Taylormade

This forum is for original cars. You need to go to the HAMB site for the information you are seeking. Adapting disk brakes to wood wheels is not going to be easy and may possibly be dangerous if those are the wheels you are using (which I doubt). Have you boxed or reinforced the frame to make up for the additional power that new engine is going to produce? Your inspector may have something to say about that. Most of us here cringe when we see an old car cut up like that. The frame and body was never intended for that amount of power or speed. What you may gain in ease of driving is offset by the loss of the joy of driving an original car with all its quirks and foibles.

Wow. I’ve been following this thread with interest. Kind of glad I left my 32 stock. I have enough problems restoring the original drivetrain without dealing with this stuff! I hope you get things sorted out.

I think color choice is one of the most difficult decisions in restoring a car. I tend to go with the original colors as a personal choice, but there are certain factory paint schemes I find appalling. I consider myself lucky that my 32 Dodge Brothers DL was painted black with cream wire wheels. It even has the color written in chalk on the inside of the body. My wife desperately wanted me to paint the body maroon with black fenders. Maroon was an available color, but I pointed out to her that in 32 the bodies were a solid color and none of the raised body panels were painted black as in other years. To me this presents a rather dull, flat, almost unfinished look, especially on a sedan. I stuck with the original black. Although I’m not a fan of your white and maroon choice, I’m not the guy spending hundreds of hours putting the car back together, so my opinion doesn’t count - nor should it.

Looking great. What colors have you decided on?

Funny how your memory fades. My shims (if I ever had any) were, indeed, located between the inner seal and the inner bearing race as shown in knobless's illustration. it finally came to me that you still end up destroying the inner seal when you have to pull the inner bearing race out. There is not enough room to get the puller tabs in there without bending the heck out of the seal. The only way I can figure out how to do this correctly would be to install the inner race without the seal in place, then install the rest of the axle and measure the axle play and determine the correct amount of shims needed. Then pull it all apart, install the seal, then the shims, then the inner race and finish putting it all together. Too bad i didn't figure this out before I installed the inner seals (which are very hard to get and not cheap) and buttoned everything up.

This site has the type of kit you are looking for. These old kits keep getting more and more expensive as you can see by the prices. http://www.gasolinealleyantiques.com/kits/32automotive.htm

I found shims, I think from McMaster-Carr, but the problem is you have to put the axle together to determine the axle play. But to take it back apart to install the shims, you end up destroying the new inner seals during disassembly. You can’t get them out without messing them up. Then what? Install new seals - which may change axle play? I have no idea how to solve this problem. I brought it up in my restoration thread and a bunch of opinions were floated without coming up with any real answers. When Phil Kennedy, the previous owner, took the axle apart years ago to change the inner seals, he found no shims at all. I just noticed in the illustration knobless posted that the shims are in front of the seal. This is different than my 32 - I think. It’s too late to check now, but I will tomorrow and let you know.

George posted the shot of the 39 to show the difference, as he clearly states in his post.

I pulled the brake drum with the usual heavy three (mine is five) armed puller. The axle is held in place by the friction fit of the two bearing races inside the axel housing, the bearings themselves on the axel and the outer seal which is bolted onto the axel. I pulled the drum and removed the outer seal. Then I put the drum back on the axle loosely without the key and replaced the axel bolt, just screwing it on a little bit. Now I could slide the drum toward me with a nice solid thunk. This pulls the axle with the bearings attached and the outer bearing race out of the axle housing. Just keep sliding and they come out slowly - but they will come out. You’ll need a a smaller puller with a slide weight to get inside and pull the inner bearing race out. Then you can pry out the inner seal. No clips the remove. Youl’ll find shims behind the inner seal and that’s a whole different story.

Finished up the two front floorboard kick panels today. They have pads made of some sort of heat resistant material attached to keep the car interior cool. The old pad was in poor shape, and the other pad had fallen off sometime in the distant past. The panel with the old pad. I cut out new pads from Homasote and painted them black to match the color of the originals. They are held in place by metal tabs. For some reason the tabs were mostly broken off on the panel where the pad had disappeared. I'm not sure if someone removed the pad and broke them off in the process or...? At any rate, I'm making new tabs that will be held in place by small screws. The other panel retained its tabs and they bent back into place without any issues. The finished lower panel and pad on top. The upper panel awaiting the new clips. Temperatures reached 96 degrees and I escaped into the house.

Here is the top material I ordered. It matches the original material that was on the car very closely. The white material is obviously the padding.

Restoration Specialties and Supply Company has the correct smooth material and the underlayment material. Mine just arrived last week for my 32 Dodge Brothers. Page 113 of their PDF catalog under sedan decking and glazed padding.

One way to make new gears would be using a water jet cutter. You could make a computer generated pattern and have it cut very inexpensively. I just had this done on some smaller parts and it worked great. Since these gears are flat steel, this approach would be ideal.

Are you sure that’s not a spare tire lock?

My 29 Plymouth Model U had wood framework and the vinyl material came down to the top of the doors. My 32 Dodge Brothers has an all steel body with a rectangular opening in the top of the car that the vinyl top assembly basically drops into. The assembly consists of wooden top bows and side and end pieces with a steel overlay. Chicken wire covers the bows, followed by a pad (cotton or similar material) which is then covered by the vinyl. Ply33 has a nice section on installing this type of top on his site.

Part of the frame, a bracket that supports the sidemounts. Without the bracket we would have made one and attached it to the frame. I was amazed at how little force it actually took to force the fender back into shape. We used the hydraulic ram slowly and in small increments to assure accuracy. The secret was the correct placement of the end of the ram on the inside of the fender. The fender was damaged in 1970, so it had been like that for 44 years before we fixed it.

The nearest station selling non-ethanol gas was about 12 miles away. I stopped by last week and discovered they have stopped selling it. Now the nearest is 62 miles away. Sigh.

Here are some shots of the fenders on my DL being pushed back into shape. i would strongly suggest pushing rather than pulling, as you have more control. I honestly doubted my fenders could be saved, but they came out looking brand new.

Finally finished the firewall pad. Cutting the jute material was not fun, but I managed to get it into reasonable shape with a bit of patience (which is in short supply where I'm concerned) and a pair of sharp scissors. It's all hidden anyway, so I wasn't that worried. With temperatures reaching near 100 degrees today, I was very happy that I could do this work inside. I lined it up on my dowel post jig and glued everything to the previously finished board and Homasote backing. I used the 3M 77 adhesive again and it worked great. The final result. Maybe not ready for Pebble Beach, but I'm happy with it. It matches the original in size and thickness perfectly.

Cool car, but are these photos really sixteen years old? What does the car look,like now?

Both the front fenders on my 32 Dodge Brothers sedan were pushed in after the previous owner rear ended a truck. We pushed them back out using a hydraulic ram while they were still attached to the frame. I’ll post some pictures when I get home.

The interior hurts it, as does the lighter fenders/darker body paint scheme.

It’s a shame this rare vehicle was left to rot. Thankfully it looks like you saved it before irreparable damage was done. What are your plans for it?

I have to go with Matt. I’m not a Ford guy and I prefer twenties and thirties cars, so I wouldn’t consider paying 9 grand for this car. But what do you care, since my opinion is irrelevant to your final decision? If I was a fifties Ford guy, I would look for a two door, but maybe you want to drive the kids or grandkids around and a more door suits your needs better. I like an original car, so the pipes and seats bother me, but maybe you’re a big fan of mild customs. If it’s worth 9 grand to you, buy it and enjoy it. I would be a bit worried about rust issues - a small amount of Bondo can cover a multitude of sins. Carefully check the floors, the trunk floor and the area around the headlights on the front fenders. And take a close look at the rockers.