Newbie in Iowa

[DadRchmnd]

6 hours ago, Los_Control said:

Great looking car, looks brand new compared to my heap.

Sad that it seems to be missing the air cleaner which can allow moisture & dirt into the engine. Just seems to be a better chance the engine is stuck when it has no air cleaner.

Same time my truck had no air cleaner, sat about 15-20 years and was not stuck and runs decent with little effort.

 

First thing I would do is put marvel mystery oil, atf/acetone mix or even straight atf in the cylinders and let it sit a few days before trying to turn it over.

Then clean the car up and do what you want.

These old flatheads are pretty forgiving and respond well to tlc. So simple to work on it is therapeutic.

As others have said, is cheaper to keep her. Looking forward to see your progress with it and wish you luck with whatever direction you choose.

 

I was concerned about the air cleaner too, we found it in the trunk. Not sure why it was off, but the carb moved freely, and we could turn it by hand so that is promising! I love how the car in the picture looks! 

[coupedude]

Nice car should be a great cruiser. Get going and enjoy. Welcome and enjoy. Have a great day

[DadRchmnd]

Update! Finally got it picked up, there was a badge we missed on the driver side, it's a Coronet with Gyromatic transmission. High of 0 today. Its very frozen, so thawing out in the garage for now. Will post pics after I lower the file size

[DadRchmnd]

[knuckleharley]

On 1/19/2021 at 8:05 PM, DadRchmnd said:

I was concerned about the air cleaner too, we found it in the trunk. Not sure why it was off, but the carb moved freely, and we could turn it by hand so that is promising! I love how the car in the picture looks! 

These old 6 volt cars cranked slowly,and the carbs would run dry after sitting for a while,so when someone went to start one like that,they would take the air cleaner off to pour gas down the carb and hand choke it so they didn't have to spin the engine and run the battery down.

 

After doing this,they often left the air cleaner off to make it quicker to start it the next time.

[p15-1948]

Looks like a nicely optioned car, visor, heater, radio, clock...good luck with it.

[SteveR]

On 1/19/2021 at 5:32 PM, DadRchmnd said:

For the most part I'd like to keep it stock like both you and Knuck said, there are some small things I'd like to do but am not going to go crazy. Possibly 12 Volt upgrade, disc brakes, hidden modern radio, etc. Getting the stock 230 running, is a big hope and I really want to go that route.

My 37 Plymouth origionally came with a radio. It wasn't there when I bought it. I don't miss it though. Just the sound of the exhaust (origonal Cherry Bomb) and tranny when I can hear it over the exhaust is music enough.

[Conn47D24]

Welcome

Have fun !

[Saskwatch]

DadRchmnd - that is one nice ride ! 
  Welcome & please keep us posted with your progress, I for one am most interested in every detail. ?
 

[greg g]

Two sources of information on the transmission.  Allpar.com, search transmissions, and the Imperial Club website repair section details the M 6 semiauto trans.  Each brand had a marketing name for the semi. Gyromatic was to Dodge as Tip toe was to DeSoto. Same trans different nickname.

[SteveR]

Dad, I'm from Minnesota now living in England. Do you have any good Minnesota jokes?

[Dartgame]

Really Nice Car ! I'll bet that paint cleans up better than you think it might. Nice color combo too. It's gonna be a fun project - guaranteed !

[DadRchmnd]

On 2/19/2021 at 2:05 PM, SteveR said:

Dad, I'm from Minnesota now living in England. Do you have any good Minnesota jokes?

Besides the Vikings? ?? My mom is from Minnesota so I don't have too many, but, everytime we crossed the boarder going to my Grandmas my Dad would pretend to get a chill and complain about how cold it was. I do the same thing with my family now.

[hi_volt]

Very nice car.  You just might be surprised at how nicely that will clean up.  I'd try some some polish and wax on the paint after the washing.  Once that's done, you'll be even more excited.

[SteveR]

On 2/24/2021 at 6:14 AM, DadRchmnd said:

Besides the Vikings? ?? My mom is from Minnesota so I don't have too many, but, everytime we crossed the boarder going to my Grandmas my Dad would pretend to get a chill and complain about how cold it was. I do the same thing with my family now.

The winters are one of the things I miss. In England I have seen roses bloom in December.

I know a few Sven and Ole jokes and a few Iowa ones. Whats the difference between Iowa woman and cattle?.................About 5 pounds!

 

How are you getting on with your car?

[DadRchmnd]

On 3/19/2021 at 7:13 AM, SteveR said:

The winters are one of the things I miss. In England I have seen roses bloom in December.

I know a few Sven and Ole jokes and a few Iowa ones. Whats the difference between Iowa woman and cattle?.................About 5 pounds!

 

How are you getting on with your car?

Things are going slow. I was able to power wash it and pull the seats but thats it so far. I need to build some storage to hold parts after I remove them, then I can start dismantling it. I'll post a couple pics of it cleaned up. 

[maddmaxx1949]

Welcome to the sickness, thats looks to be in pretty darn good shape (compared to my rustbuckets). And remember to label and bag things you take off. You think you will remember where they go, but if you get back to it after a while I have found it is easily forgotten. Good luck!

[DadRchmnd]

I've definitely decided to keep the color and two tone paint. After cleaning the outside and getting the seats pulled out, I lifted it up some and found a couple broken body mounts which is going to lead me to pulling the body off to fix, run new brake and fuel lines etc. Need to get the floors cut out and replaced first though, so that is top of the priority list. Am going to try to turn the motor over this weekend and see how that is, am struggling on the fence between keeping the 230 with gyromatic, or pulling it in favor of a 318/340/360 with a 727 transmission. My 14 year old wants the bigger engine, my inner 16 year old agrees with him. But, my 41 year old side says keep it stock, but add dual intake and dual exhaust, do some old school engineering on it and just enjoy cruising. I made my first "punch list" about a month ago and very quickly got overwhelmed with all that I need/want to do. Need to brake the elephant down into smaller bites.

 

Edited March 26, 2021 by DadRchmnd
added text.

[knuckleharley]

4 hours ago, DadRchmnd said:

Quote

I've definitely decided to keep the color and two tone paint. After cleaning the outside and getting the seats pulled out, I lifted it up some and found a couple broken body mounts which is going to lead me to pulling the body off to fix, run new brake and fuel lines etc. Need to get the floors cut out and replaced first though, so that is top of the priority list.

 

Wrong order. Fix the body mounts BEFORE cutting the floors out and taking the body off the frame. Once you have done that,THEN you can cut the floors out,but it is best to tack weld the doors shut after welding some strap bracing around in the floor to keep it from shifting. Besides,it is a  hell of a lot easier to cut out the floors and weld the new ones in with the body off the chassis. The chassis and everything else is out of the way so you can make sure you have solid welds all around,and can even fill any seams with filler to avoid trapping snow or water in the future. 

You ARE planning on buying and using a body rotisseriel,right?

Am going to try to turn the motor over this weekend and see how that is, am struggling on the fence between keeping the 230 with gyromatic, or pulling it in favor of a 318/340/360 with a 727 transmission. My 14 year old wants the bigger engine, my inner 16 year old agrees with him. But, my 41 year old side says keep it stock, but add dual intake and dual exhaust, do some old school engineering on it and just enjoy cruising. I made my first "punch list" about a month ago and very quickly got overwhelmed with all that I need/want to do. Need to brake the elephant down into smaller bites.

 

I like the 41 year old you best. Add a finned aluminum high compression head,a cam a little bit "rumpy",and some glasspacks,and then enjoy the hell out of it. Just don't get carried away with the cam. You ain't building a gasser,just a old car that sounds and runs nice. Too much cam and suddenly it's not as much fun to drive.

As for the dual exhaust,*I* personally prefer the sound made cast iron headers over tubular headers,and with the prices stock,uncracked exhaust manifolds are going for these days,it's cheaper and easier to just buy new cast iron headers and sell your stockers to a restorer. After all,nobody is making the original ones anymore,so why cut them up and ruin them. This is providing of course you don't already have two sets of cracked stock exhausts you can use to make one complete "split exhaust".

 

[DadRchmnd]

18 hours ago, knuckleharley said:

 

Thanks for the tip on the exhaust headers. Whichever way I go it will definitely be as "rumbly" as possible.  

 

I'd love to get a rotisserie, but that money will go toward the car. I think I'm going to try what @MarkDesoto did and make a body cart. Which is why I was thinking floors first so it stays square. I think I saw someone comment about that in his post. I'm also fighting space constraints with only a stall and a half available. 

[DadRchmnd]

Hooked it up to a 12 volt battery I had just to test if it would turn. It spun the fan about 1 revolution the sounded like a car in the winter with its battery dying. Didn't turn anymore, and I didn't put any gas or starter fluid in the carb. But glad to know it'll turn.

[Rodney_Hamon]

That is a great looking complete car!  My first instinct though is to make it mouse proof but you got it in the garage pronto so that’s awesome!  Get that engine started!!  

[knuckleharley]

3 hours ago, DadRchmnd said:

Hooked it up to a 12 volt battery I had just to test if it would turn. It spun the fan about 1 revolution the sounded like a car in the winter with its battery dying. Didn't turn anymore, and I didn't put any gas or starter fluid in the carb. But glad to know it'll turn.

Glad it turned ONE revolution while hooked to a 12 Volt battery before stopping????

 

Sounds to me like the cylinders and rings were drying,and it might be jammed/stuck now.

 

Do NOT try to turn it again until you have poured some Marverl Mystery Oil (preferred) or ATF in each cylinder and let the car sit for a few days until you can look and see the fluid level in the cylinders has dropped.

 

Then leave the plugs out and try to turn the engine over with a ratchet. Turn it over several times before hooking a battery to it,and trying to spin it with the plugs out until you see oil pressure on the oil gauge.

[DadRchmnd]

1 hour ago, knuckleharley said:

Glad it turned ONE revolution while hooked to a 12 Volt battery before stopping????

 

Sounds to me like the cylinders and rings were drying,and it might be jammed/stuck now.

 

Do NOT try to turn it again until you have poured some Marverl Mystery Oil (preferred) or ATF in each cylinder and let the car sit for a few days until you can look and see the fluid level in the cylinders has dropped.

 

Then leave the plugs out and try to turn the engine over with a ratchet. Turn it over several times before hooking a battery to it,and trying to spin it with the plugs out until you see oil pressure on the oil gauge.

Yeah, that is what I'm doing next. I can still turn it by had but its definitely harder, so thinking its drying out, or dried out. Pulling plugs tomorrow when my son gets home so he can help.

[DadRchmnd]

Another win today! Mystery oil worked, turned over by hand then with plugs out to build up pressure. Put new plugs in and tried on 6volt battery, came close to firing but didn't have enough gas in it to fire. Hoping to get it going on Sunday when I can hook up an external fuel source.