My new bargain!

[jimwheeldon]

One of my customers sold me a 51 Plymouth 4 door...it's missing some trim and the steering wheel-but still has many parts I need..Woo hoo- my neighbors will be thrilled I have another lawn ornament.

[Young Ed]

Congrats. Everytime I read on here about the 51-52s I think I gotta get mine going. Maybe this summer

[jimwheeldon]

If you need parts , give me a holler....Alot of it won't fit my 50. The body looks pretty good. I hate that I don't get off work till 8pm. I haven't had a chance to look at it. I bought it sight unseen- Still should be cheaper than buying parts one by one.

[Young Ed]

I don't know of anything I need offhand except floors! My car is so rusty I won't drive it. It runs stops etc but the seat looks ready to fall through

[Norm's Coupe]

Ed, that's one reason I don't want another car to work on. I already have the coupe to finish. I would work on your coupe and let the 51 sit until the coupe is where you want it. At least the basics like the drivetrain, interior, body work, paint and chassis.

The floor brace under the seat is probably rotted out too. Fix that and you can make the seat solid again.

[Young Ed]

So I probably shouldnt mention I bought a used flathead to install in my second pickup I'm planning to build huh The 51 was free so I cant be too far off. I really just need to get it solid enough to drive so the drivetrain and brakes dont get shot from sitting.

[JerseyHarold]

Ed,

if all you want to do is firm-up the floor under under the seat, why not just wedge some wood between the top of the chassis and the remnants of the floor? I've seen it done before and it works.

Harold

[Young Ed]

There's already some 2x4s under the seat next to the tranny hump. It still wobbles some. Car is quite rusty. Mostly MN car with 202K miles on it.

[Norm's Coupe]

Ed, if you want to see a scary car, it's not my brother in laws 38 Ford. It's actually in pretty decent shape, except for those doors.

Another guy in the local Ford V8 club has a real nice 50 Pontiac in excellent shape and also a nice Ford. However, he also has 50 Plymouth 4 door. He loves to drive that car daily and it's all original. By all original, I also mean the body has never been restored. Looks pretty good. However, when you shut any one of the doors, the support post between the front and back doors moves several inches. Body mounts are gone there I guess. Now, that's scary to ride in. I've never rode in it and don't plan to either. You might end up with the body on the ground and the chassis keeps going on good steep hill.

[Frank Blackstone]

that Icould see thru the frame, a friend patched it with strap iron. I think it would have all come off the frame if I hit something. I rebuilt it frame up wih 9 guage fully boxed and a roll gage. I'm solid now, Frank

[Young Ed]

Norm I'm pretty sure you wouldn't ride in my 51 either. If you pull on the closed door the entire quarter moves! She's rusty. But the car was free and I got rockers for like 20 bucks on ebay. Saved a rust free rear clip off a 50 that dad parted. Should be able to piece it back together somewhat.

[jimwheeldon]

Well, the bad and the good of my new purchase is the entire dash is missing...speedo, radio,clock,heater controls etc. At first I was bummed-then it dawned on me-I don't really need any of those things. And with so much gone it takes away my uncontrollable urge to rebuild it...I would have too. They really are a charming little sedan-I'd love to have one someday.

[Young Ed]

So Jim I shouldnt mention any extra dashes available here......

[Norm's Coupe]

that Icould see thru the frame, a friend patched it with strap iron. I think it would have all come off the frame if I hit something. I rebuilt it frame up wih 9 guage fully boxed and a roll gage. I'm solid now, Frank

Frank & Ed,

The guy with the 50 Plymouth does have a piece of angle iron under there. Think that's about all that's holding the thing together.

Jim, one nice thing about that car is you don't have to dismantle the dash, etc. Just repair the floors, body, rockers if needed. Pick up a dash and just have fun building a custom car with whatever you pick up along the way. Would be a fun project when you don't have to worry about rebuilding to original.

[oldmopar]

Well, the bad and the good of my new purchase is the entire dash is missing...speedo, radio,clock,heater controls etc. At first I was bummed-then it dawned on me-I don't really need any of those things. And with so much gone it takes away my uncontrollable urge to rebuild it...I would have too. They really are a charming little sedan-I'd love to have one someday.

What you need is another 51 or 52 car to get the dash from. Cars are like that old saying about children theres always room for one more.

[Young Ed]

Jim I've seen a 51-52 with a 50 dash. Maybe you could go the other way

[62rebelP23]

nothing's more fun than seeing "experts" try to decipher the mixed equipment in cars like that. "that can't be a GoFaster 5000, they didn't come with the Slide-o-Matic..."

"but it says GoFaster 5000 right on the dash, Euclid!"

"i'm telling you only the Ironsides 400 had that chrome doohickey!"

yep; i love hearing those arguments!

so... go ahead and rebuild it; they dang sure ain't making any MORE of them.

[PatS....]

Well, the bad and the good of my new purchase is the entire dash is missing...speedo, radio,clock,heater controls etc. At first I was bummed-then it dawned on me-I don't really need any of those things. And with so much gone it takes away my uncontrollable urge to rebuild it...I would have too. They really are a charming little sedan-I'd love to have one someday.

I have a '50 DeSoto parts car with a good dash if you want it. Should just bolt in.

[Young Ed]

Pat I doubt that it would just bolt in but it would probably fit with a small effort. I compared the mounts of a 50ply to a 51 ply dash and they arent the same. Physically the dashes are very close to the same size though.