HarryJ

Update on progress, I have picked up one part from the machinist and he is working on the other project I gave him. The part I picked up is the gas pedal. I will need to do a small amount of final work and this part will be complete. Bad news with respect to the parts I had stripped; The stripper severly bent up and damaged the front fenders. When I went to pick up the parts I discovered this and confronted the stripper. All I got was dumb looks and BS from him. I hope some of the members in the Atlanta area are following this as I would never use this company again. The repairs to the fenders are going to cost me! I delivered the parts to the body man. He is making slow ,but excellent progress on the body. This guy is an excellent craftsman and his work shows it. From what I can estimate the car will remain with him for another month or two and then back to my shop where I will finish several small details and from there I will start on the chassis. I am still wrestling with how to restore the FEDCO antitheft plate,reproduce the pot metal door and window handles, and reproduce or find the running board trim. As to the interior handles I think I have found the technologies to help me reproduce these castings. This process will consist of first laser reading the parts into a computer then manipulating them to eliminate blemishes and increasing the size to compensate for shrinkage when cast. The parts can then be cast with either the investment technique or using a open mold similiar to sand casting. I plan to tackle the wood wheels first when I start on the chassis. For this I need a source for the hemispherical head carriage bolts that were used on artillery wheels of the day. Does anyone know a source for these carriage bolts. I hope to post some pictures when I get the car back from the body man.

Leigh...This is perplexing. In the resources I have I don't see any 118" or 114" wheelbases on any of the series produced in '27, '28 or '29. (Standard Catalog of Chrysler 1924-1990) I am fairly certain though there would have been only one wheelbase offered in the series"72". This is a question the Chrysler Historical Data Collection could possibly answer. From your picture in this forum it looks like you have the wrong body for the chassis.(ie. Imperial"8o" chassis/"72" body. The cowl (std on all American body styles) and the rear section you have give you 85% of a roadster from what I can see. It would fairly easy for a good sheet metal/body craftsman to fab up a set of doors and sill pieces from patterns to complete a roadster. Note, as is the practice today certain body panels are interchangable between body styles. Have you access to any resources such as parts books or pictures etc. on Chryslers sold in Austrailia in 1928?

71Pacer....How long is your wheelbase? In America only 1 wheelbase length was offered 120.5"

71Pacer....I don't know where to get another dash. By the way, have you ever thought about making the chassis into a two seat runabout? The series "72" was a fast car.

Don....My '28 Lincoln had leather boots. Are you sure the original was rubber?

Dana J...Would you mind posting some pics on this forum?.......... Just curious

Dan, I did it myself. The good thing about woodwork is, if you mess it up you haven't ruined an irreplacable part. I'm not a very good wood worker; but given time and enough tries I can usually get it right.

Bob...A quick way to compare building prices is, how much are they per square foot; ie. 5,000sq.ft. for $250,000 is $50/sq.ft. Car condos are becoming quite popular and are selling well in several cities. These tend to sell in the $250/sq.ft. range. My advice to you is to shop, shop, shop, and understand the market where you are looking. Condsider some depressed areas as these properties sell at much lower prices per foot than those in desirable areas. Some partners and I just bought a 70,000 sq.ft. building in a depressed area of Atlanta for $4.50/sq.ft.

Here is an explaination from a '28 series "72" owners manual.

Dale, from what I am reading there must be air in the lines or the "new" master cylinder you got from NAPA must be too small ( not enough volume). I am amazed they had a part for a 80+ year old car on the shelf. I would study the movement of the brake arms while someone depresses the pedal in the car. These are the exposed levers that transfer the push of the wheel cylinder to the shoes. If these do not show movement you are not getting fluid to the wheel cylinders or air in the system is taking up the stroke. Note: these cars had a reservoir separate from the master cylinder that the driver had to manually pump to get fluid to the master cylinder. If the valve in this reservoir/pump is not snugged down the fluid will simply go from the master cylinder to the reservoir and not to the wheels. The brake bands should be set at .010" to no more than .015" arround the drum.

Folks....I'll add my two cents worth to help confuse matters. On both the '28 series "72" Chryslers I have the engines were a dark green when I got them. The parts car I have as far as I can tell has not been dismantled since new. Under the grease/oil and dirt I found this dark green. The car I am restoring had this color also; however, I cleaned and painted it a Ford green some 20 years ago. I plan to have the paint matched off the parts car engine to repaint the block on the '28 I'm restoring after I rebuild the engine. Black and or green may either be correct as I have noted that on the assembly lines of the day substitutions seem to have been randomly made according to availability of paint or parts.

193066....I don't have a pattern; however, how much of your wooden framing have you got. Could you post a picture? You might be able to tell enough from the rotted wood to get a pattern for replacements. I had to replace a good bit of the wood in my '28 royal sedan using what was left and extrapolating from these parts what they origanally looked like.

John...All I can say is awesome!

Quick update on progress.....Last Sunday night(about 9:30) I delivered the car to the body man and today I took the last of the body parts to be restored to the stripper for the first step in the restoration process. Two of the required items requiring the skills of a machinist are being delt with.

Thanks Guys...I have made note of all three responses, Thanx again.

Has anyone reproduced rubber parts using some type of liquid rubber? If so can you give me an idea of what to look for and how to do it or refer me to a place on the web that will fill me in.

John , the swelling traps the internal mechanism as well as preventing the cylinder from sliding in the housing. Note the lock cylinder plunger in the third picture. It is trapped in the die casting. The groove you mention is between a steel sleeve and the casting. The lock cylinder is squeezed by the swelling and probably can't be removed without cutting open the casting. Yes the parts were originally plated when the assembly was new. I have talked to one or two machinist about reproducing the casting and from their comments; yes I feel it could be accomplished. Part of the problem is I don't know exactly what the guts of the cylinder look like. There must be some sort of cam mechanism that withdraws the lock cylinder plunger allowing the cylinder to "pop out" that is attached to the lock cylinder itself. At the minute, it looks like the cylinder will have to be machined open to figure out what it looks like inside; however, I am holding off on this option until I know more about what I am facing. I was hoping someone on this forum had delt with this issue before.

Dean, first let me say I am impressed with your abilities in restoring your car; I wish I had similiar skills. I noted on one of your earlier pictures an early original oil filter; do you plan to rebuild it? Also, thanks for the tip on using the Dremel tool to clean up the valve ports. I have never seen the inside of a crank case painted before, aren't you concerned some of the paint might start to come off in thye future?

Sounds like a blocked atmospheric vent on the vacuum tank.

Bob...Your story sounds alot like some of mine; as, I tore down the car I am presently restoring in the late seventies and threw away or lost some parts I should have kept. I don't know exactly about Dodges like yours; however, most of the wood spoke wheels I have seen have hemispherical bolt heads on them as compared to partial hemisphere most modern carriage bolts have. Thanks again for the post.

Thanks folks!! Another problem solved.

Bob...First thank you for the post, I have learned from it. The question is did you use hemispherical headed carriage bolts in the hub and if so where did you find them?

I am still working on the floor system of the car. I have assembled the front floor board from several tongue&groove boards as per the original and made a foam core poster board template to fit the space/hole in the car. I took the template and traced it on the above mentioned assembly and mapped out all of the cuts and holes I need to cut out the replacement floorboard. Soon I will cut it out and paint it. The stearing column/brake and clutch pedal floor plate and the shifter/handbrake floorplates are not reproduced; however, I am lucky as they are smooth rubber over a steel core and don,t have a pattern on the face. This allows me to take some 1/16" rubber sheet I acquired from my local hardware supply coupled with cleaning up the original steel cores and fabricate new floorplates.

John....Here are some pictures of the Electrolock "pop-out" switch. The cylinder containing the lock cylinder is made of "pot metal" and swells up causing it to fail to slide in the cable housing and trapping the internal mechanism. These units must have failed in their day as they are mostly missing from cars today.

Pertti K...The bolts should not go into the water jackets.