1930 DeSoto CK6 Coupe

[ckowner]

Just thought I would share a before and after pictures of my car. Finished last year, it was a field find in Northern Alberta in 1971, purchased for $15.00. It is a Canadian car, one of 600 total production. The car was very incomplete: no hood, radiator, front axle, 1/2 an engine. Had to cut down a tree growing through the engine compartment to get it out of the bush. Many times during these years life and family were the priority. Now we can enjoy it together. The grand kids love the rumble seat and love the attention. 

Edited September 8, 2016 by ckowner (see edit history)

[maok]

Just wonderful!

 

Interesting looking sunvisor.

[Ben Bruce aka First Born]

WOW!!  Just WOW.

 

  Ben

[keiser31]

THAT is a BEAUTY!!! Love the trees shot.

[GARY F]

glad you saved it. beautiful car

[Luv2Wrench]

Awesome, thanks for taking the time to share the pictures!!  Might you have a few of the restoration process?

 

[unimogjohn]

And how long did it take you?  Great car.  

[ckowner]

Thank you for the nice comments. I have many pictures and a story to go with them. 

   The story starts with a 19 year old (me) that just wanted an "old" car in 1971. Not being able to find anything locally, a trip with another car friend was planned to Alberta to go car hunting. While visiting friends north of Edmonton Alberta, we went from farm to farm asking if anyone had anything. After some time we located this treasure in the bush in the back of a farmer's field. After agreeing to a $15.00 sale price, the car was loaded on a hay wagon and transported to my friends farm where it was stored till transportation to Surrey, BC could be arranged. I did not know what the car was since there was no radiator, hood, front end, to identify the make. We decided that it was an early Chrysler product. This prompted us to find another car with a drive train. A 1929 Chrysler 65 was located in southern Alberta. Both cars were hauled home and the school of hard knocks was enrolled. At 19 with no knowledge of early Chrysler development I was fairly confident the "65" drive train was a shoe in. Much adapting (now called butchering) all had to be corrected in later years. One picture shows the car with the Chrysler hood and radiator. Too small and nothing lines up, but it looked like a car.

  The car was identified as a 1930 DeSoto CK6 with a rumble seat. A Canadian car, one of 600 total production from Windsor. I have yet to see a picture of one anywhere other than archived one in Don Butler's book, and an artist conception in the original sales brochure. One other exists in Ontario (2 serial #s higher) but it is being turned to a rod. Too far gone and no parts. I attached some pictures to enjoy. I'm not getting them in the order I want, but maybe I'll get that figured out.

[ckowner]

This was the donor car at that time. Towed 750 miles on its original rubber through the mountains by a 1942 Plymouth with original drive train (6), home made tow bar. One flat tire on the Chrysler (destroyed the wheel too

[alsancle]

That is a great story!

[ckowner]

For many years I struggled with not having parts which were quite right. The front fenders I used were from the 1929 Chrysler "65". It had a longer wheelbase than the 109" DeSoto and part of the difference was made up in the fender curve. The 1929 engine was longer, so the rear mount was 2" further back on the frame, and the front motor mounts were different. It was discouraging for many years, with many suggesting to just drop a V-8 into it. I 2008 I came across a great guy who had bought a 1930 CK sedan as a parts car. In the end it was the car that got this project going. The parts needed were nicely crated and shipped north. A mock up car was assembled. Since the donor car was a 4dr sedan, the rear fenders were narrower at the top. As I don't want to bore readers with all the details, I will start with the picture of the car put together with the right body parts. The only thing missing was a lot of money.

[ckowner]

Once I had the confidence that the car could be restored to the original or very close to it, I had contact with a friend who was an "old country" semi retired panel beater. He came to see the car and took on the metal work. I will upload some pictures and comment on the progress. The attached pictures show the replacement of inner fender metal replacement

[ckowner]

As is usually the case with cars that are exposed to the weather, the metal develops many rust pin holes because of wood holding moisture. As you can see the roof rails and the rumble seat lid were victims of this. all the metal was replaced. One of the roof rails was removed, metal patch panels installed and then welded back and all body work finished with lead

Edited September 19, 2016 by ckowner (see edit history)

[Spinneyhill]

You won't bore me with details. I thrive on them!

 

Great work and lovely car.

[GARY F]

Great work on a great car

[Landman]

Boy, that brings back memories. Absolutely beautiful reconstruction.

 

[ckowner]

   Thanks for the comments. Landman I thoroughly enjoyed your postings and can relate to your project. I am not an automotive professional and have operated on a limited budget with a lot of patience. I have learned a lot over the years from people like the ones that contribute to this forum, and would like to share some of the things that I have learned through posting on this forum. 

   The metal restoration of this car took 9 weeks of steady work. First the main body had the quarter panels, inner fenders, some rear floor section, and roof rails repaired. Any rusted areas, be it even pin holes were replaced with patch panels formed with an english wheel, acetelene and hammer welded. One issue was to get the doors lined up with the body. The roof section and the main body are connected with wood. Once this was realigned and re nailed everything started to look like it should. Once all the nailing was done, the seam was masked and properly sealed. See pictures of gutter area over door and bottom of roof line.

[ckowner]

Remember that this car was in transit from home to home for many years with some work being done on and off. It is amazing that of all the pieces of the car I started with in 1971 nothing was lost or misplaced. The gutters were bent because something had fallen on the car way back when, as the pictures show, after the seams were sealed, the straightened gutters were reinstalled with nails, and then the small herring bone shaped strips were installed to cover the nails. These filler strips were in sad condition, but meticulously straightened and reused.

[ckowner]

Once all the repairs were done to the main body, the next challenge was the fenders. All the fenders on the car were in poor condition. As was mentioned earlier, the fenders which I finally got were from a 4dr sedan. The rear fenders were widened using part of the old coupe fenders. The pieces were superimposed over each other so the outer edge lined up with the front fender. The two sections were then cut and the seam was acetylene and hammer welded 

[ckowner]

The front fenders did not have tire wells in them. The only wells I had were for a 5.00 tire. the wells were first cut in half length wise, then a 1/2 strip of metal was added to widen them to 5.50". The fenders were cut and formed to accept the wells in the original factory location and method. Some rust pinhole sections were cutout and replaced. Notice the "old school" fender edge bead crimping pliers

[ckowner]

With all the metal work done, this is how the car rolled out of the garage/ workshop. 9 weeks later! After transporting it home, It was assembled to make sure everything lined up and all the accessories fit

[barry22]

Thanks for posting all the great photographs!! They do a wonderful job of telling the story !!

[ckowner]

Well here we are again. Since this is a history story of a restoration and not live action, it is sometimes difficult to know what to include and what to skip. I probably have 1500 pictures of the process, but I will pass on the high lights. Once the metal work on the body was completed, the body was again taken apart and removed from the frame. As I mentioned earlier, I had attempted to install a 1929 Chrysler 65 running gear many years ago. Alterations had been made to the frame to accommodate this. The front engine cradle had been changed and the cross member behind the transmission had been moved back and welded in. This all had to be corrected. The location of the rear motor mounts turned out to be critical, as the bolts used to fasten the mounts to the frame, are also threaded inside to fasten the side mount posts. The pictures show the welded cross member, and the frame after corrections were made and final restoration was in progress. The frame had been sandblasted earlier, so now it was cleaned up and repainted with a high quality rust paint. New running boards were made, copied from the original patterns. 

[ckowner]

The engine rebuild happened somewhat simultaneously. It appears that the early 6 cylinder engines had a problem with corrosion from the water jacket to the cylinder. Once I had a block that we could work with, the block was magnafluxed and checked for cracks. Most had oblong cylinders from several honing rebuilds, so the block was bored and re sleeved, and since I had a set of new .030 over Egge pistons and rods with new un-machined babbitt, we decided to bore the sleeves .030" over. This saved the cost of new pistons and allowed for the use of new modern rings. The main bearing shells were sent to Egge machine for new babbitt. The engine was machined, line bored, balanced and re assembled. Pictures show the original engine as well as some assembly 

[ckowner]

It has been a while since the last post. Once the frame and the engine were completed and ready for assembly, the emphasis was on getting the fenders and splash aprons done. After prepping, the fenders and the splash aprons were painted black base with clearcoat. The underside was first sprayed with a coat of rock guard. Pictures show the fenders hanging in the drying bay.

[keiser31]

GORGEOUS!

[ckowner]

With the front fenders and splash aprons complete,the chrome and the radiator complete, the engine rebuilt, work could progress on assembly. One of the pictures shows a painted piece of aluminum set up as a hood side panel. This helped in choosing a color. It is from the PPG color chart and is actually called a brown. Very attractive and looks somewhat original

[Luv2Wrench]

Amazing quality of work!!  Thanks again for posting the pictures.  I wouldn't worry about saturating the forum... most of us would like to see all 1500 pictures.

 

Edited December 12, 2016 by Luv2Wrench (see edit history)

[ckowner]

The guys doing some of my painting and final body prep were really busy, so it was a challenge to get things done within a budget. Patience was the name of the game, but that was not a problem, since I had developed a lot of that over the years. 

With the color picked, work proceeded. The doors, hood, rumble seat lid were done first. After the painting was done, the parts were stored in my home office so that nothing would be damaged.

[ckowner]

The next step was to get the main body and the rear fenders prepped for paint. I had repaired holes in the firewall. but of course it resulted in some warping. My body man convinced me that I would forever be sorry if that wasn't corrected. When he was done it looked just like new. 

[ckowner]

Special attention was given to body lines, especially where lead work had been done. I have learned to have a lot of respect for good trades people. With all the prepping done, the main body shell and rear fenders were finished off in an epoxy primer. 

[Grimy]

Standing ovation from here!  I stand in awe of your perseverance and your relentless pursuit of perfection.  Love the color!

[GARY F]

I second Grimy

[mipodesign]

That is very sweet looking

[ckowner]

Hi mipodesign

Thanks for your offer to draw my car. I have a very talented artistic grand daughter who is 13 years old. She did this drawing and gave it to me for my last birthday. The picture of the drawing does not really do justice to the detail.

Edited December 18, 2016 by ckowner (see edit history)

[ckowner]

The next step in the restoration process after the main body shell and the rear fenders had been prepped, was paint. The underside of the fenders and the underside of the body were sprayed with rock guard and then painted black. One way of achieving this was to stand the body shell on its front on styrofoam to prevent damage.

The next step in the process was painting the main base body color. The paint booth was a large one also used for painting trucks, so extra care had to be taken to control any dust

[ckowner]

The two tone colors (black) created an extra challenge. The complete body was masked with only the raised portions to be painted black exposed. Special attention was given to the masking lines to ensure sharp detail.

[ckowner]

One more posting on the paint process, as I am limited to the picture uploads. Once the base colors were applied, things were finished with a clear coat. I realize that this was not the original process, which would have been lacquer, but these cars were built in the depth of the depression, and technology has drastically improved. These cars were built to be affordable transportation, and the automotive industry was in a developing mode. In many ways these restored cars are better than the original build. 

Edited December 19, 2016 by ckowner (see edit history)

[GARY F]

looking good

[ckowner]

The work progressing. Mounting the body on the frame. next was the hanging of the doors and installing and adjusting the rumble seat deck lid.