New Guy with 1940 Dodge coupe

[Gearhead69]

Hello everyone, like the headline says I am a fairly new Mopar fan. I have been a lifelong gear head and car guy. I have had numerous mustangs and still own a 08 Shelby Gt. I bought my first Mopar product about a year ago in the form of a 09 dodge ram 1500 4x4. My fiancee owns a 2016 charger r/t. Well I recently came across a very solid 1940 Dodge business coupe and couldn't resist. I am in the process of purchasing a 2017 6.4 hemi with the 8 speed trans. I have spoken to Fatman fabrication in reference to getting the kit to install rack and pinion steering as well as the kit to drop the front 3 inches. I will be contacting Hotwire auto for the wiring harness needs. This should be a neat project but I have a lot to learn about the Mopar side of things. That's where I hope you guys come in if I have questions. I will do my best to search it out before asking but thank everyone in advance for any help and advice. Sorry for the extended post. ?

[Andydodge]

Gearhead.......Welcome Aboard from Oztralia.........a 1940 Dodge you say?...........lol...........I happen to be quite partial to 1940 Dodges myself.having owned this 1940 Oz Dodge 4dr Sedan coming up for 50 yrs next week.........318 Polysphere/auto,4 wheel discs, rack & pinion etc......your cars grille looks fairly straight, even looks like it has the crank hole cover.....it took me 47 yrs to get one of those little covers so don't loose it........heres a couple of pics of my car......and yep, my steering wheel is on the other side, lol.........anyway great to see another 1940 Dodge, again , Welcome aboard.....Andy Douglas 

[Dan Hiebert]

Welcome!  Looks like you have a nice, solid car to start with.  You've come to the right place, lots of knowledgeable folks herein.  I, for one, would like to see your progress on that '40.

[Gearhead69]

Thanks Andy. Let me start by saying that you have a awesome looking car. The 40 that I just purchased is very original and all the trim appears straight and has already been rechromed. I hope I can get mine looking as good as yours

[Gearhead69]

Thanks Dan. I will try to keep you posted on the progress. I'm excited about it. I'll include a few more pictures. 

[Andydodge]

Gearhead.......I thought that you must have some new chrome as the front(?) bumper was still paper wrapped.......interesting to see the various differences between mine & your car......headlight surrounds, fenders, bumpers, hood, taillights are all things that here in Oz,  T J Richards the Oz body builders swapped for Plymouth parts, in fact they used these Plymouth parts on all four Mopar brands here in 1940 as well as using the Plymouth chassis & suspension.........your car looks to be quite solid body wise so it will be a good base to work on.............regards from Oz......andyd 

[Gearhead69]

Not sure if the parts are new or was just wrapped after rechroming. As I said before I have a lot to learn about these old Mopars. How does the plymouth chassis and suspension differ from the dodge? I thought the difference between a plymouth and dodge coupe was just in sheet metal and trim

[Andydodge]

Basically its 2" extra in the USA Dodge wheelbase over the USA Plymouth, the extra 2" is in the front fender length from the wheel opening to the rear of the fender.......my car is a D15 model which was a USA export Dodge, D15's were also made in Canada, my understanding is that no D15's were sold in the USA.....the main differences between the Plymouth based Dodges and the USA D14/D17's apart from the hard to tell extra 2" wheelbase length is the US D14 & D17's used the headlight surrounds like your car, a short(cowl to radiator length) hood, triple horizontal stampings in the front & rear fenders, squarish shaped taillights and squared off top of the rear number plate light/trunk handle, front bumper with a pronounced "dip" in the centre and possibly taller, more slender front bumper overiders..............also the US sourced grille apparently was available in both a diecast and stamped steel(?) version and attaches to the surrounding sheet metal via small screws inserted from the front........not sure about the Canadian one BUT my Dodge grille is stamped, soldered and chromed brass and attaches from the REAR, ie, the grille is held against the surrounding sheetmetal and due to the long  Plymouth based hood access is available in front of the radiator to attach the small screws into captive nuts on the back of the grille...................lots of little differences.............lol..........

..............and finally the Dodge and Plymouth suspensions are essentially the same, ie, same upper, lower A arms and bushes and pins, spindles, stub axles & king pins, front sway bar and will swap from 1940 to 1954 apart from different sway bar mounts.................

................my car uses 1940 lower A arms & bushes/pins, 1941-54 Moog aftermarket cast steel upper A arms & bushes/pins, 1940 Spindles, 1942-56 style stub axles, 1939-56 king pins, a 1" thick front sway bar custom made in the original 1940 shape but with adjustable Heim jointed links, relocated upper shock mounts, 11" vented Oz PBR discs and a narrowed 9' Austin 1800 rack & pinion..............lol..........   ...andyd      

[Gearhead69]

Awesome info Andy. Thank you for that. 

[Gearhead69]

Is there a particular reason you used the newer upper arms

[Andydodge]

When I went hunting for rebuild parts for my car , this was around 1973 I found a place that had a large supply of these cast steel upper a arms as well as the stock 1940 arms.......both types the 1940 and 1941 onwards cast steel replacement arms had the inner pivots & bushes installed and I could easily compare the two types...........as both used the inner pin with the 4 attachment bolts I could tell that the 1941 onwards cast steel arms( or the stock stamped steel upper A arms for that matter using the 4 bolt upper inner pins) would bolt onto my 1940 frame and with the "X" shape appeared to offer a stronger upper outer point.............I had to obtain the 1941-54 style upper outer pin and bush but as this spare parts place had these as well and I was also able to compare the 1940 style spindle and 1941 on style spindle I could tell that the actual bushing areas were the same although the later, 1942 or 1946 on spindles use a different style of sway bar attachment point, ie, not using the lower shock mount pin but attaching via bracketry on the lower A arm edge...........

..............to be honest, here in Oz the stub axles I used were from an Oz only 1962 Chrysler Royal a model that was made from 1957 to 1962 but as you can tell by the body shell shape was essentially a 1954 Plymouth body & frame with 55/56 fenders and 313 Poly ....I used one of these to provide the engine/gearbox, rear axle and initially the front brakes which is why I had the 1941 onwards style stub axles available, tho' I replaced the front drums with the vented Oz PBR discs around 1975 and at that time alos installed 1970 Oz Valiant front rotors on the rear tapered axle hubs to provide rear 11" vented discs with Oz Ford rear disc calipers......I had this 1962 Chrysler diff with disc brakes till about 15 years ago when I swapped the complete rear axle for a 1990's Oz Ford Falcon wagon disc braked rear axle which has worked fine..........have attached a pic of a 1962 Oz only Chrysler Royal..............I trust this is of interest..........lol........I do rave on a bit.........Andyd   

[Gearhead69]

Well got the coupe home yesterday and secured the deal on the 6.4 hemi. Ready to get going on this. It's gonna be fun