Taylormade

After two years the body is finally back on the frame and Daphne is actually starting to look like a car again. As you can see from the pictures, I used concrete blocks to raise the body up enough to roll the frame underneath - not a method I'd recommend, but I had six people helping and it all went smoothly. After the fact I realized I hadn't taken any pictures - too much going on at the time. Please excuse the fingerprints all over the freshly chromed radiator shell in these after the fact shots!

It's done. When I informed the gentleman who hired me to do the work that this type of file couldn't be used to make a 3D printed model, I never heard from him again.

Love everything except the wheels.

Apparently losing the windshield visor in 32 caused the change - I guess they thought the hinge sticking out would be a styling faux pas and they went with the hidden system used on my car which gives a totally flat windshield with no round projection at the top of the frame.

I was afraid of that. Sometimes I'd like to strangle the chief engineer on the DL! Could you get a shot of the top of your windshield from the outside so I can see what the hinge looks like?

Keiser, what type of hinge do you have on your windshield? My 32 DL has a weird setup with a rod sticking out of each side of the windshield frame that locates into rubber fittings at the top inside of the window opening. My rubber fittings are rock hard and badly distorted and I'm trying to figure out how to address this problem. Any chance you have the same setup?

My 32 DL uses split rivets, and, if I remember correctly, so did the 29 Plymouth I restored 30 years ago.

I would strongly advise annealing the new washers before you use them. I have found the modern washers to be too hard, they won't crush properly. Heat the washer to cherry red with a propane or MAP torch and let them air cool. Be careful, you can melt the washer if it gets too hot. As soon as it's cherry red, back the heat off. You can hold the washer with needle-nose pliers. Also, throughly clean the brass fitting and check for cracks. Two of the fittings on my 32 DL were cracked, probably from over tightening.

Did you have new Babbitt bearings poured and were they line bored? Are you certain the crankshaft is not bent? If the crank is too tight, then you must have a problem with either the main bearings or the crank. More detailed information on the nature and extent of the rebuild would help.

My 1932 Dodge Brothers DL originally came with a one piece coil/ignition switch. It was long gone when I bought the car in 1965, replaced with a isolated ignition switch and a 6 volt coil hidden under the dash. Now that I'm putting the car back together, I need to get the wiring straight. Here is the wiring diagram for the original set-up... I'd prefer not to drop a few hundred bucks for an original style coil, so my question is how do I wire the car with this non-original configuration? I assume just about everything stays the same except for the coil area, Where does the wire now coming off the coil to the gas gauge go? The diagram doesn't show if this is the negative or positive coil terminal, but I assume it's the negative since it's feeding power to the gauge.. Does it just stay the same or do I need to run it off something else? This is a positive ground car. Does the small wire from the coil to the distributor come off the negative or the positive coil terminal? Where do I run the two wires coming off the non original ignition switch? I have an original pattern wiring harness from Rhode Island Wiring, so I'm going to have to add a few wires under the dash to make this work. Needless to say, I'm an idiot when it comes to wiring.

I was recently contacted by a gentleman who wanted me to do a 3D model of a classic British racing car, the ERA. Due to a communications error, he thought the drawings could be used to produce a model on a 3D printer, but they are actually for printing out photo-realistic images of the car. I put a lot of work into this project and thought I would at least show the folks on the forum the results. I created each part of the car in a program called Blender, then colored and textured everything. If anyone out there would like a model of their car (which can be rendered from any angle with any type of lighting), PM me and we can talk.

I was recently contacted by a gentleman who wanted me to do a 3D model of a classic British racing car, the ERA. Due to a communications error, he thought the drawings could be used to produce a model on a 3D printer, but they are actually for printing out photo-realistic images of the car. I put a lot of work into this project and thought I would at least show the folks on the forum the results. I created each part of the car in a program called Blender, then colored and textured everything. If anyone out there would like a model of their car (which can be rendered from any angle with any type of lighting), PM me and we can talk.

Total, unmitigated hijack on my part, but I've always loved models. Tom's stuff is just incredible. Not even car related, but I build ship models out of printed paper as the old toy makers did in the late 1900s. This one is 48 inches long. There is something very satisfying about making miniature versions of the real thing.

Does Tom Sehloff still make cast iron toys? This Richfield truck is beyond beautiful!

Everything is finally back from the painter. My narrow garage is full to the brim with shiny parts and I'm starting to put Daphne back together. It's amazing how much you forget over the course of a few years. As I went to put on the rear gas tank cover, I went back to some photos I'd taken during the initial disassembly. I discovered all sorts of webbing and rubber pads that would have slipped my mind if I didn't have these reference shots. Here is the frame right after the sheet metal was removed. Much of the original webbing is rotten and falling apart, but it's still there. Here is the same area with new webbing and rubber pads installed. I had three of the four original rubber pads, but they were hard as a rock, so I made some new ones out of two layers of rubber to get the correct thickness. The gas tank cover went on without a hitch, held on by those odd bolts and cupped washers Chrysler liked to use.

Yes, things seem to be veering off the tracks. I'll be working on the car this week and I'll have some posts that are actually related to the restoration of Daphne. I should have known that bring up bad paint jobs would send things off on a tangent.

I actually got my money back in both cases. Both guys advertised on the web and I simply said I would post close-ups of their paint jobs and let the viewers decide if they thought this was quality work. The first guy brought a check over the same day. The other took a bit more persuading. I'm not sure if either are still in business. Nice looking Caddy.

They are close, have no problem with me coming down and watching, have already started sanding the body and have been in business (same owners, same family) for 25 years. All I can do is take a deep breath and keep my fingers crossed. The closest restoration/hot rod shop wanted 12 grand to paint the car. While I was getting my oil changed this morning, the guy sitting next to me started complaining that the new paint job on his antique pickup was lifting and bubbling. Turns out the aforementioned shop did the paint work.

It's been a while since I last posted, work and minor health problems slowed things down a bit. One of the major problems I've been having since the start of this restoration has been painting the car. I have gone through two painter so far with disastrous results. I finally found a local shop that was willing to paint the car at a reasonable price. We (or should I say "they") have the car at their shop and should have the body and fenders down in about three weeks. I already have the hood pieces and the running board splash pans back and they look good. I'm going with single stage for a more authentic look. It's not going to be a Pebble Beach entrant, but should be perfectly adequate for a fun driver and I want the car on the road this year! The chrome is all done, the mechanical work completed, the seats are coming back from the upholstery shop next week and I hope final assembly will commence very soon. I wish I could paint the car myself, but age and space prevent me from making the attempt. Here is the body heading off to the shop on the rolling support I built. You can see the crappy paint job in a couple of the shots - kind of like a pond on a breezy day. The painter actually cam on Memorial Day and brought his wife their grandkids along. They were fascinated by the "funny old car." Hopefully everything will work out this time and Daphne will begin to look like her old self very soon.

Wow, that makes the lever on my 32 Dodge look tiny! Very nice work.

1950 engine.

We really need to know the type of car and the model year to help you out.

Yes!

My bad. I jumped to the conclusion that it was being represented as a 32 DL car with a wood body. You truck guys are obviously the experts in this case.

Okay, a 32 truck - that I'll go along with.