Projects my first project thread, 52 Desoto

im pretty new here but i just bought a 52 desoto sportsman 2ht, completly unmolested, has the 276 hemi in it, my plan is to make a daily out of it, seems to have been stored inside all its life as its from NY and has no rust except for a thin spot in drivers side floor. I plan on leaving paint as is. will update thread with pics. Hope to run the Hemi as long as it is in good enough shape. It is currently stuck I believe.

 

Keep the Hemi.

 

...And make your second build something that will show it off to it's advantage! Like a T-bucket, right Fred?

Seriously, a small block Chevy in that Desoto with an A/G body clip ('78-'87 mid sized) would make one hell of a cruiser that can be a reliable daily for many years to come.

 

If you have to pull the drivetrain to put in something more reliable I get it, but do keep the install as clean/simple as possible so you can go back to the hemi someday if you want. Tastes change, including your own.

Hemis have a cool factor not available to most motors.

 

i am keeping the hemi and plan to rebuild it and use it in the car at some point

 

Car manufacturer's really had a thing for big chrome teethy grilles in those days. Nice old girl you've scored there.

 

put a mercury grille in it.

 

Congrats - keep this updated with progress

 

A Hemi powered, open hood ride haunts my dreams. One day.... one day.

 

Picking it up this afternoon! more pics to come once I get it home and unloaded

 

sell the hemi to me.

 

interesting build. gotta love the diversity in cars on this site

 

Got it safely home, here are some more pics and I am waiting on some more to show up in my email, it is going in the garage in the background of some of the pics I just need to clean it out to make room for it. Im getting excited to start this build. Hope to have it on the road by next spring!

 

Sweet, get to work on that thing!

 

Got the garage cleaned out and got it inside!

gonna start taking the front end apart tomorrow after work hopefully

 

Might not be a bad idea to dial in that hemi before you pull it...

 

Awesome car by the way, don't see many of those so complete

 

Expensive to build, but they sure are purdy in hot rods.

 

thanks, it is crazy how complete it is, came with all 4 original hubcaps even, seems to have been owned by a military guy originally as it has an old plattsburgh AFB sticker on the front bumper, The Desoto letters from the hood are the only thing that its missing

as far as dialing in the hemi the guy i got it from didnt have it running in the short time he had it. I have thought about trying to get it started before i dismantle the front end, im sure it needs points and the plug wires look pretty rough so not sure if i will, there is a NY inspection sticker from 1980 on the windshield so im guessing that was the last time it was on the road

 

The tear down is coming along pretty well, its been coming apart pretty easily, only a few bolts have broken and only 1 causality which was on the grill unfortunately, need a new drivers side tooth with the blinker assembly. Rockers are in amazingly good shape, was super surprised when i popped the trim off

 

cool car, if youre going to be like all the other boobs out there and put a small block chevy in it, sell it to someone that will keep it all mopar, buy a chevy and put the small block chevy in that.

 

one hell of a first build. im jelious . my advise to you would be to get the hemi running, button her back up and drive it for a while. its hard to work on a completely ripped apart car especially if its your first build. trust me im saying this from experience.. good luck

 

x2.

 

I totally get where you are coming from but I dont currently have a couple grand to throw at a hemi build, I dont think it has ran in at least 20 yrs so its gonna need some work. I plan to build it and put it back in the car in the future. Only putting a SBC in temporarily since they are cheap and easy to work on, I know its kinda cookie cutter but im eager to get the thing on the road

and im only dismantling the front clip, leaving everything else as is except for converting from 6V to 12V

 

located my front clip today

 

pulled one of the spark plug tubes today and lightly scrapped the head with a screwdriver and got a nice piece of gunk, dont think this thing is going to run in its current state, basically done with the teardown except for the radiator support and then pulling the motor and tranny, was able to keep all wiring intact, got a front clip from a 74 camaro lined up so things are starting to come together

 

After some thought the past couple days I think Im gonna rebuild the HEMI, just means I wont have it on the road as soon as I had hoped, got a new ignition for the car so I have a key now so Im gonna try a little harder to get it running over the weekend, still would like to clip it or at least convert the front drums to disc and hopefully add PS somehow

 

Lots of threads here about bringing a motor that's been sitting back to life. Order a gasket set and start reading. Good luck on the condition!

 

Why would you want to replace the original hemi and stock suspension with a SBC and Camaro subframe? That would be like gutting a Rolex and sticking in a Casio movement, or trying to make a ukelele out of a Fender Stratocaster.

If I was there I bet I could have that engine eating out of my hand in half a day. No kidding I have gotten cars on the road that have been out of commission for 30 years and stored in a dirt floor garage. Your car should be a piece of cake.

Far from spending thousands of $$$$$ rebuilding the hemi, I would spend tens of $$$$ putting it back on the road instead of thousands of $$$$ and hundreds of hours turning it into just another 350/350 abortion.

 

Or better yet, if you want a Camaro buy a Camaro and sell the DeSoto to me.