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Location: Williams California | After the Tulsarama trip last summer, and then our wedding in August, I and M'lisa didn't have much $'s left for much of a honeymoon vacation.
Earlier this spring, I had picked up this '58 Dodge Sierra that was partially dis-assembled, and media blasted, and left behind at a rod shop where I bought it from the owner of the shop. After looking it over, I thought it would be a waste to part it out, as there was no floor rust at all, and most of the body was straight.
I mentioned to M'lisa that it might be fun to do a quick resto on the car, and then take a trip around the country in the fall- we both like taking trips on the old 2-lane roads to see the REAL America. We're shooting for the car to be completed by early October, and keeping costs down on the project to leave money for fuel [which we'll need plenty of at this rate!]. We'll post pics as it progresses. ---John
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Location: Montreal, Canada | Cool, cool, cool John
Can't wait to see progress on this one. 
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Location: Williams California | After unloading all the boxes of parts from the car, I discovered that most of the side moldings were missing, all the door panels, and several other items. I called the fellow that I bought the car from, and he simply said that he didn't have time to look through the car to determine what was there. He told me that he would try to find the parts, as well as send me a bill of sale. I hate when people pull stuff like that!
Upon close inspection, I discovered many pinholed areas where the media blast had perforated the body-better to find these now than later though. ---John
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Location: Scottsdale, AZ | Love those wagons John. Hope you get it done in time for a nice trip. Just JB Weld the pinholes! lol |
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Location: Williams California | Next step was to cut all thin and corroded metal away until solid sheet metal could be found. The size of the holes increased drastically here. As is usually the case, pockets of trapped dirt and/or sound deadening material was found in all these spots. I used a Miller plasma cutter to do this quickly and efficiently. ---John
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Location: Williams California | jsrail - 2008-06-25 10:07 AM
Love those wagons John. Hope you get it done in time for a nice trip. Just JB Weld the pinholes! lol
Thanks, Jay, I'm going to try my best to have it ready to go-most of the work I'm doing has to be done at night, still gotta work to pay the bills. ---John |
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Location: Williams California | I used a high pressure air nozzle to reach up intu the inner panels, and it was amazing what all came out. Dirt, sand, old yellowjacket nests, even an old penny from 1956! With a high speed wire wheel, I removed all the loose rust in these areas, welded up any holes from either rust or the plasma cutter, and treated the metal with Over-Rust, a product that is similar to POR-15, but is sold for ag equipment that is left outside yearly. I dressed the edges of the cut areas to prepare them for welding. ---John
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Location: Williams California | Patch panels- I didn't want to put out money for patch panels, as the aftermarket ones I have bought in the past rarely ever fit correctly. I made my own pieces using the contoured sections from other body panels. Out in the scrap bin, I had a portion of a '60 Ferd quarter panel, a '62 Merc innerfenderwell, and a '56 Desoto fender. I had saved all the pieces I had cut out, to match up the curvature of them to the replacement pieces. Bingo! got all right on, except for the right lower quarter. I had to do that one in two pieces. ---John
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Location: Williams California | After stitch-welding all the patches [to cut down on the chance of warpage] and then the final welding, all welds were ground down, and the surrounding areas were cleaned of any primer. I'm not going to post a ridiculous # of photos, as everyone here has seen it many times over.
Solder-
rather than to purchase sticks of solder @ $3.50 each from Eastwood, when we scrap junk radiators and cut quarter panels off, I have the guys save all the body solder that runs out in a pan. I made a mold to pour fresh sticks of lead to save money. These are some of the tools I use for doing this work, most are quite a bit older than the car. ---John
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Location: Williams California | I tinned the metal with Tin-Ezy compound, which is basically powdered lead and acid combined. This is the most important part in the process to ensure a lasting job, and the metal must be 100% clean in order for it to work properly- This is the right side rocker with a light coat of solder from the tinning-
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Location: Williams California | The solder is applied in rather a lumpy fashion, then is heated with a small torch so it can be worked with a paddle. The paddles are hardwood, and will stick to the hot solder, so you must lubricate them to prevent this. Some folks will use Tallow[ sheep fat] while others choose to use a lightweight oil, which is what I use. Happened to have half a container of auto trans fluid, so that is what I used. ---John
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Location: Williams California | The elbow grease comes next- All areas are then filed smooth, this is quite time consuming. Any air or power tools will release very fine lead dust, which can poison you. Here are some of the areas, near completion. ---John
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Location: Williams California | I removed all the glass, as well as the garnish pieces around the quarter windows that were showing rust, and it was no wonder they rusted- there was zero paint or any kind of protective coating applied from the factory. I cleaned the loose rust off with the wire wheel, and applied the rust treatment to the body. I can save a few pieces of the garnish trim, but the right side one was shot- I'll rob one from a parts car later. ---John
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Location: Falicon 06 France | That's a very nice wagon you've got here, remind me mine, but you've got less rust then I do, I like to know how to repair the rust as you do !!! I must learn 'cause all the body repair shop see big $$$ when you bought them a car like this, or don't want to do them !!
If you've got a 318ci with 2 barrel, it won't cost you that so much fuel !!! |
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Location: Hell's Outhouse - a.k.a. Buckeye, Arizona | May?
Hey! You've been holding out on us, John.
Not bad when you've got a solid base to work with..... |
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Location: Williams California | mangodart - 2008-06-25 12:37 PM
That's a very nice wagon you've got here, remind me mine, but you've got less rust then I do, I like to know how to repair the rust as you do !!! I must learn 'cause all the body repair shop see big $$$ when you bought them a car like this, or don't want to do them !!
If you've got a 318ci with 2 barrel, it won't cost you that so much fuel !!!
Emmanuel, most body shops prefer to do production work, as the jobs can be completed quickly for greater profit. The reason most shops either refuse to, or write a sky-high estimate, is that they are afraid of finding 'surprises' such as poor prior body work, and of course, rust. If you do the grunt work and strip the car to bare metal, most shops are more willing to write a more reasonable estimate, as now everything is exposed. ---John |
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | So, THAT'S what they mean by "tin-worm".
Amazing/scary what-all lies beneath seemingly good condition sheetmetal, huh?
That good-Luck penny may date to your car's manufacture. Too bad it's not Y-o-M !
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | John, can you confirm, revise, or refute my theory that the factory did not bother to dip, fully, the cars into their
rust-proofing vats????----thus allowing the upper rusting to occur?
As a side-bar, the factory rust-coating may and does get deservedly poor marks, but, at least it was applied, and this
upper-area rust out shows what happens when there isd NO rust proofing applied.
Finally, how difficult is is to remove 1/4 windows, and who makes/sells weatherstrips for them, and do those windows
show delamination/oxidation around their edges, and are any aftermarket windows available, today ? Wrecking-yard/
parts-cars, only?
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Location: NY & VT | Nice work John!! - great to see you doing it right, with lead! I'm also doing all the bodywork on my 'Sweep with body solder, just lke the factories did back in the good ol' days! It's becoming a lost art - very few shops or DIY'ers will do it any more. |
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Location: NY & VT | Neil - I removed the rear 1/4 windows on my '57 Sport Sub - it wasn't hard - I really took my time, mine were perfect with no delamination, and it was the super rare tinted glass, it was an A/C car, impossible to replace it on a wagon I'd think. That car still awaits resto by a friend, resting quietly in a dry barn.
One odd thing I found was that the factory had used long thin strips of leftover headliner "cardboard" as shims all along the bottom edge of the 1/4 windows!!! I never found any new gaskets/weatherstrips, but then again I hadn't checked with GG. |
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | I'm pretty sure that G.G. doesn't re-pop those weatherstrips---talk about PRECISION, though; NO room for error in making them, but LOTSA room for OEM build-error in creating and installing the window-openings !
Funny/nice thing, though: we don't tend to see rust-out/leakages associated WITH the installation of OEM 1/4 windows. During the trip to/from Tulsa, I discovered SEVERAL previously-unknown windshield leakages (during Gully-Womper storms) round the header-panel area, including one bad-leak (once-started) which came down on the top of the steering wheel!
My car's rear window has a bad leakage-area, that drips down onto the rt/rr seat top (even duting a light storm/car-washing).
Fortunately, I've got clear plastic seat covers installed, so there is no damage to the upholstery.
So, the factory "shims" appeared to work, just fine, in your car's 1/4 glass, Roger!!!!
Edited by d500neil 2008-06-25 5:26 PM
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Elite Veteran
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Location: Poznan, Poland, Europe | Poor Dodge, it must have hurt it to have all this metal cut out  but at least it looks that you know what you're doing, Big M, and the final effect will be worth the pain it had to go thru. I've once seen a Sierra in brown&beige, very nice. |
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Location: Detroit MI area | John,
Welcome to the station wagon club! Unfortunately the tin worm sets the intiation rules.
Neil, I'll let John cover his '58 but I can tell you the factory applied nothing to any inner part of my '57 Dodge wagon. Every part that was cut off or cut open from the lowest floor braces up to the roof revealed bare metal inside. Not even primer. My car looked decent until it came back from the media blaster. That's when you find out how bad they are. 62 metal patches later (who's counting and I'm not bitter) and several of John's fine used parts and the car is making good progress. Other than Sisu's wagon I've never seen a truly rust free Dodge wagon no matter where it came from.
Gary Goers sells the quarter glass weatherstrips. They actually pretty simple things. No one makes the glass. I see them in yards and several times a year on ebay. The tough weatherstrps are for the tailgate. Gary also sells them but it takes multiple pieces.
Jim Krausmann
Detroit
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Location: Montreal, Canada | Jim,
Your car is looking goooood, man
Did you put together a photo album?????
If not, hope you do. It may be useful when I start my '59 Dodge resto.
Great work John. Keep it comin' bro  |
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Location: Williams California | d500neil - 2008-06-25 1:52 PM
John, can you confirm, revise, or refute my theory that the factory did not bother to dip, fully, the cars into their
rust-proofing vats????----thus allowing the upper rusting to occur?
As a side-bar, the factory rust-coating may and does get deservedly poor marks, but, at least it was applied, and this
upper-area rust out shows what happens when there isd NO rust proofing applied.
Finally, how difficult is is to remove 1/4 windows, and who makes/sells weatherstrips for them, and do those windows
show delamination/oxidation around their edges, and are any aftermarket windows available, today ? Wrecking-yard/
parts-cars, only?
Neil, just like Jim's wagon, there was only bare metal on the hidden upper body areas, no effort was made to hold back the rust. Goers and an E-bay seller, user name ladnsin, has the gasketing available for the quarter glass. These windows are tempered glass rather than laminated, and are not available as reproductions. They are not too tough to find, as all the Mopar wagons from '57-'59 use the same ones. I will probably elect to change all the windows to the Solex glass when it comes time to re-install them. ---John
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Location: Williams California | A couple coats of primer and a guide coat later, starting to look a bit better.
Mind you, I still will have hours and hours of block sanding and panel alignment to contend with, but until I get to the stage of having the mechanicals in good shape, I'll wait to do it. The car is in an open barn, and accidents can happen.
Next- to get the drivetrain together! ---John
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Location: Scottsdale, AZ | Great work John. Coming along at a good pace it seems (for what you've had to deal with). Thanks for all the pics and know-how. |
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Location: Ballwin, Missouri | What did you do about all of the little pin holes that surfaced after the media blasting??
Was that just a little drop of lead on each hole, like the big spots?? |
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Location: NY & VT | My wagon also had no primer inside any upper panel - the rust on the underside of the roof was everywhere, and the inner removable roof moldings were actually eaten through in a number of areas. The channel over the rear tailgate was completely rotted inside & out, as were channel areas over the rear 1/4 windows and the windshield header... that's why it now belongs to a professional body man! Oddly the lower channels of the rear 1/4 windows were solid, but the top areas were shot! Guess that water never heard of gravity, or it became trapped up there. And this was a desert Eastern WA car!
Edited by firedome 2008-06-26 11:35 AM
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Location: Williams California | RoyalGate - 2008-06-25 10:20 PM
What did you do about all of the little pin holes that surfaced after the media blasting??
Was that just a little drop of lead on each hole, like the big spots??
Any of the pinholes that had solid metal around them [most became larger holes] I turned the wire speed and amperage down on the MIG welder, and carefully filled the holes, using a wet rag to wipe the panel down in between each time. It's very easy to warp large panels if the metal expands too much, and the wet rag helps to shrink the metal back into place. ---John |
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | I would really like to be able to go back in time, and listen to the discussions that the boardroom boys had, about why the wagons didn't need to receive proper and full rust treatment.
"Oh, Hell, they're just tools that nobody's ever gonna be interested in; by the time that any UPPER-area rust-outoccurs, the cars will be needing to be replaced with a newer one, anyway. Don't worry about it.
It's not as if anybody is ever going to want to RESTORE (which term probably didn't exist,
in the mid-50's) one. "
Edited by d500neil 2008-06-26 4:39 PM
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | The fact that the 1/4 glass is tempered, is probably a GREAT thing, as they will not oxidize at their edges, like a laminated
glass panel will, and does, do, huh??? |
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Location: Williams California | I've never seen tempered glass deteriorate at the edges, Neil. The de-lamination seen in laminated glass is caused by the deterioration of the vinyl that is sandwiched inbetween the two layers of glass. Just like any other glass, tempered is not immune to scratches and chips. ---John |
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | Yeah, the deterioration is due to air working its way between the glass layers and harming/discoloring the sandwiched
vinyl layer.
NOW; if somebody would just re-pop the perforated masonite headliner material....MoPar
Mel is re-doing the headliner bows.
Edited by d500neil 2008-06-26 5:27 PM
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Location: NY & VT | Who could afford Mel's bows, for a wagon, at $100 apiece!! I think he and Mitchell must be cousins... "just milk the suckers!!!" |
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | I'm no shill for anyone, but, Mel does have a lot of development and manufacturing costs to recoup before
he realizes any significant profit from his endeavor.
This might sound outrageous, but I could see $750.00 being charged for a complete set of correct custom-painted perforated masonite headliner panels.
With computerization, the creation of "endless-loop" paint-masking would not appear to be too difficult to design, for those panels.
Then, all that would be required is the fabrication of correct-fitting perforated light-weight 'masonite' material, which would have fiberglass insulation attached to it(??)
Edited by d500neil 2008-06-28 6:53 PM
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Location: NY & VT | My '58 hardtop has off white masonite panels that have boomerang-like patterns in light grey on them... is that typical?
Most of mine are good enough to use, but there is some warpage - how to fix that, before re-installing them...?? |
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Location: New Jersey | John---What color are your going to paint it?---Fred |
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Location: Voss,Norway | firedome - 2008-06-29 3:56 PM
My '58 hardtop has off white masonite panels that have boomerang-like patterns in light grey on them... is that typical?
Most of mine are good enough to use, but there is some warpage - how to fix that, before re-installing them...??
Roger
The mid section panel in my 57 Belvedere had some warpage and the stiffnes in the panel was gone so it was sagging badly.
What i did, i had it on a plate under the double madrass in the bed for 10 years and after that it was good as new.
Had the stiffnes back and no sagging at all.
Its true, you should try it but maybe its enough with 5 years....... LOL
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Location: Victoria, BC, on Vancouver Island, Canada | d500neil - 2008-06-25 1:52 PM John, can you confirm, revise, or refute my theory that the factory did not bother to dip, fully, the cars into their rust-proofing vats????----thus allowing the upper rusting to occur? As a side-bar, the factory rust-coating may and does get deservedly poor marks, but, at least it was applied, and this upper-area rust out shows what happens when there isd NO rust proofing applied. Finally, how difficult is is to remove 1/4 windows, and who makes/sells weatherstrips for them, and do those windows show delamination/oxidation around their edges, and are any aftermarket windows available, today ? Wrecking-yard/ parts-cars, only? Neil, I didn't think the factory did ANY rust proofing dips until the 1960 Unibody cars came out. I know those ones were dipped, as I could actually see where it was dipped up to, ( to about half way up / 18" ) inside the trunk on the quarter panels of my ex- 1960 Polara . This 1960 Saratoga that I have now was also sprayed ( by the dealer , or whomever ?? ), with tar undercoating all over the place, on the chassis, underside of the hood, and on the quarter panels in the trunk and also partly on the side braces running under the right and left sides of the trunk lid opening. Doesn't make for a pretty looking underside of the hood, I have to tell you with all that tar on it. Not sure what I will do to clean it up, probably have to leave it there.
Edited by imopar380 2008-06-30 1:06 PM
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | The under-roofs may not have been rust-dipped, but Greg Leggatt sent me, years ago, a good detail shot
of that area, which showed that there was gray primer (only?) applied to the under-roof area.
We-all know how effective THAT treatment was!
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Elite Veteran
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Location: Big M Automotive's Yard | John told me to answer the question "what color are you painting it?" . I was thinkin pink with purple polka dots, but........
Actually we are going to two-tone it in Sapphire and Wedgewood. We just haven't decided which color will be the roof and lower, and which will be the middle. M'Lisa |
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Location: New Jersey | A delightful and delovely color scheme----it will be beautiful no matter which colr is in the middle.---Fred |
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Location: Williams California | It may seem strange that I have done the body work first, before even having an engine in the car, but here's the scoop- The shop owner had promised to send me a bill of sale with the car, but ever since I informed him about all the missing parts, he has done absolutely nothing, and does not return phone calls. I went ahead and ran a lien sale for storage charges, and the DMV printout came up with a registered owner, presumably the person that gave the car to the rod shop.
I did not want to put any money into the car in case there was an ownership dispute at this time. After 30 days, there was no reply to the certified letter, meaning that the previous owner gave up any rights to the car. Now it is in my name, I can proceed with the work.
I replied to a craigslist ad for some '58 Dodge wagon parts, and it turned out to be a portion of the missing parts from this very car. The lady that had the parts for sale verified that the wagon was her son's, and he went over to Iraq, and gave the car to the shop owner. This lady was happy to see that the car was going to be restored.
I got most of the 350 engine, the heater core and box, some of the trim, the torque converter, brake booster and some other parts. ---John |
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | CA is fairly fair-and-reasonable about acquiring ownership of an abandoned car.
If anyone missed John's point: the "seller" of that wagon probably did NOT own the car, unless he was co-selling it,
somehow, for the Registered Owner.
Hopefully, & John is IN the Business, his Certified Letter spelled out precisely what John's interest in the car was, and that,
via its Lien-Sale, John would be applying to obtain legal ownership OF the car.
John, did you c.c. the 'seller' of your car, that you were going to apply for formal-legal ownership of it (of course) via
Lien-Sale procedure?
Once the car is all-prettied-up, the seller & former Registered Owner might try to claim fraud, or some-such deception
in its purchase.
Can't be too careful, nowadays.
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 7806
Location: Williams California | Once the lien papers have been submitted to the former registered owner and any interested parties, there is a 30 day period [in California] where the lien can be legally disputed. After that time, the state DMV will show the lienholder as the new legal owner, unless a dispute has been filed.
Being that there was no dispute filed, the car is legally mine, and all it takes to receive a clear California title is to submit the lien package, a VIN verification form, and application for original title. The title is generally received within two weeks.
The guy that I bought the car from was basically selling the car without paying any taxes himself as it was never put into his name, and is not a legal transaction in the eyes of the law. ---John |
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | Riiiight; he NEVER actually (legally) owned it!
Wonder why the former Registered Owner never smelled blood (dinero!) in the water, and tried to contest your
rightful ownership of his former car?
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Expert 5K+
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Location: Williams California | When the owner joined the military and went to Iraq, his parents did not want to store the car, and he figured that he would never get to it anyhow, basically he did not want it any longer. When I picked up the other parts, the mother was quite friendly, and glad the car had gone to someone that was going to complete it. ---John |
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Account deactivated by owner's request
Location: On this barrel | He might want it back once he realizes you were nice enough to paint it for him!  How does CA define a lienholder - someone who CLAIMS ownership of something (without proof - no bill of sale)? Just curious ...  |
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Expert 5K+
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Location: Williams California | I charge 20 dollars per day for storage, and the number of days it was stored on my property times this amount is the amount required to 'bail' the car out. This is the legal method to gain ownership of a vehicle when towing, storage, repairs, etc. are due, and not paid for. Most states have similar laws. ---John |
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Expert 5K+
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Location: Williams California | I picked up this rather rusty '59 DeSoto 4-door HT from an ad on Craislist for $400, and the old guy that had it said it was driven from Missouri, and then parked. The 56,000 miles on the clock was said to be original, so I figured it may be a good donor for the Dodge.
When Moe picked the car up for me, he spotted the original swivel seats out in a rubbish pile, apparently the owner had replaced them with '70's Lincoln buckets. Luckily, the seat was in good condition, other than the upholstery.
The carburetor was apart in a box in the trunk, along with a rebuild kit. The car was sold because he went to rebuild the carb, and dropped the wrong size check ball into the accelerator pump discharge hole, where it stuck solid. I was able to take the MIG welder and weld a nail on the checkball, and remove it with vicegrips. After reinstalling the carb, I got the engine fired up on fresh fuel, and it ran good with no smoke or knocking.
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Location: Williams California | It was getting late by the time I got the engine/trans combo pulled from the car, and had just enough daylight to give it a degreasing. ---John
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Expert 5K+
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Location: Williams California | The engine turned out to be a 383 rather than the 361 I was expecting.
I freshened the engine up a bit by replacing the timing chain and gears, the old one didn't actually look too bad though. I replaced other gaskets on the engine as well as the front pump seal on the transmission. I decided to go with the DeSoto transmission, as it went right into both forward and reverse, and it's fluid was still bright red. The trans was still in the Dodge, minus the torque converter, but I'll bet it was full of grit from the media blaster.
Re-assembled, painted, and just about ready to go into the Dodge's engine bay. ---John
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 709
Location: Poznan, Poland, Europe | That transmission is longer than the engine itself Now I know why some journalists complained about transmission humps in front. |
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | On this side of the 'hill' (Sierra Nevada mountain range, to the uninitiated) the impound yards get $50.00/day in storage fees, in addition to any towing charges that they incur, in bringing a vehicle to their lot.
There is NO state over-sight on impound yards, altho the local CHP office can regulate towing company rates, and rotation-order, between yards.----having a truck & a fenced yard is almost like printing your own money, around here, anyway.
John, what engine number does that motor have, and what was its casting date (should be visible behind the intake manifold)?
Edited by d500neil 2008-07-02 8:11 PM
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Location: Williams California | Neil, I'll take a look at those #s when I go home this evening. ---John |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 929
Location: Finger Lakes NY | hey john
what do you want for the drivers side bumper insert outta that desoto?
jeff
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Expert
Posts: 2011
Location: Ballwin, Missouri | John, could you post a couple of good close-up pictures of the power steering
pump and bracket that's on that engine. The bracket I got from you won't work on
the pump that's on my 326 and I'd like to see what type of pump I'm going to need
to try and find. Thanks |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 5139
Location: cornpatch county, Southwest IOA | John, your project is really coming along nicely You are a blessed person! LOL ----I think if you and Safety Mike would get together, you could build a FL car in one week!! That would make a much more interesting TV show than the others that are on now!............... Enjoy your posts...................MO |
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Elite Veteran
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Location: Big M Automotive's Yard | John pulled the old transmission last night and settled the engine into the bay. That old tranny didn't want to come out, fought him at evey turn. M'Lisa |
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Location: Williams California | Before I dropped the Desoto engine into the Dodge, there was a repair I wanted to make to the sway bar bracket on the passenger side frame horn. The brackets must have broken off at one time, and the person that did the repair work used overkill as their method. The driver side also had a piece of plate welded to the frame, but a much better job was done there.
Not a pretty job!
In order to correct this, I had to cut a section from the frame and remove the botched prior work.
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Location: Williams California | I found a piece of steel plate the same gauge as the frame in the scrap bin, and cut a piece out to fit the hole I had left in the frame. I then welded the piece into the hole, making sure that there was good penetration.
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Expert 5K+
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Location: Williams California | The final step here was to cut a good sway bar bracket from another frame section, as the one I had cut off was pretty much destroyed by the booger welding.
Here is the finished repair with the sway bar bracket squared up and welded on. ---John
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 781
Location: Montreal, Canada | Nice work John.
You're a pro. |
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | You make that work look too easy, just like those guys, on the Tube, who never get their hands, or the shop
floor, dirty.
BTW, CHRY/IMP/Soto sway bars can be retrofitted to DOD/PLY applications, if the sway bar brakets are slightly re-located, and then, the brackets, themselves, are inverted, so that they attach to the sway bar 'connectors' at the TOP of the frame rail, instead of at the bottom-level of the frame rails (such as occurs in the Dodge frames-----57+ PLY's never had sway bars; not even on the Furys or on the wagons).
Edited by d500neil 2008-07-08 7:59 PM
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Location: Williams California | Made a bit more progress on the wagon, the engine and transmission is all bolted in, with the driveline installed.
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Expert 5K+
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Location: Williams California | The 4-barrel AFB carburetor took 3 cans of cleaner to remove most of the buildup on the outside, and the inside had a large amount of sediment. Fortunately, the throttle shaft was still good and tight. I disassembled and cleaned the carb, and found a blockage in the idle circuit, and also an accelerator pump discharge nozzle. These I cleaned out with a fine piece of brass wire. The secondaries were also frozen, but a little bit of penetrant and tapping was able to free them up. Reassembled the carb with a new kit, and made any necessary preliminary adjustments. ---John
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Location: Williams California | Movin' on to every Mopar lover's favorite, the center-plane brakes. I got lucky on the fronts, as someone had already installed new linings, hoses, and wheel cylinders. I repacked the wheel bearings as they didn't do such a good job there. The rear brakes were another story-it looked like they had given up once they tried to remove the rear drums, as the axle nuts were backed off, and the cotter pins were gone. The rear wheel cylinders were pitted as well.
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Expert 5K+
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Location: Williams California | The right rear axle seal had failed, leaving oil soaked linings. There was plenty of material left on the linings, so I cleaned them with lacquer thinner and brake clean, and sanded the surface afterwards. You can sometimes salvage brake shoes in this manner, and they did clean up well, as shown in the pics. After removing the backing plate, I tried everything in order to remove the axle, but it just would not budge.
The thermometer in my barn was reading 115 degrees, and I didn't really feel like fighting this. I then noticed that the thread pitch and diameter of the axle shaft was exactly the same as on my slide hammer adaptor, so I took two axle nuts, welded them together, and threaded them onto the axle and also the slide hammer, and after three good whacks, the axle popped out. The bearing appeared to be in good condition too. ---John
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Expert 5K+
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Location: Williams California | Now, the easy part. The inner axle seal came right out with the slide hammer, and after cleaning the axle housing out, I was ready to install the new one. I used a homemade seal installer for this task, then I did the outer seal [in the backing plate] as well. Re- assembled everything along with the two new wheel cylinders that came with the car, and replaced the rear brake hose. Adjusted the brakes on all four wheels, and all that's left brake wise, is to install the master cylinder and bleed the brakes. I want to paint the firewall before installing any more items there. ---John
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | John, it might be too late, now, but some discussion was had, around-here, recently, about super-cleaning contamina- ted brake shoes, and two other solutions were BURNING the lining with lighter-fluid/brake-cleaner, so as to oxidize any residual film-contamination (with the heat of that burning being considerably less than the heat-rating of emergency- braked linings), or, for the shoes/linings to be BOILED, in a double-burner pot, to acheive the same results.
I personally like the (outside!) burning protocol, but have not yet tried Bar-B-Queing my brake shoes!!!!
Edited by d500neil 2008-07-10 6:27 PM
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Expert 5K+
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Location: Williams California | I've had about a 50/50 success rate with cleaning them this way, so I figured I'd give it a try. Worst case scenario is that I'll end up having to replace them with new linings, although it appears they cleaned up well.
I've also heard about folks using a cleaning agent and then lighting them, although, I've never tried it myself. ---John |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 585
Location: SE Arizona | John you're doing some OUTSTANDING work |
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Account Suspended
Posts: 2827
Location: At "The Rock" in upper East Tennessee | I love to see this mans type of old school work. One would be hard pressed to find many modern mechanics or body men that know where to start on these cars let alone do it right.
Good on ye John keep us posted. |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 5139
Location: cornpatch county, Southwest IOA | I pulled my axels exactly the way John did. Only I used two correct thread nuts from the hardware store. This method is very easy and doesn't risk damage, Keep the two welded nuts in your toolbox for the next time...................................MO |
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Expert
Posts: 1443
Location: Oconomowoc Wi | These posts are "Gems". I wish that there was an easy way to take selected parts of a post, copy and repost to the appropriate section, i.e. wheel and axle, and make it a sticky. Same goes for Sven (Wizzards ) fine work on the power window regulator rebuild, and the interior work he has done.
A little planning and administration would go a long way to create a nicely organized resource area. The search engine is rather clunky for that.
Outstanding job of documentation John, both in your narrative and the posted pictures. It's an invaluable service. |
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Expert 5K+
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Location: Williams California | Thanks, all. I've always liked watching car builds in progress, you can always learn something new by watching someone else work.
I installed a rebuilt master cylinder that I bought off of E-bay yesterday evening, only to find that the unit was defective and bypassing fluid. Well, you win some and you lose some. Now, off to see if the seller wants to do anything about this. ---John |
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Regular
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Location: Falicon 06 France | Very impressive job !!! Fortunatly it was easier on my Plymouth to replace the rear brakes, even if it was needed a special tool to retire the drums !! Your engine is very clean !!! |
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Expert 5K+
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Location: Williams California | Had a break from mechanical work, due to some incorrect parts sent, and defective items, so I decided to tackle some door alignment issues. As any of you know that have done body work on these cars, nothing ever fit well right from the factory. A full day's work later, I was able to get the doors to fit fairly well. I'll still have the hood and tailgate to look forward to later. ---John
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Location: Williams California | I installed the radiator, carburetor, road draft tube, fan and a few other items, starting to look a bit more complete beneath the hood.
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Location: Williams California | Went to remove the heater control valve, but some moron had installed it with wood screws, and used locking nuts on the reverse side. To add insult to injury, the slots in the screws were stripped out. I tried everything to get these loose, but to no avail. I ended up using a cutting torch to cut the heads off the screws. I managed to do so without harming the tin retaining bracket, but it did scorck the firewall paint a bit.
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Location: Williams California | I scraped any loose paint and crud from the firewall, and treated some surface rust that had formed near the cowl drains and master cylinder, and then used coarse Scotch Brite pads to scuff the surface. Lacquer thinner was used to remove any oil residue. Aluminum foil was then used to mask the wiring harness, and other cables where they came through the firewall, as well as for any bolts protruding from the firewall.
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Expert 5K+
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Location: Williams California | With the engine covered to protect it from overspray, I then mixed the paint and sprayed it on. The covers and masking were then removed, the firewall is now ready for it's completion! ---John
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Posts: 1590
Location: Scottsdale, AZ | Looking very nice John! Thanks for the pics. |
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | Hmmmm; I hadn't ever considered masking wiring looms, and the such, with aluminum foil....quick, easy, and effective.
Any invading overspray can be wiped off with laquer thinner, or enamel reducer.
As long as paint is at least still tacky, enamel reducer will not streak/smudge the paint, like laquer thinner will do, but,
it will appear as if the e.r. is EVAPORATING the mis-applied paint, with no residue left over. Amazing stuff.
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 781
Location: Montreal, Canada | Bart_59_Dodge - 2008-07-11 12:57 PM
These posts are "Gems". I wish that there was an easy way to take selected parts of a post, copy and repost to the appropriate section, i.e. wheel and axle, and make it a sticky. Same goes for Sven (Wizzards ) fine work on the power window regulator rebuild, and the interior work he has done.
A little planning and administration would go a long way to create a nicely organized resource area. The search engine is rather clunky for that.
Outstanding job of documentation John, both in your narrative and the posted pictures. It's an invaluable service.
I'm right with you Bart.
I could use such information for later resto jobs. And it would be easy to find too.
John, outstanding job!!!!!!
I just love those resto topics. |
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Regular
Posts: 75
Location: SWEDEN (Town of strängnäs) | Hi john! I really like your work on this car! what you call a budget resto is much better than most professional jobs iv' e seen here in Sweden!
I really enjoy to follow your work!
sigge!
Edited by royalbopper 2008-07-17 12:32 PM
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Location: Williams California | catman - 2008-07-16 12:37 PM
Bart_59_Dodge - 2008-07-11 12:57 PM
These posts are "Gems". I wish that there was an easy way to take selected parts of a post, copy and repost to the appropriate section, i.e. wheel and axle, and make it a sticky. Same goes for Sven (Wizzards ) fine work on the power window regulator rebuild, and the interior work he has done.
A little planning and administration would go a long way to create a nicely organized resource area. The search engine is rather clunky for that.
Outstanding job of documentation John, both in your narrative and the posted pictures. It's an invaluable service.
I'm right with you Bart.
I could use such information for later resto jobs. And it would be easy to find too.
John, outstanding job!!!!!!
I just love those resto topics.
Thanks, Robert! When do you anticipate that you will be embarking on your own car's restoration? |
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Expert 5K+
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Location: Williams California | royalbopper - 2008-07-17 9:30 AM
Hi john! I really like your work on this car! what you call a budget resto is much better than most professional jobs iv' e seen here in Sweden!
I really enjoy to follow your work!
sigge!
Thanks, Sigge, I will be looking forward to following the restoration of your '56. It's really good to see the '55 and '56 Mopars finally getting the attention that they deserve too. ---John |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 781
Location: Montreal, Canada | Thanks, Robert! When do you anticipate that you will be embarking on your own car's restoration?
I am searching for a new place for my car. and then...... I will start, finally.
By the way John, do you have an oil bath air cleaner for a 1955 Dodge with Hemi and 4 bbl? |
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Expert 5K+
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Location: Williams California | No Dice on the air cleaner, Robert. I found a few for 2-barrel carbs but none for a 4-BBL. That may prove a task to find, unfortunately. ---John |
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Expert
Posts: 2011
Location: Ballwin, Missouri | John, could I get you to post a couple of pictures of the power steering poump
and bracket on your engine. To see if that type is what I need. Thanks |
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Board Moderator & Exner Expert 10K+
Location: .Norfolk..Mafia.. ,England UK | RoyalGate - 2008-07-19 4:10 PM
John, could I get you to post a couple of pictures of the power steering poump
and bracket on your engine. To see if that type is what I need. Thanks
Larry, Check this Thread and see if it Helps.. As my 59 Chrysler and Dodge are running the Same Pump..
http://www.forwardlook.net/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=18732&...
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Expert
Posts: 2011
Location: Ballwin, Missouri | Clive, "THANKS" that's great. That is exactly the pictures I was
trying to find. Wonderful and Close-up. That's the bracket I need.
As you can see the bracket on your pump will bolt up to my pump
but has a bigger spacing where it mounts to the water pump housing.
Edited by RoyalGate 2008-07-20 9:05 AM
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Expert 5K+
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Location: Williams California | I should definitely have a set of those brackets, Larry. It's possible that the '58 350 used an oddball bracket set-up, which is what I initially had sent you. ---John |
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Expert
Posts: 2011
Location: Ballwin, Missouri | No Problem ---- we'll git er figured out
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Expert 5K+
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Location: Williams California | A bit more progress-
I pressure checked the heater core, it was all good, so I mounted it back in it's box and installed it on the firewall. Also, the radiator hoses and power steering hoses, as well as new belts. I found why the heater control valve had been jury rigged, it was the incorrect one!
I went out in the yard and removed another from a '58 Plymouth. It had the correct configuration. These Ranco valves are know for the seal leaking from age, and I really didn't want that to happen on a new carpet [once it's installed]. I uncrimped the four brass tabs that hold the control to the valve, and then disassembled the valve itself. The seal was, indeed, shot.
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Expert 5K+
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Location: Williams California | After cleaning all the individual parts, I used a new seal kit from NAPA auto parts, a whole $9, and carefully assembled the valve. A socket and hammer were used to swage the tabs back outward, and a body hammer was used to complete this. Then, the control portion was reassembled, and it's tabs were then re-crimped.
Voila! a rebuilt valve that will hold coolant pressure!
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'58 Dodge wagon 107.jpg (144KB - 191 downloads)
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Expert 5K+
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Location: Williams California | I was starting to get the itch to fire the engine up, but wanted to install the fuel tank first, so I did not have the added danger of having open fuel containers near the engine. After all, I didn't know for positive that the distributor wiring, timing, etc. would cause backfiring.
The fuel tank had about 2 gallons of rainwater beneath a half gallon of fuel, but had been lined at some time, and still looked good inside. The water apparently entered the tank because this lining filled the o-ring seal groove, and therefore no o-ring was present. I had to carefully sand this excess out, and I found a good o-ring in another old tank in the barn. I removed the sending unit, and had to remove some rust from the pick-up tube, but it tested good with an ohmmeter, so I reinstalled it. I had to get help from another of the guys here, Big Al, in order to get the tank, bracket, and strap all in place. ---John
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Location: Williams California | After hooking the heater hoses up, filling the cooling system, re-routing and re-wrapping the engine harness, it was time for it's initial start. I used a plastic soda bottle, and poked a tiny hole in the cap with a test light probe, and filled it with fuel. This allowed me to fill the float bowl on the carburetor through it's vent. I put several gallons in the tank at this time. M'lisa had an ignition key made by taking a door lock to the locksmith, and the key worked fine.
There was a puff of electrical smoke from beneath the dash when I pushed the start button, so I have an issue to deal with there. I bypassed this circuit off the solenoid, and must have gotten lucky-the engine fired right up! A little adjustment on the timing and carburetor, and she seemed to run excellent, especially for having no exhaust. 50-60 PSI oil pressure hot at idle, temps running in the normal range after an hour running, and a functioning charging system. No oil leaks or water leaks, although I did have transmission fluid leaking from the bellhousing. I'll have to determine it's origin yet.
All in all, I'm a happy boy! ---John
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | John, did you do any O/H work to the power brake booster?
Mine probably needs a rebuild kit, but all I'm finding is a bunch of shops (on the east coast) which insist on doing the O/H
themselves.
My system is the easier-to-work-upon self contained cannister.
Can you direct me to a rebuild kit, or, can you do a rebuild for me?
I'd like to have the work be done relatively close to 'home', if at all possible!!!
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Expert 5K+
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Location: Williams California | d500neil - 2008-07-22 2:06 PM
John, did you do any O/H work to the power brake booster?
Mine probably needs a rebuild kit, but all I'm finding is a bunch of shops (on the east coast) which insist on doing the O/H
themselves.
My system is the easier-to-work-upon self contained cannister.
Can you direct me to a rebuild kit, or, can you do a rebuild for me?
I'd like to have the work be done relatively close to 'home', if at all possible!!!
Neil, I'm trying to do this car on a budget, so I found one on a '59 Sport Fury in the yard that didn't have many stress cracks in the rubber bellows. It appears to function just fine.
If you read in my post in the vendors section, I just had the bellows type booster overhauled by Karp's brake service in Upland, California. I had a split occur in the bellows and have since sent it back. The gent I spoke with assured me that a warranty was definitely deserved. I'll let you know what happens here. I am unaware of anyone selling the rebuild kits to the general public. ---John
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | Yeah, I just responded to your vendor's discussion thread.
Funny thing; I spoke with Karp's earlier today, and thought that I was contacting an east coast company.
Later today, I called (what I THOUGHT was their) 'west' office of Karp's, and had a much better conversation, info-wize (with a different person, there)---didn't realize that there was only 'one' Karp's, and that I HAD spoken with them earlier, that same day!
ANYWAY, from the second conversation, it turns-out that ONLY if the brake "whooshing-hissing" sound continues, after the brake pedal is continuously fully depressed (as in: waiting at a stop-light), is the diaphram, and/or the system, in dire need of O/H; if the whooshing-hissing goes-away, after the brake pedal is depressed, that condition is considered to be fairly 'normal' and innocuous, and may get worse with age/usage, but that there is little danger of imminent catastrophic failure of the power brake system.
I was asked if it felt like the brake pedal was getting noticibly harder/firmer to depress, & I said 'no'.
SO, I gotta go home & fire-up the car, and see if the hissing goes away after the pedal is fully depressed (or not!).
Right now, I'm saying that I AM impressed with Karp's; at least after speaking with them, a second time!
Edited by d500neil 2008-07-22 9:05 PM
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Veteran
Posts: 295
Location: Tallapoosa, GA | Nice Wagon John! She looks nice and solid! I know what it's like to do the low budget resto, but it looks like
that car is a really nice clean car to work with.
Best of Luck!!
Cheers! |
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Expert
Posts: 3155
Location: NY & VT | She's going to be a beaut John! What is that final color called? |
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Location: Williams California | The colors will be Wedgewood [pastel blue] and Sapphire [metallic blue as on the firewall]. These are '58 Dodge colors, but the original colors were Wedgewood and white. Upon the recommendations of both M'lisa and Donnie, I will be using a two-stage paint system when the time comes. ---John |
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Expert 5K+
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Location: Williams California | This wagon was undercoated rather thoroughly, including the underside of the hood. While this helps to deaden the noise of the engine, and also makes the hood sound less tinny when closing it, I decided it had to go. I used an oxy/acetylene torch to heat the undercoat, and a narrow putty knife to scrape it off. Caution was used not to overheat the metal and cause warpage.
The undercoat was, in some places, over 3/8" thick!
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Location: Williams California | There was roughly 15 pounds of the undercoat that I scraped off! After using lacquer thinner and old gas to clean the residue from the bottom of the hood, I was able to start prepping it for paint.
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'58 dodge wagon 118.jpg (154KB - 225 downloads)
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Location: Williams California | I sanded the rusty areas, and used Scotch Brite pads on the painted areas. This process took several hours. Here's the finished product. ---John
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Location: Williams California | Next was to install the hood. I found some paint that matched the original color of the hinges, as well as the springs, and in the meantime, I sent a local teenager out to the yard to scavenge some hardware to install them. He needed to make 20 bucks, and was happy to help here.
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Expert 5K+
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Location: Williams California | It took awhile to align the hood, and afterwards came the tailgate. Next step- Block sanding, and lots of it! Whooo Hoooo!!!! ---John
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'58 dodge wagon 125.jpg (146KB - 220 downloads)
'58 dodge wagon 124.jpg (147KB - 230 downloads)
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Expert
Posts: 1918
Location: Hell's Outhouse - a.k.a. Buckeye, Arizona | Ooooooooooh!!!!!
John, I hope you didn't catch hell from M'lisa for using her DeSoto as a workbench.....
Love that shade of blue. |
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Board Moderator & Exner Expert 10K+
Location: .Norfolk..Mafia.. ,England UK | 1955Coronado - 2008-07-29 12:09 AM
Ooooooooooh!!!!!
John, I hope you didn't catch hell from M'lisa for using her DeSoto as a workbench.....
Love that shade of blue.
Hey MARK,
Don,t worry about M,lisa,s Desoto... You should see what the 1955Coronado is being Used As by John.. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOL............
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | OOOHH, John ! All you, or anyone else, LUCKY enough to have an OEM undercoated 57-59 Dodge, WITH the OEM-undercoated
hood (which DOES quiet-down the hood-clanging) ...has to do, to "restore" the hood-area, is apply fresh gloss-black paint
directly-over the (cleaned-off) undercoating!
Voila! Instant/correct restoration of the hood's OEM appearance (and, no hood-clanging!)
It's the guys with the NON-undercoated hoods, who have the necessary-hassle of cleaning/prepping and painting the undersides
and the top-sides of the hoods.
BTW, since the hoods were painted, and undercoated, after they were attached to the hood hinges, there was no (or not-
much-) paint applied to the very-end of the hood (at the cowl) and the undercoating was clearly applied in a front-to-rear
hood-up direction.
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | I'm not going to hi-jack your thread, but I've got four neat photos, from Greg Leggatt, showing a CAN-non-undercoated
hood, a US undercoated hood, an example of "carelessly applied" undercoating, and an detail-shot of how Greg
recreated the OEM undercoating-appearance, on one of his beautiful restorations.
I'll try sending them to Clive, & he can go post them on the "Body" discussion-board.
Interesting research, and, it looks like you CAN apply new undercoating directly over your hood's new paint!
I was confusing my memory of a CAN-car's primered-only underside, with a US-car, that DID get OEM paint initially
applied to the underside of the hood, BEFORE the undercoating was applied!
So there, Neil!
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 7806
Location: Williams California | Neil, if you look at the photo of the hood underside once the undercoating was removed, you can see the overspray of the body color [which was white] over the bluish gray paint which was used in the trunk, underhood, and floorboard areas. ---John |
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | YUP; I don't know what happened to Clive; he was on-line yesterday PM (here) but he went off-line right after (hmmm)
I sent him the 4 pics that I've got from Greg Leggatt, which show how US & CAN hoods were painted/finished. I asked him
to post those pics as a new thread on the "Body" Board, but, so far, they're not posted yet.
They'll show that a non-undercoated CAN hood only got the blue-gray "alkyd" primer (which promptly got worn-off from misc
debris thrown-up thru the engine compartment), and that the US cars got body paint applied over the primer, and that the
hoods were (body-color-) painted and undercoated after the hoods' fitment adjustments were made (duh) on the assembly line.
The last pic shows how Greg applied his (much-wimpier!) undercoating to the hood-underside, and how he dupicated OEM under-
coat overspray onto the hood hinge areas.
Edited by d500neil 2008-07-29 3:56 PM
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Expert
Posts: 3967
Location: DFW, TX | Neil.. you can post up your own pictures too. lol
John - that is looking awesome! Wagons are about 3x the body and paint work of a normal hardtop... |
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Expert
Posts: 2932
Location: Lemoore CA | John, that engine bay looks great! I really look forward to updates on this thread, and am happy every time I see them. We should all document any significant work we do on our cars here, it would be especially informative and entertaining. |
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | Nyuk,nyuk, nyuk, James, you just got a PM..! |
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Board Moderator & Exner Expert 10K+
Location: .Norfolk..Mafia.. ,England UK | d500neil - 2008-07-29 8:51 PM
YUP; I don't know what happened to Clive; he was on-line yesterday PM (here) but he went off-line right after (hmmm)
I sent him the 4 pics that I've got from Greg Leggatt,
Hey Spunky...
Remember the Time Difference, I was on here Until 1.00am almost... LOL
Here is the NEW Thread..
http://www.forwardlook.net/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=21715
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 5139
Location: cornpatch county, Southwest IOA | 5859 - 2008-07-29 3:11 PM
John, that engine bay looks great! I really look forward to updates on this thread, and am happy every time I see them. We should all document any significant work we do on our cars here, it would be especially informative and entertaining. I wholeheartedly agree. I understand that not everyone has the ability or place to work on their FL's , But i really enjoy watching peoples progress when they do it themselves. If you can send pics and how you overcame a problem, that is a big service to the rest of us.............................MO |
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Walter passed away on Jul 29, 2014. We will miss you, Walt!
Posts: 5358
Location: Heaven Above (Formerly Oklahoma City,OK) | John, I'm jealous. I used a scraper to peel the undercoat off my hood, and then washed it down with the cheap lacquer thinner from Ace Hardware. But mine does not look nearly as nice as yours. I left mine in the polyurrethane hardened primer. Now you guys are making me think I need to retreat and paint the underside of the hood. Any idea how long the catalysed primer will last w/out paint over it? You are going to post photos as you go aren't you? |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 755
Location: Big M Automotive's Yard | You can usually go quite a long time in a dry area, however if you have a lot of moisture or humidity you shouldn't leave it exposed or it will hold the moisture in and start rusting. If you want are unable to paint a vehicle after primering, then I would suggest that you put a sealer on it. It will hold out for a longer time, but will need to be sanded back down to primer and resealed before paint. In the 90's I painted a few of my friend's cars that couldn't afford the paint this way. They were trying to look retro like the "new" Rat Rodders are doing. I sprayed green, grey, purple, red and black. One vehicle I sprayed sealer flames on it.
In Reno (low humidity) we could drive around for a couple of years that way and not have any trouble. Of course in Reno I drove my Hurst Olds around for two weeks straight when it was stripped down to bare metal (my 59 Olds was having a mechanical issue resolved).
John is hoping to start spraying paint when we get back from Hot August Nights. He has been a sanding devil all week. And yes, I make him take a shower before he even thinks of sitting down on the couch or eating dinner. If he doesn't he looks like Can Man.  - M'Lisa |
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Elite Veteran
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Location: Big M Automotive's Yard | 1955Coronado - 2008-07-28 4:09 PM
Ooooooooooh!!!!!
John, I hope you didn't catch hell from M'lisa for using her DeSoto as a workbench.....
Love that shade of blue.
I have only said one thing to him on that matter, but have given him many looks  .
I told him how happy I was to get the Desoto so I could cruise in it this summer and how much fun I've had in it, then I look at him and say "Oh wait, that was just a dream!" Maybe next year I will be able to drive it. Well, a girl can dream, can't she? - M'Lisa |
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Expert 5K+
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Location: cornpatch county, Southwest IOA | I like to use epoxy primer if the color is not to be applied for quite a while. Moisture will not go through it and rust the metal beneath. When you are ready for color, just clean it and sand for a good bond.................................MO |
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Elite Veteran
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Location: Big M Automotive's Yard | I thought I would give everyone an update. John has been extremely busy the last couple of weeks. John sprayed on a 2nd coat of primer before we left for Hot August Nights.
On 8/7 I went to Barrett Paint and picked out the lt blue color for the roof and tailgate. I was there for almost 2 hours. I had a Ditzler paint chip book page for a 1958 Dodge. We tried to come up with a formula for it, but we are spraying Dupont and not PPG. Dodee (the paint guru) tried everything and finally told me to start looking thru the other books. I found a color that was close in a 1990 chip and then she started tweaking with the color until we had one that looked good.
Of course it had to be the non-poly (or non metallic). I swear every car made in the 90's to now has some metallic flake in it. 
After buying the base coat and clear coat paints, I realized that I had forgotten to pick up more primer and a good sealer, so it was back to the store.
We got home sunday after 5:00pm and John started sanding on the car. He has spent every night this week sanding. As soon as we get close to sealing it and putting on the color, I will have him upload some pictures. - M' |
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Elite Veteran
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Location: Big M Automotive's Yard | John has been working every night after work sanding on the car. He was hoping to have it ready to paint this last weekend, but he decided to spend a little time with his Dad. His parents came up for the weekend and left yesterday morning. - M'Lisa |
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Elite Veteran
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Location: Big M Automotive's Yard | About 3:30 yesterday afternoon, I smelled smoke in the house. I looked out our bedroom window and could see heavy smoke. I went out back towards the barn and could see black smoke rising from the field next to ours. I walked out to where I saw our friends watching the fire. It was about 2 acres away. I toldeveryone to get down and go grab a hose to start wetting everything down. Tiny (a friend of John's) said that we couldn't get the fire out with a garden hose that we needed to let the fire department handle it. I told him that I knew we couldn't stop it, but we could slow it from getting our yard if we wet down the fire break. John showed up as we were out in the field next to ours. He was at the office and none of us could reach him, however our good friend Sam who works across I-5 from us called him and told him to get home. After 5 minutes more fire fighters showed up and a tanker parked in the front of the house along with two other companies. They got the fire knocked down in about an hour, but not completely out. There were 100 oil coated telephone poles in the main fire area that belongs to the pole barn builder. His stuff along with a Dodge pickup and a camper trailer were totaled. We didn't have any damage except all of us had a little bit of smoke inhalation.
The fire burned in those logs all night and most of today. All of our guys did a great job helping to save the yard. They had fire fighters from Colusa, Arbuckle, MAxwell, Princeton, Sutter, Plumas Lakes and 5 engines from Yolo County (about 40 miles away) helping our Williams crew. No one was injured, but some fire fighters were treated by medics for smoke inhalation.
Needless to say, John didn't work long on his car last night. We were all worried about it flaring up.
Here are some pictures I took of it.
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Fire 8-18-08 015.JPG (176KB - 301 downloads)
Fire 8-18-08 011.JPG (185KB - 231 downloads)
Fire 8-18-08 012.JPG (156KB - 231 downloads)
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Expert
Posts: 2011
Location: Ballwin, Missouri | Any idea on how it started - stupidity or accident??
Edited by RoyalGate 2008-08-20 1:35 AM
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Expert
Posts: 1918
Location: Hell's Outhouse - a.k.a. Buckeye, Arizona | Could be a lightning strike - we've had 2 wild fires in the past couple months here start because of lightning strikes from the seasonal monsoon storms.
Main thing is that you & John are ok, M'Lisa. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 530
Location: Wake Forest, NC | Scary business, glad everything turned out OK in the yard. |
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Regular
Posts: 75
Location: SWEDEN (Town of strängnäs) | Really scary with a fire that close! Here in sweden it has been raining for almost two weeks so no risk for fires.
sigge! |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 7806
Location: Williams California | Apparently, a traveller on the freeway pitched a lit cigarette butt out their window, where it ignited the dry grass along the road. With 20 MPH winds coming from the south, it didn't take long for it to really take off. The person that owns the neighboring property normally keeps horses there in the summer, but for some reason they didn't this year, allowing the brambles and weeds to take over. ---John |
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Posts: 1918
Location: Hell's Outhouse - a.k.a. Buckeye, Arizona | It's d@mn dummies like that that pile the bad rep on us smokers. Living in a desert clime for 3/4 of my life, I know well enough that an ashtray ain't there for a d@mn pocket change holder.
Back in 2004 near my neck of the woods, there was a bright boy that set off a 700+ acre wildfire while doing the same thing - they caught up with him, tossed his dumb a$$ in the clink and pinched him for what it cost to wrestle that fire - over $200K, if I recall.
How's doing, John? M'Lisa posted above that you & her had a bit of smoke inhalation.....
Edited by 1955Coronado 2008-08-20 12:59 PM
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Expert 5K+
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Location: Williams California | Thanks for your concern, Mark.
I had some breathing problems that night and a bit more the next day, but am feeling better now. ---John |
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Expert
Posts: 1918
Location: Hell's Outhouse - a.k.a. Buckeye, Arizona | Good deal, John. |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 7806
Location: Williams California | Last week I drove the wagon over to a friend's shop where he is going to build an exhaust system for it, luckily there were no cops around to witness this. No plates, no exhaust, no glass, and no seats [except for the milk crate I was seated on]. It was only about a mile's drive to Sam's shop. Unfortunately, Sam's knee went out on him and the exhaust work would be delayed.
There were plenty of other things I could do in the meantime, so I spent about eight hours bead blasting rust, scale, and old paint from the interior garnish moldings. A few of these pieces developed pinholes where the metal was severely pitted, so I had to go out to the yard and find replacements.
Yesterday evening I was able to paint these pieces, and there were sure a lot of them. The temperature in the barn read 105 degrees, so the paint cured almost instantly. ---John
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Location: Ballwin, Missouri | big m - 2008-08-29 11:55 AM
Yesterday evening I was able to paint these pieces, and there were sure a lot of them. The temperature in the barn read 105 degrees, so the paint cured almost instantly. ---John
I thought I read or heard somewhere that it was bad for paint
to dry "to" fast. Is this wrong or would there be a reason for
paint to "not" dry to fast?? |
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Location: The Mile High City | Wow! This is really neat to see. I don't post much, but I watch this thread and enjoy it. It is terrific to see one of the greatest Forward Look wagons ('58 Dodge!) get restored before our eyes. Good luck, John and M'Lisa! Dang those litterbugs! It drives me nuts when I see somebody throw anything non-biodegradable down! I can't figure out what goes through their heads. People who throw cigarette butts out are especially hard to understand - not only is it litter, it is dangerous to life and property. |
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | My dad (I don't smoke) I clearly remember, had a distinctive manner in chucking-out his butts, through our car's vent
windows-starting with his 57 Dodge.
He would take his left index finger and hold it against the filter, and flick it quickly out the window, in one movement.
We lived in Toledo, so, there wasn't any real issue with causing any brush fires, but, hey, why fill up your OWN car's
ash-receiver, when there's that big old waste basket lying just outside your window, and, everybody else smokes,
and chucks their butts....
I also remember being fascinated by how cigarette smoke, IN an ashtray..., would circle slowly and rhythmically up into
an adjacent table lamp, which bulbs apparently created a heat vortex, attracting the cooling smoke.
Ever notice how cigarette ads, in magazines, typically, hardly ever show any significant smoke coming from a lighted cig?
We now return you to our hopefully NON-smoking cars!......
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Expert 5K+
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Location: Williams California | M'lisa had some Argent paint mixed, so I bead blasted and painted the wheels, as well as the back side of the outside garnish pieces to protect against rust.
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'58 Dodge wagon 128.jpg (149KB - 214 downloads)
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Expert 5K+
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Location: Williams California | I then sorted through the stainless moldings, the dinged ones went into one pile, and the good ones went into the other. Using a piece of railroad track as an anvil, I used a chisel-type body hammer that I had rounded the edges from, and proceeded to ding the dents out. This process is called 'pick and file'. A few of the pieces needed to have the rolled edges flared out in order to get at the entire damaged areas. These can be carefully tapped back afterwards.
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Expert 5K+
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Location: Williams California | Dinging the metal will slightly stretch it, leaving high spots in the surface. This is why a hard steel surface in used to ding against, to reduce this. A flat file is then used to remove the high spots, leaving a flat surface. The next step for these repaired pieces will be to sand out the scratches left by the file, and ready them for polishing. ---John
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | Yeah, FWIW, I Paid $100.00 to King of Trim to have them straighten out some badly bent fender and door moldings
and to mirror polish them.
So, you can figure that you're saving about $50.00 (or, that you can rightfully CHARGE that much) to straighten and
polish each-similar trim piece.
Edited by d500neil 2008-09-03 6:20 PM
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 7806
Location: Williams California | We got the car back from Sam's shop, it sounds so much better with a quiet exhaust! He did a nice job as always.
I reinstalled the exterior garnish trim, using seam sealer on the edges to keep moisture out. I'm now down to block sanding with 400 grit paper, I should be able to finish this tonight and spray the sealer. I have to keep the car covered when it gets dark, we have a colony of bats in one of the barn walls, and the guano ends up everywhere! ---John
 ('58 Dodge wagon 138.jpg)
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'58 Dodge wagon 138.jpg (139KB - 217 downloads)
'58 Dodge wagon 139.jpg (143KB - 215 downloads)
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 781
Location: Montreal, Canada | Big M,
Can't wait to see the paint.
Can't wait, can't wait.
Did you know that I can't wait !!!!!!!!!!!
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Expert
Posts: 2308
Location: The Bat Cave, Fairborn, OH | Make that 2! :laugh: It's like Christmas morning isn't it whenever a car is repainted....
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slichtman_s26_explorer_lfront.jpg (110KB - 218 downloads)
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 755
Location: Big M Automotive's Yard | On Thursday, I went over to John's office to help him maxk off the car so he could start the paint process on the Dodge. He was able to Jam the car. On Friday he finished painting both colors, but it started getting too hot. On Saturday morning he cleared the car in the morning when it was cool out and then let it "bake" in his shop (a metal quanset hut in 105 degree heat). Our friend little John picked the car up Saturday evening and brought it home. Here are some pictures.
 (John 001.jpg)
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John 001.jpg (143KB - 203 downloads)
John 002.jpg (146KB - 214 downloads)
John 004.jpg (152KB - 206 downloads)
John 006.jpg (139KB - 220 downloads)
John 007.jpg (141KB - 219 downloads)
John 008.jpg (152KB - 222 downloads)
John 009.jpg (150KB - 211 downloads)
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 755
Location: Big M Automotive's Yard | And here are the pictures of it painted.
 (John 010.jpg)
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John 010.jpg (145KB - 205 downloads)
John 011.jpg (140KB - 212 downloads)
John 012.jpg (146KB - 205 downloads)
John 013.jpg (151KB - 208 downloads)
John 014.jpg (151KB - 219 downloads)
Dodge Sierra 017.JPG (189KB - 210 downloads)
Dodge Sierra 019.JPG (171KB - 296 downloads)
Dodge Sierra 020.JPG (188KB - 208 downloads)
Dodge Sierra 021.JPG (237KB - 218 downloads)
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 781
Location: Montreal, Canada | Looking good to me.
Keep 'em coming.
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1150
Location: Southern California | Looking great John! can't wait to see her finished  |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 7806
Location: Williams California | I took the dash apart in order to paint it, and had a small pile of goodies that needed to be polished. I've found that GOJO hand cleaner with pumice works better than anything else I have tried at removing years of tarnish and crud from chrome plating, and added bonus is that it's cheap too. ---John
 ('58 Dodge wagon 152.jpg)
 ('58 Dodge wagon 153.jpg)
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'58 Dodge wagon 152.jpg (149KB - 240 downloads)
'58 Dodge wagon 153.jpg (146KB - 227 downloads)
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 7806
Location: Williams California | I painted the small parts separately, and then proceeded to paint the dash. It was a bit of work, being two-toned. I have some electrical repairs to make while the dash is apart, and then back to the color sanding on the exterior. ---John
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'58 Dodge wagon 151.jpg (151KB - 225 downloads)
'58 Dodge wagon 150.jpg (148KB - 221 downloads)
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 781
Location: Montreal, Canada | Man, she is looking good!!!!
Do you have an idea when she will be finish.
I will try your hand cleaner tip for chrome polishing next time. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 755
Location: Big M Automotive's Yard | It better be done by October 18th Thats when we are leaving on our trip to Donnies. M'Lisa |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 781
Location: Montreal, Canada | No choice John !!!!!!!! |
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Expert
Posts: 2308
Location: The Bat Cave, Fairborn, OH | Tick-Tock..... 
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 7806
Location: Williams California | LOL!
I got a bit more done and out of the way this weekend.
The dash is all reassembled, and I took care of some electrical problems that were known at this time. Completed the color sanding and buffing as well, and began to put some of 'er jewelry back on. ---John
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'58 Dodge wagon 155.jpg (148KB - 237 downloads)
'58 Dodge wagon 154.jpg (147KB - 223 downloads)
'58 Dodge wagon 156.jpg (142KB - 224 downloads)
'58 Dodge wagon 157.jpg (151KB - 217 downloads)
'58 Dodge wagon 158.jpg (145KB - 210 downloads)
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Inactive by Request
Posts: 1292
Location: Lovely place | Looking real good, its like a mirror! Nothing is more annoying than installing things behind the dashboard, lying on the floor hands up and head in awkward angle. Hope your neck is still in fine condition.
Edited by Sisu 2008-09-22 5:02 PM
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 7806
Location: Williams California | Actually, Cedric, my neck was fine, but my back was a bit sore from laying on the bare floorboards. ---John |
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Inactive by Request
Posts: 1292
Location: Lovely place | Do you ever actually have to BUY parts for your cars? Seems you could build anything there, lock yourself inside the gates and get pizza delivered to your house for the next 20 years. I bet you wouldn't need any other contact to the outside world! |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 7806
Location: Williams California | Making some good headway on the car now.
Mounted and balanced a set of Goodyear super cushions, painted up the wheelcovers I had polished, and painted some more items such as the spare tire compartment cover, and the mounting panels for the rear seats.
I pulled a complete set of Solex glass from the parts cars, installed all the door and gate weatherstripping, as well as the window sweepers. All glass is now installed, except for the tailgate, as I have found there is no power getting to the power regulator.
I repaired the cracks in the steering wheel, and sanded and repainted it as well. Now it's molding and trim time, real time consuming, as there was no hardware or fasteners, so I have to remove them from other cars. Here are a couple pics, but I'll have more soon. ---John
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'58 dodge wagon 159.jpg (151KB - 216 downloads)
'58 dodge wagon 161.jpg (148KB - 219 downloads)
'58 dodge wagon 160.jpg (148KB - 225 downloads)
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Expert
Posts: 3155
Location: NY & VT | John - what a great job - that car is gonna be fabulous! Wish I was on the left coast... we just don't get cars that solid. |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 7400
Location: northern germany | great job, geat colors! |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 7806
Location: Williams California | Coming along nicely now- All the glass and window regulators are installed and adjusted, bumpers, grill, and most of the moldings have been installed, and a good portion of the interior has been fitted. ---John
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'58 Dodge wagon 164.jpg (152KB - 224 downloads)
'58 Dodge wagon 163.jpg (147KB - 216 downloads)
'58 Dodge wagon 162.jpg (146KB - 211 downloads)
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | Think how fast you could work if there were TWO of you, doing all that work!
have you come up with a selling price for it, when you are done enjoying it?
It's nice that you will actually drive the car, so you can dial-in all of its various functions.
'Gotta make you wonder how well any of those B-J cars actually operate, after they are merely PHYSICALLY restored,
but not ever driven, before they go across the auction block?
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 7806
Location: Williams California | I've found nearly all the pieces needed for the car except for the potmetal upsweeps at the rear. Here is a pic of a typical upsweep on a '57 Sierra, the same as the ones used on the '58 sierra. The Custom Sierra I am working on uses different ones, they actually dip downward and go forward quite a bit. note the downward curve in the molding hole line. If anyone here has a pair of these, I could certainly use them. ---John
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'58 Dodge wagon 166.jpg (149KB - 213 downloads)
'58 Dodge wagon 165.jpg (139KB - 229 downloads)
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 7806
Location: Williams California | d500neil - 2008-10-06 3:43 PM
Think how fast you could work if there were TWO of you, doing all that work!
have you come up with a selling price for it, when you are done enjoying it?
It's nice that you will actually drive the car, so you can dial-in all of its various functions.
'Gotta make you wonder how well any of those B-J cars actually operate, after they are merely PHYSICALLY restored,
but not ever driven, before they go across the auction block?
Neil, we have no plans of selling the car at this time.
As far as dialing it's various functions in, hopefully we will not be doing that on the side of the road somewhere in Tennessee! LOL! ---John
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | Well, you got enough ROOM there to carry your spare-everythings!!
Good luck, amigo!
They're expensive, but, the Big-Boy yards should have that trim you need--assuming
that they can mail it to you, soon enough!
Edited by d500neil 2008-10-06 8:34 PM
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 7806
Location: Williams California | No luck so far. I checked with the Arizona yards, Freman's, CTC, Texas Acres, and several others, as well as several of the Mopar parts dealers. Someone's got to have these! Never say never. ---John |
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Expert ,, George Passed away July 28th 2021, He will be Missed
Posts: 1295
Location: Twin Falls, Idaho | John...
Those holes sure look like they would line up the same to me.... DO you have a picture from a brochure???
George
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 7806
Location: Williams California | George, I've placed a long, straight stainless strip from the front of the quarter to the rear, and the last two trim holes dip below the trim itself. I have a brochure showing the molding, although I do not have a scanner and a pic may be poor. ---John |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 7806
Location: Williams California | Looks like the brochure pic will work OK. ---John
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'58 custom Sierra.jpg (141KB - 219 downloads)
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Location: The Mile High City | Hi, John:
There are actually four pieces that you are looking for: the down dip and forward is stainless steel. The pot-metal upsweep is a straight piece that ends where the stainless begins. I can get the pot metal pieces for you, but I don't have any extras for the stainless. I think you might be able to get the stainless from any Royal or Custom Royal from 1958.
To me though, it seems like it might look funny to have the full length stainless piece below the dip down piece. You will get a "pinched down" look at the back where all the stainless gets too close. I think that dip down works a lot better with the short quarter trim lower or the spring special trim. I don't know if I have ever seen it with the full length trim? Neil?
Mike
Edited by Lancer Mike 2008-10-08 3:54 PM
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 7806
Location: Williams California | Mike, could you send a pic of the potmetal pieces that you have? If it is different than the ones on the other model wagons I would like to buy them from you.
As to the lower trim strip, there were factory drilled holes that only this molding could have used. I found a pic awhile back somewhere in the archives that showed the same trim scheme. I still wish that the previous owner hadn't tossed the majority of the moldings! ---John |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 7806
Location: Williams California | Yesterday evening we took the car on it's first trip of more than a mile or two, the ten mile drive to Colusa for our bowling league night.
Immediately after crossing the railroad tracks here in town, the right rear wheelcover decided to go it's own way, and was shed from the wheel. Luckily M'lisa rescued it before it was damaged. The left front brakes wanted to grab, so I'll have to look into that issue, and the speedo head occasionally squeeked, so it'll probably need a few drops of lube. Also, there was a slight hesitation in acceleration, but I've yet to set the timing, and that could well be the cause. Other than those items, the car ran and steered just fine!
Here's a few pics of the car in the sun when I was out at the yard earlier today. ---John
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 ('58 Dodge wagon 169.jpg)
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'58 Dodge wagon 167.jpg (151KB - 228 downloads)
'58 Dodge wagon 168.jpg (145KB - 226 downloads)
'58 Dodge wagon 169.jpg (156KB - 228 downloads)
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Expert
Posts: 1918
Location: Hell's Outhouse - a.k.a. Buckeye, Arizona | My God, what a tasty grocery getter.
I LOVE seeing a car's story like this..... |
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Inactive by Request
Posts: 1292
Location: Lovely place | Looks great - at least you are not running out of spare parts!! Brakes, and the noise from the speedometer sound very typical probs with these cars. Once you get them fixed, and your engine tuned - you won't believe how great car you have! You are still missing some bumper chrome, do you already have them - or are you looking for better ones? For me, I'd like to find spare ones, the originals are showing some signs of getting rusty...
Great colors, really different |
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Expert
Posts: 2932
Location: Lemoore CA | John, this has been the thread I have looked forward to more than any other over the past few weeks, looks like a great job! |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 314
Location: San Antonio Tx | Dont worry John..by the time you get to Donnie's all the bugs will be worked out. Look forward to seeing it there
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 781
Location: Montreal, Canada | John,
This budget resto is just OUTSTANDING
What a great job you did. I am sure you will fix the small problems you enconter with her.
Can you post interior pictures? How is the condition of the vinyl covering the rear wheels?
Man I wish I could be at Donnie's place...... 
Please promise you guys will take tons of pictures. |
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Location: The Mile High City | They are the ones you are looking for. I will send you a picture.
Mike |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 755
Location: Big M Automotive's Yard | d500neil - 2008-10-06 3:43 PM
Think how fast you could work if there were TWO of you, doing all that work!
have you come up with a selling price for it, when you are done enjoying it?
It's nice that you will actually drive the car, so you can dial-in all of its various functions.
'Gotta make you wonder how well any of those B-J cars actually operate, after they are merely PHYSICALLY restored,
but not ever driven, before they go across the auction block?
Neil, we'll come up with a selling price the same way that you will on your D500. As far as driving it, of course we are going to drive it. We drove the Fury to Tulsa, we'll drive this one to Donnie's and we'll drive my 69 Hurst Olds to Indianapolis in 2 years.
John and I both believe in restoring and enjoying. Neither one of us are "into" FIX AND SELL. What is the use of having a beautiful work of art that happens to be mobile and have it decorate the garage?
I know on my assignments that are within 30 miles of my office I will be driving either the Wagon or my Desoto and save my daily driver for long range or winter driving. M'Lisa
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1150
Location: Southern California | John, absolutley beautiful! You brought that car back in no time WOW! |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 7806
Location: Williams California | Lancer Mike - 2008-10-08 8:13 PM
They are the ones you are looking for. I will send you a picture.
Mike
Excellent, Mike, I'll be watching for them! ---John |
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Location: The Mile High City | Ok, lets see if this works: I made a .pdf picture of the parts. The part numbers are 1835593 LH and 1835593 RH. Both are in pretty good shape with no pits. Both have good studs - threaded and plain. RH has a little crack down by the threaded stud. RH (worst of the two) is the one with the shiny side up. It has some crazing of the chrome, which the other does not. The pdf shows some little blemishes on RH down by the crack that really shine, but they aren't scratches or pits! They will look good on the wagon with little to no work necessary. Too bad I don't have an extra set of the stainless parts to go with 'em! I'll send them out to you.
Edited by Lancer Mike 2008-10-09 6:39 PM
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ae0d27b1.pdf (72KB - 248 downloads)
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | Glad to hear that you intend to keep the car, M'lissa.
Hubcaps that won't stay on can easily be fixed by bending outwards their circumferential mounting tabs, for a better
grip to the wheel.
It's always tough to mount wheelcovers onto freshly painted wheels, what with all the scratching and banging to get them
mounted securely.
Knowing what-all I've got invested into dialing-in my car, over the past 27+ years, I don't think that I ever could sell
it, and I DARN (I did type "darn", not d-a-m-n) sure would be leery of paying big bucks on a "pretty car" if I didn't
already know it, or its ownership history.
I am impressed that you and John are not going to try to recoup your initial investment costs in restoring that car.
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | The other interesting (and sad) thing about pretty-cars, which reach a certain market value (let's say, around $100K,
at auction value) is that once they reach a big-buck plateau, like, in Re: my friend's former 1958 NY'er convertible, which DID
drive wonderfully, back when it was worth around $25k, a few years ago (now, its dealer-broker is asking around $150k for
it)...is that the car will probably never again be driven and enjoyed by its rich owner(s)...
E.G.: most Duesenbergs and a lot of 'Classic' cars have survived, but when do you ever see them being driven on the street?
Nowadays, you'll see various iterations of 'hot-rods', but not a lot of original-looking 50's cars on the highways.
Edited by d500neil 2008-10-09 7:24 PM
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 7806
Location: Williams California | Neil, the wheelcover did not seem to have much spring tension against the wheel, and after bending the tabs out slightly, it seems to be staying on now. ---John |
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | HEH; I've had my fill of wheelcovers 'spinning'-away (get it?) merrily, on the roads--usually as a result of turning-cornering
maneuvers (remember "Bullett"?-not quite like that, but close!)
Anyway, errant wheelcovers can travel an amazing distance spinning along, upright, on their edges, due to centrifugal energy.
If you're lucky, you might hear, or see, them exit your car; not always!
The OTHER amazing thing is how little damage the wheelcovers seem to incur during their escape
maneuvers.
Edited by d500neil 2008-10-09 7:32 PM
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 755
Location: Big M Automotive's Yard | Here are some videos of John working on the Wagon |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 755
Location: Big M Automotive's Yard | OOPS! Try this. |
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Board Moderator & Exner Expert 10K+
Location: .Norfolk..Mafia.. ,England UK | Still Oops............. No Video,s |
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Expert
Posts: 2308
Location: The Bat Cave, Fairborn, OH | That's a beautiful ride - you do really nice work. Looks like the Swedes and Finns have nothing on you with this car! LOL
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 481
Location: near St Augustine, FL | John, That, Sir, is one fine vehicle. The work you did in such a short time is AMAZING! I'm awed and jealous all at the same time. Congratulations! |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 755
Location: Big M Automotive's Yard | Try this. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 755
Location: Big M Automotive's Yard | http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvKSpA8pyfA |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 755
Location: Big M Automotive's Yard | Here are the other ones.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zwrjy2SleU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibWPoU_t__o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lc7hSIi9s8
M'Lisa |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 461
Location: Brooklyn NY | Great work John!! Fastest and Best "budget" resto ever! Enjoy the drive to Donnie's, I hope you have time to send out my seattracks first ;}......Ralph from Brooklyn |
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Veteran
Posts: 234
Location: Dallas,Ga. | Your Dodge wagon looks Fab-U-Lous, John! Happy Motoring! -Zach |
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Board Moderator & Exner Expert 10K+
Posts: 13049
Location: Southern Sweden - Sturkö island | Great work in short time John, now enjoy it with the famous FL grin allover your face! |
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Expert
Posts: 2596
Location: Upplands Väsby, Sweden | VERY NICE WORK and I love the blue two tone combinations. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 755
Location: Big M Automotive's Yard | We finished putting in the stereo this morning and left on our trip. Read JOHN AND M'LISA'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE in the General area. - M'Lisa |
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Expert
Posts: 3155
Location: NY & VT | Can't believe how fast you did that, all while running a business - amazing! What a bodacious wagon!!! |
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Regular
Posts: 74
Location: Falicon 06 France | WONDERFUL job !!! That two tone suit the wagon so well. Where have you buy the dual exhaust ?? |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 755
Location: Big M Automotive's Yard | Hi Emmanuel, the exhaust was built and assembled by a friend of ours that we helped out awhile back. The original, rusty exhaust was used for a pattern. The car had duals from the factory. John and M'lisa |
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Expert
Posts: 1480
Location: Australia | your wagon is just beautiful.... the two tone metallic blue is just devine! looking at the thread, makes me a little less nervous about pulling mine apart for resto. did she come with paperwork/ books/ brochures? i love collecting all the factory literature that goes with the cars! adriana :] |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 7806
Location: Williams California | Hi Adriana, when I purchased the car, it was partially disassembled by the previous owner. There was no literature or brochures, and the seller neglected to give me a bill of sale or title. I had to acquire these on my own.
M'lisa did pick up a brochure for the '58 wagons that was helpful in the re-assembly of the car. ---John |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 7806
Location: Williams California | I made a quick tally of the money we have spent in this car's resto, and it is as follows-
1. Initial purchase price of the car-$1700.00
2. '59 DeSoto [used for engine, transmission, and some other small parts-$400.00
3. Misc. trim and mechanical parts purchased from original owner-$200.00
4. Misc. parts scavenged from the yard here, approx. value, -$400.00
5. New mechanical parts, tune-up parts, oils and fluids -$450.00
6. Complete upholstery, farmed out, complete, -$1050.00
7. Paint and body supplies[ includes welding wire, solder, sandpaper, etc.] -$1000.00
8. Tires-$640.00
9. Weatherstripping -$430.00
I'm sure that I have forgotten a few minor items, as well as I have never gotten the bill for the chrome plating [front and rear bumpers, blinker bars only].
Total- $6250.00 spent for this wagon. [Of course, all my labor was not added in.] ---John
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | You got a GREAT deal on the labor and materials costs for that interior, John!
So, at a reasonable $50.00/hr, how many resto hours do you have invested in the car, and, has there
been any resolution regarding the cause of your car's three wheel failures?
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 7806
Location: Williams California | We have a friend that is retired and will do upholstery on collector cars, and he has always been good to deal with.
As to the number of hours I have personally put into the car, I'm afraid that I did not keep track, whatsoever. I have gotten a replacement tire and will do some further checking into the wheel situation, as I saved one of the cracked ones for comparison purposes. Still playing catch-up around here after being gone for our trip. ---John |
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Veteran
Posts: 225
| John
Very nice job you did very inexpensivly and FAST!
Thanks for the PM on my problem sheet metal and the link to your Build.
I need to take a road trip on a quest for sheetmetal It would be nice to come out and meet you. |
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Expert 5K+
Posts: 7806
Location: Williams California | Thanks, Dennis,
If you do decide to come up this way, please drop me a note. Not planning on going anywhere, but sometimes old car caches turn up that I need to attend to. ---John |
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Location: Lovely place | John, did you do something for the rear inner "fenders" - sorry don't know the right name for those parts. Anyway, they are the big rear interior parts that are covered in vinyl (and usually cracked). I might have to take the left one off since the middle seat locking mechanism which is partly inside the rear fender lost its spring and something else inside it. Unless you have those parts available(?), I wouldn't like to risk breaking big parts because of few small items. The bad point of having lost those few small items is whenever I have to brake hard the middle seat falls over... Cedric
Edited by Sisu 2009-03-05 4:39 PM
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | Ced, yu gottum PICs of your seat, showing what you're looking for? |
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Location: Williams California | Sisu - 2009-03-05 1:35 PM
John, did you do something for the rear inner "fenders" - sorry don't know the right name for those parts. Anyway, they are the big rear interior parts that are covered in vinyl (and usually cracked). I might have to take the left one off since the middle seat locking mechanism which is partly inside the rear fender lost its spring and something else inside it. Unless you have those parts available(?), I wouldn't like to risk breaking big parts because of few small items. The bad point of having lost those few small items is whenever I have to brake hard the middle seat falls over... Cedric
Cedric, the rubberized covering on the rear inner fenderwells was in not too bad of shape, other than being discolored, so I used some vinyl dye to make them look good.
I have never had any luck trying to remove these, as they always crack or tear.
Let me know what pieces you are needing, I can look through some of these wagons to see if I can gather your needed parts. ---John |
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Location: Lovely place | Thanks John, if you look at the photo of my interior it shows the area where the parts are missing. Not from the bench, but from the body - its kind of a ball which locks the seat in place, there's also a spring - very simple but like said, all are now behind the inner fenderwell...  Btw, if you have one of those long springs that go around the outside of the front brake drum, put it in a same package! I have no clue what the name of the part is in English... "Squeal Terminator 1.0 Spring Brake Special" 
Edited by Sisu 2009-03-05 8:59 PM
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | Cedric, could you kindly post this pic, and maybe another one, showing the (front, maybe) door trim panel, to
that particular 'DeSoto' thread, on Craigslist board, where the similar DeSoto door panels are shown, because your
station wagon door panels (and upholstery!) are exactly what the Custom Royal convertible door panel, and upholstery,
are SUPPOSED to look like (except, for that textured clear plastic covering---lololol).
The CS wagon, and the CRL convie had the same 'plain' inner door panels, and, it is VERY rare to see a properly
restored CRL convertible, although your car DOES still have its OEM upholstery installed in it!
What a delight, to see (again).
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Location: Lovely place | No prob Neil (thanks for nice comments), actually the photos were taken by the original seller of the Sierra - its funny but till this date I haven't managed to take really good photos myself. The upholstery still has the 57 tags in the seams, I'm actually just doing the spring service (waxing, polishing, oil changes etc.) and always finding some new details to study. Whats wrong with the clear plastic seat covers You have them as well! (I love the showroom looks) EDIT: Neil, which topic do you mean?
Edited by Sisu 2009-03-05 9:29 PM
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Elite Veteran
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| . . . more pictures of Cedric's wagon . . . . . (sigh. . .)
Ced, there is a service bulletin on 57 wagons dealing with the exact problem you are having. If you haven't seen it I will post some scans here.
Sparky |
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Location: Lovely place | Sparky, would be great if you could post the service bulletin - if its ok for John that we are going slightly off-topic... Regarding the photos, if it makes you feel better - I can post photos of my project cars which are the complete opposite
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Elite Veteran
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| These are from Service Reference Book 116: |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 636
| Let's try that again:
 (seatcatch1.jpg)
 (seatcatch2.jpg)
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seatcatch1.jpg (71KB - 236 downloads)
seatcatch2.jpg (112KB - 209 downloads)
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Location: Lovely place | Thanks Sparky! Your photos explained everything. Yesterday I didn't want to take the garnish molding off since it felt like it was glued on (turns out they used really tough metal clips). So what seemed as a ball holding the seat, was actually a different type of part, sorry... I did as explained in the bulleting and was able to retrieve the parts from inside the rear fender. BIG THANKS! I'm going to use some Loctite when I put it back on...
Basically the flaw is non-locking nut in the end of the piece. That's how I found mine... Btw, I'm always astonished how great original condition all the part are in the Sierra, even the rear fender area was perfect. Like said, compared to my project cars its great to have something that doesn't require any welding
Kenny - thanks for pics, those latches lock my spectator seat (love the name!), you just reminded me that the left one needs some adjustment! The reverse happens with the spectator seat, if I press too much gas the seat folds down, and when I apply the too much brake the middle seat falls over, its like a domino game! Haha, hope to get everything fixed now Thanks guys!! What more OT we could invent... Back to the Thong topic!
Edited by Sisu 2009-03-06 11:53 AM
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Location: Lovely place | John, did you have any probs with your roof liner (I tried to search from your topic)? I have it slightly hanging between the front and rear seats, seems to be a common problem.
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Location: Williams California | Cedric,
I was unable to source any kind of reproduction headliner boards, So I had to scavenge sections that were not broken from wagons in the yard here. Most of these had fallen from the roofs when the plastic retainers disintegrated.
I set these on the barn floor [concrete] and put wet rags evenly between each panel, and set some heavy weights in the center. I let these set for a couple days until the rags were dry, and it removed the warpage. After that, a light mist of clearcoat to preserve the finisn that had begun to turn chalky.
Some sags have since returned, as I expected, but the pieces have been staying in place in the retainers so far. ---John
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'58 Dodge.jpg (152KB - 240 downloads)
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | I don't know that I'd clear-coat a hardboard headliner, but there must be a practical way to epoxy a thin sponge-
thing to the underside of a section of headliner, and then to glue the sponge-thing to the roof.
I wonder how much cleaning-solution the headliner can take, before the Endless-Loop paint becomes removed from
the headliner?
Maybe something like "409" spray cleaner?
I'd probably go through a whole roll of paper towels, applying one squirt of solution, followed by a new-clean piece of towel,
to avoid smearing or grinding-in any dirt, on the hardboard.
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Extreme Veteran
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Location: Orlando | d500neil - 2009-03-06 6:19 PM
I don't know that I'd clear-coat a hardboard headliner, but there must be a practical way to epoxy a thin sponge-
thing to the underside of a section of headliner, and then to glue the sponge-thing to the roof.
I wonder how much cleaning-solution the headliner can take, before the Endless-Loop paint becomes removed from
the headliner?
Maybe something like "409" spray cleaner?
I'd probably go through a whole roll of paper towels, applying one squirt of solution, followed by a new-clean piece of towel,
to avoid smearing or grinding-in any dirt, on the hardboard.
Even a small amount of 409 and a very light touch will remove the print from those panels.
Ask me how I know... |
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Location: Williams California | d500neil - 2009-03-06 3:19 PM
I don't know that I'd clear-coat a hardboard headliner, but there must be a practical way to epoxy a thin sponge-
thing to the underside of a section of headliner, and then to glue the sponge-thing to the roof.
I wonder how much cleaning-solution the headliner can take, before the Endless-Loop paint becomes removed from
the headliner?
Maybe something like "409" spray cleaner?
I'd probably go through a whole roll of paper towels, applying one squirt of solution, followed by a new-clean piece of towel,
to avoid smearing or grinding-in any dirt, on the hardboard.
Neil, it was either try the clear coat or end up spray painting the panels off-white. Just dusting them removed quite a bit of the original finish. ---John
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Location: Ballwin, Missouri | d500neil - 2009-03-06 5:19 PM
I don't know that I'd clear-coat a hardboard headliner, but there must be a practical way to epoxy a thin sponge-
thing to the underside of a section of headliner, and then to glue the sponge-thing to the roof.
I wonder how much cleaning-solution the headliner can take, before the Endless-Loop paint becomes removed from
the headliner?
Maybe something like "409" spray cleaner?
I'd probably go through a whole roll of paper towels, applying one squirt of solution, followed by a new-clean piece of towel,
to avoid smearing or grinding-in any dirt, on the hardboard.
A small strip of Velcro glued to the roof and panel holds them in place just fine.
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Location: Lovely place | big m - 2008-10-07 12:44 AM I've found nearly all the pieces needed for the car except for the potmetal upsweeps at the rear. Here is a pic of a typical upsweep on a '57 Sierra, the same as the ones used on the '58 sierra. The Custom Sierra I am working on uses different ones, they actually dip downward and go forward quite a bit. note the downward curve in the molding hole line. If anyone here has a pair of these, I could certainly use them. ---John I have two of them in perfect NOS quality, not for sale (unfortunately) - they are stored just "in case". They were around 50-60 USD each in eBay (cheapest they get!), but I've noticed someone is asking 200,- (!). Crazy, anyway - if you wait long enough you have a pair... Thanks for your replies regarding the roofliner, my next question is about the dashboard. I will temporary replace my gas gauge and the clock with NOS ones until I get the original ones repaired (yes, I always prefer to keep the car ORIGINAL - not NOS Original!). I noticed you painted your Sierra with the dashboard installed. Were you really able to install all the gauges etc. without removing the dash? I removed the dash from my project 2D HT, but as I today tried replacing the old gauges through the underside of the dash of the Sierra - no chance with my clumsy hands (unless I remove the steering column which I don't want to do, also the under dash air con unit is in the way)! I have a friend who's a gynecolog - she could remove all the gauges through the exhaust pipes but her services are too expensive in this case! How was the underside of your dash? I studied mine today and yes - in fact its completely unpainted from the top area, still absolutely no rust after 52 years - everything's like new! I would imagine that if there are no leaks through the windscreen rubber it stays perfect. Its just interesting to see where the station wagons get damage when these cars get older.
Edited by Sisu 2009-03-07 4:20 PM
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | I definitely like the VELCRO protocol; only tricky part would be the proper alignment of the two sections; a large
square section of the "velvet ("Velcro being a composite of 'velvet and crochet'-but, cha'll knew that) glued to the
roof would allow for a large target-area, for the crochet'ed piece to hit, but, there would be almost no wiggle-room
to maneuver or to adjust the position of the hardboard, once the crochet hits the velvet; looks pretty-much like a
1-shot attempt.
A better idea is to attach both pieces together, and then to apply a liberal coating of glue, to the velvet-section, so that it could
be slid-around, as necessary, to position the hardboard properly. The problem with THIS protocol is the necessary
SUPPORT of the hardboard, against the roof, while the glue dries, so as to prevent any unusual warpages in the hardboard
as a result of the glue drying. I'd suggest that a lot of SMALL sections of velcro be glued-down, to allow for a symmetrical contact-patch, to spread-out the area of the gluing, instead of possibly-having a major depression where a large section of the velcro might deform the shape of the hardboard. The small patch(es) of velcro might make the hardboard easier to remove, in the future.
This definitely sounds like a 2-men-and-a-boy sort of project, but, it should be doable, with some experimentation, and planning.
Cedric, not just because John still owes me a favor, on a brake booster take-apart deal (ahem), but, you really should consider
selling/trading John for those two 1958 quarter panel trim pieces (which are completely useless to your 1957 wagon, as being spare-parts).
As we say, in the NFL: you could trade then to john, "for a future draft choice" , meaning he'd owe you for some rare parts that you'd need, in the future, or, maybe, even, right-now; plus some cash from him---depending upon the rarety and value of what it is that you're needing.
Believe me: those pieces are not particularly rare (as you say, yourself) in the sense that most (intact) wagons will have them on them, but, your pieces ARE NOS, and that makes them valuable, in addition to them being available, right-now, to John.
I'm sure that he'd be most appreciative of your generosity (and, you really do not need them, for any of your cars---THAT'S the beauty of buying nice-stuff, when you happen to find them : trading-or-profit potential !!!)
Edited by d500neil 2009-03-07 5:15 PM
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Location: Lovely place | Neil, I read again what John wrote and realized the ones pictured are not the type he wants?! I have exactly the same ones he has pictured, so they must be '57... Therefore - mine are not good for John?
Regarding the installation of new gauges, I removed the speedometer and that seems to give enough access to replace the fuel gauge and clock - so advice isn't required any more... At the same time I decided to remove the dashboard because mine seems to be metal but the surface is some kind of coating giving plastic look (non-original). Now is good time to get it trimmed with black vinyl and that should restore my dashboard to original specs.
Btw, I'm sure John has enough screws, bolts etc. on his yard - but I would appreciate if there were packages like "57-59 All Screws for dashboard, trim etc." available. There's always one or two missing and getting them from Europe isn't that easy Mopar used so many different lenght of screws that hunting them takes bit more time than I have |
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | I think that Gary Goers sells packages of screw-sets.
Just dashes makes and sells a perfectly-fitting dash cover for our cars.
I'll PM you some pics that' I've got of someone else's having installed a Just Dashes' padded dash into his car.
The dash panel is comprised of a lot of pieces, but, you're only concerned about the upper section.
You do want to remove the dash assembly, in order to scrape-grind off that textured surface that's on it, now.
Be careful not to scratch any of the base-of-windshield painted trim pieces (if they're not already contaminated by that
texturing material).
Yeah; the 1958 wagon trim has a noticible "V" like depression on it, and its a fairly flat surface, too.
Bummer...
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Location: Lovely place | Thanks, Neil. I was really happy to notice the previous owner didn't actually remove the dash. Seems he only took the old vinyl off, then they used some sort of coating to cover the dashboard . They made it really perfect, actually the workmanship was so good that I thought till today that the whole part is some aftermarket plastic part! I have sandblasting facilities so I can clean it off, paint the part semi-shiny black and glue the vinyl (Just Dashes or whatever) on. I still find it remarkable how absolutely great the condition is inside the dash for a car thats 52 years old. No leaks from windscreen also. I have to study John's photo's a bit, but I guess his dash was also perfect underneath?
Btw, this is slightly OT, so hopefully John doesn't get mad I noticed his car doesn't have a clock option, but I have - and today I replaced the original clock with NOS part. I found the functionality really interesting (I'm not a clock expert), if you give the clock 12 volts only for 5 seconds it will run several minutes! When you turn on the power the clock makes a small *UMPH* (can't describe) noise, normally this only happens when a battery is connected. Even the old - broken one - made the noise, then the second needle tried to move but failed. This left an impression that perhaps most of the clocks are not working because they are dirty inside?
Anyway, John - if you have an old working clock - fit it in your dashboard, it really completes it, maybe you can even save an broken one. If you happen to have this type of fuse (see photos), that goes behind the clock - I'll buy one! I'm missing one since the NOS clock came without it and I need one clock for my 2D HT. Funny but even my base level 4D Sedan has clock option, but not the D500. Btw, not many fuses behind the dashboards of our cars!
Left side the NOS clock and old one one at the right. In front you see the fuse I'm looking for... 
The NOS clock has year 62 stamped behind (usually I don't trust new technology, LOL): 
I'm sorry John this is slightly off topic, I just enjoy reading how you restored yours... Btw, I did have problem with fuel gauge, checked everything (sensor, wires..) and noticed actually the gauge was broken. I had few NOS fuel gauges in "stock", so replacement wasn't a problem (they are often available quite cheaply). Even small things like working fuel gauge and clock makes me very happy!
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | Ced (now don't get scared), I have, for many years, when the clock stops running, just shot about .5sec of
WD-40 into the large rear orifice that you show, and, the clock returns to the living, for a long-time, and, for
whatever reason, the WD-40 does NOT show up on the underside of the face of the clock.
Also, and here's a REAL trade-secret: to speed up, or to retard the clock's timing, just hand wind the clock 12 hours for
each minute that you want the timing to be adjusted, per day.
The little-useless clock bulb gets installed into that orifice, and that one clock is missing its very-necessary fuse-block
connection piece, unless, that's it, lying on the upholstery, there.
Be sure to disconnect the battery any time that you go messing around with any of the behind-speedo-housing connections-
stuff.
Our cars don't really have fuses installed; we have circuit breakers installed behind the driver's kick panel, and, there's one
on the firewall, behind the dash panel, too.
Looks like your 'one' clock, there, might have been overhauled in 9/62.
If you can't dial-in the timing on a clock by adjusting the time, by 12 hour increments, the clock's internal 'points'
are probably worn out, and the clock will need an overhaul. Lotsa companies repair our clocks.
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Location: Lovely place | Thanks! I thought the reason for non-operation is dirt - or like it seems, lack of oil. Would be unfair to expect that original clock would work 52 years without problems - that would mean the seconds needle moves 1.639.872.000 times... No chance... Very interesting to learn how one can adjust the clock! The photos I'm showing actually show the NOS (or rebuilt) clock after I changed the fuse from the old one. So, the new one didn't come with one. Anyway, I plan to send the original clock somewhere for repairs and put it back on. Previously I told I rather have original parts than NOS parts - only in case of emergency I replace old parts... Now I hear ticking sound inside the car, maybe it gets disturbing and I replace the broken one back in, LOL! Btw, so far the clock is the most expensive spare part I've ever installed in my Dodge's! Second most expensive is NOS station wagon fuel sensor (actually YOU gave me the hint to buy one!). Usually I'm not comfortable for paying so much for parts... Some parts you need for future and then only option is starvation and paying the price.
Edited by Sisu 2009-03-09 8:34 PM
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Exner Expert 19,174 posts. Neil passed away 18 Sep 2015. You will be missed, Neil!
Posts: 19146
Location: bishop, ca | You will LIKE the sound of your clock ticking; it's cool sounding.
Ticktickticktickticktickticktickticktick....etc.
And, with a 2.76:1 rear end, you can hear (not) the clock running, at speed, too.
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Location: DFW, TX | I enjoyed re-reading this thread from nearly ten years ago. The Dodge turned out great, John!
Many names I haven't seen post in quite a while, and of course Neil is gone.
I think I will re-read some of these threads in the coming weeks and put them back to the top so our new members can enjoy some of the better ones! |
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Location: Williams California | Thanks, Danny!!
We're driving this one to Viva Las Vegas in a couple weeks. I have to replace the transmission, as it started slipping after driving it 15,000 miles or so. The original was in unknown condition.
---John |
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Location: So. Cal | I didn't know that you still owned this John. Good to see you enjoying it again. |
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Location: little rock, AR | Did you recover the swivel seat that came with the car??? |
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Location: Williams California | oldwood - 2018-03-29 7:06 PM
Did you recover the swivel seat that came with the car???
It never had one, Dorsey. They weren't available until '59.
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