1940 Chrysler Windsor Coupe 1st project.

[dangulo]

Hello all, this is my first post of hopefully many to come. I recently bought a 1940 Chrysler Windsor Coupe and one of the first projects that I am doing to make her drive better is rebuild the carburetor. As you can see from the pics below, stock carb to my knowledge which is a Carter B&B. Purchased the kit and things went pretty smooth (so far).

 

The next project is to convert to disc brakes as the current drums are not stopping completely.... Honestly it was a little scary so going to convert to disc brakes.

I recently purchased a rustyhope kit which came in the mail and pretty excited to get that started. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 12, 2018 by dangulo
Added pictures by mistake and removed

[casper50]

Welcome to the site Dangulo.  The kit is really easy.  How about a photo of the whole car?

[thebeebe5]

Properly set up drum brakes should be just fine.

 

As casper said, show us the car!! 

[dangulo]

Ya, well here she is my friends...

 

My goals are to make her road worthy and most of all safe.

I lean to more of a stock fella so no major upgrades other than some under the hood upgrades.

Currently running the Flathead 6. Pretty excited overall and enjoying all the existing topics to gain some useful  knowledge here.

Also the wife is getting jealous of my new gal but it's okay she's starting to fall for her as well

 

 

 

Edited October 12, 2018 by dangulo

[Merle Coggins]

Nice looking car. Maybe the outer appearance is deceiving, but if it's in as good of a mechanical condition as it's appearance would indicate maybe it just needs an inspection of the brake system and a good adjustment of all 4 brakes. These adjustments can be tedious without the proper special tool, but it's doable.

[mmcdowel]

100% agree on perhaps keeping the original brakes.  On my stock meadowbrook once I replaced all the old rubber lines, master cyl,, wheel cylinders etc I'm very happy with the brakes.  Do suggest converting to a dual chamber master cylinder though.  Tons of info how to do that on this site.

[Adam H P15 D30]

I was always amazed how well the stock brakes worked until I had one too many oh $hit moments and off they came in favor of disc brakes.  Remember, we are sharing the road the little Honda $hitboxes that stop really fast but we can do better.  Drums were fine when all cars had them, times have changed and driving styles too.

Biggest problem I see is it really does take the brake tool to get them right (very rare and expensive tool) so that's strike 1. 

Then you must arc the shoes to the drum, good luck finding someone to do that but it might just depend on your location, strike 2.

Say you do actually fork out $800.00 + for the tool, find someone to arc your shoes and actually get the brakes set up correctly, they will work great but it's all down hill from there until you readjust them again. Strike 3

Any old vehicle with an unknown history should have the brakes rebuilt, for that money you could upgrade to disc brakes and have some left over for beer plus it will stop better every time, not just when the brake adjustment is top-notch.

If you are building a concourse car, keep the drums and ignore everything above.  Nice car BTW, enjoy it but make it safe....

 

Adam

[Andydodge]

My 1940 Dodge has had 4 wheel disc brakes since the mid 1970's and I'd forgotten what original drum brakes were like till I bought the 41 Plymouth in 2007, after a thorough checking and adjustment they were o/k I suppose for what they were but in driving the car you had to be very well aware of everything around you and always be prepared for some idiot assuming that you could stop like their current Kia or Honda.......my plans before I sold it were to install essentially the same setup that the Dodge had, vented discs in front, solid discs on the Frod rear axle that the Dodge had...........whilst my setup used Oz only discs etc there are a number of guys supplying disc conversions in the USA and you mention you have the Rusty Hope conversion set already so go for it, the use of a dual circuit master cylinder is a very good idea also................welcome aboard from Oz..............Andy Douglas   

Edited October 12, 2018 by Andydodge

[dangulo]

Many thanks for the kind words and yes I agree with everyone's comments and if it works for you all the best.

 

@Adam H P15 D30 and Andydodge everything you  you stated about safety and tools to get proper adjustments is how I also felt which let me towards the conversion. Not to take anyone's else view point away from sticking with stock drums but for this old gal were moving forward. 

 

Thanks Friends!

[Andydodge]

BTW....meant to say what a nice looking Coupe, how about some more pics, engine & interior especially if possible.........I also noticed that it has the chrome caps at the front of the running boards, I removed a pair from a wrecked straight 8 1940 Chrysler 40 yrs ago, a mate wanted the engine for spares and these caps were about the only thing worthwhile that had not rusted..........I found out that they are brass stampings, at least mine are and very few people here in Oz have seen another pair as they seem to have been a 1940 Chrysler only part, being brass they rechromed very well and set off the running boards.........andyd 

[dangulo]

@Andydodge I will see if I can take some of interior tomorrow and upload them. As far as the interior, the only thing that seems to be original is the dash with all working gauges and front bench seat.

Oh yes and before I brought the car home, I had a well known woody builder here in San Diego, CA by the name of Paul Dunn do a 12v conversion.

Since the wiring was rotting and missing several portions in the circuit it was the best time to do the conversion.

 

Your 41 is beautiful and digging the body lines.. Looks killer!

 

[Andydodge]

The Ol' brown turd is my 1940 Dodge, assembled here in Oz used an Oz body shell with Dodge grille, dash & badges with Plymouth fenders, hood, lights & bumpers....still own it after 47yrs........this is the 41 Plymouth Coupe I had from 2007 to 2013, it was a Detroit made Factory RHD Export car assembled in South Africa, imported into Oz in the 1990's, it had the Auxillary Seat Option with the folding rear seats............I sold it like a dope.............lol...............andyd  

[48Windsor]

Looks very nice!. Keep us posted on the conversion.

[pflaming]

1940 cars were the last of the Art Decco designed cars. The war change all that and in 1946 they returned with austere designs. 

[Ajgkirkwood]

super jealous of her!

 

i aswell have a 140 chrysler windsor but its the sedan type 2 door

 

if your interested in a custom (3) 1bb intake/manifold setup for that car, let me know