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1939 Plymouth coupe (a big pile of parts)


Mikec4193

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He is a rough old project....

 

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The current owner says it is 1939...first gen Camaro front clip...looks like a GM rear end already in the back...

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I have some parts that I have left over from projects that have gotten sold...so this is gonna be a budget build...I have a 1974 vintage 235 cu in Chevy motor...a 3 speed same vintage as the motor...I even have a brandy new Mustang radiator still in the box...

 

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I see another vintage oval track build coming on...

 

Wish me luck....

 

P.S. I have not had a vintage Mopar in my yard since probably 2008

Edited by Mikec4193
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The plan right as of now is channel the body over the frame rails...mount the 6 cylinder and the 3 speed back into the Nova front clip...looking for an old roll cage to mount up in it once I get the body setting back down on the chassis...

 

80-traile-Bob-Color-1963-L.gif

My inspiration pictured above.....

This guy ran at Norwood arena back in the 1960s...during that same time frame I was going to a local oval track in Malta NY from 1965 until the early 1980s and in the 1960s this type of car is what ran every Friday night...

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  • 2 months later...

So we have been busy...took a weekend and got all the floor pan bolts 

 

 

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The body had been off before...we had all kinds of different hardware holding it together...

 

 

 

Then came getting the front clip welded up again...before

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After

 

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they had covered their sins with tiger hair...

 

the next thing was trying to cover up the origin of the front clip...the era that this car would have been racing would have been early to mid 1960's...the chassis of choice was a Chevy of the mid 1950's...so I did a little dance with the cutting tools...

 

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After

 

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once the front clip was sturdy again....we' moved onto the channeling of the body...

 

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6" seemed to be the magic number

 

 

 

Edited by Mikec4193
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Making body mounts were next on the docket...

 

20220417_165923.jpg.8868722b19421acae2e96ffa787ab1bd.jpg

 

This is right behind the B pillar

 

20220504_185351.jpg.05f9bb9eb446751b0d163bbeec6b5278.jpg

 

So when I cut the mounts out to channel the body...I kept looking at the old front cab mounts...I said...why not reuse them again...so I did...rotated them 180 degrees...did a little dance with the grinder and we have mounts again...

 

I ordered a roll cage kit from the fine folks at JEGS...took almost 2 months but it came in a couple weeks ago...

 

20220501_175211.jpg.5bffa348ba427bb67df2145838c14e5d.jpg20220501_175232.jpg.fded248a05b3834740462e0d19f19876.jpg20220501_175241.jpg.44c3ff71ac51bab564d62226fab09690.jpg

 

The last roll cage I built was in 1978 and I was 17 years old...and all I did was cut up pieces and parts and then I hired a welder to actually make it all right...

 

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I even got instructions from the folks at JEGS...

 

So here we go...cuttin and grinding and welding....

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  • 4 weeks later...

Been trying to spend at least 5 times a week to keep this thing on track...

 

Yea ole 6 banger is sitting in the frame rails...

 

20220529-175721.jpg

 

Old 3 speed is sitting pretty too...

 

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Had to cobble up a tranny mount into it to hold all this stuff...

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Front frame rails had some issues....

 

 

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Before

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During

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After....

 

We have a cobby hobby going on here....

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i am always amazed at what some people can do. the talent is endless   infinity   i am better at the small stuff. i like to take things apart that are seemingly impossible to get apart, then clean,lube and put back together so the next owner will have it easy. brake parts are a good example. of course, mike here is way ahead of me for what he does, and imagines, when the rest of us see junk. there was an old 20's ford mostly rotted away and sunk into the ground near me, but when i looked carefully you could see good parts still there for a project.nothing is beyond our dedication when we want to see the potential. i look forward to seeing mikes car roaring down the track.    capt den

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16 hours ago, capt den said:

i am always amazed at what some people can do. the talent is endless   infinity   i am better at the small stuff. i like to take things apart that are seemingly impossible to get apart, then clean,lube and put back together so the next owner will have it easy. brake parts are a good example. of course, mike here is way ahead of me for what he does, and imagines, when the rest of us see junk. there was an old 20's ford mostly rotted away and sunk into the ground near me, but when i looked carefully you could see good parts still there for a project.nothing is beyond our dedication when we want to see the potential. i look forward to seeing mikes car roaring down the track.    capt den

Thanks for the kind words...I am just an old guy that loves to tinker with rusty old metal...

20220603-172207.jpg

There is something about fresh ground crusty steel that makes me smile...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Been out in the shop...doing my grinding thing again...cobbled up some body mounts...had some 1/8" plate laying around...

 

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had to tie the door openings together...

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I bought some 1x1x1/8" steel angle when I first started this heap...cut cut cut...tack tack tack...repeat...

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I had sometime and I found more holes that needed some TLC....

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One bite at a time...

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Next on the docket...need some couplings and some other pieces and parts to make this old heap turn....

 

time to pull out the wad again....and feed the beast...

 

One bite at a time....

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Went to the local oval track shop and we talked steering parts....

 

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lots of chin scratching.....cut cut cut....trim trim trim...

 

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I have never done a total custom steering since I did a rat rod truck years ago...I keep forgetting how much work it is...

 

ran out of gas too...as soon as the welding supply store has moe gas...we will be doing the tack tack tack shuffle...

 

MikeC

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have no idea what this rear end is...someone told me it looked like 55 Chevy...there were no guts in it...so I put it out to pasture...face down in the dirt...

 

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There were no gears in it...

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Something about a pre war coupe sitting up on jack stands that make smile...reminds me of the many Friday nights spent at the local oval track watching the cars get worked on...

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Took everything out and starting mocking stuff up...

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I love the way it looks in this view...

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I tried my hardest to get a Mopar rear end but ended up with this mid 1980's Monte Carlo...cost me $100.00

 

hope we make it work...at least I get brake parts for it from Rock Auto...

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This is how the brake drum came off...someone put new drums and shoes on it and then parked it out side....

 

Oh well...better days are coming...

 

Tac Tac Tac.....grind grind grind....repeat

 

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So I thought about ways to get the car to sit correctly...I went on line and found a company In Oregon selling 4 link kits...I was hoping their stuff was made in the USA...

 

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Well I tried...

 

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Had to do some cleaning and grinding to get stuff to fit...

 

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This was the second try and getting this stuff to sit in the right spot...

 

the kit was a Generic kit for a 1928 to 1946 Mopar...so the cross member was too narrow...so what does one do??

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You cut it in half...and you spend many many nights scratching your chin...clamps in hand...tape measure stuck in your hand...

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I learned a little bit about how to build a shock...I have never built a coil over shock before...

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Still not sure if any of this stuff will work...

 

I don't think I will be driving it much (maybe once or twice tops) so as long as nothing falls off of it we should good to go....

 

Working on the floor pan supports too...pics to follow...

 

 

 

 

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Found some stress cracking going on the drivers side cowl...

 

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tac tac tac....grind grind grind...repeat...

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I had some steel from an "EZ-up canopy that took a dump in a summer storm a couple summers ago...I saved the square tube..

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Now I can actually sit the new seat inside the cabin...gotta figure out pedals still...

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I work part-time at a local big box lumber place...they had a display they were throwing out...I snagged it and cut it apart today...

 

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More floor supports...

 

tac tac tac....grind grind grind...repeat...

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Got the top of the cowl all buttoned up...

 

waiting of wheels and wheel spacers...

 

Need to get the floor tacked into place too...

 

one bite at a time...

 

 

 

 

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I kept trying to figure this ole man out...he was giving my a little tussle for sure...I got brave and fabbed up a period correct hood for it...

 

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I had some 18 gauge kicking around...I thought hey what the heck...lets do it...

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It just didnt look right...I kept looking at it...tape measure in hand...nothing looked right...so...

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I yanked the motor out of it...cut all my cobbled up motor mounts too...found a professional shop in Canada that built engine mounts for this specific motor..so I order them up...

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Tape measure in hand...wish me luck...so thankful this was a mess when I got it...

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Waiting on parts....so we look around at all the rust....last weekend was rear deck lid gutter rework time...

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out with the old stuff...

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before shot here...

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gotta love scrap pieces...

 

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A little cowl patching going on too...

 

I have a trunk lid that someone made from GOD only knows what that I am going to be looking at in the very near future...

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As it looked 4 months ago...

 

Keep writing checks...scratching my chin...tacking...grinding...and of course repeating...

 

I have until Dec of 2022 to get this ole heap rolling again...we will see

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""during that same time frame I was going to a local oval track in Malta NY ""

Hi Mike, I grew up in Burnt Hills and also used to go to Malta in the mid/late 70's. We learned real quick not to sit on the third turn, you could taste the dirt in the air!

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On 8/1/2022 at 7:21 PM, Dansk said:

""during that same time frame I was going to a local oval track in Malta NY ""

Hi Mike, I grew up in Burnt Hills and also used to go to Malta in the mid/late 70's. We learned real quick not to sit on the third turn, you could taste the dirt in the air!

Hey Dansk....

Summer of 1980...this is me at Malta...I was 19 years old...love racing more than life...hope to go back in the near future (4 cylinder class)...hot rods are fun in the winter months but racing is for summer time....I raced for 3 years in the 1980s and then went back in 2002 to 2012 (second picture)

Mike Cranston hobby car 1980.jpg

100_0759.JPG

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On 6/7/2022 at 12:58 PM, Mikec4193 said:

Been trying to spend at least 5 times a week to keep this thing on track...

 

Yea ole 6 banger is sitting in the frame rails...

 

20220529-175721.jpg

 

Old 3 speed is sitting pretty too...

 

20220529-175422.jpg

 

Had to cobble up a tranny mount into it to hold all this stuff...

20220601-165946.jpg

 

Front frame rails had some issues....

 

 

20220603-124846.jpg

Before

20220603-124842.jpg

During

20220603-172156.jpg

 

After....

 

We have a cobby hobby going on here....


I guess you have figured out that’s not a 235.  It’s a later motor.  230 or 250.  The distributor in front and a spin on oil filter.  Good engine!

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It was so hot on Sunday,,,so what should I do on Sunday??... we grind and weld some rusty old metal...

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Rear quarter had some thin spots...

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I ground it down and filled it a couple time...still not sure why I didn't take a pic of it...

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So I dragged this poor excuse for a rear deck panel...they are made of un-obtainium so we will grind and weld on this one...in the past someone added some aluminum strips for a support...I thought should do it a little better...

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Bring on the 3/8" left over brake line...

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 Grind grind tac tac tac...repeat...

 

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It came with these not so old but still cool hinges...

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Look Mom....the deck lid opens...and the old shop broom stick holds it up...

 

It was a good Sunday...

 

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It is crude and rude but I smile when I see it...

 

Grind on fellow rust loves...

 

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  • Mikec4193 changed the title to 1939 Plymouth coupe (a big pile of parts)
  • 5 weeks later...

Still diggin on the ole pile of parts....

The low down in the dirt low ridder crew sometimes will post how low their rigs are...well this ole pile is more than a 1lb Maxwell House coffee can is...

 

I want to be able to fit my floor jack under the frame and guess what...it fits...

 

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I gave up on trying to fabricate motor mounts...I went the fine folks on Facebook and I got motor mounts from a fellow in Canada Horton is the shop name...

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The motor went farther back too...I am learning everytime you move one part it effects 6 more things...so now we gotta figure out all the logistics again...motor is set back about 12" from where it would have sat in the Camaro/Nova front clip...

 

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Now we gotta do a hydraulic clutch now too...

 

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Speedway to the rescue...

 

More cobbing to get everything to fit...

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Then my 10-15 year old welder took a dump...never happens when it should but it served me well...

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Still tweaking on this new horse...

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I wanted to see how it looked as it sits right now....

 

The folks at Vintques Wheels are building some new wheels for me....cant wait for that...

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So now we are piecing the floor panels in place...

 

One bite at a time...

 

 

Edited by Mikec4193
spelling again
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