Taylormade

The jute I bought from them is old style grayish jute with no foil backing. I’ll look up the part number when I get home.

Are they bolted in or welded on?

Those metal channels puzzle me. The whole purpose of the felt lined channel is to cushion the glass. It seems the metal channel defeats the purpose. My 32 Dodge Brothers has steel channel below in the door that the felt channel fits in, but nothing like your setup.

I’m in the process of making one for my 1932 Dodge Brothers sedan - although I doubt my work would qualify as concourse quality. I doubt the original would meet that standard. Quite Ride Solutions can make one for you but I’m not sure if they would produce a NOS replica in every detail. You would also need to provide a pattern if they don’t have one in their shop. I got my supplies - board and jute padding from Restoration Specialties and Supply and the fireproof Homasote board from the local big box.

I took a closer look at your photos and it appears the car was painted at one time. It may be the lighting, but if the car is blue, as it looks in the photos, it has had a non-original paint job in the past. The 600 odd miles on the odometer may indicate it was reset when the car was refreshed or restored in the past. Discovering the past history of a car is half the fun.

Shippers usually charge somewhere between one and two bucks a mile for enclosed shipping. If you care about the car, enclosed shipping is the way to go, as the fabric tops on these cars can be fragile and have been known to peel,off at highway speeds with open transit. As to value, it’s hard to say as the mechanical condition is unknown. It appears to be a nice original car from the pictures, but it may need a total engine rebuild or start right up after an oil pan clean, a new battery and fresh fuel. Based on advertised cars in the Dodge Brothers Club and other ads I’ve seen (I have a 32 Dodge Brothers sedan and am a member of the club) you could expect anywhere from $2500 to $4500 for the car. Prices seem to be slightly higher on the west coast. Sedans are on the low end of the price scale and many folks will not spend the money to even get them running, let alone restore them. If the car were mine, I would get it running and driving and enjoy it as a well preserved original. Unfortunately, the car appears to be an unwanted orphan that is simply taking up space. No disrespect, especially as you are taking the time to inquire about the car, but if you need advice on how to open the hood and are starting home renovations, you probably don’t have the time, space, skills or inclination to work on the car at this point. Just, please don’t roll it out of the garage and place it under a tarp - nothing will destroy a car (and it’s value) faster than doing so. PM me and we can get you an ad in The Dodge Brothers Club Magazine. There are a lot of Dodge Brothers fans who would love to have your car. The biggest problem is usually distance and cost of shipping. Your car was obviously loved by your family in the past and it deserves to be preserved and cared for.

As usual, the "simple" restoration of my firewall pad turned into a mini-epic. It really isn't a restoration as such, rather a total reconstruction using new materials. I managed to get the homasote piece cut as mentioned in an earlier thread, then got waylaid by a brake job I ended up having to do on another car. I got back to work today on Daphne. The hardest part of this job was making the patterns to cut out the firewall material. Luckily, I did have the originals, but the holes were so distorted and ripped out it took a long time to get the pattern correct for the many, many fasteners that go through the pad and into the firewall. This job was not made easy by the 95 degree temperatures in my garage and the fact that I don't have floorboards in yet, so I was lying on my back on the frame rails under the dashboard trying to see if everything was lining up. The firewall board from Restoration Specialties and Supply was of nice quality. It cut relatively easily with a utility knife and I used punches and hole-saws to cut the holes for the fasteners and the wiring and cables. I touched up the edges with a black paint stick and it came out looking pretty good. The dowels sticking up locate the different pieces so I can glue them together in perfect register. I sprayed the Homasote with some black paint in case any of the edges peeked through after gluing. The Homasote is smaller than the actual board as you can see by this shot of the Homasote pattern laid over the firewall board. Then I used 3M 77 Super Adhesive to glue the board to the Homasote, and weighted it down with some old car magazines I haven't thrown away for some unknown reason. The dowels really made lining everything up a breeze. All I have left is to cut out the jute backing and punch the holes using my patterns and glue it to the Homasote. Then the job will be finished and I can finally run my wiring and cables into the interior and hook up the dash wiring.

Well, there are currently 74 pages of “progress” to wade through on this thread. You can go back to page one and see it all if you can stand it. Currently the frame, springs, axles, brakes, engine, transmission, body, fenders, fuel system and chrome are all restored. I’m currently putting in the window glass and door mechanisms. The interior is the last hurdle and will be installed as soon as I’m done putting in the new floorboards. I hope to take it out for a first drive late this summer. I bought the car in 1965, sold it in 1967, bought it back in 2013 and have been restoring it ever since.

Frank, those 32 Dodge Brothers fenders you sold me are now rechromed and mounted on my car. Thanks again.

Ron, this is really coming along nicely. My only concern is the fenders. They seem awfully high compared to the period photos you’ve posted. The rear wheel also looks to be too far forward in relation to the fender. Not nitpicking as I do not have the talent or fabrication skills to take on a project like this. Do you expect the truck to settle down once the motor and drivetrain are installed?

I think my car has a slightly different setup. The wires to the dash run up the firewall and through a single hole in the firewall. There are only a couple of wires in that part of the loom. Three wires run from the rear of the car (the fuel sending wire and the brake and stoplight wires) in a loom that runs along the inside of the frame on the drivers’s side. These wires come out from the frame ahead of the body and into the engine compartment, never touching or going through the firewall. So, in my case, I think I’m okay. I’ve had all the wiring in place for two or three years and I just went out in the garage and checked things over. The firewall pad will go in place and I only need to feed the dash wires into the car - and there is plenty of room to get them through. Thanks for the tip, though, I could have been caught with my pants down!

I've been trying to work on the car early mornings and evenings to avoid the mid-day heat. Summer has arrived here with a vengeance. Not all that easy as I got into the firewall pad today and ended up working well into the afternoon. The thermometer read 95 when I came in from the garage, but I got a lot accomplished today. I was lucky that my original firewall pad survived relatively intact, so I had a good pattern to work with. it's not very pretty, and I taped over the unnecessary holes, but there was enough left to make a pattern. The solid section, about 1/2 inch thick, is still glued to the jute backing, but the front cover has fallen off - but I still have it. Here it is in all its glory. I got started by tackling the solid center which appears to be made of homasote. The new homasote that I bought at a nearby big box seems to be nearly identical to the worn, warped stuff on the original. Even the thickness and faint pattern on the surface is the same. I made a pattern and cut the homasote with my jigsaw. it made nice, clean cuts with no problems. I did a bit of edge sanding to make sure the final shape was accurate. Then I cut out all the small shapes around the edges and the openings for the wires and cables. I was happy to find that when I laid the new homasote over the old piece, the fit was exact and all the pins that hold it to the firewall matched with no problem. I have jute padding and firewall card from Restoration Specialties, so I'll be cutting those out and gluing everything together tomorrow.

I picked up my window roller blanks from the water-jet cutter. The best ten bucks I've spent in a long time. He made me twenty - I only need three, so plenty to practice on. Looks like a little heat to bend them around a steel rod and chamfering of the holes and I'll be ready to go.

My Restoration Supply order will be delivered tomorrow. Now I can finally get the firewall pad done and finish wiring the car. Another bit of good news - I located a water-jet cutting facility less than thirty miles form my home. Considering i live in the middle of nowhere, this was an amazing find - especially when I talked to the owner and he said he did small jobs. So, today I drove over and showed him the window rollers I had discussed in an earlier post. Here's a shot of them in Phil Kennedy's 32DL. And what they look like laid flat. The owner said there was no problem cutting them out and offered to do the tech drawings since it was so simple. We discussed the problem of rolling the metal extensions around the shaft and determining the length of the extensions before rolling them. I think I can manage this with some heat and careful massaging. He suggested we cut ten in case there was a learning curve on assembling them. I need three, so I asked for the price and held my breath. Ten bucks. Well, scrape me off the floor! Hopefully, I'll have some spares if anyone needs any. Easily worth a ten spot considering I was going to try and cut them out with a grinding wheel. Now I can guarantee I'll have all ten fingers for another few weeks.

I found this at Metro Rubber and it looks perfect for what I need. The gap between the window and the body is a little less than 3/8th of an inch, so this should fit the bill.

Question. I'm in the process of installing the windows and have come across a problem. The lower area between the window glass and the body is open maybe a 1/8th of an inch. Any water that gets on the glass will run down the window and into the door with nothing to stop it. When I took the car apart there was nothing there, but I assume a strip should be installed in there to prevent water from getting in. Restoration Supply has what they call Belt Weatherstrip which appears to be what I'm looking for, but I can see no way of installing it short of gluing it in place. They also have nothing specific for 1932, only going back to 1935. The back door windows have two rivets just hanging there that appear to have mounted something, but there is no sign of any mounting on the front window or the small back windows. i want to keep Daphne looking authentic, but also want to keep water from getting inside my doors. Has anyone solved this problem or can someone give me a clue as to what is installed in their cars?

Very nice. Not nitpicking, but doesn’t the top, semi-circular decal go in the top of the filter? The color really sets the motor off.

Maybe it’s the angle, but isn’t this a coupe?

What restoration has been done to the car at this point? Any shots of the engine and interior? How long has the car been sitting in it’s present state?

I made a large commitment yesterday and bought a ton of stuff from Restoration Specialties and Supply. Supposedly arriving Friday are new smooth grain top material, top padding, firewall panel board, door panel board, jute underpayment, and an assortment of rubber grommets. I’m also getting new door glass for the driver and passenger front side windows which were cracked. So now I can get my firewall pad finished and finally install my restored dash gauge cluster and all three cables (throttle, choke and free-wheeling) and get the under dash wiring hooked up. I have also cleaned and painted the window channels and hope to get all the side windows in this week. My outer door handles have been back from Paul’s Chrome for a bit and they will go on once the windows are in. June should be an interesting month.

Does your frame have that missing section in the cross-member, keiser31? It doesn't look right.

The exhaust should continue back and loop over the rear axle and then extend under the gas tank to the rear of the car. Not sure what is going on with your frame. My 32 DL is different, so I'll let the more knowledgeable members chime in on that. If it does need repair, it needs to have metal welded in by someone who knows what they are doing, and using the proper gauge of steel.

Wow, that is a beast! I can't help, but I'm sure some of the Stutz and fire truck guys will chime in once they see this post.

I know it goes against common practice, but the way I have them installed is correct. Here are two shots of the frame before restoration. As you can see, the lines run exactly as I have replaced them. Sorry, they are a bit hard to see through all the rust and grime. They run along the outside of the frame and then are routed inside the frame at the front and rear. I think this was done due to the X-frame layout of the frame. In the last picture you can see the car partially assembled. The metal pieces (the running board shields) above the running boards completely cover the lines and offer good protection. When I took the car apart, I was as surprised as you were to see where they were located.

I really like using nickel-copper tubing for brake lines. It looks like the original copper, flairs and bends easily and is very strong and corrosion resistant. I had some unusually complicated bends on my 32 Dodge Brothers and it really did the trick.