Rogillio

You nailed it brother! You'd think having two of the same model car I'd learn to go look at the other one! Any idea where I might find one? Meyers maybe? If not, I can probably have one made.

Nope, it is 6V pos ground. I have two of them, both 1926 and both 6V pos ground. I have the original mechanics manuals. The 6V battery was weak and the engine has not turned over in 7 years so it is understandable it would barely turn the engine over.

Interesting issue with positive ground..... I have a pretty nice battery charger and it senses the batter type and the voltage and charges accordingly. I have used it many times on my old 6V positive ground car to charge the battery. I put a 6V battery in my new '26 DB and it barely turned the engine over. So I put the charger on the battery and let it charge overnight. When I tried to turn the car over, with the charger still connected, it would not turn over at all. And the horn would not blow. I took my meter and checked the voltage at the coil and got 12V. Yikes!! I disconnected the charger. It obviously thought the battery was a 12V. I connected again and it went thru its sensing and ended up picking 12 V again. I did this several time and finally it settled on 4V. So now I'm thinking I have a dead cell or something is screwed up with the wiring in this car. I take the batter terminals off and the check the voltage at the battery and it reads 6V. I put the charger on and it senses 6V and goes into charging mode. So now I'm scratching my head. What could possibly be wired wrong in this car? There are no electronic components on the car just simple switches and a few coils. I've charged the 6V battery with positive ground in my other car with no issue. Then it occurred to me, I have one of the wheels off the car and the car is on jack stands. So the chassis ground of the car is actually tied to earth ground in my shop thru the jack stands. When I charged my other car with 6V post gnd, the chassis was isolated from earth ground. So my theory is, the sensing circuitry in the charger is detecting a little current between its own earth ground and the car's chassis ground which is actually tied to earth ground too but with the high side (6V+) of the battery. This is just a theory but I will test my theory when I get tires back on the car since one test better this old electrical engineer's opinions.

That is awesome! I was wondering how I would fix that! Got a call into them already. Thanks.

Interesting issue with positive ground..... I have a pretty nice battery charger and it senses the batter type and the voltage and charges accordingly. I have used it many times on my old 6V positive ground car to charge the battery. I put a 6V battery in my new '26 DB and it barely turned the engine over. So I put the charger on the battery and let it charge overnight. When I tried to turn the car over, with the charger still connected, it would not turn over at all. And the horn would not blow. I took my meter and checked the voltage at the coil and got 12V. Yikes!! I disconnected the charger. It obviously thought the battery was a 12V. I connected again and it went thru its sensing and ended up picking 12 V again. I did this several time and finally it settled on 4V. So now I'm thinking I have a dead cell or something is screwed up with the wiring in this car. I take the batter terminals off and the check the voltage at the battery and it reads 6V. I put the charger on and it senses 6V and goes into charging mode. So now I'm scratching my head. What could possibly be wired wrong in this car? There are no electronic components on the car just simple switches and a few coils. I've charged the 6V battery with positive ground in my other car with no issue. Then it occurred to me, I have one of the wheels off the car and the car is on jack stands. So the chassis ground of the car is actually tied to earth ground in my shop thru the jack stands. When I charged my other car with 6V post gnd, the chassis was isolated from earth ground. So my theory is, the sensing circuitry in the charger is detecting a little current between its own earth ground and the car's chassis ground which is actually tied to earth ground too but with the high side (6V+) of the battery. This is just a theory but I will test my theory when I get tires back on the car since one test better this old electrical engineer's opinions.

I will look but I'm pretty sure there are no holes. An you are right, the rod is structural to support the fenders. The driver's side fender has popped the two rivets that connect to the strut underneath. So obvilusly this car needed the support rod.

So let me share with you my momentary stupidity.......as I was stripping the lug nuts I got to wondering if the lugs that hold the spare tired on the back of the car are stamped with and L or an R. I went and looked and they are stamped with an R. I thought, that's dumb, what are you supposed to do it you have a flat on the left side of the car!? I almost posted this question when the light finally came on! When you change a tire, you generally put the same lugs back on that you took off! Duh!!

Awesome! So the $50 sounds like a good quote. I was debating gettnig them painted forrest green with the ring plainted black or just paint them solid black. I finally decided I am pretty sure these were original wheels and they had never been repainted so, since they were black, I'd go with black again. The guy gave me the option of flat, semi gloss or high gloss. The car is pretty rough and I will be painting it myself so I don't want the wheel to look too good. Oh yeah, I had forgotten about the getting the lug nuts painted.....so emailed the guy and asked about them...he said $1.50 for lug. Sounds like a deal to me!

I found several places that do powder coating and so sent requests for quotes to two of them. One came back and said $150 per wheel. The other came back and said $50 per wheel. WTH? Really, 3x difference in price? The higher price one is in the a big city with lots of aerospace work so maybe they are used to big contracts. The low price quote came from a small town about 45 miles south of me. I'm gonna give the $50 place a shot with 2 wheels and see how they look.

How come you guys didn't tell me this?! Not really looking for anything specific but I was browsing the Book of Information to see if they said anything about the steel wheels. I am so glad I did! I read the the lugs on the left side of the car had left handed threads. I would never have guessed this and would have probably broken off a lug tightening it trying to get it off.

1926 Dodge.....never been restored....say with fuel in tank for 6 years..... I dump the brown looking smelly crap out of the tank. I googled how to clean a tank.....read about using vinager. Bought 4 gallons and let soak overnight. More dark brown came out. But when I look down in the tank the bottom is covered in black crap. I pot some rocks in and tilted back and forth til My arms were exhausted. More crap came out. Bottom still coveted. I was reluctant to use carb/parts clearer as that stuff is $27 a gallon....then it occurred to me, I can use the stuff and then pour it back into the gallon can. IDK if this is gonna work or not. Tips and suggestions welcome. I have a pressure washer but that would only clean the end of the tank where the gas cap is.

BTW, this took about 4 hours. Some men play golf. Some men sit in a boat catching fish. Me? I sit at me workbench with an angle grinder and I'm in my happy place.

I decided to start with the spare. I used 2 big flat head screwdrivers to get the ring off. Used 3 screwdrivers to get the tire off....with a little happier action on the tire to help it along. So is this the ring that is dangerous? I was thinking Por 15 for the backside and outer rim and ring and primer and lacquer for the front of disc. Or maybe Por 15, primer and lacquer on the front? What say you? So do I need a chain around the tire and ring when inflating? I read about using talc powder....and other tips?

I don't Educate me. What do I have? Are they dangerous?

Got it. Thanks.

You are absolutely correct. There are 3 on the car but should be 4. I was able to read the raised letters and googled it. GABRIEL SNUBBERS FOR BALLOON TIRES

These are both sides of my 1926 DB Coupe. My other car does not have these.

My 26 DB has puematic wiper motor. Someone has replaced the original vacuum tank with an electric fuel pump. The wiper motor gets its pressure from the port on the carb by the intake manifold.....which is where the vacuum tank would normally connect. Where would the wiper get its pressure if the vacuum tank was connected to that carb port?

I thought the rod connecting the two headlight holders was missing on the green car....but there are no holes for it. They should have kept it there IMO. The drivers side fender had popped the rivets on the underside. The rod would have provided structural support by distibuting some of the load to the other fender. Maybe they thought it looked better w/o that rod going in front of the radiator.

I need tires. Will tire places like Goodyear and Big Ten have tire? Will they know how to mount them on these old rims?

It official today....I am a collector of 1926 DB Coupes. The strange thing is, based on the serial numbers they came off the assembly line within 6 weeks of each other and have some real differences. Maybe part of it was options. I am very excited and can't wait to get started on the restoration! I got the green one today. Drove 9 hrs RT to get it....got it for $6k. It is not running but, like anyone selling an old car says, "it was running when the parked it" 6 years ago. This one is more 'original' than my other one and I will use it as the new 'standard' original. I like the wood spokes of my first car but the steel wheels were an option so it's cool to have both.

The battery cables in my car had been replaced with standard (12v) cables. As mentioned above, the 12v starter draws less current. So if you stay with 6v make sure you have heavier cables. Get some good multi strand cable from a welding supply shop. I made my own cables.....after I'd already converted to 12v so it wasn't necessary.....but some day I will change back to original 6v.

I converted my 26 DB to 12v and have no regrets. It starts up so easy now that the starter spins to much faster. I put in a 12v coil and condenser and disconnected the generator. I have to charge the battery every couple of weeks. I had to put a 1 ohm resistor across the horn as it sounded wrong on 12v. This is a completely reversible change so I don't feel bad about the alteration.

The roof of my 1926 DB looks like vinyl but I am told they did not have vinyl in 1926. So what materiel would have been used in 1926 for a soft roof?