My First Car -- P15 1947 Plymouth Deluxe

[BobT-47P15]

I haven't read all the posts, so someone may have already made this comment.  Regarding the Charlotte Ivory color......I believe that color and Sumac Red (a dark red) were 

only used on convertibles and woody wagons in the P15 models.  I did see the Ivory you sprayed looks good...and nothing says you can't use that color for a sedan if you

want to.  Just thought I would add a little info everyone might not know.  You're making good progress...... 

[NickPickToo]

saw that on the color sheet but it’s a nice color.  I’m going a little different for some of the trim too.   Thinking about naming her “stompin at the savoy” so a little improv is going to fit.  

Edited March 8, 2019 by NickPickToo

[9 foot box]

    As to post #346, I have used Lab-Metal to repair pin holes and larger. I tape the bottom, apply with a flux brush over the top. After it cures, I remove tape and do that side. It has worked well for my park light tins and other small repairs. It's an aluminum putty, not an epoxy. It thins with their solvent and be easily applied to non structural applications. Just seal it with solvent after every use by pouring a cap of solvent on top. I use 16 gauge non galvanized sheet metal, for my repairs. You and your crew might consider getting the body weight off the rotating device and cross bracing with some 1" square tubing. The bad news is, I think you need to find 8 sill support braces that come off the cross supports under the floor. Your's appear to be gone. The supports were a mud magnet. I've repaired one  P15 car and flushed the mud from another, and put a 5/8" drain hole in those braces in both cars, with a unibit. As an aside, before winter set in, I jacked the front of my green coupe  up and flushed those braces and inner  frame tube with a hose. Lot of crap flushed out. There is an air tool that puts a 1/4" flange on sheet metal that aids to your welding in a panel, without butt welding, more metal to weld. Some panels could use a little of both. I also don't weld the parts you bought on the edges, I drill holes in the panel where the spot weld was and weld there. I also use .023 wire with gas for sheet metal. Or .025, whatever is available. You might be able to turn the speed down for larger wire and experiment with the temp setting. 

[NickPickToo]

6 hours ago, 9 foot box said:

    As to post #346, I have used Lab-Metal to repair pin holes and larger. I tape the bottom, apply with a flux brush over the top. After it cures, I remove tape and do that side. It has worked well for my park light tins and other small repairs. It's an aluminum putty, not an epoxy. It thins with their solvent and be easily applied to non structural applications. Just seal it with solvent after every use by pouring a cap of solvent on top. I use 16 gauge non galvanized sheet metal, for my repairs. You and your crew might consider getting the body weight off the rotating device and cross bracing with some 1" square tubing. The bad news is, I think you need to find 8 sill support braces that come off the cross supports under the floor. Your's appear to be gone. The supports were a mud magnet. I've repaired one  P15 car and flushed the mud from another, and put a 5/8" drain hole in those braces in both cars, with a unibit. As an aside, before winter set in, I jacked the front of my green coupe  up and flushed those braces and inner  frame tube with a hose. Lot of crap flushed out. There is an air tool that puts a 1/4" flange on sheet metal that aids to your welding in a panel, without butt welding, more metal to weld. Some panels could use a little of both. I also don't weld the parts you bought on the edges, I drill holes in the panel where the spot weld was and weld there. I also use .023 wire with gas for sheet metal. Or .025, whatever is available. You might be able to turn the speed down for larger wire and experiment with the temp setting. 

Thanks for the advice.  This is our week spot for sure.  We're getting help with welding work from a family friend who has experience with this.  If we were closer to my great uncle wed be all set because he was a master welder and magician with this stuff but where in MI and he's in TX.  He's not a traveler and we won't be able to get it down there in time for our schedule.  

[casper50]

Nick ask any collage/tech schools around if they take cars to work on.  Most that have an automotive or welding class do and only charge for parts.  No labor fee.

[9 foot box]

   These are the support pieces I was referring to.

[NickPickToo]

Question:  Need to remove front coil springs to begin repairs and rebuild upfront.  Our generic, inside the coil compression tool is too long to get any compression as there is no hole on the top to let the bolt go up and the bottom claws won't fit through the bottom hole well.   Could someone post a picture of the coil compression tool or technique that worked well for this?

 

Thanks in advance

[NickPickToo]

Just found SunTennis's spring compression tool modification on Mr. Coatney's "Show your tools" thread.  It looks like an easy enough solution to add nuts to shorten the tools span up.  But if there are other ides, please share.

 

Thank you,

[Young Ed]

All I've ever used is a floor jack. Put a little tension on it undo the control arm and then slowly lower the jack. 

[NickPickToo]

8 minutes ago, Young Ed said:

All I've ever used is a floor jack. Put a little tension on it undo the control arm and then slowly lower the jack. 

Tried it.  We have the body off and the engine and transmission out.  My dad sat up on the frame and he was pretty happy that he didn't weigh enough to push it down, but disappointed that we couldn't get the spring to compress.

[Young Ed]

2 minutes ago, NickPickToo said:

Tried it.  We have the body off and the engine and transmission out.  My dad sat up on the frame and he was pretty happy that he didn't weigh enough to push it down, but disappointed that we couldn't get the spring to compress.

This probably isn't the smartest way to go but the one and only time I did one on a bare frame I stood in the middle and just buzzed off the 4 bolts for the upper control arm. Nothing went flying in that case..... 

[NickPickToo]

1 minute ago, Young Ed said:

This probably isn't the smartest way to go but the one and only time I did one on a bare frame I stood in the middle and just buzzed off the 4 bolts for the upper control arm. Nothing went flying in that case..... 

I'm picturing it now ?

[NickPickToo]

Another question:  We know we have to fabricate the ends of the support brackets on the body that mount to the chassis mounts.  Those brackets are rusted away but would be on the end of the cross members that run under the floor pans.  What issues are we most likely to run into if we break the welds for these cross members way from the floor to make the end part fabrication easier and more precise then welded them back to the floor at the end?

Edited March 17, 2019 by NickPickToo

[casper50]

I have 3 heavy duty ratchet straps.  The first I use to compress the spring by wrapping around the top and lower a arm.  Crank it down tight. Then I wrap one around the spring and tighten.  Loosen everything and it just fell out.  If you are going to reuse the same springs I'd just leave the strap around them in place.  Of course you would need 3 straps then.  Mine are 2 1/2" wide and quite thick.

Edited March 17, 2019 by casper50

[NickPickToo]

14 hours ago, casper50 said:

I have 3 heavy duty ratchet straps.  The first I use to compress the spring by wrapping around the top and lower a arm.  Crank it down tight. Then I wrap one around the spring and tighten.  Loosen everything and it just fell out.  If you are going to reuse the same springs I'd just leave the strap around them in place.  Of course you would need 3 straps then.  Mine are 2 1/2" wide and quite thick.

That worked perfectly.  Thank you.  We compressed the arms, removed the shock absorbers, and then disconnected the top of the control arm and other linkages that need to be removed anyway for rebuild and then we released the straps one at a time.

[casper50]

You're welcome.  Sometimes one needs to think outside the box and use what's on hand. lol

[NickPickToo]

We confirmed that we have the correct brake conversion kit for our spindles today so we are offering up the old front drums and parts to anyone who needs them.  Please no one planning to resell.  Taker will have to pay for shipping and the parts will need some cleaning but otherwise no charge and just return the favor to someone else down the road.  Pictures below are for left side.  We have right side too.  Send request to my dad (NickPick'sCrew)

[Adam H P15 D30]

Now’s the time to relocate that spring plate to get the car down a little

Edited March 17, 2019 by Adam H P15 D30

[NickPick'sCrew]

12 minutes ago, Adam H P15 D30 said:

Now’s the time to relocate that spring plate to get the car down a little

Pictures or examples?

 

On 3/8/2019 at 1:28 AM, 9 foot box said:

   The bad news is, I think you need to find 8 sill support braces that come off the cross supports under the floor. Your's appear to be gone. 

As of now we think we are going to have to fabricate the braces.  Do you know of any source otherwise?

Edited March 17, 2019 by NickPick'sCrew

[Adam H P15 D30]

Just cut the rivets off the spring plate on the top of the lower control arm, move it to the bottom of the control arm and bolt it back in place. I’d use grade 8 bolts. Gives you about 2 inches. Sorry, no pictures. 

[NickPickToo]

The struggle is real.  None of the nuts bolts or washers survived this tear down.  The one bolt that didn't need to be cut off was bent up.  Cleaning these bumpers up will be fun?

[NickPickToo]

Half the front suspension is apart.  Seems like we are just crawling along, but dad says were making good progress.  

Edited March 24, 2019 by NickPickToo

[casper50]

Looking good Nick.

[NickPick'sCrew]

These pictures shows a broken bolt just next to the second body to frame attachment bracket from the front.  We found this bolt (and another just like it on the other side of the frame -- so one on the left and the right) hidden under a plate that was used to patch the floor (we shared pictures earlier where we had to cut into the floor to remove the body.  Nicholas had to cut off the heads of these two bolts to get them off and now we are about to extract the rest.  However, we can not find this attachment point (body straight to frame) anywhere in our technical manuals and it has us wondering.  Are these aftermarket modifications made by a resto shop to make the body more secure to the frame given that the body mount brackets were so rusted out?  Has anyone else seen these and if so have you found reference to them in the manuals?

[Eneto-55]

I have a bolt through the floor at that point.