Projects Sold the truck, bought a car ('53 Desoto)

My H.A.M.B. Alliance tag.

 

White Walls!

 

Also a little cleaning and some new wires in the engine bay.

 

sittin here waiting for the mud to dry. Here are some more pics.



More filler work on the fenders

 

I thought Big_John would appreciate these pics. Even the "replacement floorpans" that were cruedly screwed and rivited down rotted away.

 

Andy Bernbaum at oldmoparts.com has those brake shoes on the shelf for $62. Cool car, my favorite dash.

 

My local brake shop re-lines shoes. He had the new pads right on the shelf, just your standard 2"x12" linings. He charges $20 a shoe, and fits them to your drum. I had to go back a couple times because the new shoes were way to thick and the drum would not go on. The final solution was to take my backing plate off and bring him everything. He worked on it for over an hour while I stood there watching. He completely overhauled all the adjusters, lubricated everything, AND turned my drum until everything fell together. It is a good thing he machined my drum because it was out of round. He did all this extra work for free, because he felt bad about me having to go there more than once.

He definitely earned my business, I won't go anywhere else for old school brake work.

 

Ouch! That floor looks bad! Makes me feel better about my car!

 

John, I just got back from the garage. I spent a few hours stripping out the galvanized sheet metal someone cobbed in there. Once all that s**** metal was taken away I realized that I have no rocker panels what so ever, Inner OR Outer! Gonna be a fun project.....NOT

I've got that show this coming saturday and as of right now just to get this "drivable" I still need inner and outer rockers, floor pans, full exhaust, brake adjustment, and carb work. Not to mention the DMV ****. Gotta love deadlines.

Keep an eye on this thread through out the week, I should be making some killer progress on a short order.

 

great looking progress, and a beautiful car! I LOVE 4 doors! Personally, I wouldnt bother with the suicide, but thats just me. Looking great!

 

I just read through your build thread and subscribed. As a fellow chrysler moordoor owner (54 New Yorker) I love to see them being brought back to glory.

-Elwood

 

I did it! Got the exhaust installed today and made my normal two trips to the DMV to get it licensed. So now I am driving and legal, just in time for the show tomorrow. A week of thrashing paid off. I drove the car down the road for the first time today, she is a little cold blooded but I'm happy. A school bus put me in the ditch coming around a blind corner, that could have been the worst first drive ever...

I trailered the car to the local muffler shop today and had 2" dual straight pipes installed all the way out the back. Everything was going great today until I loaded the car back on the trailer to take it home. As I was loading the car my lower fender and rocker panel (that i just made and installed yesterday) hit the trailers fender and crinkled it back about 6 inches. That ****ed, and I had no one to blame but myself. ****ty feeling. I had 5 hours into the rocker panel install...

I will post pics tomorrow.

 

My son, my wife, and I were sitting in the DeSoto yesterday as my son pretended to take us for a ride. What a great car, all three of us sat in the front seat with plenty of room to spare. During the trip I decided it was time to clean out the glove box. While doing so I found a *****in Utica Club bottle opener, a pack of 6volt bulbs, a comb, an old ice s****er, an inspection sticker from 1976, and a note pad with service records going back to the '60s.

Every oil change was archived, alternating "summer oil" to "winter oil" and so on. Then on the last page it reads "engine job June 1974. 94,ooo miles" The odometer reads 97,480miles today. No wonder why this thing runs like new, this whole time I was giving Marvel Mystery Oil all the credit.

I also noticed a name and a phone number on the cover of the note pad, I wonder if I could track down the PO or his kin? The car was last on the road in '76, the man could very well be dead by now...

 

I just ordered my Porter Mufflers, and boy do I need them! Dual straight pipes have been driving my son nuts, I feel bad strapping him into the c****at and hitting the highway. He is 2, so he is old enough to tell me "no like your car Dada, too noisy."

I plan to start the tail light swap this week as I finally found a break between jobs at work.

 

My girlfriend used to say the same thing, minus the dada part! One day he'll deny ever saying that!!!

 

Workin on the crusty grill surround now. What a mess...

 

Rcranger gave me the idea of using a piece of conduit for the mandrel bent curve. Works out pretty nicely

Cut it down the center and you now have a right and a left for about $4 at Lowes.

 

Am I the only one who can't see any pictures?

 

I dunno, I uploaded the pics from my HAMB album. Are you logged on?
EDIT: stupid question, you just posted....duh

 

awesome to see an old mopar rollin again. Cool car for sure, good thread on saving her.....

 

Nice I like the desoto, it's good to be a little different. 1950-1954 era cars have some of the best styling imo. that should be a sweet cruzer.

 

Porters came in today! install tomorrow.

 

Heres what got done today. finished up the front end. Just needs primer.


Then moved on to the tail light install.

 

I know, not makin' any money working on my own ****. Gimme a break

 

Nice build. Thanks for being a Porter Supporter!

 

This car is just flat cool. Its one of the four doors that doesnt look akward, that photoshopped picture looks smooth, all the kustomizations youre doing are very tasteful and damn good looking. cant wait to see progress. Just curious, how tall are desoto teeth? Ive been considering them for my car's grin..

 

Streamliner, the teeth are all different heights. I don't know the exact height but if I were to guess off the top of my head I would say that the outer ones are roughly 5" tall then they taper up to around 8" at the center tooth. I'll measure them for you tomorrow.

Porter Man, those pipes are nice. You really know your holding something of quality when you pick one of these up. I put the car up on the lift befor I left the shop, they look like everything will fit perfectly. Quick question, are these directional mufflers?

 

Porter Man: (dont want to hijack the post hillbilly) But Im also concerned with direction of gl***packs/steelpacks. Word is that if the "louvers" flow away from the direction of exhaust flow that itll be louder, and if the mouth of the louvers aim into the direction of flow itll be quieter. Is this accurate? Or does it vary from one make to another?

Hillbilly: Nice fab job on the taillights. Those lenses are a great option for these years and its obvious why! Lookin good!

 

Monster, I've been thinking about it. I'll bet you were right when you said that louvers facing away from the exhaust flow would make the exhaust louder. Exhaust gases flowing into the louvers would definatly cut down on the "bark"

Thats is exactly how I plan to mount my mufflers, louvers facing forward. Although, I bet running them opposite each other could make a unique sound.

 

Porters have a coil spring inside. It doesn't matter which way, they're not directional. On a louvered muffler, (not Porters) The Monster has it right. See above. The Porters do need a little drive time to break in.