1948 Plymouth coupe looking for chassis ideas.

im from miami. right now im really only working on the motor until i can get some cars out of the shop and bring the plymouth over from my moms garage. god bless that lady for letting me keep my junk in there well thats if you want to call my plymouth and my rc51 junk. i wont but tot hem it is. soon enough the body and frame will be at my ware house a the work will begin i re reffer to alot of the info i got from this thread and link some of the guys gave me along with ideas. i will then make a build page for it.


thanks again everyone.


hopefully withing a month or two i can finally start on the frame and body

 

Hey eviltwin! Nice to hear from ya! I was just thinking the other day, with you being from Miami and all, there is someone that I have seen threads from on here that does some pretty impressive work, and seems to have his own shop. He goes by the screen name TylerDurban, just like the fight club movie. I'm not saying have him do your work or anything, but maybe just introduce your self as a fellow H.A.M.B.er and talk a bit. It's always good to meet others out there into your same gig, ya know?

 

We put a 73 Omega (Nova) clip under my 48 business coupe. We had to narrow it 3/4 of an inch to set the wheels under the fenders right. Used the matching Omega rearend. It's powered by a 318 and 727.

For the guys without narrowed clips, finding the right wheel (that still looks good) is tough. I've seen that someone makes short a-arm kit (one inch), but can't think who's doing it off the top of my head.

The Omega clip handles well, but I don't road race it.

Eric's articles were my guiding light when we were putting this car together. I couldn't wait for the mail to bring the next issue.

Thanks Eric!

Mike

 

Thanks for the kind words.




The Plymouth still lives and is driven regularly. Lots of road rash, but lots of happy miles...

 

Eric, I still love your car! Makes me think about going to the stock gray on mine too. More black primer for now...
Hey, what tire and wheel sizes are you running on yours?

 

Fronts are BFG T/A 195/70R/14 on 14x6 American Torque Thrust D's; Rears are BFG T/A 235/70R/15 on 15x7 American Torque Thrust D's.

Front suspension is MII with ECI large rotor disc brake conversion, the only one that will clear 14" wheels and which does not increase front track. I'll be stepping up for QA1 adjustable coil-overs soon. Custom stub frame is Z'd w /heavy anti-sway bar.

The rear axle is '59 Edsel with stock Edsel drums on Chassis Engineering parallel leafs w/ heavy rear anti-sway bar and air shocks (I pull a car-hauler trailer with this rig - hitch is tucked underneath and the receiver is plugged by the Lone Wolf plaque in these photos). Everything tucks under nicely with no rubs.



Ray narrowed the rails in the rear and installed mini-tubs so's I could go racing if'n I ever wanted to, but probably not necessary for the current axle/tire/wheel combo.

Thanks for asking.

 

man id like to see more of this build. thanks guys for the responses and yea i know of this tylerdurben guy but id rather still buiild it myself i have all the confidnence and experience with chassis work and thanks to the time i was into the lowriders and hoppers i got to mess around with alot of frame modding, and rear end placement. i have no fear going into this i have been turning wrnches for a while and even thoughh ive yet to build something this old i have no doubts it will be special in the end. im still waiting on my molases ass machine buddy to finish my heads and manifolds so until the engine is built and i decide what trans combo im going with the body will sit on the chassis in my moms climate controlled garage. thanks ma.

 

Sorry to bring this old thread back to life but I was looking at purchasing one of these cars and curious about the handling as well or if there has been any new technology to come along

H.

 

I have only had my P15 since fall, but have driven it around my town a fair bit, to and from work, and what both of these guys said 12 years ago is still true. They handle and stop well, better than the '64 comet I used to have.
Stock suspension parts are available, desoto parts can be used to upgrade. Overall these are fairly affordable cars to own and drive. I love mine and glad I didn't end up with a similar year ford or chevy.

 

What do you expect it to handle like?
The original suspension on these cars was years ahead of what the computation was building. The original design was the "floating on air" ride quality, the rage of the time. Parts are still available to rebuild them.

Originally, the shocks were attached between the unequal length upper and lower control arms. Moving the shock from the upper control arm to a bracket welded (or bolted) to the frame brings the suspension into more modern ride quality, instead of the mushy "float" style ride, (kits are available to move the shock, but a do it yourself isn't really that hard) About 1/2 the cars came without a sway bar, and those that did have one, the sway bar was pretty small diameter. A modern sway bar off a CJ Jeep farther improves the handling and modern ride quality (again, kits are available, but a do it yourself isn't that hard).
The original brakes were also ahead of their time, but were a pain to get adjusted correctly. The replacement parts are still available, but a disc brake conversion improves the brake function, and may actually be less expensive then OEM replacement parts if it needs drums (getting pretty hard to find). I recommend a complete disc brake conversion.
The rear drums are a royal pain to remove, and the rear gear is not very friendly without an OD. Though brake parts are available (except maybe rear drums) I wouldn't even consider not swapping the complete rear end with something more modern. Jeep 8 1/4 (watch the wheel bolt pattern) or a Ford 8.8 (watch the wheel mounting to wheel mounting distance) are a couple of options keeping the 5 on 4 1/2" bolt pattern.
The next thing is these cars came without power steering. They had BIG steering wheels, and with well greased front suspension were not bad paralleled parking. Adding power steering can get tricky, but more choices are available these days.

The original frame on my car was rotted away, so my car has one of those smaller Dodge truck frames under it. We have driven it over 90,000 miles since 2012. The 47 Plymouth we have before this one with the original frame and suspension logged many thousands of miles as well. It rode and drove great. It had a disc brake conversion, a rear end swap, but new shocks mounted it the original position, a bigger front sway bar probably helped too. . Gene