RichBad

Looks good Ron!

They are fairly easy starters to pull apart, check and rebuild. I’ve got some pictures of mine disassembled on my restoration post if it helps.

Top looks OK, just rotate it 180 and put the flat bit at the top and she’ll be fine;)

As an English man in Australia on an American forum I think I might just bite my tongue;)

Yup lockdown in Melbourne sucks! But I got my dodge fired up and drove around the block on the weekend - had to do some “essential” shopping. Work on Docs Dodge also stalled as no one can get there to work on it - only needs a few more things done and then off to the trimmer but we can’t even do that. Probably be the end of Sep before we can get out to play again if not longer:(

Three basics you need for it to fire, spark, fuel and air. Check spark first as it’s easy - pull the plugs out, leave them connected to the leads but on the engine so they are grounded. Then crank it over with ignition on - if you have spark at all 4 plugs then you are probably good (at least good enough to fire). then check you’ve got fuel - it’s easy to check the float bowl is full (only 2 screws to pull the top off to check). If you’ve got fuel in the carb, crank it over and you should get fuel to the engine. If you pull a plug after trying to start it should be wet - if not the fuel may not be getting through so may be a blockage in the carb. You could check that by putting a tea spoon of fuel down each plug hole and trying again. if it fires then stops that indicates a carb issue.

Thanks! the strapping came from one of our members who had some left over but Old Era services also sell it I believe. The radiator was done locally (Melbourne) but the core was made in New Zealand (can’t remember the company name).

Yea, not sure about that - I’ve always liked the look of 20s cars without bumpers. Will have to try and find some and see what she looks like.

Big moment on the weekend. Finished off mounting all the body parts (although still need to line up the bonnet properly and fit the catches) and fired her up. She looks fantastic in the sun - Matt, you did an amazing job with that paint! Even took her for a short drive up the road - so different now, no movement, squeaks or rattles from the body and the doors don't open them selves when turning a tight corner! Next step trim (although I don't want to cover the wood up:))

Big milestone on the weekend, not finished yet but fired her up and drove her out into the sun. Still a little work to do on the bonnet (and fit the bonnet catches which I forgot to paint) but so happy with how she looks.

Getting close to firing her up and I remembered I wanted to mount the ignition coil properly (I just had one mounted to the firewall before but I've fixed up all the wrong holes now). I haven't been able to find a correct one (that mounts to the back of the dash) so I decided to make a mount to hold a modern coil to the original mounts. Not as nice as an original but will get me going until I can find one.

Bonnet (hood) fitted - still a bit more work needed to get it fitting neatly around the radiator. Rear lights fitted - I found a US one on E-Bay and decided to fit a second one (I know it's not original but having 2 lights at the back is going to help people see me).

Fitting the front guards and headlights. Took a little while to get these lined up right - in the end, I fitted them loosely, tightened the front and rear guards to the running board, tightened the running board and rear guard then tightened the front guard. Fitting the headlight mount - I used a strip of uncured rubber between the mount and guard as it conforms very easily and can be trimmed without a knife. She winks Had to make up some connectors to join the headlight bulbs to the connectors on the back of the lights. Still need to get the mounting sorted for adjusting the focus but waiting for a few parts. Connected up the lights with a quick connect thimble. Needs some covering for the wires but will add that later. And the lights work again

Doors painted so time for the final fit. I decided to leave the final fitting of the door stops and anti rattle strikes to last to make sure they line up perfectly. Fitting the rubbers and strikes for the anti rattle slides. Fitted to the frames Strike fitted to the door (blue tack helped get it positioned before screwing in place). Doors now line up and close perfectly, can swing them shut and they catch nicely with no banging of the paint.

Rear guards going back on Spare wheel carrier and spare wheel Dash board going back in Steering going back in (needed to go back after the dash) - don't forget to loosen the steering box bolts when mounting the column to the dash so it cal line up correctly (without any stresses). Dashboard light:) Fitting the speedo cable

Starting to go back together. Getting the doors done first. Haven't nailed the skins on as I wanted to do that with the body on the chassis and bolted down (to make sure I get good gaps with no movement. Lots of masking tape around the doors, fitted the hinges good and tight then fitted the skins. Added a few nails to start and nailed them in leaving a few mm (in case I needed to remove and re-fit). Added them one at a time, fitting the door inbetween and checking the alignment to the body. After nailing the skins, I did a final fit of the door catches (will leave the anti rattler slides until they are painted). I thought this would be quite hard - but with some blue tack, it worked really well. Then used some small screws to test the catches and when happy I put in the correct screws. Testing the catch position. Drivers side front Door catch and door stop strip Rear drivers side door Passenger side front Passenger side rear Rear door stop strip and catch Rear door bottom stop rubber All 4 doors fitted, they came up perfect. Now they can go for painting while I carry on fitting parts

Matt offered to help out with getting the body back on the car (didn't want to risk damaging it doing it myself with an engine hoist) - he even came and picked up the chassis - he's a true gent! Lowering the body on with the hoist was a lot easier and less stressful! And she's back on And heading home the same day - thanks Matt Couldn't resist a drive by photo - she's looking so good! Back home and ready for the final fit

I couldn't be happier with how it came up - a huge milestone!

Big milestone - top coat going on and she's come up fantastic - I love the green, looks almost black in the dark then comes alive in the sun. Added a gold pinstripe - I wanted to do one but I'm useless with colours - I thought gold would be good but didn't want to say (for fear of sounding silly) - Matt asked if I wanted a pin stripe and I said I did but didn't know what colour. Mat said gold would look good so perfect, great minds think alike - gold it was!

Lots of priming, filling, rubbing, priming, rubbing..... I'd hoped to help Matt a bit but due to the various lockdowns in Melbourne all I managed to do was the bonnet/hood sides (And they took me almost as long as Matt took to do the rest;)). Masked up and ready for primer First coat of filler - wasn't as bad as I thought it would be given the ammount of work I'd done on it. Rubbed down and ready for some high build. Ready for another rub down Almost ready for top coat

Matt doesn't hang around and has been flying through the paint prep. He also helped out by making the sill/kick plates that go around the wood at the bottom of the doors - these were a real pain as they are a "U" shape that wraps around the main plinth but they curve front to back (match the door profile) and have a small ridge in the top side that matches the lower edge of the door (I think to stop rain drips running through). The rear ones need a hole cut in them for the lower door stop rubbers - luckily I remembered them before we painted it!

Time to fix up the gauges. Had a complete speedo but the pot metal was shot so needed to rebuild it. Manged to fine a oil pressure gauge but still trying to find an ammeter (white faced and needle pointing down). This is what the North East speedo looks like when fully disassembled And all back together Managed to find a local company that could make a speedo cable from scratch. All i knew was that it was 52"outer and 53" Inner, gave them the old speedo housing and the gearbox drive fitting and they made a new one. Looks beautiful and very original.

With the body off, time to finish off a few bits on the chassis. Made up a new exhaust from stainless (thanks for welding Matt) - Flex joint added at the front to reduce the stress on the exhaust manifold with all the chassis movement (lots of them seem to crack the rear flange). Didn't have name plates when I restored the starter and dynamo but now I do so have fitted them to complete the job.

And the legend Matt has even offered to paint her for me, and has picked her up:)

Finished,well almost, ready for paint now:)