I've had this 50 Dodge Wayfarer convert for almost five years, so I guess it's time to start in on her. This thread will probably be slow at times as I still work full time and my bank account is not exactly flush at the moment - so bear with me. Here's the car in all its glory. Kind of a rare old thing, not as sleek as the GM offerings of the same period, but I have always had a soft spot for these old Mopar ragtops. Up top she doesn't look too bad, and to make things easy I have four new old stock fenders that I found hanging on the wall of an old dealership. They still have the factory shipping tags attached. The original 49 Wayfarer converts were true roadsters with plexi side window inserts. Wasn't very popular so they started building them with roll up windows - like mine. It's a two seater - no back seat, but man you should see the size of the trunk! Like I said, up top she looks okay, but underneath she suffers from the usual convertible cancer. You can't see from this shot, but the front floors are gone. Someone did a half-assed patch job that's coming out right away. The footboards, the rear floors and the trunk are all in very good shape. Solid - even the bottom of the spare tire well! It looks like there was some poor work done on the door bottoms and quarters. once the paint's off, I'll know how bad it really is. This car originally had boxed inner rockers to stiffen the softtop body. On the passenger side, there is still some of the inner rocker left. On the drivers side it's almost totally gone. It must have sat in a puddle of water or been parked at an angle for awhile. The body supports are in rough shape. But, luckily, buried under all that crap is another convert frame. And that frame has good body supports. Naturally there is a problem. I was hoping to swap frames, but the "good" frame is rotten around the front suspension, so I'll have to cut off the supports and weld them on the existing frame. Nothing is ever easy. Plans are to keep the exterior stock and drop in a 360 or a 440 with an auto. Disk brakes and a Mopar rearend. I plan on keeping the stock suspension, relocating the shock mounts and maybe adding a rack and pinion setup. The wife loves driving in our bone stock 48 Plymouth, but we want a cruiser for the highway and for longer road trips. Don't kill me, but I probably won't lower her much - I want clearance for the back roads we like to drive. Time to back the 48 out and get to work. I'm out of town for the next two weeks, but I'll get back on it when I return.
For a highway cruiser you'd be best off getting a 318 or 360 out of a van or pick up with an overdrive tranny. Easier to fit & better on the wallet than the BB.
my first car was a 49 with the slip in windows, a great car put a standard clutch, split exhaust and 2 97's. enjoy it mine got sent to the car heaven.
I just happen to have a 360 out of a running car but needs rebuilding and I will throw in an extra set of heads already magged, and I have a 727. If you can pick up I'll make you a great deal. I'm in Ohio 44060
Sweet convertible, I have a 50 Business Coupe and would really like to see how your ride turns out so please keep us all posted with as many pictures as you can.
Thanks guys. I'm looking at my extra frame - I hope the tranny will clear the extra X-brace the convertibles have. This is a short wheelbase car and the stock gearbox doesn't have the normal extension on the rear so it can clear the X-member. Like I said above, nothing is easy.
Looks great! I just started working on a 51 sedan! I'll be picking everyone's brain on here in no time! Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
Just got my 50 wayfarer 2 door sedan on the road just in time for the end of summer. I dropped in a 360/904 out of a cordoba, an 8 1/4 inch rear out of an aspen, and Put disk brakes on it over the last three years. I love everything about these cars and I'd love to find a roadster.
Some Mopar fun at my place. Here's my car arriving from Wisconsin several years ago. My dad and I rolled it off the transporter and drove it home. I live in the boonies and the truck couldn't get to our house. Dad passed away last year at 91. Sad that he won't see the Wayfarer finished. Better views of the carnage underneath. Found a 241 Red Ram Hemi a few years ago. You may remember these pix - the guy I bought the motor from had a unique, and very quick, method of removing it. Got the hemi home. And had a hell of a time taking it apart. I finally freed the pistons up enough to drive them out with a brass drift and a hammer. They were in there a long time, sitting in watery oil. I'm going to take everyting down to a local rebuilder, but I don't have enough experience to know if this beast is salvagable. I just don't know if I can afford the rebuild even if it's possible, as I've heard the horror stories about these motors. I also want a dependable cruiser so the Hemi will probably have to wait for another project I have in mind. A 360 probably makes more sense and there are a million of them around here for sale cheap.
When I first got the car, the idiot who attempted to repair it had sprayed piss yellow bed liner everywhere. The floors, the trunk, the doors. All these years later I still haven't peeled all of that crap out of the car. It sticks like glue. Even a heat gun doesn't help that much. But it all has to be removed to see what horrors lurk beneath. He also welded in a big piece of useless sheetmetal behind the seat that I had to cut out. All it did was add weight. Maybe he though it would stiffen the body and he could ignore the non-existant inner rockers. Here's the same area once I got everything cleared out. The back floors look pretty good - just a little work needed around the brace behind the door opening.
So a friend of mine was looking the Wayfarer over one day and says, "Hey, I've seen a car just like that parked in the woods over by my place." I immediately suggested that we drive over and take a look. this what we found. It was a '49 and pretty rough, but the body supports actually looked good - I could see them through what was left of the floor. We manged to find the owner and I bought it for 500 bucks. When I was picking it up, the owner mentions that he has the complete top mechanism up in his trailer! I get that in the deal and it's pristine - the canvas straps look brand new. There wasn't much left of the fenders or lower body of this car but I have a good upper cowl, door tops, and the convertible top stamping around the cockpit that I can graft onto a business coupe someday. Plus, I have the entire top mechanism and all the hardware. And a nice grill.
Yeah, I don't claim to be an expert, but i'm going to try and get this car back where it belongs. Luckily, most of the damage seems to be cosmetic so far.
I needed a good floor and spoted a 50 Wayfarer Sedan on a trailer at the St. Louis swap meet. The body was just sitting on an incorrect frame, but the floor was solid and the car had a lot of good parts - including a mint grill with stainless that I needed. I bought it and towed it home where some buddies and I cut it up for parts. Love the color. Check that solid floor. I have a really nice sedan trunk lid and two rear fenders if anybody needs them.
On your 241 check the cyl walls & lifter bores. Yes, they aren't cheap to build & a 318/360 would be the cheap way to go. The 241 has a nominal 7.0/7.1 C/R, there's a 241 build on webrodder, their 241 measured out @ 6.19! You really need custom pistons in the 9-10 area. T R waters can convert that 2 bl into a 4 bl intake & clean up the combustion chambers if rough.
Okay, I need some help. My 48 moredoor just needed some minor floor patching so I've never attempted such a huge project on a car. I have a chicken or egg, catch 22 problem here and need some advice. I have a frame with good body supports but a rusted out front area where the suspension mounts. It's stripped and sandblasted. I have the car sitting on the original frame that appears to have a solid front area but the body supports are rusted to practically nothing. The body sitting on this frame has no inner rockers or boxed rockers left. It's basically being held together by the outer rockers. When I open the doors I can move them up and down a good two inches and watch the cowl area flex like crazy. With the doors closed it sags in the middle, especially on the drivers side. The front door gaps are tight at the top and 1/2 wide at the bottom. So where do I start? I'm not sure I can brace the body enough to take it off the frame. If I tried it now, the body would simply fold up, and I'm not sure exactly how to brace it so it would survive removal. This isn't an A body - it's big and heavy with a huge trunk. It looks like it would take a couple of railroad rails to brace it. I could cut the good body supports off the spare frame and weld them to the original frame, but with the body on the frame that seems to be a tough job - Not much room under there and the convert supports mount right at the top of the frame. Either way, I need solid body mounts on the frame to fab up the new inner and boxed rockers and get the doors hanging straight. What do you guys think is the best approach?
Not sure where you are with the build, but keep in mind that the large box sections behind the rockers are the structural component for the convertible. Make sure the body and door openings are aligned when you rebuild the box section. Also I think the frame for a convertible is unique to that model, just in case you are thinking of a new/different frame. MOPAR forever.
Not a lot of progress as I've been out of town on a video shoot. I've been spending most of my time ripping a 1/2 inch thick layer of bedliner off the floors and cutting off the world's worst patch job on the floorboards. Charlie66 - don't worry, I plan to brace and align the hell out of it before I rebuild the inner rockers. The latch on the drivers side is toast, so I'm looking for a better one to install so the door closes correctly. Sticking with the original frame which has the correct X-brace, although I'm going to have to patch a couple of soft spots and replace most of the body supports.
What a beautiful ragtop bro. I love ol MoPars and that line up at your place is awesome. Best wishes on a soon to be cruzer! I just looked at a 50 Dodge hardtop with a slant six in it, he wants 3,500.00 for it, and it is worth it, just no $ right now. Rock on ~sololobo~
Hey, Here's how I'd go about your frame -body strength issue: I'd align each of the doors to their openings, with perfect panel gaps at the A Post & B Post. I'd next build a box section from square tube in the passenger compartment, with each corner of that box to contact the cowl and A Post, and the area where the B Post and door jam meet. Next I'd ''X'' brace this box, much like the convertable frame this vehicle sits upon, and securely weld all tubes to the body. If done properly, this tube framed box will do the job the frame formerly did, and allow you to remove the body from the frame, something that will need doing if complete welding and rebuilding of the inner rockers and out riggers is to be done. Once all the cutting, fabbing , and welding necessary is completed remount the body to the frame, with new rubber/urethane body mounts, and bolts, tighten bolts on frame, and remove welded in tube cage, You should have no alignment issues "if'' you've braced and welded carefully I'd be more temped to restore this one given its' low production numbers than to street rod it, but I get the driveability deal of the newer power train " Spending a nation into generational debt is not an act of compassion "
So, how did/does the 241 look after disassembly and cleaning? The combustion chamber in the pic doesn't look promising but it can be saved if another can't be found to your liking. What horror stories have you heard? A properly rebuilt 241 is no less dependable than any other engine and certainly has the potential for substantial power output if you want to go crazy. The EarlyHemi engines cost more to rebuild than newer engines simply due to the lack of parts sales volume today, just like the early Cad or Olds. .
Or by insalling decent C/R pistons in the 9-10 range goes a long way to respectable HP from the small CID.
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