Taylormade

Thanks for the photo, Phil. That's exactly what I was talking about. No designs, just the stamped lip to hold the carpet/rubber floor mat.

I have a friend looking for six 1936 Packard wire wheel hubs. I'll be at Hershey all week. PM me with a price if you have any available. Thanks, RT

My DL does have them, but they are nothing fancy, just black painted steel with a lip to hold the rubber mat or carpet.

Check this out. Someone used this poor old girl for target practice - and then some. How many bullet holes are you willing to repair? http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1929-DODGE-FIVE-5-WINDOW-COUPE-HOT-RAT-ROD-ORIGINAL-POWERTRAIN-CLEAR-TITLED-/251350468653?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item3a85a7c82d

Thanks, Steve. Looking at the map, and based on a few local shows in my area, I thought there might be a long wait in line to get into the parking area. Glad to know that isn't the case.

I haven't been to Hershey in 20 years. I want to get to the vendor area early, if possible. How long should one expect to wait to get their car parked in the morning? I'm staying in a motel about eight miles to the west and was wondering what time I need to head out to get to the meet when it opens and get my car parked - Wednesday and Thursday especially. This is my modern car, of course. Thanks, RT

<quickprintreadystate style="display: none;"></quickprintreadystate><quickprintreadystate style="display: none;"></quickprintreadystate>I built a dolly for the body today - not exactly an engineering marvel, but good enough to move the body around as Crin sands and primes it. All the metal work is done - at last! - and now we can get on with the paint work. Ed did an outstanding job. What was supposed to be a two week job turned into three months, but we kept discovering new problems every time we went to inspect the next area. You've seen enough of the fenders and hood, but here a few before and afters of the body. It's a little tough to see, but there is a sizable dent in the center of the roof above the windshield and the cowl is caved in between the vent openings. And the repairs. Several dents removed - these were on the car when I bought it in 1965. They always drove me nuts! Finally, the rear door fits and closes correctly. I removed all the glass except the back windows, taking out the window and door latch mechanisms in the process.<quickprintreadystate style="display: none;"></quickprintreadystate><quickprintreadystate style="display: none;"></quickprintreadystate><quickprintreadystate style="display: none;"></quickprintreadystate><quickprintreadystate style="display: none;"></quickprintreadystate><quickprintreadystate style="display: none;"></quickprintreadystate><quickprintreadystate style="display: none;"></quickprintreadystate><quickprintreadystate style="display: none;"></quickprintreadystate> I'll be restoring those over the next few weeks.

Daphne arrived nearer to home today as Ed personally delivered the finished body, now temporarily back on the frame for transport, to Crin's Undercover Upholstery and Paint. We wheeled it off the trailer and took the body back off with Crin's lift. We then rolled the frame back on the trailer and Ed delivered it to my place where it now resides in my workshop - finally! I'm going over tonight to take the windows out of the body and I'll take detailed pictures of the completed body work. It now looks like that huge slab of ice never fell on the old girl, she's straight as an arrow once again.

Crin has the front fenders color sanded and buffed out. They've gone from a rather garish shine to a really nice shiny glow that looks much more like the original paint on the old girl. This is Crin's paint booth/workshop. That's not one of my fenders, it's from his 36 Packard. Vent system.

Very nice find. I have to admit, I'm a car guy, but there are plenty of folks on the forum into these old trucks and they'll be able to offer a wealth of information.

Terrific job. Hope to see you in Auburn Hills next year.

That's kind of what I thought, however he mentioned he went to the Dodge Brothers big meet which reads to me like it was put on by the DB Club. Not a big deal, I plan to drive mine, not show it.

Doesn't look like he's been active on the forum since 2005.

A look at the fenders from Crin's site. http://www.undercoverupholsteryandpaint.com/1932_Dodge_Exterior_1.html

The attack of the Dreaded CLUM SWITCH! Today I took a look at the infamous Clum light switch that I removed from Daphne<quickprintreadystate style="display: none;"></quickprintreadystate><quickprintreadystate style="display: none;"></quickprintreadystate> the last time I visited Ed's. It was totally covered in black grease, but I could move the lever on the steering wheel and hear the switch click before I took it off, so I hoped for the best. It was so greasy that when I set it on a paper towel and left it overnight, there was a huge oily stain around it next morning soaked into the paper towel. Before: I used acetone, an old toothbrush, my Dremel tool with fine wire wheels and a bunch of Q-tips to get everything clean. It took a good hour to get everything off. I didn't want to expose the fiberboard piece to too much acetone as I didn't know how it would react to a powerful solvent. It seems to have come through the ordeal with flying colors. I don't know what the stuff inside the switch is made of - copper contacts, of course, but I wasn't sure if the other parts were metal or more fiberboard. It cleaned up very nicely, except for that little hunk of dirt that seems to have landed on it when I took the photos: As you can see from the last photo, It's a Clum<quickprintreadystate style="display: none;"></quickprintreadystate> 9271, and I assume it's the original. After I soaked it and cleaned everything, the switch moved through it's three positions pretty smoothly, but stopped with a positive action at each detent. I got out the volt meter and got good current flow from the various numbered contacts as I tried out the different switch positions. I'll have to check the wiring diagram tomorrow, but it looks like everything is working as it should and my Clum is still good.<quickprintreadystate style="display: none;"></quickprintreadystate> And that makes me very happy considering what they are going for on Ebay these days. Does anyone know if these switches were lubricated internally in any way? I ask because that lube (if any) is gone after the acetone bath. <quickprintreadystate style="display: none;"></quickprintreadystate>

I didn't realize the Dodge Brothers Club had a rule against clear coat.

I'm going to Hershey this year and figured I'd buy tires (six) and tubes for my 32 DL while I was there to save shipping costs. The car takes 5.50-18 tires. I'm going with blackwalls (on straw yellow wire wheels) because that is what came on the car originally and I'm worried about all the "yellowing whitewall" threads on the site lately. After exploring various sites I've come to the following conclusions: Firestone - I love the look and the "Gum-Dipped" logo on the tire. They sell in the $165 range, the most expensive. 29.13 inches in diameter. Has the best load capacity, beating all the other tires by 125 pounds per tire. Goodrich - Don't know much about them. Slightly smaller in diameter than the Firestones and the same price. Excelsior Comp V - Don't know what the sidewall logos look like. Supposed to be "European" in styling, whatever that means, so that might be a problem. I like that it has a larger diameter - almost an inch bigger. I hate cars that have tires that appear too small. At $138 it's a lot cheaper, but will its overall look spoil the 'original" appearance I'm going for? It also has a cross section almost an inch wider than the other tires and this might be a problem with my sidemount wells. I'll have to measure their width when I go to the painter next time. This is a four ply tire. Excelsior Comp H - I don't know what $306 gets me in this tire, other than a slightly smaller diameter than the Comp V. Four-ply. Excelsior All Black - Still has the larger diameter but a smaller cross section. $176 puts it in the middle price range. This is a six-ply tire. Lester - Again, I don't know what the sidewall logos look like. I like the tread pattern. Same diameter as the Firestone. Price is $147 - second cheapest. Michelin DR - At $331, the most expensive. Largest diameter of all tires. Cross section about the same as the Firestone. I can't see Michelin tires on a pre-war American car. So, base on your experiences, which way would you go? One thing I do want to avoid is getting a tire that won't fit into my sidemount wheel wells. This is going to be a driver so I'll put a few miles on these tire and would like something that will wear well. Thanks for any input and word of your experiences.

I contacted them and they have the molds for my DL - which was a surprise. Just waiting for a call back for the price. I plan to be sitting down with heart medicine at hand.

I'm getting ready to cast the motor mounts for my 1932 Dodge DL. I'm going to use Devcon Flexane, which is a liquid urethane rubber that can be poured into a mold. I've used this stuff before to cast axle bumpers for my 29 Plymouth and it worked great. But axle bumpers are one thing and motor mounts another. Lots of things could go wrong here if I'm not careful. The problem I'm dealing with is two-fold: one, what hardness should I use for the rubber? As far as I can tell, Flexane comes in 60, 80 and 94 hardness. 60 is flexible, 80 is quite hard and 94 is like a hockey puck. I'm not sure how hard the rubber used in the Dodge mounts was. Certainly 94 is out of the question, but 80 seems like it might be too much, also. I read several articles on making mounts for more modern cars and most felt the 80 was firmer than the original stock mounts. The problem - I can find 80 all over the place, but 60 seems to be available only in the U.K., and I think 60 is what I need. Problem two - my mounts are a mess. They've basically disintegrated into a semi-melted lump that is a formless blob squished flat. Are there any illustrated parts books that show a picture of these mounts? If so, I could come close to duplicating them. At the moment, I have no clue as to how thick they were originally. Devcon makes a primer that really bonds the rubber to the metal. I experimented on my axle bumpers and the metal started to bend and tear before the rubber pulled off, so I'm confident this is as close to vulcanizing I'm going to get. Anybody want to chime in?

I'm getting ready to cast the motor mounts for my 1932 Dodge DL. I'm going to use Devcon Flexane, which is a liquid urethane rubber that can be poured into a mold. I've used this stuff before to cast axle bumpers for my 29 Plymouth and it worked great. But axle bumpers are one thing and motor mounts another. Lots of things could go wrong here if I'm not careful. The problem I'm dealing with is two-fold: one, what hardness should I use for the rubber? As far as I can tell, Flexane comes in 60, 80 and 94 hardness. 60 is flexible, 80 is quite hard and 94 is like a hockey puck. I'm not sure how hard the rubber used in the Dodge mounts was. Certainly 94 is out of the question, but 80 seems like it might be too much, also. I read several articles on making mounts for more modern cars and most felt the 80 was firmer than the original stock mounts. The problem - I can find 80 all over the place, but 60 seems to be available only in the U.K., and I think 60 is what I need. Problem two - my mounts are a mess. They've basically disintegrated into a semi-melted lump that is a formless blob squished flat. Are there any illustrated parts books that show a picture of these mounts? If so, I could come close to duplicating them. At the moment, I have no clue as to how thick they were originally. Devcon makes a primer that really bonds the rubber to the metal. I experimented on my axle bumpers and the metal started to bend and tear before the rubber pulled off, so I'm confident this is as close to vulcanizing I'm going to get. Anybody want to chime in?

This morning I went over to Crin's place to view the freshly painted front fenders. The clear-coat went on last night. They still need to be wet sanded and buffed, but even in their raw state, they looked pretty good. <quickprintreadystate style="display: none;"></quickprintreadystate>

I spent what may be my last day at Ed's Saturday. as some of you may know, I'm doing a book and a video on the restoration. I wanted to document Ed installing the replacement rocker panel he made the last time I was there. When I arrived, Ed showed me the work he had done on the interior rocker section. It used to look like this: Now it looks like this: Ed replaced all but the center section. Now both sides match and are solid steel. Ed fill welded a few deep pits in the back of the rocker section that wasn't going to be replaced. With that work done, it was time to cut off the rusted outer rocker. Ed used a plasma cutter to get a rough cut out, then trimmed the edges with tin snips. Inside the panel the metal was clean and pretty rust free. He ground down any rust he found and ground off the spot welds that still held pieces of the rocker on. Then he used a spot blaster to clean off any additional rust he found. The old and new panels. Once the cuts were clean, he fitted up the new panel. Then, for the next three hours we cut, snipped, massaged, and fitted the panel until it was lined up perfectly. Then it was time to weld the panel in. Ed used a MIG to tack everything in place. Finally, he TIG welded the seam, doing small lengths in different areas to prevent warping from excessive heat. And clamped the bottom seam together with this tool. With that done, he was ready to tackle the dents in the cowl and top.

I was very happy with Flying Dutchman Pump Rebuilders 200 Davis Creek Road Selma, OR 97538 They were easy to deal with, had fast service and replace the old style packing with new, modern seals. Before After, with new shaft, new modern seal and a new impeller

Well, the folks at Enfield were very nice, but they only do hidem in leather. I did find someone at SMS who finally agreed to do it for a rather exorbitant price, but it looks like I don't have a choice at this point.

I'm not sure a 200 mile drive in an unknown car fresh off the transport truck is a good idea. Maybe you've gone and seen the car and driven it, but if not, the condition of the wiring, electronics and the motor and tranny themselves may be in question. Don't get me wrong, as far as I'm concerned these old cars are for one thing and one thing only - driving! But if you are going to make such a drive, make sure you have a good set of tools, an owner's manual (the old Chrysler manuals are almost like a shop manual), a new set of points and maybe a spare battery. Check the brakes (they will be hydraulic) - check the fittings and hoses for leaks and check the backing plates for any signs of leaking from the cylinders. Check the wiring for fraying, exposed or loose wires. Also, check the tires for any fatigue, dry rot or cracks. Make sure the gas in the tank is still good - modern gas goes bad very quickly, you can usually tell by the smell if there's trouble. I'm actually not a worry wort, but I've been on enough "first drives" to know what can happen. You've got a great car, enjoy!