1953 Coronet Hemi

[TheC5Surgeon]

New to the forum. I have wanted to get into mopars for awhile and finally got the opportunity last week. I got a great deal on this running and driving 1953 Dodge Coronet with the 241 hemi and gyro-matic fluid drive. The body is extremely straight and it has little to no rust. I have been doing research and will continue as time allows on various aspects of the car. For now it is in my father in laws barn but when I can I will get up there an perform some maintenance before really taking it for a long drive. I plan on draining fuel (hopefully the tank has a drain plug) , flushing the brake fluid, possibly rebuilding the carburetor replacing the points and plugs.  It definitely needs 4 new tires also.  I will be posting much more frequently when I can actually get my hands on it and start driving/wrenching but was eager to share the good news. My other vehicles include 95 f250 99 corvette and 76 C20 suburban so this is by far the oldest and honestly possibly the coolest. Any pointers for other things to look out for in these old cars and good resources of transmission and other parts other than the obvious big ones like  mopar mall and Andy Bernbaum? Thanks

 

Matthew 

[39Al]

I've found lots of New Old Stock NOS parts on eBay. There are people who post and sell parts from old repair shops and parts suppliers.

[plymouthcranbrook]

Beautiful car. Welcome to the forum.  Tod Fitch has a list he made up on his website. Look up Plymouth the first decade and it will pop up. The IPad will not let me copy the address to paste it here but it is easy to find. Another good suppler is Vintage Power Wagons for items that are shared between truck and cars. A few salvage yards like French Lake Auto Parts and Moores on South Dakota also are Mopar centric. 

 

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 05:19 PM by plymouthcranbrook

[TheC5Surgeon]

Thanks for those suggestions. Are there any particular kinds of parts that are needed and ppl cannot find? I have been flirting with the possibility of getting into reverse engineering/ 3D scanning parts for reproduction. 

[Ivan_B]

Congrats! 😀

The car looks great from far away. We need more pictures. There are plenty of hard-to find parts, but the repro-ones will be as expensive as the scarce OEM stuff.

[kencombs]

Great cars.  Dad had a 54 with powerflite that I used as my fancy date car in high school.    Same engine, same body with slightly different trim and grill.   That little hemi is surprisingly strong.

 

Sure wish I had one for my 56 pickup.   But they are getting really hard to find and even more expensive to machine and buy pistons etc.

[Sniper]

Not too sure vintage powerwagons is going to be a source for a lot of stuff, not sure many PW's came with the Hemi.  But, here's a link to a source for engine stuff.

 

http://hothemiheads.com/dodge/index.html

[TheC5Surgeon]

Thanks for the replys. Would yall recommend any specific part to start looking at for scanning/reproduction? Like I said I am just now flirting with that idea but really want to see what it would take and if it would be feasible to reproduce something. I know that probably sounds crazy 

 

[Ivan_B]

I would recommend getting your car to a good-operating condition, and starting using it, first 😉

[TheC5Surgeon]

1 hour ago, Ivan_B said:

I would recommend getting your car to a good-operating condition, and starting using it, first 😉

A better way frame my last post:  I am interested in making parts in general and wanted to see what experienced owners of these cars, like yall, think is missing from the market or needed? There are many easier vehicles to restore like my 1976 C20 suburban. I can open up a classics industry or lmc catalog and find tons of parts.

[TheC5Surgeon]

Some more pics.  Pretty amazing the condition of this thing honestly. Especially since it seems that it was from NY. Tried to upload a video of it running but file size was to large.

[Sniper]

2 minutes ago, TheC5Surgeon said:

Tried to upload a video of it running but file size was to large.

 

I usually put the video on You Tube and post a link here.

 

For our YT challenged members, I'll host their video on my YT account.

[Ivan_B]

1 hour ago, TheC5Surgeon said:

Some more pics.

Is that original paint? What does the car look like from underneath?

 

For parts, you can start by casting and machining some brake drums. If you can do them for less than $500 a piece 😉

Also, some good quality replacement dash knobs and radio buttons would be great (at least for the 40s models).

Edited 16 hours ago by Ivan_B