1953 Chrysler Windsor Deluxe

Hello to everyone out there.

I am new to this forum and new to car restoration. I have always wanted a classic car to restore and have decieded that now is the time to start. I recently purchased a 1953 Chrysler Windsor Deluxe. The car has been sitting in a field at an area car museum for 40 years and its shows. I have stopped several times looking at the cars there for sale and have always been intimidated by the vehicles condition. But I convinced my self to seriouly look and find something that is workable. The car I bought is all orginal with only 33,000 on the odometer. From the outside, the body is rusty but all the chrome and stainless is there, orginal tires, hubcaps, glass, with 2 minor dents in the front passenger fender. The motor is the orginal 6, but hasnt been touched since it was parked and I was told it is stuck. The interior is still all there but needs replaced, headliner is falling down, seats are torn etc. Needles to say I paid $700 for this. Now whether it was a good buy or not only I will know. My plan is to make this a weekend driver that runs great and looks good. Im not looking to win an award for this car. Anyways any suggestions, comments, hints, ideas would be great.

Thanks

Welcome to the forum and good luck with your new hobby car. You will not find a better group to help you with information and/or ideas to fix up your car. Those are very nice cars. There is a guy in our club with this one....

"Anyways any suggestions, comments, hints, ideas would be great."

For a start, your car has left hand thread bolts on the left hand wheels, and the electrical system takes a 6 volt battery, Positive ground. Those 2 things alone have caused a lot of greif to those not in the know.

Buy a repair manual first thing. They turn up on Ebay and at auto flea markets and are not expensive. $20 or $30 for a reprint up to $50 for an original factory manual. At one time every dealership had one so there are a lot of them out there.

They are a sturdy well made car. Not many cars could sit in a field for 40 years and be worth fixing up but a Chrysler would be one of them.

Try taking out the spark plugs and squirting some oil in the cylinders. Then see if you can turn the engine by hand. If it won't budge fill the cylinders with penetrating oil. A good penetrating oil is made by mixing kerosene or varsol with automatic transmission fluid. Others swear by Marvel Mystery Oil. Let it soak for a week or 2 and try again.

Would also suggest you start by cleaning out the car. You might be surprised by what you find. Owner's manual, spare parts etc. Warning do not throw anything away. That odd bit of metal or rubber that can't possibly be a car part, will turn out to be some obscure part they don't make anymore, and the car can't run without it. Have a box handy and some plastic zip lock bags for storage.

You can throw out the dried up ballpoint pens and McDonald's wrappers lol.

Get a clip board or pad of paper, go over the car and list all the parts it needs and all the repairs. Take your list and figure out how much it will take in time and money to put it in commission. Double it. Double it again. That is your estimate for what it will take. If you cannot commit to that, STOP do not do any more work or take the car apart. Sell it or pass it along to someone else. Too many old cars get ruined by someone with good intentions who starts working on it but can't finish and the car ends up junk.

Ok that is enought to start with, if you have any more questions come back and ask. But please, get the manual, and try to look up the answer yourself first or do a web search. We don't mind helping and answering questions but appreciate if you do as much as you can for yourself.

If you notice I just spent more than twice as much time answering your question as you did asking and barely touched the surface. Open ended questions are like that. For the best results ask specific questions and give as much detail as necessary to help a diagnosis.

We bought this 50 New Yorker Newport in 2005 for $600.00, it sat outside in NE PA for 25 years until it was put inside. The paint on the roof is original the gray was resprayed. I soaked the engine as Rusty recommends, I used kerosene, blaster, and marvel mystery oil filled the oil fill tube and the carb till it wouldn't hold any more and let it sit for two weeks before ever trying to move the fan. Did the brakes, new wheel cylinders, lining, hoses, shocks, cleaned everything the master cylinder and hydrovac were sent to Virginia, used the longest tube muffler NAPA had, made my own tailpipe. Put seat covers on the sun weakened upholstery was lucky enough to get a steering wheel off of a parts car. I firmly believe that if a parts car can be obtained they are priceless for many little reasons.

Anyway here are some photos of our 50 New Yorker Newport. since the spring of 2008 until fall of 2010 we put just shy of 8,000 miles on it. I thought I was going to have the car on the road for the summer of 2005, It was purchased in January 05. I took a short shake down run in Nov. of 07 and corrected problems over the winter and since April of 08 it has been a dependable driver.

These cars are very solid and dependable and once you get familiar with the fluid drive you will realize what a "Regal " ride your Chrysler affords.

Good luck,

Jay

Welcome.....Good choice for a project as i purchased a 52 last year and absolutely love it.

I agree with Rusty when he says get a repair manual, i found a reproduction on ebay for 20 bucks. This forum is full of experienced helpful people willing to help. I am new to 50's era cars and there experience is invaluable.

You will find that original parts are not as readily available as say Fords or Chevy's. They are out there though on Ebay, swap meets, and as jazzer says donor cars. Sometimes pricey and sometimes cheap.

Good luck and have fun

One thing you may want to do is to look into the WPC Club (Walter P. Chrysler Club). There are quite a few of these owned by members of that club.

WPC Home - the World's Largest Chrysler Products Club !

Thanks to all for the input. I have a manual on the way and plan on picking up the car this weekend. I will upload some pictures soon. I know I will have questions once I get started, so I look foward to the help. Until then all suggestions are welcome. My plan is to get it running before anything else, although the headliner has to come down first. I'm sure an engine and transmission rebuild are in store. First question is about engine rust, what should be done? Have it dipped, elbow grease and time, or certain chemicals that will aid in this. Again, I'm not wanting show room quality, just want it looking presentable. I know this depends on each persons perspective, so I'm listening to every one.

There is no need to think of an engine rebuild. Normal engine life on those cars is 80000 to 100000 miles. 30000 is low mileage. If the car was left with the air filter on and the hood closed it should be OK. With the air filter off and the hood open, probably rebuild time.

Don't worry about engine rust at this time. You might clean the engine by blowing it off with an air hose. Especially clean around the spark plugs, so dirt does not fall in the cylinders when you take out the plugs. Fill with oil as discussed above, and see if you can turn the engine by hand. If not leave it sit for a few days and try again. You may have to remove the starter and pry against the flywheel teeth with a pry bar to turn the engine. Sometimes you can put a wrench on the front of the crankshaft but on Chrysler sixes the clearance is pretty tight not much room to put a wrench in there.

My policy when getting an engine running is change as little as possible. I assume it ran when parked and go from there. Do not go tearing things apart you don't have to or you will soon have a mess. Check out one thing at a time. Diagnose first and only repair or rebuild a part if it is faulty.

Do not trust the old gas, it will be no good. Disconnect the gas line at the fuel pump and connect to a motorboat gas tank. If the fuel pump is shot you can connect right to the carb.

You will probably need to rebuild the fuel pump and carb in due course because today's gas rots the old rubber parts. If you get it running you can worry about that later. It is not hard to rebuild a carb or a fuel pump IF you are careful and IF you have the factory manual and follow it exactly. Do not go getting ideas of your own or you will get in trouble.

Once you get the engine turning over, turn it over at least one complete revolution by hand. Then spin it with the starter. Watch out, if you filled the cylinders with oil it will squirt out very forcefully. Best to cover the motor with rags. This will make a little mess.

Check the distributor and carefully clean the points. Give them a squirt of electrical contact cleaner or brake cleaner spray and drag a strip of white paper between them until the paper comes out clean. In extreme cases use some fine wet or dry sandpaper 600 grade or finer. As you turn the engine the points should open and close. The gap should be .019 or about the thickness of a dime. As long as they are opening and closing do not disturb them, if you do have to reset the gap you should check the timing as well. But usually the timing will not change enough to worry about.

Clean the inside of the cap with contact cleaner or brake cleaner and wipe with a clean rag or paper towel. Now the spark plugs should spark. If you have good spark at all the plugs you can now see if the gas is getting to the carb. If it is the engine should start. Once it starts rev it up to a fast idle, about 1000 RPM not too fast. Let it run for 10 or 15 minutes until it warms up. It may run a little ragged and blow out oil smoke but should settle down as it warms up.

If this all works you are lucky. You may have to clean the carb tinker with the ignition or who knows what. By the way if the rad is dry check the drain taps on the bottom of the rad and on the left side of the engine. Close them and have some water handy to fill the rad. This is too obvious but if you fill it with water be sure and drain it out before winter. Or, if you get it running and the rad water pump and hoses are OK you can put in antifreeze. But you will probably need to replace all the rubber hoses under the hood because it will be shot by this time.

Thanks Rusty. That's what I like to hear, I know the hood has been kept closed but as far as the air filter I'm not sure. Hopefully a little tuning up will get it back running. Also thanks for the note on the left handed threads, I did not know that, glad I was advised.

I keep my self out of trouble by remembering to "Brake to the Rear" when I get the lug wrench in my hand. I have replaced the studs on a couple of mopar projects. Napa has the left hand nuts.

HI I SEARCH CHRYSLER WINDSOR 1953 FRONT AND REAR BUMPER AND FRONT GRILL BAR , I PAID GOOD PRICE FOR IT, AND NEED IT NEW PLATED OR VERY GOOD CONDITION

SOME ONR HAVE THAT FOR ME

MARIOBRI@VIDEOTRON.CA

HI AGAIN I HAVE CHRYSLER 1929 2 DOORS SERIE 75 ALL REBUILT ACCEPT ASK $22000 WHANT TRADE IT FOR WINDSORD 53 OR NEW YORKER

EQUAL VALUE OR LOWER WITH DIFFERENCE MONEY CONTACT FOR PICTURES

MARIOBRI@VIDEOTRON.CA

IM FROM QC, CANADA

im loooking to buy chrysler windsor 1953 front bumper in good condition with good chrome

mariobri@videotron.ca

hello...I have a '53 Chrysler Windsor deluxe....if you don't mind me asking....where do you get your parts....??? I need a 6v starter relay switch....

thanking you in advance,

punky 07

You could try your local NAPA store, they are usually pretty good on old parts. If there is an old dusty parts store in Sicklerville where the farmers go, that is the place.

Or try Andy Bernbaum the Chrysler parts specialist, look up his web site.

If it's this style of relay common to 1951-54 Chrysler you will find if you do locate one it will be very very pricey. Not available at the local parts store.

Normally all that is needed is to open one up and clean the contact points and save yourself two to four hundred dollars!!!!

Mitchells had one and I think it was $395.00.

THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH....RUSTY. I WILL TRY ANDY BERNBAUM

If the Chrysler ones are really that expensive and hard to get, I would try first to fix the old one, if that fails use a Ford relay for $20.