Rusty_OToole

I have started 6V cars on 12V and run them for brief periods. One I let idle for half an hour, eventually the coil overheated and it quit. When the coil cooled down it was good as new.

The Carb King posts on here sometimes, a search should turn up his contact info. He seems very knowledgable and has quite a stock of old parts.

Vapor lock seems to be more prevalent since fuel injection became universal on new cars. Their fuel system is under pressure so vapor lock is not a problem.There is no reason today for oil companies to make fuel that resists vapor lock. Some have found relief by adding 10% of diesel, kerosene or stove oil to the gas to make it less volatile. Not recommended on high compression engines.

Thanks for the information. It is a manual trans, 3 speed car. Engine was replaced with a 51 Plymouth engine years ago, the outside repainted black and the dash and inside trim red.

Chrysler brakes are precision. The major adjustment must be done for them to work right. After they are set up, a minor adjustment every 5000 to 10000 miles to take up wear. The major adjustment requires a special tool but lots of guys make up a tool out of wood and allthread that works fine.

If the battery was hooked up wrong, or if the battery was out of the car over the winter or if you took the generator apart, it may be necessary to polarize the generator for it to work. This is not hard to do, it will be covered in your repair manual or you can do a search. Ammeter should show 0 when you turn on the key. Negative when the starter is turning. Slight positive when the engine is running, up to a couple of amps at idle, slowly dropping as the battery charges up. Higher when you turn on the lights.

Most likely a 2 speed fan. One wire is low speed, the other hi speed. Ground through the body of the motor. Is there a switch? Is it 2 speed? If it is 2 speed connecting both wires to a battery will cause a spark but not hurt the motor if you don't leave it on. You might want to check with an ohm meter first. If both wires = 0 ohms, 1 wire to ground, 5 ohms, other wire to ground, 10 ohms, or something like that, my guess is right. If both wires = 5 homes, 1 wire to ground, infinite, other wire to ground, infinite, then your guess is right.

The other problem is the guys with a real 3d rate clunker, worth $1000 tops, who think it is worth $5000 to $25000 because they saw one like it on TV. They typically sit rotting into the mud until there is nothing left, then go for scrap iron.

"I think a lot of people here are too paranoid about things being scrapped and crushed. Yes, some small collections have probably been crushed. Maybe even yards full of stuff, but I'd think that in this day and age (with TV full of car shows, American Pickers, the internet, etc.) that nobody in their right mind would come in to settle a hoarder's estate and immediately start crushing/scrapping cars by the hundreds. Anyone stumbling across a car hoard would have to realize that they are looking at something special that that hoards of hundreds of cars are not just scrap heaps. No...instead I suspect that they would start to see dollar signs and think auction. This "saves" the stuff and allows buyers to come in that need/want the stuff and who usually know what they're looking at. The family auctions a bunch of ratty looking rusty hulks for thousands of dollars (or more) each, realizing that so-and-so's old hoard of stuff really was pretty significant and valuable. Those people will then never look at "junk" that same way again, I guarantee it. " There is a junkyard I patronize that gets cars like that regularly. Ones that are complete, nearly rust free, obviously just pulled out of a garage somewhere, that they have been resting in for many years. Usually fifties or sixties models but a few weeks ago they got 2 Chrysler Imperial coupes from the early 80s. Sometimes they have spare parts like transmissions or cylinder heads in the trunk. They all get picked over for chrome and small parts, carburetor etc, within a day or 2. This yard deals in scrap only, pays scrap prices only, and does not sell a complete car, ever. Right now they have a 57 Plymouth, 2 55 Pontiacs, all junkers. They recently crushed a 39 LaSalle hearse, 47 Willys Jeep station wagon, fifties Mercedes, 40 Dodge, 38 Dodge, 51 Chev, 64 Econoline pickup with deluxe factory chrome package (rare) also junkers. But some nice ones I recall were a 61 Buick, 52 Dodge (the owner drove it in), 64 Pontiac Bonneville that appeared to have been restored then left to rot for 20 years. There were others that caused a pang that I don't immediately recall. But at least once every 2 months I see a car that makes me think " what is that doing here? what were they thinking?" but of course, to most people an old car is just a hunk of junk.

Have you tried your local Buick dealer?

Primer and glazing putty should be all you need. Sand with 240, then 400 wet or dry. Touch up any marks you missed the first time. When it is quite smooth, primer again, let dry, sand with 400 and it's ready to paint.

Maybe that's where Lee Iacocca got the idea of appearing in Chrysler ads.

Ned Jordan used to do things like that. One of his ads showed a Jordan car parked in front of a roadhouse on a moonlit night, with a red light burning above the door. Title of the ad, "The Port of Missing Men". He said "when this hits the newsstands we'll either have 100% readership or end up in jail". Ha ha ha.

It can get to be a sickness if you let it get out of hand. But, there are worse things you could be doing.As others have pointed out, it harms nobody and does preserve a stockpile of rarities. I wonder how many rare and beautiful museum pieces only exist because of some crazy hoarder, hundreds or even thousands of years ago? Because at some time everything was brand new, then it became old second hand junk, and had to escape destruction before it became a valuable collector's item.

You say you identified the bike but fail to divulge the information. My guess is, it's a Ner - a - Car made by a character named Neracher. An unusual design few have heard of, even old car fans.

They usually put a coarse strainer on the inlet. A big rust flake, leaf, stone etc can get sucked into an unprotected pipe and plug it up. Ones I have taken out of late model tanks are made of nylon or plastic, about an inch in diameter and 3 inches long. Like a fine gauze mesh.

I found an ID plate loose in the glove compartment of a 55 Dodge I bought. It is about an inch wide and 3 inches long or a little bigger. The plate was painted over with black paint when the car was repainted years ago. Only some stamped numbers show. Numbers as follows: D54-2-4 DOOR SEDAN ( I believe this means, 1955 Dodge Regent 4 door sedan) 12150 (serial #?) 6013 HBH Could the last 2 be paint and trim codes?

If it was mine I would carefully take out the old sender. Examine the old fuel pipe. Bend up a duplicate. Drill a hole in the new sender in the same spot and solder the pipe on. I would also find a modern in tank strainer or filter to stick on. They just slide on the pipe. It is probably 5/16 steel, most gas lines are. It's not a real critical fit as long as the pipe comes near the bottom of the tank but doesn't touch, and doesn't hit the gauge arm as it moves up and down.

Can anyone give me the number of 1955 Dodges made, broken down by body style? I found the total numbers (78000) but can't find the number of 4 door, 2 door, hardtop, etc. I am curious because all I ever see are 4 door sedans. I know they must have made some wagons, hardtops etc but they seem to be vanishingly rare.

I thought "rust free" meant they weren't charging extra for it.

Could be cylinder wash down from too much gas on the rings. Are the plugs fouled with black oily gassy residue? If they are, they will not fire right unless cleaned by sandblasting. You need to clean the plugs, oil the cylinders and get it started, once it warms up and burns off the excess gas and oil it will be OK. Either that or the carburetor needs to be rebuilt.

It is not very difficult to drill a hole in the sender and solder in a piece of pipe.

Narve I am very impressed with your car. That is more or less what I had in mind to do. You are right about the chassis. I can't see how to make it work. One problem I just thought of today, the steering wheel is too far to the left for a narrow 30s body and there is no easy way to change it. On the whole it would be better to use an older chassis, or if I want to use the 55 chassis, to build a different style of body like a fifties sports car or something along those lines.

If you mean what I think you mean, Chrysler products used the same type control valve (on the heater hose) up to the late 70s or 80s. Last time I bought one, about 10 years ago, a new one was $12 from the local Dodge dealer. Older models ( late 40s early 50s) had a more elaborate thermostat type setup.

Why don't you go down to Chapters or your favorite magazine store and buy an Old Cars Price Guide for $7.95. I could look it up in mine but the newest one I have is almost a year old.