Further update on progress....Folks, first let me thank you for your help in my project. Posting my efforts here motivates me to continue on. As of late I am still wrestling with finding the running board molding or possibly having it reproduced. I hope I can find some. On top of this I am facing four projects that will require the help of a machine shop. The first of these is repairing the door stop slides for the four doors. There is a small flat spring that offers resistance to the arm as it moves down the slide groove toward the stop spring. All of these springs are worn out; however they are held on with a special stud which is bradded to the arm. To fix this requires grinding off the stud/brad, re-machining it, reproducing the spring,making a die to spread the end of the stud an reafixing it. Secondly, the gas pedal has an aluminum cover on the end that needs to be replicated. Thirdly, I need some slots and holes machined in the running boards. The fourth item I need machined are some large washers used in conjunction with the body bolts to hold the body down. These items may take some weeks or months to resolve; however, I will get them eventually. Now, I have been working on replacing the front floorboards. It has taken me three attempts to replicate the toe board. Seems like this job would be a simple task; however, when the basic body was rebuilt some years back the space the toe board mounts in was set up with slightly different corner angles and different dimensions from stock, requiring me to make a template of cardboard and fit it several times to get it right (see pics). The front floor boards as I mentioned earlier are made up of up to six individual boards that are tongue and grooved together with dovetail tongue and grooves. These are not easily replicated. I am seriously considering fixing the original(which is 98% there) with a couple of dutchmen; one at either end. Yesterday I did cut out several sets of boards with a square tongue and groove which I could assemble and replicate the floorboard and no one would know the difference; however after studying the situation last night I began to consider adding about a 1" dutchman to either end of the exsisting original. You would not be able to tell this fix was accomplished on the restored car without close examination. Either way progress slowly continues. I have attached some pictures for your review.

Floorboards....that's what I have been working on for the last three days. I did restore the windshield header mechanism and study for the next steps in the restoration. Making the floorboards and restoring the floor boards is proving to be another challenge to me. I have decided to replicate the front floorboards and add the dutchmen to the original and see which one works and/or looks best. It took "Mr. Bad Wrench" three attempts to cut out a toe board for this car. I tried at first to replicate an original floorboard...no luck...when the basic body was pieced back together some thirty years ago, it was slightly out of square. The original floorboards would no longer fit; so, when I replicated an original to the thousandth's, it would not fit either. I finally made a display board template and carefully fitted it to the hole/space. Attached please find some nine or ten hours of my time per day for the last three days. Also....Chrysler subscribed to the Fedco anti-theft system. Has anyone restored one of these ID tags? How did you do it, or is their someone out there that can restore one of these plates?

Harry,
On the Fedco tag, I'm no expert but I have a few tags in my emblem collection. It looks like all yours needs is plating unless there is hidden damage. By the way, L & L does have my Pierce running board molding in their catalog, were they able to help with yours?

Don....I can't figure out what metal it was plated with and did it have any paint over the plating ie in the background areas? Another problem is that it is attached to the dash in such a way that it can't be tampered with (anti-theft protection). Can a plater plate only the tag and not the rest of the dash. I'm glad you got your runningboard molding; the guy at L&L has promised a catalogue, but none yet.

Harry,
Let me dig out the tags I have and have a look. They have been removed but I can't remember what they look like. Do you know how this anti-tamper feature worked?

Harry

I mailed you a catalog on 5/26. Let me know if I can help.

Brad Landoll

Thanx Brad....Don, I can't tell how the Fedco tag is attached to the dash. Either from back or front I can't see how it was attached (see attached pic of back). I have also included some pictures of the restored floorboards.

Harry,
I found the Fedco tag, see pictures below. It appears to be nickel plated although the front is worn. It looks like you could remove yours by grinding off the rivet heads, It looks like that is how mine was removed. I think if you pry on it it will damage the front surface. You would have to reattach with epoxy or ? after refinishing. Hope this helps.

Don....Thank you very much! As far as I can tell mine is not rivited on; but I need to study mine more and your pictures more. Note, mine reads WPChrysler, whereas yours reads Chrysler. Is your face plate made of stamped steel and is the metal on the back lead?

It appears to be solid metal and appears to be plated brass but let me take another look and put a magnet near it, I'll let you know.

Harry,
The outer metal on the tag is non-magnetic and definitely appears to be brass. The tag is heavy and could be filled with lead, although it seems to be one piece. The two circular bushings on the back are magnetic, assume they are steel. The piece is 3 3/16" wide by 7/8" high and I do not know what year or model it's from. Good Luck!

Thanks again Don, by the way, your tag looks to be from a 1928 series "62".

I am still working on the floor system of the car. I have assembled the front floor board from several tongue&groove boards as per the original and made a foam core poster board template to fit the space/hole in the car. I took the template and traced it on the above mentioned assembly and mapped out all of the cuts and holes I need to cut out the replacement floorboard. Soon I will cut it out and paint it. The stearing column/brake and clutch pedal floor plate and the shifter/handbrake floorplates are not reproduced; however, I am lucky as they are smooth rubber over a steel core and don,t have a pattern on the face. This allows me to take some 1/16" rubber sheet I acquired from my local hardware supply coupled with cleaning up the original steel cores and fabricate new floorplates.

Quick update on progress.....Last Sunday night(about 9:30) I delivered the car to the body man and today I took the last of the body parts to be restored to the stripper for the first step in the restoration process. Two of the required items requiring the skills of a machinist are being delt with.

Hi, was wondering if you have or know of anyone with a dashboard to suit a closed cabin 72(like the one pictured above)? I was building a roadster but after not being able to find rear panels I have decided to build a coupe instead. I just need a dashboard now.

71Pacer....I don't know where to get another dash. By the way, have you ever thought about making the chassis into a two seat runabout? The series "72" was a fast car.

try jay at ASTEIME@PTD.NET

Thanks, Jay is looking for a dashboard and the idea of converting the coupe rear into a roadster has crossed my mind many times. I have the standard roadster with the longer chassis which will mean I will have to shorten the chassis by 4 inches. I have a "65" chassis that may work but it's rusted a fair bit. My idea is to make the body I have into a converible coupe. The coupe body I have is actually a 70G which is very close to a 72 except it's 4 inches shorter. I have to make a decision soon so I can start the restoration.

71Pacer....How long is your wheelbase? In America only 1 wheelbase length was offered 120.5"

This is a subjuct of debate that has been going on for ages. My car has a 118 inch wheelbase. The cars were imported as a drivable chassis and the bodies were all made here so I know the Australian cars will be slightly different in appearence. I have been told the Red Head cars were a shorter 114 inch wheelbase. Do you know anything about that?

Leigh...This is perplexing. In the resources I have I don't see any 118" or 114" wheelbases on any of the series produced in '27, '28 or '29. (Standard Catalog of Chrysler 1924-1990) I am fairly certain though there would have been only one wheelbase offered in the series"72". This is a question the Chrysler Historical Data Collection could possibly answer. From your picture in this forum it looks like you have the wrong body for the chassis.(ie. Imperial"8o" chassis/"72" body. The cowl (std on all American body styles) and the rear section you have give you 85% of a roadster from what I can see. It would fairly easy for a good sheet metal/body craftsman to fab up a set of doors and sill pieces from patterns to complete a roadster. Note, as is the practice today certain body panels are interchangable between body styles. Have you access to any resources such as parts books or pictures etc. on Chryslers sold in Austrailia in 1928?

I will measure my wheel base again tonight. Maybe I am wrong.

Update on progress, I have picked up one part from the machinist and he is working on the other project I gave him. The part I picked up is the gas pedal. I will need to do a small amount of final work and this part will be complete. Bad news with respect to the parts I had stripped; The stripper severly bent up and damaged the front fenders. When I went to pick up the parts I discovered this and confronted the stripper. All I got was dumb looks and BS from him. I hope some of the members in the Atlanta area are following this as I would never use this company again. The repairs to the fenders are going to cost me! I delivered the parts to the body man. He is making slow ,but excellent progress on the body. This guy is an excellent craftsman and his work shows it. From what I can estimate the car will remain with him for another month or two and then back to my shop where I will finish several small details and from there I will start on the chassis. I am still wrestling with how to restore the FEDCO antitheft plate,reproduce the pot metal door and window handles, and reproduce or find the running board trim. As to the interior handles I think I have found the technologies to help me reproduce these castings. This process will consist of first laser reading the parts into a computer then manipulating them to eliminate blemishes and increasing the size to compensate for shrinkage when cast. The parts can then be cast with either the investment technique or using a open mold similiar to sand casting. I plan to tackle the wood wheels first when I start on the chassis. For this I need a source for the hemispherical head carriage bolts that were used on artillery wheels of the day. Does anyone know a source for these carriage bolts. I hope to post some pictures when I get the car back from the body man.

You were right! My car is 120 inch wheelbase. I am still convinced the sports roadster was a shorter chassis. I know someone with one and he is to email me measurments soon. My car has the single swage line on cowl and doors. The red Head cars have a double swage line and smaller brake drums with wire wheels.

I need some more advise...Today I took out the instrument panel to study it and plan for it's restoration. I studied it for a while and also studied the wiring diagram in my owner's manual. While studying it I took apart and reassembled some sections of it to familiarize myself with it's inner workings. I took out the gas gauge and it fell apart in my hands. It seems the inner frame of the unit was a zinc diecasting and had deteriorated. The guts of this gauge will have to be replaced in it's entirety. I can't do this. I didn't open or remove any more of the guages in fear I might end up with many small heaps of parts. When I was through in the shop I got out my Hemmings Motor News and discovered 11 ads for instrument rebuilders. I was wondering who you might reccommend to rebuild my instrument cluster and what experiencies you have had or if there are some rebuilders that don't advertize in Hemmings; but you could recommend.