Carsnz123

On the 1925 chassis I'm building the speedster on the rear springs from the front grease nipple to the rear grease nipple are 1250mm and following the curve of the spring it is 630mm from the front to the diff and 690mm from the diff to the rear of the spring. Those springs on eBay might be off the shorter wheelbase car but mine might be longer because they have a bit of weight on them. This is really unusual for me normally I'm the one asking lots if questions not giving awnsers and opinions

Seeing as I'm in a roll posting wise I might as well do an update on my car activities. I discovered one of my neighbours and his friends spend Wednesday nights working on cars so my younger brother and I have been going over there and working on our projects and also giving our 1929 Plymouth a birthday so it is ready to take on a rally through the Irishman creek rally in June. Also I have bought a 1954 230cui dodge truck motor to use as the power plant. It had been sitting for 30 odd years and had light rusting in the bores. I picked up some NOS .030 over pistons up for $20nzd each (bargin) and have dropped them and the block into the machine shop today. The motor was missing the flywheel, clutch stuff, bell housing and water pump so I got a '40s truck motor from the local vcc parts shed to get bits off. All I've got to get is a pump and then I have a complete motor. Ill get some pics up soon. Can't wait to hear the straight 6 roar.

Interesting you ask that because (and ill have to confirm this with my dad) we have a 1934 Buick which would normally have a fisher body on it but this one I think is from Oz and it has a Holden body on it.

Yeah something does not look right on yours. Your springs are a lot more chunky than mine also I think your spring shackles are too big as mine are 55mm centre to centre and with little weight on the chassis my shackles are pointing forward. If you scrub the paint off the part of the chassis shown in the first photo of the first post( rear left left hand side rail) you should find the chassis number. I discovered mine with a disk grinder. http://www.classiccardatabase.com/prewar-models/car-models-C.php#Chrysler On this site most of the Chrysler pages have VINs so you could try to date it.

Hey mcgoo it's great to hear the chassis is less of a mystery now. To awnser your question about the rear springs from the front grease nipple to the rear is 1250mm and following the curve of the spring it is 630mm from the front to the diff and 690mm from the diff to the rear of the spring. The serial number is located on the back of the left chassis beam. The 1925 Chrysler numbers ran from 32813 to 55800 so if you find your VIN then you can date it from that. Mine is a early one with a 36000 number.

This would be a great project. Mix of the old and the new, almost steampunk or dieselpunk like just needs more brass and copper tubing on it.

This is a zoom in of the second pic. You can sort of see the intake manifolds.

Unfortunately not. It's very basic though. Each intake port has a length of stainless tube bent at a 90 degree angle with what I think was a Holley 94 on it and the ports are not connected so each carb works on its own to fuel 2 cylinders. Not too difficult to replicate. The car lives locally so if I do a bit of asking around I'll probably find the owner.

RareParts have exactly what i need but can you order off them without a wholesale account? http://shop.rareparts.com/smtp/shopdisplaycategories.asp?iyear=1931&imake=0044|PLYMOUTH&imodel=2666|MODEL%20PA&iproduct=0049|STEERING,%20GEAR,%20PUMP%20&%20COMPONENTS

looking for a set of new 1929 Plymouth king pins and bushes. Need them so the car is drivable by June. My emails and phone calls to venders in New Zealand and America have come up dry so maybe someone has a set in their private collection they are willing to sell. Will

The trunk happens to be filled up with gas tank so he can go far but has to leave his food and drink behind. I think it looks a little silly on 16" wheels 18" - 20" would look better. The owner said there was a lot of work involved in getting the engine performance up.

Here is a good example of the potential of this Chrysler. I saw this car at the Skope Classic this today, its based on a 1929 Chrysler model 62. Its powered by a 1950's 218 Plymouth straight six that's been bored out, had the compression increased, its had rollers put on the camshaft, has a triple carb setup and headers that look awesome. An interesting thing is that you sit with the gearbox between your legs so you shift gears like a tractor.

the last few weeks have been a bit busy with paper tiger nationals over new year, I only got 39th and my younger brother did better with 28th http://www.navalpoint.co.nz/results/NZ_2014_PT_Nationals.htm. A couple of capsizes and the rudder tearing its self out of the back of the boat didn't do me any favours. Today I went and had a look at a restored 1926 Chrysler and even scored a ride in it. I'll get a video of the ride on youtube soon I just need to do some editing.

Its going to look great with the long bonnet to cover the beast of a straight 8. Sorry to sound ignorant but what's the advantage of dual spark plugs besides if one dies the other can pick up the slack?

Not knowing the price difference in the two cars but in contrast to your Studebaker the 1925 Chrysler I'm working on has front and rear external band hydraulic breaks. The car could also do 70Mph standard so the breaks make sense but I have got to hand it to Walter Chrysler he makes one fancy car.

I uncovered the serial number on the chassis and it matches the one on the scuttle so that proves that the body panels belong to the chassis. Christmas has slowed things to a snails pace but I have found someone who will help me move the driving position back.

Ok obviously I missed that bit in the brochure.

After reading this whtbaron I did some research on media blasters and it seems like something worth investing in seeing as there are still plenty of projects lying round here. Soda blasting sounds like a good idea especially as the pellets are water soluble so any spots that they get stuck in can just be wiped with a wet cloth or blasted with a hose in extreme cases. It took a few hours of grinding, hammering and a little bit of fire fighting (sparks lit some dry grass next to me. I wasn't watching where they were landing ) but the heavy load spring set someone welded to the chassis is off. I discovered too late that I had only a mostly used grinding disk so getting rid of the rest of the welds is going to wait until I go to the hardware next. I'll remove the metal plates on the diff when I get it apart for cleaning up. The next job is to take it to one of the tame engineer friends we know and ask him to help shift the engine, gearbox and radiator mounts back and weld up some spots where the chassis has rusted through.

Not sure yet what I'm doing about a body but I'm using the panels in post 14 to make it easer rather than starting from scratch. I was going to get a running and driving chassis setup before I do a body. I want to move the driving position back 300 to 400mm and shift the running gear as well so it looks a little better

Dad bought it to my attention that I should share the err... interesting drive for the magneto. So here goes and feel free to stop me if you get lost. The Crankshaft(not fitted but labelled)(1) drives the camshaft(2) and an intermediate gear(3) via a chain(couldn't find it). The magneto(4) is then driven off the intermediate by another chain(which I found after I took the photo). The intermediate gear(3 or 9 take your pick) rides on a fully lubricated shaft(7) which is solidly mounted and hollow to allow a flat paddle(8) through that fits into a slot in the generator shaft(6) which in turn drives the generator. The chain that drives the magneto (not pictured) is lubricated by a constant stream of oil coming off the channel(5). The crankshaft/camshaft/intermediate gear chain is lubricated by an oil bath which is filled by the runoff from the shaft(7) and the magneto chain. The oil then drains back into the sump. I think I covered everything, Confused? I am. I decided I needed some motivation (and I was a little bored) so I lugged the body parts down from upstairs (totally forgetting I could have used the forklift) and set them up on the chassis and propped a wheel up against it to give some reference of where the front axle might be. I think it looks best with the radiator set back 400mm which means the engine/gearbox will need shifting as well. That also means shortening the driveshaft by a third. hopefully the chassis will go to the sand blasters next week all that needs to come off is that heavy load thing and the rear suspension. a small question to people who have done this before, which parts of the front axle setup did you have sandblasted? and did you get the diff done as well?

I have been looking around YouTube and of the likes and it seems that most of the performance parts are made for the later flathead six engines. This engine here sounds awesome with the straight pipes and dual carbs. I was thinking that a cool setup would be run 3 double barrel carbs and a supercharger like the second video of the turbo one whtbaron mentioned except supercharger rather than turbo as I like the roar of an open pipe rather than the turbo whistle ( ). I suppose I would then need to get a later model engine and get the word from the official bill payer.

Yes that's defiantly coming off. I had the next door neighbour lined up to cut it off with his big disk grinder (the thing kinda scares me especially after he painted KILLER on the side of it) but he fell victim to hay fever and didn't feel up to it. it was very funny because he looked like Rudolph. With the foreign body removal cancelled I decided to look at the breaks and correct me if I'm wrong but I think this has a built in break bleeding system. Judging from what I have uncovered if you undo the bolt circled on the break piston and turn the handle on the on the on the fluid reservoir it bleeds the breaks for you. The breaks are going to need one hell of a redo before they work again with everything either seized or filled with million year old fluid and water. Another thought I had was I could move the engine, radiator and gearbox back by 15 or 20cm to give it a similar look of Tom Laferriere's Buick speedster with the front axle ahead of the radiator and for open road running add an overdrive in the mix if that's possible. http://tomlaferriere.com/1922buickspeedster.htm At the moment this what the car looks like. its 80% stripped all that needs doing is removing the diff, rear suspension, the running board brackets and the model A spring.

So this is what I have started with, the remains of a 1925 Chrysler that dad bought a couple of months ago. The plan is to make a speedster capable of 150 - 160 Kph (90 - 100 Mph). this is not only going to be a very long term project but also a major learning experience for me as I'm 17 and this is the first time I have fully rebuilt a car. So what have I got: An 88 year old rolling Chrysler chassis including someone's crude heavy load rear suspension setup A mostly disassembled Chrysler Flathead Six minus three rods and pistons but including the six cylinder Bosch magneto A driveshaft A gearbox that is minus a few gears and bearings Two sets of front mud guards (I probably wont use them) An intact radiator, slightly rotted shell and the winged radiator cap A set of (as far as I can see) good Nash headlights A slightly rusty scuttle and door pillars After my end of year exams finished a week ago I cleared out a bay in the back of the shed, the two front ones already have vintage car in them, and pushed the Chrysler chassis in to strip down in preparation for being sandblasted. Stripping the chassis has proved no easy task with a lot of bolts being seized and cutting them off not being an option and removing the hydraulic lines and documenting where they go. Every nut and blot on the front axle is under a 2cm layer of hard grease and dirt has slowed progress as well. For the power plant I'm going to use the original flathead six (my idea of a V8 went out the window with dad saying no) modified to produce (I hope) 90+ horsepower. I was thinking bore it out, alloy head (I know that only reduces weight), enlarge the intake and exhaust ports, free flow exhaust headers and I'm undecided whether to up the compression and run a multiple carb setup or supercharge it and run a 4 barrel Holley 350 I guess the price will probably decide. I cant wait to get it running and road worthy, this is going to be way better than my friends '80s Toyotas.

In new zealand you can get it at any hardware store

i turned the camshaft to push them up out of the way then tapped them with a wooden rod to get the lifters a little further up. Seized was probably the wrong word to use the lifters were able to move but it took a lot of force. I didn't realise the valve lifters could come out the top once you remove the plate on top I thought they had to be removed through the bottom. The camshaft is out now, it took a lot of crc 556 and a big wooden mallet but it came out with no damage. Now the next task is finding one of the high performance camshafts. I never heard of ATF and acetone as a penetration oil mix but ill try that in the future.