Hey there guys and gals I'm chris from colorado(golden). i just purchased my first old school car which is a meadow brook. . . hah; but I'm new to the scene and everything is original parts. I'm looking for any ideas and info as far as how to not only make this car a daily driven car but also a cross country monster! any help is appreciated
If you are new to the old Chrysler products I have 2 things to say: left hand threads on the left side wheel bolts and 6v positive ground battery. You need to be careful about the wheel bolts sometimes they get switched around. You should be able to drive that car anywhere in America provided it is in good shape and you keep the speed down to 60. Start with a compression test and oil pressure test. If the compression is good and the oil pressure is good you have nothing to worry about. They are basically a simple, ruggedly made, long living car. Built more for comfort and long service than speed. Most all parts are available from your local parts store and specialists like Vintage Power Wagons and Andy Bernbaum. Try to get a repair manual, they turn up on Ebay at swap meets and from online dealers. Cost about $50 and will save more than that on your first repair job. Suggest you go over the car, tune up, check brakes alignment etc and drive it for a while. Then make up your mind what you want to do.
Scroll down to "freeway driving a stock '48 Chev?..." Its pertinent to your situation, and it's a pretty good discussion about the practicality of pre '55 cars. Cool Dodge survivor
That car doesn't need much. Sell the sunbonnet for enough $$$ to lower it & split the manifold, then rub it out & wax it. Hope the dash is as nice as the outside ! If it has any compression left, it'll run 60 all day. Don't plan on a reliable high speed cruiser unless you replace or rebuild the entire power train. Those engines seldom had the valves adjusted in their lifetime, so start there. They also have a water dist. tube behind the water pump which can rot away causing overheating.
I'll suggest that you join up at the www.p15-d24.com where these cars live. As said, if everything is in good working order then you'll have a good driver, however, I would not personally recommend taking the car on the high speed freeways for long journeys. Stick to the secondary roads. .
That is a completely different car from a 48 Chev. Full pressure oiling vs spit and hope. Insert bearings vs poured babbitt. Aluminum pistons vs cast iron. Flathead vs OHV. The Dodge is more capable of high speed than the Chev, although not as good as a Ford. They do suffer from broken pistons when they get old, that is why I recommend a compression test and oil pressure test. They will tell you how good your valves, rings, pistons, bearings, and oil pump are. If all those things are good, the engine will be good for many thousands of miles if you treat it right. When I say treat it right I mean service it by the book, meaning oil changes and tuneups. And do not try to hop it up. If you hop up an engine that old you must go through it and overhaul or rebuild, or chances are it will blow sky high in a month. You can have a lot of fun with a car like that without doing any modifications. If you want to work on it just tuning it up, going over brakes, steering etc cleaning and polishing will keep you busy for a month or two. After putting it in good shape, and driving it around for a few hundred, or a few thousand miles, you can make up your mind what you want to do with it. But do have some fun first.
Hey thanks for the help ill have to check everything out and the exterior is nice and insude is very nice ill post pictures thursday !
To all, ill post a full pictured detail of the car now ill see it again thursday but for now i research
About a year ago, I sold a '52 Plymouth that I'd set up for exactly what you want...long cruises and practicality/reliability. It ran like a top, was reliable as gravity, and could run at 70 with ease. 1) I started with a fundamentally solid engine. Low (45K) miles, didn't burn any oil. If you have a solid engine, read on 2) Converted the car to 12V neg ground. Costs less than $200, can be done in a day (or less), and will allow you to safely get a jump should the need arise. The engine also cranks faster, too. 3) Replaced the 3 on the tree with a T5 (5spd OD) from a V6 Camaro, using an S10 tailshaft to relocate the shifter farther forward. The transmission worked PERFECTLY with the 4.10 rear...the car had plenty of pep and would cruise at 70 with ease. You will need a new driveshaft. 4) Converted the car to 4 wheel disc brakes. Still manual, they worked fine. Scarebird makes a kit for the front, and AAJ Brakes makes a kit of the rear. A bit spendy because of the parts (about $1,000), but the brakes use modern, over the counter parts, and the car stops like you threw an anchor out the window. You will also have to fabricate parking brake linkage because the existing parking brake is a drum mounted to the rear of the transmission. I used mid-80s Eldorado calipers, and it worked like a charm. 5) Converted to electronic ignition. Yes, points work fine, but the electronic distributor dropped right in, hooked up easily, and I won't ever have to mess with it again. 6) The usual - belts, hoses, fluids, modern radial tires. If I could have done one more thing, I would have pulled the head and have it cut about .090. The stock compression is about 7:1, and an .090 cut will bump it to about 8.5:1, which will wake the engine up quite a bit. Make those changes, and the car can be a safe, fun, daily driver. Chris
I have had, and still have, several older Mopars....Plymouth, Dodge and Chrysler. They are well engineered cars, though a bit staid, but built like a tank. Probably the best suspension design for that period...very good ride quality. You've been given good advice in previous posts, so no need to elaborate here, just enjoy the car..... Ray
I didn't say change the brakes or carburetor. I would check them and repair or rebuild as necessary. The brakes are state of the art for the times and work well if set up right. Unlike the loose leaf brakes featured by cheaper makes they need to be adjusted correctly then they work well. Maybe not up to the latest disc brakes but will skid the tires. Do a compression check and check oil pressure. 100 - 110 compression on all cylinders, and 35PSI oil pressure @ 30MPH with 10 - 15 at idle is fine. If those things check out do an oil change, also change all lubricants like transmission, rear axle, steering box. Grease all grease points on the chassis, there are around 30 of them. Check front end and brakes, tires, etc. Wash the body, polish and wax. Generally clean up and fix up. Then have some nice drives. You don't have to do all the work at once. Get a manual and go by that. I would hold off doing any changes for the time being.
Thanks man this is very informative! Do the plymouth and neadowbrook have the same chassis and overall struckture?
Dodge Meadowbrook was the standard size sedan . It has a lot in common with Plymouth. I made a mistake earlier, thinking your car was a Plymouth when it is a Dodge. I corrected the error. If you want to know something about the different models Chrysler made that year this is a good rundown. http://www.allpar.com/history/chrysler-years/1949-1952.html
Chris - I can't speak to the exact differences, but yes, the cars are very similar. The rundown I gave you was very top line. There's a lot more minutia involved than I mentioned, but my post gives you a general guideline to go by. I had never done a similar swap, but I took my time, asked a lot of questions, and it turned out very well. One comment - the brakes that are on the car now do work well for what they are. They were designed by Lockheed. They are, however, a bit tricky to adjust, and the parts are very expensive. At minimum, I would upgrade to a dual well master cylinder in the stock under floor location if you choose to keep the current brakes. AAJ has kits, and you can also get them on Ebay, I believe. I would, however, replace all of the soft lines, and possibly all of the hard lines as well. It's not that hard to do, and relatively inexpensive. If you tally up the total cost of redoing the original brakes, I'd be willing to bet that you wouldn't be far off of the cost of a 4 disc conversion. Have fun with the car. They're kind of stodgy, but built like brick shithouses and they run really well. Chris
Alright im rebuilding the carb and the issue is the ring around the thing im pointing at in my picture and the rebuild kit isnt having a part to replace it (its a tiny gold ring) for throttle control i beleive not really sure what to do its a stromberg carburetor
The silver is the rod that the ring ontop of the shell sits in so its kinda like a steel gasket but no rubber gasket to show me
I wa looking into brake conversion it runs and drives the brakes throw you when stopping but from what ive read thats go be expected i wanna convert
If you are rebuilding the carb I suggest you get the rebuilding instructions from a Dodge or Stromberg manual and follow it exactly. Do not go getting ideas of your own. The instruction sheet that comes with the carb kit is incomplete and filled with errors. If you don't have a manual I can look up the specs.
From Motor's Repair Manual 1954- 1950 Dodge carburetor Stromberg BXVES-3 Part number 380251 Stromberg BXVD-3 Part number 380249 Fuel level - 5/8" Throttle valve location for idle - flush Throttle valve location for vacuum spark control - flush Seems to be a pretty simple carb, those are the only setting given.
The "gold ring" you mention is a bushing/seal part number 384619 that normally stays attached to the air horn. It is more than a ring, as the bushing component pushes down into the airhorn. The bushing maintains the upper geometry of the dashpot assembly (the rod to which you are pointing). The bushing/seal does not come in any kit I have ever seen (including ours). The part resembles the head of a mushroom with a hole through the middle instead of a stem. You will like the Stromberg once you get it rebuilt. Resist anyone's suggestion to replace it with the less expensive Carter Ball and Ball used by Plymouth for this engine. Jon.
I'll recommend replacing the rear axle with a Cherokee or Explorer in order to get newer- more modern- easier to find parts for- brakes. Check with olddaddy (www.rustyhope.com) on this forum for front disc swap package. .
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