I'm new to the rod/custom side of the car culture. Been building 65-70 mopar muscle cars for 20+years. I picked this Chrysler up a couple months ago through I'd post it up here with hopes of input and guidance. I am NOT restoring this car it's a custom/hotrod build I'm done with the numbers matching game. Right now I've got a 8 3/4 (keeping it mopar) to put in the rear thinking 4 link with bags. Want to lower the stance but I'm not sure what I can do with the front suspension?
Love those big MoPar coupes! Now, to find a pair of '42 Desoto hidden headlights for it. Guy down the street from me has a big fat 48 chrysler coupe.
Was thinking about a 354/392 hemi for the Power Plant but there lots of $$$ so I've been thinking about a poly 318 or a LA block (kind of boring) with a 6pack
That's what drew me to this car I always wanted to build a fat fender car but I wanted it Mopar related and most of them from this era are ugly as hell!
Cool and solid car. The front suspension on those cars were a pretty good design. I would rebuild what you have, and upgrade the brakes. Not sure about the Chrysler, but all other Mopars of that era benefited with a front shock relocation kit. Any other option would probably be off topic.
Small block with 6 pack would be cool, EFI is off topic here. The car deserves the love but sadly the market would not justify huge $$$ if you ever sold it. Will make a great family hotrod.
I'm biased, but a basically stock 440 with a single four barrel would give plenty of hustle with less complexity. Six packs are cool if you have a big budget, but if that was the case you would stuff a hemi in it.
I'm guessing that you'll have a fair bit-o-curb weight with that so, as you well know, some big (er) inches should be in order. The 'metric' engines make crazy power if you can tolerate the electronics, just don't post any reference to 'those' engines as there are some folks in these parts that will flag the post. Nothing wrong with a B-RB package. Plenty of grunt. And, of course, the venerable 392 or stroked 354. These engines do consume some cubic-dollars but a decent build can done if you shop around.
Try to find you a 40 front bumper like on my Plymouth. Lots of stuff you can learn from my thread(s). Good luck!
I like the '42 Chrysler for it's wrap-around grille that's kinda mimicked in the rear fenders, very interesting design, and I do think it'd be super cool to see one put together with the '42 DeSoto headlights. I also like the idea of a poly-head 318, they're neat engines and kinda overlooked. 413 would be neat too, and would keep it all period-correct, maybe with a 63 or 64 transmission so you could have pushbuttons and also park at the same time. You can apparently lower the front of these things by removing the lower plate off of the bottom control arm, and bolt it back on with a spacer in between. No geometry is changed and it's supposed to be really easy although I've never personally done it.
So I got a set of leather seats out of a OT Chrysler 300, got the rear seats mounted using the front bench base as a base for the rear. Other than this I haven't gotten much done. I'm trying very hard to keep this a tight budget ride, using what I have or can scrounge out of the local pick n pull or local on line finds
Rare beast there - we had a 1942 4 door in our wrecking yard and it made it out when we closed. Good luck with yours !
Congratulations on a great acquisition of a rare year MOPAR. You might want to contact @falconvan here on the HAMB, Pat is pretty knowledgable about these old cool MOPARS.
The car has coil front springs, you could replace the coil springs with bags like you want to do on the rear, but there probably isn't much drop available before the suspension bottoms out. If your really on a budget, why not just use leaf springs at the rear end with 2" lowering blocks between the axle and the springs, then up front move the spring perch from the top side of the lower control arm and bolt it to the bottom of the control arm, that will give you about an inch and a half, then replace the original springs with a set of Ford Aerostar coil springs and gain another inch. Move the upper shock mount from the upper control arm and mount it to the frame, there are kits available to do that, or its pretty easy to build your own. brackets to move the shock. An LA (and an A) motor with a truck oil pan will fit the engine compartment. On the smaller Plymouth version, you need to "hammer modify" a small area on the passenger side firewall for valve cover clearance, and notching (and boxing back in) the center of the front crossmember on the frame for pulley clearance makes life easier to install and remove fan belts. You can also shift the motor & trans to the passenger side about an inch and a half or 2" to gain more clearance on the driver side exhaust manifold. A simple trans crossmember will probably be needed as well. The big Chrysler may not need those engine bay modifications, I've done several 39-48 Plymouths, but the one big Dodge (same size as your Chrysler) was done very early and I don't remember much from it as far as clearances go. Gene
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