Projects "Losthopes Ol' Lady's 1949 ply Build"

Well fellows its been awhile ive been busy with Work,other projects,and just daily life but i do have a update on the plymouth build..
I started cutting out the rusted floors and i ordered repopped rocker panels off ebay ...what i didnt know was that the repopped rockers are made to slip over the exsisting rockers (which is kinda dumb to me ,why would you weld on slip on rockers over the rusted out rockers?) anyways the seller didnt describe that in his ebay add so long story short i ended up getting half my money back and got to keep the inner and outer rockers for half price...being they were made to slip over exsisting rockers the contours and curvers of the outer rockers are all a little bit bigger and the inner rockers were a 1" taller then stock , i went to the guy with a 10' brake in the shop complex im at and we rebent the inners to stock size and i had to rework and fudge the outers to work , since the deminsions were totally wrong i couldnt use them full length and decided to replace the drivers rocker since it is the worst and ill use the rest of the repop rockers i have to make patch panels for the drivers rear and pass. side since they are in better shape.... anyways enough rambling heres the progress so far :

 

some of my time was taken up lately from getting the drivetrain from a wrecked 62 galaxie , for the 1926 dodge project , engine,trans,driveline ,and 9" rearend...Payment for stripping all the usable/sellable parts and cutting the galaxie up ...Big Big Thanks to my cousin "Glendale" and a couple of other good friends for hooking me up with it!

 

I hope by repeating this stuff I'll remember it myself when the time comes around to put mine back together.

Re the drive shaft, I had one made like that and IMO the slip yoke engagement provided was insufficient for even the normal suspension travel on the P-15.

When I raked the nose down I had to put thick aluminum shims at the front & back flanges to effectively lengthen the shaft 1/2", but I was wishing for another 2 inches over that.

As I feared, even with frequent greasing the splines wore quickly from hotrodding around. I had to hand pack them with fibre grease to quell the growing vibration.

Anyhow I think my yoke had a max 6" or 6.5" of engagement, but normal running engagement was about 3.5"-4" which isn't enough unless you have a real light foot on the gas.

 

Been awhile since ive posted , work has taken a lot of my time up. Its also been in the triple digits here the past couple weeks so after working all day in the heat its been hard to head to the non cooled shop afterwards and work on the Plymouth when the a/c at home is so inviting , but I have got some things done....
I finally got the oil lines hooked up and a filter cartridge and some fresh oil in the motor:

went to the pick-n-pull yard and found a decent delco-remy alternator , and pulled a master cylinder off a ford explorer to go with the ford explorer disc rearend and disc setup up front, after a little cleaning:

After looking closely at the motor when I went to install the rebuilt external water bypass water pump I got from my pops , I noticed the head didn't have the internal water bypass passage, the block did, the water pump that was on it was a external pump, and thermostat housing was a internal type....I figured when the motor had been rebuilt probably used parts from 2 motors to make the rebuild and never had a water bypass system hooked back up due to a jumble of differences in parts so I found a used external water bypass thermostat housing on eBay and installed that and a new 160* thermostat :


I started to make a alternator bracket using the old generator bracket:


ordered a service manual off ebay:
[/URL

 

then I went to my pops house and found a "skinny belt " style water pump pulley in the parts shed to start switching the pulley system over from the fatter style belt pulley system it had , but then I went down to the local electrical service shop here in town and a uncombed wiry white haired gentleman stepped behind the counter as I told him my belt scenario and what I was trying to do , he was very informative and told me they adapt delco remys to old tractors and trucks, etc ....all the time and handed me a pulley made for exactly what I was trying to do (still need to get a lock washer for pulley) and picked up a new gates bus & truck series belt:

then I got my hands on another carter ball & ball carb:

then I turned the ol' ladys kitchen table in to my carb rebuild bench:

and that basically brings us up to date:


still need to button stuff up on the motor going to start making my own carb linkage , trying to source out some aluminum rivet plugs for the carbs since the carb kits didn't have all the plugs for clean out passages , new brass washers and correct nuts for exhaust manifold since it had a few different types of brass and steel washers , then its onto working on the front clip...

 

Couple other do-dads I got off ebay "fix your Plymouth" book, dash compass, door guards,and a carb synch tool

and I picked up a un-known visor from a friend that will be a plan B if I don't get my hands on this fulton visor im waiting for a reply on locally :

 

Well thanks for your input and hopefully my driveline idea will work out better then yours did for you, my dad owns a Desoto and it has u-joint driveline that drives perfectly , in his Desoto service manual it shows it also , has a slip yoke and u-joints , so basically im going to find a driveline out of a Desoto and have the ford explorer flange put on the end and made to the length I need, or im going to have the driveline shop copy his driveline with the ford explorer flange and made to length!

 

Looking good son.

Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

Looking real good! How and where do you plan to mount the master cylinder?

Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

Man,you have really made a lot of progress since I last posted. The engine looks good! HRP

 

Thanks Chem! need to go check your build and see what you've been up to!

Hey N847! Going to gut the o.g. master cylinder since its part of the pedal assembly in these cars and keep it mounted up , but once you gut the insides out and extend the pust rod all the way through it , where there will be a bracket I made that mounts behind the o.g master cylinder that is were the ford explorer master will bolt up and meet the extended push rod....."Glendale" did it on a 1950 dodge of our friends that's in our car club just was a mater cylinder for disc/drums.. Ive seen it done a number of times....one thing with ford explorer master cylinder is the reservoir will be taller and stick through the floor a little but I have to redo the floors anyways so im going to just make that into the floors with a cover

 

Thanks HRP! I was trying to make it look acceptable on a budget of not buying pricey hop up speed parts ,started shooting for a nice paint job and leaning away from any thing chrome , with so much chrome parts that can be bought nowadays unless done tastefully the chrome starts to look cheesy and cheap to me.......kinda like my SBC in my c10 that's just my opinion tho, wanted to do something different this time.

 

I can appreciate the keep it simple approach with the engine,it looks great and proves that you can have a nice engine with plenty of detail and still have money left over for more important things on the car. HRP

 

Cool thanks man. Thats what I assumed. I've been talking to another HAMBer today about just this. Thanks and again. Looking great!

Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

Interesting indeed. I never looked at a Desoto driveshaft as I recall, but at one point I bought a driveshaft at Romo's junkyard in Fresno. It was marked '57 Chrys and it had a Detroit cup joint in front & a spider type spicer in the rear. I thought it would make a sturdy shaft for the P-15 once I shortened it a tad.

Never got to use it though. Scrapped by an overzealous landlord.

 

I'm through with chrome for the most part. I'm going to restore all the stainless, and replace the chrome with stainless or stainless-look paint shot with clear. I plan to replace the stock bumpers with custom nerfs, and they will probably be buffed stainless.

The potmetal parts aren't getting rechromed. I'll strip them, fill & paint to look like stainless. Door handles may get replaced with solenoids and a keyfob transmitter.

I'm wondering if I can get 15" stainless wire wheels now. I've never seen a P-15 era Plymouth with wires.

 

Does this one have a bracket to the division bar?

 

That's a pretty attractive color scheme.
I'm going to do mine just like the manual: Red, white, silver-gray & black.

 

Hi Lost Hope.Looking real good.IIRC the biggest portion of those Dodge flat head sixes were very rugged and long lasting.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

 

I gotta chime in and say that is a sweet looking motor. Nice color scheme.

 

Yes it does, it resembles a chevy visor but it is not, it is quite long 58" across, id have to section it down to fit the plymouth and also make the side brackets and center bracket since they were no where to be found.

Hey Leo , Ya these motors are known to be good motors ,thanks for checking in !

Thanks Nopsi for the feedback!

 

Hey Bro….anything new???!!! You seem to be a bit like me and have vaporized off the face of the planet for a bit!! It happens on occasion! Hope all is well…..

 

Whats happening bugsy! I landed that union Pg&e job i was trying for , still a partime employee as of now have a 6 month contract , hopefully Ill end up getting a permanent postion before my 6 months is up, but im working 5-7 days a week 10+ hour days so I have been on eat/sleep/work mode for past couple months and all car/truck activitys have came to a stand still for the moment , but i did do some work to the plymouth i just havent had time to take pictures or post anything...however something did happen on thanksgiving , i had been on instagram like always checking stuff out when i saw a post of a local sacramento guy was trying to sell a 1963 ford truck a week or so ago ,in his add he said his wife and 8yr son and himself had fallen on hard times and been homeless since oct and needed cash to try and get a place..... showed the wife and we decided even tho we didnt need another vehicle( with the 4 classics,bobber project and 2 daily driver ford rangers LOL) that we wanted to help we took a little $ out of our downpayment savings and I had him show up Thanksgiving morning with the truck and purchased it to lend a helping hand... It has a inline 6 and granny 4 speed overall in ok shape having a little trouble with the carb going to rebuild it , just went to picknpull today and got a better shape bench seat to throw in it ,besides that just going to leave it as-is so the wife can drive it around for now:

 

Could "unknown" visor be this? P.S. you still have your Ford?

 

Nice "pick-up" on the truck, hope the PO can get back on his feet. The Ford looks to be very solid and a fun driver/parts chaser. Good to see you are working and hope the temp job gets you to a more permanent position with them.

 

Every time I look at this thread it inspires me to get my Dodge going. I went out to start it a few weeks ago and cooked a wire from the starter. I am pretty sure it was because the battery was low and the starter was struggling. Lesson learned.
Along with a rear axle and transmission change, I was looking at an ECI front disc brake conversion. Anyone have any thoughts on those?

By the way, That was a pretty awesome thing you did with helping that family. Not many people would have done that. I am really looking forward to seeing your 49 finished.
This is my 50 Dodge inherited from my dad.

 

Hey Bro! Congrats on the job and awesome thing you did to help those folks out. That 63 looks solid!!! I've aways liked those. I had a 61 Uni-body for a few hers and liked it. Good solid trucks and look cool as shit! Looking forward to the update on the Plymouth!!!! Glad to hear you are alive and kicking!!!

 

I ended up getting fulton, still have the ford once i get settled in my shop im mess with it a little more got some stuff planned for it

Thanks nomad ! Actually i just got hired on permanent was out of town for two weeks for training , still have a 1 year probation period but glad to get started knocking those days of one at a time and that all my vac, and bennys will start !

Glad you like the thread and it helps motivate you thats really cool to hear that, you car looks to be in pretty decent shape I like the blue! Sucks about the fried wire glad it didnt end up worse !

Well no update on the plymouth been busy with work and all but i did have something in the works for awhile, on the few days i did get off i ended up getting my own shop a couple doors down from my buddys where i had the plymouth at !!!!!! :

moving the plymouth:

 

little time off but i did build a work bench:





Had no power when i moved in so had to call up my buddys and have them wire in a panel once i get a inspection and get power going im going to have rest of plugs lights and 220v plugs put in and then move in compressor right now im still getting stuff moved over and in....between work

 

Click the picture for video: