wow that came out great! i'd agree on the clear, it would add a protectant to them. Ill show these to Joe and maybe we'll go this option He just hates the look of the current bumpers. He thinks theyre too big and gawdy. I like them. I guess we have to disagree on something
LOL that keeps things healthy, you can't agree on everything! My wife like the beach, and I don't. Chuck
Really nice build and congratulations on the quality of the work. Somehow I missed this thread, but I just read it all the way through. Personally, I agree with you that the stock bumper looks 'right' on the 50 Plymouths. The grille is more curvy than previous year models, so you need that slightly curvy bumper. If you ever want to make a simple change to the appearance of dear Betty, find a set of early Plymouth dog dish hubcaps. They look good on painted wheels (body color or black, your choice) and give the car a totally different appearance. You can swap between the wheel covers for two totally different looks. Again, congratulations, job well done!
Hey Farmergal, have your boyfriend ask his paint supplier to scan the original color if you a few areas that you can get to, underside of deck lid, etc... then they can put it in the computer, and come up with a close match, it might be a European color, or others, but it will be as close as your going to get, base coat then clear with a matt clear and your good to go. All of the paint manufactures have this capability, technology is great!!!
Dang, you guys did an amazing job! Thanks for the pics, they are beautiful. Man, I need to get new wwws...
shes already painted Look at the pics above. thats exactly what we had the paint supplier do- they matched the color in the trunk and we painted her from there. she still needs buffing work but i couldnt help but take some photos last night. Thank you all for the kind words; it means a lot We are having issues with the ignition coil right now. it overheats and we end up dying at a stopsign or a light in a major intersection. haha. We've learned to carry a gallon of cold water and some rags to cool it down. Works surprisingly well! After a few minutes she fires right up. We think the original coil is just toast so we purchased a new 6 volt coil for it but we need to make a bracket for it. Once that is done she should run better. Right now; we can only make it for short drives. Hopefully she'll make it to Middletown next week...thats a bit of a drive for us Right now its just nice to enjoy the car. We havn't had a night without working since December so it's nice to just enjoy it....even if its a 15 minute drive haha. I will constantly keep consistent with updating this thread on new news and photos from our adventures with the old Plym. Once we get our kinks worked out with her she should be good as new. thanks again
I have seen those hubcaps and Im in LOVE with those. We threw the original caps back on just to finish it off so we could drive it and have it looks sorta finished
So happy that someone else has saved another Plymouth. I've always loved the '41-'51 model years and I'm on my 3rd one, a 1950, P19, 3 passenger, Business Coupe. Had a '48, sold it to buy a '51 that I had for 30yrs., had to sell the '51 a few years ago, but found my '50 just a year ago and I'm happy again!
When you replace that coil, check your points. If they are looking a litle burnt, then also replace the condenser. A failing condenser will burn points and occasionally will also stress out (overheat) a marginal coil.
thanks! We took her for a 3 mile drive up the road for some ice cream and she made it there fine but when we went to leave she wouldnt start. tried pop starting...no can do. tried jumping it with a truck...nope. We have no spark and she refuses to start now. We think the new coil is now completely toast. My boyfriend is a very good and experienced mechanic but he's stumped...and frustrated by something so simple. haha. He's frustrated because the whole system is so simple yet he can't figure it out because he's never had to work on one. Boss-man told us that the generator might be jumping voltage all over the place (jumping from 6 volts to 19 volts and then back) and its toasting the coil. This problem wasnt such a big deal when we first got it but not its progressively worse and now she's dead in the water. We're going to completely rebuild the ignition, etc this week and attempt to re-wire it this weekend so she's UTD and ready to go. Hopefully after that she doesnt give us an issue and we can make it to Middletown
Did you ever think about switching to electronic ignition? We did that on the Buick and it made a huge differance. Are you guys going to rebuild the generator or have Jim Wood or Sologlow do it? Chuck
haven't thought about that. we're still running 6 volt so if this doesnt work we're switching to 12 volt. we dont want to have to do that but we dont want to fight with this all the time. I'm sorry but i dont know who Jim Wood or Sologlow is haha; remember we are totally new to this ballgame . I think Joey was going to rebuild it by himself. He was going to track down the parts today.
Jim wood and Sologlow are 2 spots in Norwich that can rebuild and I believe get parts for generators and starters and such. I run the 6 volt system still and once the battery is charged properly she starts right up with that petronix ignition, and it only takes about 15 minutes to hook it up.
Thanks! i'll email this info to him. We usually have no problem starting her up. She usually fires right up without incident. The problem occurs after she goes for a short drive then gets turned off or stops at a stop sign/light and then dies when we try to go again. The coil is very hot to the touch and usually can be fixed in 5 min with some cold water and a rag. unfortunately...that was a no-go last night. thansk for the help csimonds!
even though your boyfriend is a mechanic, I would suggest getting the shop manual for your car. I had an issue about a month ago with my Ford and, following a seemingly ridiculous fix suggested by the manual, the problem was fixed in a few minutes and cost no $. I am finding that these old cars are sometimes finicky, but the great news is the fixes are sometimes so simple. See Occam's Razor.
OK, that car is as basic as it can get but you young kids are just too...young. LOL (Said by a jealous old fart.) That car is six volts positive ground. Start with a battery that is charged. Now switch on the ignition (motor not running). Open the points with a wooden stick. You should have 6 volts at the points and 6 volts at the coil (coming in through the ignition switch). Now let the points close. You should have 0 volts at the points. Note that a common failure on these cars is the pigtail wire that goes in from the points to the coil. The insulation fails right where the wire goes thru the body of the distributor. If you have the points closed and you open them, you should get a little spark at the points and a big spark from the center terminal of the coil to ground. For a new 6 v coil to be overheating right away you either have a bad coil (not likely) or 6 volts feeding to the coil all the time and never getting interrupted by the points circuit (due to a pigtail faulted to ground or points not adjusted properly and not opening, or points welded closed) or the coil hooked up backwards. There is really nothing else that could cause this. Finally, don't forget to check for spark when cranking the motor. Take is a step at a time and think it through logically and you will find the problem. BTW, there is no reason to convert to an electronic ignition or to a 12 volt system. And I do not believe that your generator is jumping from 6 to 19 volts and frying the coil. That's just crazy talk.
What plym49 said...Ran my '51 over 20yrs w/6 volt original system. Check carefully through each step, it's probably something simple. Was the truck you tried to jump it with 12 volt negative...I believe that can mess up voltage regulator. Maybe someone can verify, been awhile since I played w/6volt pos.
thank you everyone. my dad has a shop manual for his truck which is the same motor and electrical system, etc so we've been working with that which has helped a lot with understanding everything. He ordered a bunch of stuff to rebuild it so hopefully once everything gets freshened up she'll be much more reliable. We need to re-do all the original wiring which probably isnt helping our cause. I can tell you we have zero spark at the motor when cranking. I know its not an engine issue because she runs like a top when she wants to. Once we get the kinks ironed out i think she'll be very, very reliable. thanks again for all your help and taking the time to explain it for us
We're stillt rying to fix some buffing issues. Car weont buff out properly. Car looks great from a distance, right? and then when you get up close its all scratchy. I hope the clear isn't giving us another round of issues
I think plym49 is on to something: "Note that a common failure on these cars is the pigtail wire that goes in from the points to the coil. The insulation fails right where the wire goes thru the body of the distributor." This is the same problem my Dad and I had with our Chevy. We had no spark to the plugs. OK, we then checked the points. No spark. A little investigating and there it was. A little waxed paper insulator had deteriorated enough to let the points ground out. We replaced the insulator and it started right up. Good luck!
okay so we have a new (better coil) in the car. She has spark, new points, etc, and rebuilt ignition. we have tested all the wires leading in and out to everything and it all seems Great. Now for the tricky part. we think we have this narrowed down. The car grounds just fine when not "on". When the key is turned to the "on" position....we lose our ground immediately and the car will not start. thoughts?
How do you lose the ground? Are you reading with a meter? Check your ground connections, battery to engine block, block to body, and battery to body if there is one. Make sure all connections are clean and tight. You may have a loose, corroded connection. That wouldn't explain the old coil getting hot though and I still wonder about the insulation between the distributor body & hot wire . I fought that battle many years ago and just found it by chance.
not sure how we lose ground when we turn the key. we did find that the dist. cap was corroded inside so we changed it and she starts. now she wont rev up past a certain point (lack of power somewhere?) very odd. it gets more and more confusing by the minute. We changed a few wires that looked iffy and then tested every connection with a non-digital meter. everything comes up fine when we turn the key.
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