Hello folks! I am just getting started on this wonderful journey of building up my first car! I picked up a 1948 Plymouth Special Deluxe 4-door from my uncle who bought it sight unseen when he was sh*tfaced several years back. The last time it ran was in the early 1970's and had been kept in a barn in Puget Sound-area Washington ever since. Needless to say, it needs work. Now, I've been doing as much research as I can regarding standard issues with this model and I have a pretty good idea of where to go. However, a friend has just made me an interesting offer. Now, this may offend some of you, but I'm not very picky about keeping it strictly mopar. I just want a ride that is comfortable, reliable, and performs decently; it doesn't have to be outrageous. Anyways, a friend offered me the entire drivetrain, including motor and transmission, out of his 1984 Z28 Camaro if I swap a 350 I have lying around into his Camaro. Now, I've swapped a few motors out before and this is no issue, however, upon doing a bit of research, I noticed that the Z28 Camaro and the 1948 Special Deluxe have nearly identical wheelbases. What I'm wondering is, how difficult do you think this would be to make this work. I would essentially be swapping front-end, motor, trans, and rear-end out of this Camaro. Do you think it would be possible to do without having to do major damage/mods to the frame? Thank you so much for your time and knowledge!
Hmm. Fabricate steering box mount, motor mounts, control arm mounting points, rear suspension mounting points, rig a shifter of some sort, maybe a little clearance work on the trans tunnel, maybe a little BFH work in the engine compartment, possibly fab or scavenge a different steering column, may need to swap out the oil pan. You might want to do some boxing of the frame too. Were you planning to use the brakes, booster, and MC from the Camaro too? No parking brake on the '48 once you remove the trans and driveshaft. Still easier than a frame swap.
The front end of a third gen Camaro will be of no use to you on that car. My preference would be a Mustang II as I have in my car on my avatar, but to start you could certainly rebuild and disc brake what is stock on the front of your Plymouth. I did a Mopar 318 and 727 in mine back when I still had the stock frame clip and it wasn't hard to do, and since the small Mopar and Chevy small block feature very similar sizing, I would say it would fit well and pretty easily. The Chevy would be at the advantage if anything as it's starter motor is on the p***enger side and away from the steering.
If you want a Camaro, buy a Camaro. Don't waste your time trying to turn a 48 Plymouth into a Camaro. The Plymouth was a pretty decent car for its time. A lot of guys are fixing them up these days with the original motor, steering, brakes etc. Maybe with a mild hop up just for the hell of it.
The Plymouth has a very solid frame and pretty decent front suspension. Don't hack it up because you can get cheap parts. The front wheel base is pretty narrow and most clips push the wheels out past the fenders. You can fit most small blocks in with some offset.
Duke 460 makes a very good point. When you do a small block swap in one of these cars, you need to offset it about 1 1/2" to the right. I have recomended it always with these and I have always had folks freak out a bit, but you have to remember that Mopar them selves used the same dodge in the sixties and seventies in their "A" body cars. It also helps off set driver weight a bit to help handling in the car.
Anything you do to put a v8 in it is going to be a ton of work. Whatever you do, figure it ALL out before you begin to save yourself a bunch of work later. Mine was done with the 340/727, and the offset isn't bad at all: The way it was done was to use a donor 1978 Dodge Aspen. It just so happens that the frame lines up perfectly, so the frame was cut off the Plymouth right below the firewall, and the new front end was welded in place and gussetted, which I do NOT recommend doing yourself: The Aspen tilt steering column fits very nicely, but there is more to it than that. Of course, you need to weld your body mounts to the frame, modify the trans and radiator mounts, and figure out what you're going to do with the master cylinder. There's not a lot of room for a brake booster, so in my car's case, it was mounted back near the rear axle, and an access panel cut underneath the rear seat. This let the floor mounted pedal to be used, and by running the exhaust down the p***enger side of the car kept the heat away from it also. Mopar small blocks with headers have a tendency to warm up the ****** pan, so an external cooler was added underneath as well. A ton of work, but the end result for this car is a car that glides down the road, tracks very well and has more power than I'll ever utilize. I hope this gives you some ideas as to the extent of the work that could go into these projects. It's not easy, but it can be very rewarding.
Guys, I didnt' see where he was talking about using the Camaro front end. The Chevy engine and trans swap isn't a big deal if you can make mounts, steering clearance on the driver's side may be an issue. The rearend out of the Camaro will not work. It's too wide. IIRC these are leaf spring suspension, so there are plenty that will work - and get a Ford or Mopar rear so the wheel bolt patterns are the same all the way around, if you're keeping the stock front end.
My bad. I saw he would swap a motor into said Camaro, and well, what good will that be with no front end under the car? The front end isn't even really removable from the third-gen Camaro. It uses struts that bolt into the top of the inner fender. I did see where someone had bought a '51-ish Chevy that had this swapped in, but to make it work they had to about cut the whole front end off the Camaro, with the inner fenders, trim them back to fit the older body, and then weld them up to the firewall. Or maybe it used the Camaro firewall and cut out the older body to fit over it. Really time consuming. And then it's way, way too wide for a '48 Plymouth. It really was too wide for the Chevy, but they made it work somehow.
Well folks, thanks for the advice! I was simply trying to gather information on if it would be possible or not. I'll probably end up just rebuilding the steering box and putting new springs and a disc brake conversion up front. We'll see where this takes us!
My 2 cents? Rebuild what's there and find an old straight 6 as an engine upgrade. It'll go into that era Plymouth MUCH easier.
Lot of Threads on 46-8 Plyms. Relocate the upper shock mounts, disc conversion. The SBC should fit in w/o problems with the offset, but then it would be just another car with a SBC. Rear sump LA Chr from a Van or Pick up would fit also with a little carving of the inner fenders. 71-3 Mustang/Cougar, early 70s Duster fit with a perch relocation, 65-8 C Body is supposed to be a bolt in.
My 50 Plymouth has stock front suspension other than cut coils, relocated shocks, discs and Jeep Cherokee sway bar. Handles and drives fine. As for putting the small block Chev in there, Butch's Cool Stuff sells complete kits to put either small block Chev or Mopar in there. I'd keep it all Mopar. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
i recall a local guy years ago using a 318 in his old mopar, and it seems to me that he was able to use a lot of the stock 318 parts--motor & frame mounts for instance. think he just switched side for side or turned them around, but it was almost like chrysler had planned for it!
On a Sunday Mornin when your car is broke down on the road you can get a 350 chevy replacement part in 5 minutes. An old 6 cylinder boat anchor motor with a lousy 100 horsepower stock motor which actually weighs more than a 350 chevy isn't gonna be too easy to get parts. And on a Sunday my friend, your screwed. If it doesn't bother you to be just another 350 chevy go for it. If you want to be a car shower don't do it.. A Hell Rider yes, by all means. Its your ride
Relocate front shocks, discs, better anti sway bar, alternator, and 0.070" off the head. Done. Drive. Several of my customers use these as daily-drivers. Contrary to some hypotheses, they don't just randomly break down, all of the time. One averages about 15k/yr., aside from consumables, in 4-years, it has needed absolutely nothing.
I say BS. I drove my 48 Plymouth flathead as a daily driver for over 3 years with absolutely zero problems. Made 4 trips to the HAMB drags of more than 800 miles round trip with absolutely zero problems. Only problem I ever had with the flathead was on my way back to Dallas from being part of the HAMB Helping Hands effort following the Joplin tornado and broke a valve. Now the broken valve could not be fixed on the side of the road, but neither could a broken valve in a 350. As for finding parts for a Mopar flathead six, they built these up until the mid 60's in trucks, fork lifts, irrigation pumps, welders, airport tugs etc. Parts are fairly easy to get from NAPA or other big box stores. The most I have had to wait for a part from NAPA was one day while they got the part from the local central warehouse.
Listen to this man. He knows. He's fighting the good fight! You wanted an old car... Drive an old car!
Flat-6's are unbelievably reliable, torquey and can roll with any traffic. I had an OD in mine, got 26-28 MPG's, had it to 114 MPH all while looking incredibly cool doing it. I'm not saying not to run a SBC as I know they are great but don't discount the Mopar 6 cylinder. I think bandwagons are factory built with a SBC.... ******Knuckles
Shoot, my beater is a 1991 and has a 350 Chevy and it has some parts that are already obsolete - at least one you can't buy anywhere at all that I can find, another I had to order twice to get one that was right. But see, the smart guy who drives an old car on trips also carries some spares of the most likely things to fail. Belts, hoses, clamps, fuel pump, maybe a whole generator or alternator, etc. etc. Especially if it's hard to get one.
I will be getting a '47 2dr soon without a motor/trans and was planning on the SBC route as I have an extra but after reading this, I think I'm going with the original flathead. Now back to more reading and research. Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Since your in Lakewood, you are in luck...check out Hagens Hiway Auto Parts in Puyallup. They will have just about everything you need, rings, bearings, suspension parts etc. sitting on the shelf. I get my '34 Ply parts there and Ply only made the '34 version of their 6 for one year, in '35 they completely redesigned the engine and Hagens has always had the parts I needed. I'd vote for the 6...Edgy makes new Al finned heads, intakes etc, or scour swap meets for vintage stuff. If you're going with a V-8 then I'd vote for anything but a SBC. 440 wedge would be awsome, you should be able to get one out of an old RV cheap, tight fit, but cool. Kipp
I had a '46 sedan that had a flathead, Dodge crank, balanced, milled head, Weber 2bbl, Fenton headers, overdrive and air conditioned. Great cruiser, over 20 mpg with the air on at 70 mph. Do the larger sway bar, relocated shocks and take a coil out of the springs - it will sit right, ride and handle great.
I've had a 318 Poly in my 1940 since 1973, 4wheel discs, rack & pinion, rebuilt original style front end etc, etc.....notcake but much easier than front frame clips etc........heres a couple of pics........regards, andyd
I used to wonder why Chevy fans worried about breaking down on the road and getting parts all the time, then I bought one of the damn things.
What kind of work did it take to get that jeep sway bar in there? Also, what year should I be looking for? Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Any regular Jeep Cherokee (1984-2001) bar will work. Get a 1" one. You don't need the donor end links. You will be running it upside-down: Shorty end-links are from the parts store (longer ones can be shortened). Control arm mounts are box tube, split into a channel. The rest is nuts and bolts.
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