3macboys

This is the wall of manuals in the parts department - those are actually organized by year, truck/car and service manuals and parts catalogs. As I've gotten in more lots of manuals, I keep cherry picking the best ones to put into my collection. Today was the day that I finally had enough of looking at the top of the one display cabinet in the showroom. I had it in my mind that the sheet of melamine was there because there a problem with the top of the cabinet. With the unfinished edge though it just looked unfinished. Turns out the top of the cabinet was fine and we were probably just looking for someplace to stick that sheet to get it out of the way. Now to keep that top clear! I started to organize the display area in the cabinet as well with what is the "Keeper" pieces. The Parts and Service sign came out of the old Woodstock Chrysler building at the corner of Wilson and Peel in Woodstock, Ont before the building was torn down.

This one was just sold by the City of Windsor, Ontario. Interesting Marmon Herrington Book Upfit turning it into Front Wheel Drive. Low entry for the patrons and trust me books are heavy so a heavy chassis is a must as well. Check out the driver's door about tool lending.

Yes sir - with your particular question as the title will give you the best results, hopefully

Now that is a high banked oval! Sorry I couldn't resist- Daytona is only 3 weeks away!

The original poster last visited December of 2020 - being a bit of a ghost thread it might be worth starting a new one to help get your answer.

Take lots of pictures and file them with easily sortable titles before you begin any disassembly. If you haven't already buy both the factory service manual and parts catalog before you begin. What ever your time estimate is at least double it as well as your budget and you might then be within about 50% of the ballpark - not trying to scare you but this is going to be like home renovations, there will be hidden surprises and shocks to what some stuff costs. Take stock of all of the systems of the cars and determine what needs attention, decide what you can live with and what needs to be restored. As others have said start with the body then my suggestion would be brakes/chassis/suspension, followed by electrical, powertrain and finally interior. As you take things apart take more pictures, bag every nut, bolt etc and as someone else on here has suggested put a paper note in the bag as to what is there. Marker on plastic bags will come off! If possible tackle one thing at a time so that you can feel your progress, while thinking ahead to your next step and ordering the parts/supplies to have on hand as you complete the first task. It will give you a better feeling of accomplishment that as things arrive they are being put to use and you also don't risk misplacing something that you bought 3 years ago. Plan for lots of lead time on certain items, bumpers to get chromed for instance. And most of all, involve your family where you can!

After today I finally have a parts department that is looking a little more like it should. Still a ways to go behind the counter but a good portion of what is there is labeled and sorted. The long term plan will see it stocked with spare parts for our cars and some parts for display purposes that are in Mopar boxes. The light bulb cabinet came out of the showroom so that also cleared up some clutter from there. The two Weatherhead cabinets actually have various fittings that we use so they are staying put as well. It is slowing turning into a functioning parts department. The wall behind the telephone is shelving that holds a fairly complete set of service manuals and parts catalogs from the beginning of Dodge in 1914 until about 1974 or so which covers off everything we have, or expect to have.

Other than picking and shipping yesterday I didn't really didn't get anything accomplished. That vaccine shot kind of had me dragging my butt all day, but I'd rather loose a day like than get shingles! Back to normal today and back at it. I'm in a bit of a lull for the cars waiting on some parts so it was a continuing to clean out stuff. I'm sort of at a point now that I need to clean up a bit more downstairs before I can get much more of the main shop cleaned out. My main focus was this area: At the back side of those bins was a stack of three bins filled with parts out of that old Volvo dealership. So the advantage now of having that cleaned off work bench is those bins were emptied on to it And after less than an hour it was sorted and down to this with a few other parts soaking in a bucket of soap and water overnight It really is amazing how much more efficient the shop is now that there is some working space. The mechanic or owner of that Volvo dealership did tag a lot of the used parts and often times there were notes like this one which made the decision on what to do with it really easy. Which makes you wonder why they kept in the first place. Though my favourite find of the day was the internals of a turbo Every blade was damage which makes you wonder what it swallowed and how loud that was when it happened. A real simple decision on that one on if I should scrap it or not. At the end of the day the original pile was moved back and there's a bunch more open floor space. It doesn't look like much in the pictures but to walk through it the open space is now about twice as wide.

Here's one that you wouldn't expect but back in the mid 80's if I could have afforded it I would have owned one and would still take one today. Dodge Omni GLHS At the time there was these, the VW GTi or the Escort GT in the Hot EconoBox world - a 3 series BMW was only a pipe dream

It was a bit of a late start on the day at the shop today. Started off with both of us (my wife and I) getting our shingles vaccine shot and I took a little bit of pride of letting the nurse know our next vaccines aren't due for 10 years. Then it was on to doing a bit of book work and starting to gather everything for doing taxes for the year. All those Ebay sales are claimed, but so are the expenses of the shop so there's always that trade off but there's no other way that we could have a shop like this and it certainly helps with paying for the expenses with the cars as well. One of my selling features to my wife is that I can winter her outdoor plants in the showroom. Just don't tell her that I'm not always as successful as she may want.... The 64 D300 got a little touch up with the side step/gas tanks. I have to say that POR15 in a spray can is fantastic. So far no clogging after use and great coverage. This is the 4th time that I've used the same can and I can't say that I can get that out of any other product. The rest of the time that I had I spent giving the 51 a cleaning along with my parents Challenger. Both will be given a good wax later, before the driving season but I needed to get the worse of the dust and road spray off them before covering them for now. Can you see the difference from side to side?

Not a whole of visual progress today. My most notable accomplishment was getting everything from the sale yesterday put back away and up on shelving. The one thing about doing those sales is every time what I take gets more organized and the boxes get labeled making them easier to find the next time. Now if it ever worked out that I come back with an empty truck! My friend with the TR6 had a much more productive day getting his steering realigned so that the turn signal cancels and the steering wheel is now properly centred. He had excellent guidance by the way of Phil Allen keeping an eye over his shoulder and giving expert advice. Phil is a super nice man who is always more than willing to share and pass along his knowledge, a true gentleman. Many in the British car world will know Phil.

Well Ed, you have said that your attention has turned to original, non restored prewar cars, so what's the timeline for you to have this one back mechanically sorted?

It was a good day at the Nostalgia Show today, being local I got to catch up with a lot of people that I hadn't seen since the weather turned and as a bonus got to put a face to a name and a nice chat with @playswithbrass and his wife. This was the load going in And then spread out on my two tables, I actually took more than I could display but I guess that's better than not having enough to fill them, somehow even though I sold a bunch of stuff it didn't all go back in the truck the same way and I even kept my hands in my pockets and didn't buy anything myself. A couple of pictures of some of the other vendors. The first picture is a booth that was set up by a young couple who were both very knowledgeable on signs. There was actually a good number of young people both buying and selling. The vendors came from far and wide with the fellow directly beside me being from Buffalo I believe and one fellow directly behind me from Peterborough (some how that city keeps coming up and turns out he lives across the street from my son's apartment building) and then a mother and son team from Kingston.

For those of us who contend with snow and freezing rain one big issue with LED headlights is the lack of heat generated by them - the slush and spray that used to melt off the lights no longer does, or at least not in the same way.

The list is very short - any of the split windshield Chryslers from 31-33, most everything else would be out at the curb with a for sale sign to make room, both in the shop and my wallet to pay for it

Not much in the way of progress today unless you count pulling stuff for a local Nostalgia Show in Woodstock on Sunday. It's not really obvious to others, but I have managed to pack away a lot of the antique and oil and gas stuff in an organized fashion. Well at least organized in my mine. The show is all of about 10 blocks from my house and the doors don't open until 9:30 so it doesn't need to be an early morning and it's all done by 3. I'll be there about 7:30 and should be backing into my lane by about 3:30. They advertise the show as over 200 tables and they have an interesting way of pricing for entry fees, $10 at the opening, $5 starting at 10:30 and then $3 after 1 pm. It seems to spread the crowd out over day and you can actually get a good look at everything. I'll try to get some pictures on Sunday but for anyone in the area it's a good show and feel free to stop by and say hello - look for the bald guy with the Yellow Donkey brewery hoodie.

Please don't take this the wrong way. It sounds like you are new to the antique car world and very keen to join in. We welcome you and hope that you stick around. The best money that you can spend is to join one of your nearby regions and absorb as much information as you can. Most old car people are very friendly and you'll quickly find what fits your needs and abilities. The looks of the cars are one thing but at the very least you'll need enough mechanical ability to describe any issue to a mechanic, though hopefully you have enough skill and knowledge to tackle issues on your own because every old car will have issues at some point. Don't be scared off, everything is a learning experience and the people on here are always more than happy to offer advice and cheer you on. Take your time and you will find the right car.

Not just my father but my grandfather. I never knew my grandfather as a working mechanic, but he had a shop at my grandparents house in Ilderton, Ontario. By the time I came along they had moved into London, Ontario but the only car in the lane was always a Chrysler. That has stuck with the family, may father's siblings either currently own or did own vintage Mopars. Fast forward to now and we even have a former Chrysler dealership as our shop and not only my parents but both myself and both of my sisters drive Chrysler products of one sort or another. Fortunately for me my wife was also raised in an old car family, though decidedly GM - her great uncle owned a small town GM dealership, but I've brought her around to the right way of thinking!

Today pretty well marked the end of processing 5 skids of parts that I had picked up just over a month ago. The mess of boxes and what not on the floor in the centre is pretty well done. Next will be tackling those wire bins that are mostly full of Mopar parts. Thanks to @Layden B and @Oldtech I have a pretty good idea what I'm dealing with as far as those engines are concerned. I will say that the pile for swap meets is getting larger though. I'm sure hoping for good weather in the spring to be able to hit a couple of sales to thin down the pile.

This one is just the block

This is the most complete of the two

I've got this small pile of blocks and parts. I was told early Dodge but truthfully I have no idea, nor do I do if any of the parts go together. I'll start off with the water pump and post the engines next.

Down the outside wall, beside the work bench is a row of engines of various ages and completeness including these teens to early 20's ones that I picked up from a fellow just south of Chatham, Ontario along the Lake Erie shoreline not too far from RM Restorations. It was an interesting place to say the least and I ended up dragging two truck loads of stuff I didn't need to save it from going for scrap. There were a lot of interesting cars and military vehicles spread across the property. I should have taken pictures of the place. I'll post up these in the What Is It section and yes they need to find a new home. BTW the rule of thumb at our place is if you see a black, modern Chrysler product out front, the door is generally open, just walk in and say hello!

The one thing I've learned with cars is if you think you have a factory one of one you haven't looked hard enough and if you've built something that you think is unique some other guy has had the same idea. A fellow local to us had done up a really nice 66 or 67 Dodge Coronet wagon and had the best license plate on it 1 of None, it sure looked stock but Chrysler never built what he had done.

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