JB-ed

...also, there is probably no better time than the present to get a correct motor and tranny for this car. With the market for hot rods falling out the bottom right now, while you can still find rod projects with engines etc for sale, the time is coming when this will not be the case. Place ads on this website and also in the club magazine and you should get lucky. There is a guy near me in Ohio selling a (said to be) rebuilt 36 engine, who is one of the dreaded profiteers in this hobby. He bought the engine for less than $100 and wants to sell for $850. Make him an offer knowing this inside information and see what you can do. I will gladly pick up for you and store safely here at my home until you can arrange for it.

I'm the supposed Tech Advisor for the Victory so please contact me for more details if you ever need them. I am not wanting to put my name/address here for every junk mailer to see, so join the club and look on P 2 of any issue of magazine for my info.

Fluke nice weather here in Ohio keeps us outdoors instead of at the computer. Anyhow, I have seen Victory (and hence Standard) engines painted gray, as RDH says, but also darker blue and darker green. You can see remains of color between rear motor mount and engine block on some engines. Dont know when colors changed or if they were painted at random at factory.

There were three sixes for 1928, Standard, Victory, Senior. can youprovide serial numbers??? Or wheelbase???

Romar sells a repro (actually photocopy) of the owners manual for this as well as the parts book. There was no service manual so you work from generic manuals of the era, not really that difficult. You are right, the cars were 1928 until July 1, 1928 when they became 1929s. They were built from Nov 1927 to the end of 1928. That 1929 manual is for the next model, the DA. Similar but enough differences to confuse you. Note your serial number and always refer to it when buying parts or seeking advice as they made some significant changes in these cars over the year and you can get in a jam with the wrong parts. See www.vintageandclassicreproductions.com for parts availability. The club buys in batches from this guy, see his ad in the magazine. The Victory is a great car, fast and safe. Go for it.

I can speak for 1928-29 in which they stretched "chicken wire" over the wood and then put a rubberized material over that. On the inside went some padding and the headliner. You can get the rubberized material from several suppliers including Model A. Some people now use thin plywood instead of the chicken wire, but that's up to you. There are several general-purpose upholstery and restoration books that tell you more about this. It's more or less the same for all closed cars of the era.

You guys can get all sanguine about that Dodge hot rod on eBay and that guy's right to cut it up. But please note that he is bidding on the same year and model of car in stock condition on eBay right now. That car and body style are not all that rare, it's just a load invented by the seller. The eventual buyer will be advised of the truth.... He's probably buying up the competition in hopes of getting his $35K for that trashed Dodge. Then he can trash another one and try to sell it.

I have Champion C-26 on mine. That AC number 76-S also applies. "Long reach" means that the points will stick out just below the bottom surfact of the head. Normal reach (if they call it that) will be lost up in the hole. Too long of a reach will interfrer with piston head in some cars but I cant say for sure with Dodges. You probably ought to e-mail Rodger "Dodger" to confirm these numbers, but that Champion was provided by Romar several years ago. Although I havent driven the car yet, it does start and idle.

If it's the sidemounts and trunk rack that bother you, consider that they possibly are options. For the 28 Victory these were included in the "sport" trim option along with other upgrades in paint and upholstery. These may make your car quite desireable! Not to mention beautiful.

I remember just responding to a spark plug question. Anyhow, see the club website for a chart of part numbers. Then go to parts store and buy brand new. You may need to order special from small stores, some tractor stores will have them in stock. My tractor supply has a sale now and again and I get them in the $3 range each. Or you can buy them from "resellers" who will charge $7 but have them in stock guaranteed, ready to ship. I never got too excited about NOS antique plugs as my interest is in great performance, not show.

<span style="font-style: italic">I have no problem with modifying an otherwise hopeless car - I know a guy that got a pre-WW2 BMW, restored the body and put modern BMW mechanicals into it because the original drivetrain was non existent and I have no problem with that. </span> many would not disagree with you on this. However it's a shame everyone didn't feel this way. Please check out this rodded car now being auctioned on eBay and get back to us on how you all feel about the baby-boomer craze for modifying old cars and what it has done to the surviving examples of American industrial history? http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2433812324

europeancarnut: If you are truly listening to your car you will hear pleading, begging, and then screaming as you put the torch to her to chop and modify. Fortunately, I assume from your name, you are hacking up European cars and leaving our American History alone.

At first I thought this initial question was a joke, or some sort of bait. But most responses are reasonable. My 1928 Dodges (five on the road now, same model, different body style) are as original as you can get now a days with the following exceptions (most mentioned before) safety glass, steel, not copper, brake lines, a repro points plate to allow me to swap the unavailable North East points for modern Bosch, and an in-line fuel filter hidden in the frame channel. Swapping the generator for alternator, 12 for 6 volts, and all the rest is senseless, as the car ran quite well when new in 1928 with theoriginal equipment, thank you. I will confess to "hot rodding" a 1928 portable Victrola, concealing a CD player within so I can hear authentic reissued 1928 music when I need the mood. I saved all the original parts and can restore the poor Victrola back to original when the Antique Phono Club comes a-visiting.

I'll go ahead and toss the wrench into the punch bowl, to mix metaphors. I have an excellent owners manual for 1918 with some great engine pix. In black and white of course. A year ago or so I photographed my recently rebuilt engine, painted in Romar's chartruse/green, put the photos into my computer, converted to black and white, and pasted them side by side with the original owner manual photos. Guess what. It's not the same. Obviously I can't tell color, but the shades of gray and black in the photos are entirely different. I think more research is needed. But if we discover something different, possibly 5000 owners of early Dodges will have to repaint their engines? maybe this is too much information..... I have heard that several restorers of these cars back in the early days of 1950s and 1960 had done some analysis of colors, but as typical, never shared this with anyone.

Rainy cold day and here i sit responding to month-old postings. I need a life. Anyhow, I had (and still have)a pile of this "heavy stuff" and it is really hard to sell. The hot rodders flooded the market over the last 8 years. The short answer is, so long as you get your investment out of this you really can't consider yourself getting "ripped" for a nominal price. I have sold transmissions for $50 or so and even included delivery to Hershey. It's possible your aluminum one will get a better price. Actually I used a iron one on my 1918 because the aluminum was rotted away on the original. (I painted the iron "aluminum" color, which probably will cause a few readers' to wet pants. Maybe I'll buy yours this Hershey (now two weeks away) if the aluminum is really good. However isn't this a conflict of interest, appraising parts and also offering to buy them? Oh well.

As the politicians say, it depends on the definition of "old." Graham Bros ran a series of "C" trucks in 1927, BC, DC, YC, etc everything but WC although the first letter often designated body style and there were many of these. Then in the 30s were the HC and KC series, but I cant find anything going that far up the alphabet to "W" Post your serial number and maybe we can help more. Of course we assume your not going to street rod this surviving piece of American history.

I believe this topic is running on two different Threads? I recall responding elsewhere. Anyhow, I am the Victory Tech advisor, it's a rainy cold day, work is slow and here I sit on the computer. If you truly have a Victory with serial number M-2731, this is quite an early car. Please advise body style. Please ensure there are not any other numbers after these, a fifth digit. This number is all there is, besides an engine number. This M-2731 will be your VIN and registration number. It also once on a time existed on the toeboard plate as well. The engine number will be just above/ahead of the manifold at the front of the engine block on the milled surface. It will be about 10,000 above your M-2731. If it is somewhere in the M-12000 range, you indeed have this low serial number car with an original engine. Among many other distinguishing features, you will have wooden running boards and steel floor pans front and rear riveted to the frame. Only the toe boards will be wood. The body will be attached to the frame with about 12 hex head bolts visible just above the running board along the frame. Take good care of this car, it will be a beautiful and fast car if restored properly. It would be a tragedy and loss of a valuable resource if this car is treated in any way other than kept original or restored to stock condition.

Try Roy Brister. I think he is reproducing them. See club roster.

Congratulations on acquiring a wonderful car. Assuming you are a member, contact the tech advisor for this car and get a wiring diagram. I think you can contact Diamler-Chrysler historical and get some stuff from them too. You eventually need a owners manual or repro and maybe the advisor can lead you to one. Someone else asked about top (assuming you mean a sedan or coupe) and see his question and my reply on that thread on this forum. I'm almost positive it's positive ground and also that the bumpers are chrome. To check the lights or any electrical, get a volt meter and start at the source and work you way to the lights. In other words, check around at the switch at the base of the steering wheel to be sure all contacts are hot when the switch is actuated. Then go check at the light itself, remove the plugs in the back and check each contact for "hot." At some point when it aint hot no more, that's where your problem is. Broken wire, (short to ground), broken switch, dead bulb, etc. Also make sure you have good ground everywhere you ought to.

The club webite has a chart for you, also.

Please elaborate: Victory Six, Senior Six, Standard Six or Fast Four. Give serial number if yu have and we can determine from that. Also where are you located, which will determine feasibility.

Something is wrong here. There was no 1926 Dodge with six cylnder engine. Plus that frame at 124 wheelbase must be a truck. That serial number with the extension (A-62801 32026) is too long. Please check this out again and be sure these are Dodges?????

I'm doing my 28 Victory brakes right now. Tight is not the issue, but a clean seat inside the cylinder is the problem. My iritation with these guys who re-sleeve is that they never even look down into the hole at the seat, which can be rusty, pitted, or dirty. Probably you have a problem with the tapered seat of the bleeder screw not seating against the matching taper down inside the hole in the casting. You need to dress this with a reamer, grinding wheel, (or if just cleaning up with a drill with matching angle)to get a nice clean shiny seat.

We forgot to tell you never--NEVER--ever tell the child at the NAPA counter what car you have. Just say "old Dodge" if at all. They have--or can get-- some parts but just dont know it. We covered the modern number for spark plugs many times in the magazine. I dont have access to the back issue CD-ROM right now but assume some member will advise you or buy your own set. These plus are readily available at tractor stores and virtually any NAPA-type store can order them so long as you order by AC or Champion part number and not "26 Dodge." If you get lucky, "tractor Supply" stores run sales on these plugs every few years or so.

The top is a wood frame with wood cross bows, as you supposed. Chicken wire adds some structural support with some padding. The headliner is below and the roof material on top. There should be steel plates that extend the outer material to overlap the sheetmetal steel roof around the opening. The entire roof structure rests on these plates. The roof is inserted in one piece from the top and rests on these steel plates. You need to remove the headliner to remove the top. On the Victory Six (one year earlier than your DA) there are steel strips visible from the interior that will unscrew. One holds the dome light. I have never done this but understand that you can carefully free the headliner material from the bows and from the four sides and save it. Once headliner is gone, you will see screws holding the wooden top insert in place to the steel body roof. Remove these and push the entier top framework out the top. You probably have ages of caulking and repair putty holding the top to the body on the outside so I suppose you need to work your way around with knife and putty knife and whatever to free this assembly. Pry carefully if you want to save these steel plates and also to preserve the finish on the steel top if this is the case. This is very much like the Model A and probably most all closed cars of the 20s, so any upholstery guide book will be able to help you on this and all similar work.