Hello everyone! I am not new to wrenching, but I am new to modifying/updating an old car. I inherited my dads 1950 Dodge Coronet and he has the body looking good, but the interior is an bad shape, upholstery wise. It has the original 230 flathead with a gyro-matic transmission. I had two schools of thought in her modernization; 1. retain the flathead and find a good transmission to put behind it, and maybe a rear end that will get the old girl cruising at 65-75 comfortably; adding disc brakes in the front; and of course re-upholster. B. Change out the motor transmission and rear end completely with a small block and auto transmission - like a 318 or something...and the other stuff mentioned. I am not looking to make a speed machine, rather a good daily driver. Any suggestions on a good simple transmission swap or advice on any of the above mentioned mods would be greatly appreciated. I have read several posts about the transmission but they seem to be mostly focused on the S10 TS. Are there others that might be a better fit if I stick with the flathead? Thanks, Dave
Dave, welcome from Kansas City...got a '49 myself and had the same idea with the trans but thought I'd keep the flathead for kicks and grins. Use the 'search' feature as I recall reading several posts about the possible swaps for these bodies and the 318. One member did the S10 front subframe w/ the bowtie v6 and T5, search and you'll have some great reading. (oh, don't forget the lug nuts on the driver side are backwards, righty-loosey and lefty-tighty)
Here is my dads Coronet. he took very good care of it and was on his way to having it almost done when he p***ed away. The only things that are really wrong with it are the transmission and the upholstery. I want to preserve my dads work but also make it my own. So i am keeping the flathead- (freshly rebuilt) and doing some minor upgrades, and swapping the ******/rear axle, and upgrading the brakes....and of course re-upholstered.
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