factory upholstery........when its all said & done it doesn't really matter a lot just trying to improve the general knowledge of our mopars.............andyd    

 

Ah that makes more sense. I've folded that out and it is in pretty good condition.

 

Would the door trim also be leather or would that be vinyl? It doesn't appear to have held up as well as the seats and is a little brittle.

 

Cheers

[kd1975]

Hi All, just a quick question about the hubcaps the Adams hinted on..... do you think the ones I have are correct? (pictured below) I believe they are original to the car.

 

 Since the question was raised I've searched online a bit and these ones seem to be for slightly earlier cars - but again being assembled in Australia they may have been used as they were supplied. I really don't know.

 

The ones I have noticed online appear to cover the entire wheel and have the red/blue logo that happens to be on the rear window pillar on my car.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Thanks

Edited December 27, 2017 by kd1975

[Plymouthy Adams]

dpollo on the last message of the first page of this thread states that they were of the earlier design carried forward for your market so yes, it would seem that those may well be the right animals you have in captivity.  Do the lettering in a red paint of your choice, I personally use the 60's red mopar engine paint as my go-to trim and lettering paint, again...whatever suits your fancy here.

[kd1975]

1 minute ago, Plymouthy Adams said:

dpollo on the last message of the first page of this thread states that they were of the earlier design carried forward for your market so yes, it would seem that those may well be the right animals you have in captivity.  Do the lettering in a red paint of your choice, I personally use the 60's red mopar engine paint as my go-to trim and lettering paint, again...whatever suits your fancy here.

 

Two still have some red so that makes sense. It really does seem that any of these era cars outside the US used whatever was at hand.

 

I'm off to the workshop tomorrow hopefully with some new parts and hopefully will get the old girl firing on more than 3 cylinders.

[Plymouthy Adams]

the full disc caps you mentioned earlier were of the US marketing and stock on my Savoy with both trim package options from the factory on the car.  I polished them up, refinished the badges with fresh paint and not long after that removed them from the car as I found a set of four of the Cello optional stainless wire basket caps and as before, I polished these up and again rounded them out by stripping and painting the crest on the center cap.  

 

 

Edited December 28, 2017 by Plymouthy Adams

[kd1975]

I do quite like those full caps, but I'd like to keep the car with it's OG parts. They will be all polished up - along with the other brightwork - and then I'll see how it looks.

 

I did get a quote to get the seats recovered - I nearlly fell over when he said $3000AU!!

[kd1975]

Sorry just refreshed and saw your car - that looks really nice.

 

All very similar moulding to mine - and I do like those door handle surrounds

[Plymouthy Adams]

1 minute ago, kd1975 said:

Sorry just refreshed and saw your car - that looks really nice.

 

All very similar moulding to mine - and I do like those door handle surrounds

 

ah yes, the ring guards......saves the paint for sure.....slight difference in the rear spears on the 4 door verse that of the two door...length....!!

[kd1975]

Is yours original or had some work to get it looking so nice?

[Plymouthy Adams]

good to see the economy is strong down under......but if that is just seats....then wowsers is all I can say....

[Plymouthy Adams]

On ‎12‎/‎27‎/‎2017 at 3:06 AM, kd1975 said:

Is yours original or had some work to get it looking so nice?

 

I may have touched it up a bit....as bought.....

 

 

Edited December 28, 2017 by Plymouthy Adams

[kd1975]

Holy hell balls Batman - that's quite a transformation.

 

Looks like it was quite a solid base to start with which helps I imagine.

 

WOW

[Plymouthy Adams]

some folks like that look and go to extremes to keep the rust and allow it to continue to degrade.....just not my cup of tea.....yes the car was very solid when I got it...sat under a lean-to as best I understand for many years with dust collecting on it and the many cycles of blowing rain and condensation here in the south.  If it had not been a low mileage unmolested highly trimmed out two door I would have passed on it...as I still prefer the split window cars....but as I said, these model will sneak up on you...the 54's can be a bit more trimmed out than its 53 sister if you got the right package...I have NOS rocker covers here that I have yet to decide if I want to install.

[Plymouthy Adams]

and being an automatic with the larger 230 helped me decide also.......lol  I find the 3 on the tree very uncivilized.....you can call me shiftless if you wish..if standard tranny and not on the floor, then its out the door...well, maybe I'll keep a couple on the tree...

 

Edited December 27, 2017 by Plymouthy Adams

[kd1975]

I quite liked that "lived in" look but the end product looks great too.

 

Mine's a 3 on the tree - I haven't really had a chance to drive it yet with the starting issues but I will soon enough.

 

 

 

[Plymouthy Adams]

Mine had that lived in look also....the sun took it's toll on the upholstery for sure.  I had a thread or two replaced on my interior.....

 

Edited December 28, 2017 by Plymouthy Adams

[kd1975]

Looks really good. One thing I'd like to get for mine is new carpet - I assume it will need to be custom made and will have a few joins.

[Plymouthy Adams]

usually only one seam is shown across the tranny hump and your trimmer will bind that with the matching fabric of your seat or door panel material to keep the theme correct and in taste

Edited December 27, 2017 by Plymouthy Adams

[B-Watson]

Your Plymouth model number should start with P25.   And being a Cranbrook it should be P25-2.   The Savoy was P25-3 and the Belvedere P25-4.

 

Those little ridged fins on the rear fenders were used by the Canadian plant for Plymouth, Dodge as well as export Dodge Kingsway and DeSoto Diplomat.   The American plant used the ridged fins on export Dodge Kingsway, DeSoto Diplomat and the Mayfair convertible for Canada.

 

And the Australian plant used them on 1954-56 Plymouth, Dodge Kingsway and DeSoto Diplomat. 

 

Not sure how the Australian cars had the chassis number recorded on the car, but the 1954 models used the North American system of eight digits -starting with "1" meant it was from the Lynch Road plant in Detroit and "9" if it was from the Windsor plant in Canada. 

 

The engine number should be stamped on a machined boss on the left side of the engine, just below the head on the #1 cylinder.

 

 

[kd1975]

1 hour ago, B-Watson said:

Your Plymouth model number should start with P25.   And being a Cranbrook it should be P25-2.   The Savoy was P25-3 and the Belvedere P25-4.

 

Those little ridged fins on the rear fenders were used by the Canadian plant for Plymouth, Dodge as well as export Dodge Kingsway and DeSoto Diplomat.   The American plant used the ridged fins on export Dodge Kingsway, DeSoto Diplomat and the Mayfair convertible for Canada.

 

And the Australian plant used them on 1954-56 Plymouth, Dodge Kingsway and DeSoto Diplomat. 

 

Not sure how the Australian cars had the chassis number recorded on the car, but the 1954 models used the North American system of eight digits -starting with "1" meant it was from the Lynch Road plant in Detroit and "9" if it was from the Windsor plant in Canada. 

 

The engine number should be stamped on a machined boss on the left side of the engine, just below the head on the #1 cylinder.

 

 

 

Some good info there, cheers.

 

Found the engine number this morning on the block where you mentioned.

 

Initially, We had troubles getting the car started but replaced all the leads, plugs, dizzy cap and rotor button. All good there now. It has a nice sound to it but the exhaust is about the diameter of a drinking straw so we'll eventually do something with that.

 

The front right brake was locked so we pulled that apart and freed up the cylinders and now it works better.

 

The clutch sounds like it's slipping so that will be the next thing to get sorted.

 

We'll also need to look at the carby as it sounds like it's getting too much air and not enough fuel.

 

But everything else seems to be working as it should. Lights, indicators, horn, wipers etc

 

As far as getting it re-registered down here it SHOULD just be an engine number check and away we go, but it probably won't be that simple.

 

We'll leave the car looking reasonably stock (and innocent) and give registration a shot next week.

 

Fingers crossed

Edited December 30, 2017 by kd1975