Rusty_OToole

About getting a flat gasket surface. What if you prepared a flat surface covered with plastic, like a plastic grocery bag, and set the cap on it when the paint was wet? I have done this with plastics and epoxy. When it was hard, the plastic peeled right off leaving a smooth shiny surface. You might try a dab of the epoxy to make sure it will not stick to plastic bags, or wax paper might work better. I have used both.

Some time back, like a year or 2, I found a Chrysler Straight Eight engine in a junkyard. It was powering the yard crane, long since gone out of service. The engine was a straight eight flathead Chrysler with a 2 barrel carburetor which I believe would date it about 1950. Sorry I did not get the serial number. It is probably an industrial engine although it could have been taken from a car. But it appeared to be the original engine, not something that was adapted. I was thinking of buying this engine to build a "special" or Speedster I had in mind, on a 1955 Plymouth frame. The Plymouth came with the Canadian flathead six which was basically the DeSoto/Chrysler six cylinder engine, detuned. The question is, could I fit the straight eight to the six's manual transmission using the flywheel, clutch, bellhousing etc from the 55 Plymouth? Can the same starter be used? I also have heard that some Chrysler straight eight parts have grown very scarce and impossible to find. Any truth to this? Anything else I should look out for?

Do a web search and see if you can find some info on polishing and restoring old paint. I have seen amazing things done with cars older than yours, with worse paint. Cars covered in surface rust have had the rust cleaned off with CLR or other cleaners, revealing the old paint, which they then polished up and waxed. The surface was obviously old but looked good. In your case it is hard to tell but the paint looks fairly decent. I have restored old paint just with ordinary car wax. Once I bought a red Renault Le Car off the back of a car lot, with a blown motor. The paint was so oxidized it looked like primer. For the hell of it I took an old bottle of Turtle Wax and tried to polish it. The paint started to come back. I ended up waxing the car 9 times and every time it came up a little better. I used up all the part bottles of Turtle Wax, Blue Poly and whatever I found in the garage. By the time I ran out of wax it looked like a brand new show car. If I tossed a clean rag on the roof it slid across the roof, down the windshield, across the hood and onto the ground. It was the slickest car you ever saw. One mistake I made was to show the car to the dealer after I fixed the motor and detailed the car. He gave a real ugly look, turned around and went back inside without saying a word. I could never buy another car from him again. I guess he thought he sold me the car too cheap, he did not take into consideration the many hours and few $$$$ bucks I spent on the car. I suggest you NOT use a buffer. They burn through the paint too fast especially old, thin paint. It takes a lot of practice not to chew up an old paint job. Get some MILD polishing compound or rubbing compound. The kind they sell at auto parts stores, not the junk chain stores sell, you might as well rub your car with gravel. Get the FINE grade, and use it gently to polish the old dead paint off the surface. Then use your favorite brand of cleaner wax to get the fine finish and protective wax coating. Wax the car at least 4 times, or as long as it keeps coming up better, try going over it once more. Once you have restored the finish wash it with mild car wash soap by hand only, and wax it again every 6 months or a year. If you keep it indoors under a car cover the finish will last a long time without rewaxing. You may have to only do it again in the fall when you put it away then a quick once over in the spring. It will be hard going when you start but every time you go over the car it gets easier. Once it is polished up you can rewax very easily. You MUST do it all by hand and go easy on the edges of panels and on any ridges where the paint is thin. If you do not want to do all this hand work see if you can find a detail shop that specializes in old cars, and knows how to polish up an old finish. This will cost $$$$ bucks because it takes a lot of hours of careful, skillful hand work. But of course, only a fraction of the cost of a new paint job. The best idea might be to do it yourself but plan on spreading the work out over a period of time. Like wash it and polish it one day, wax it the next day, then wax it every few days until you are done. If you polish the car with compound you need to get the wax on it quickly before it oxidizes again. So it might be better to do one panel at a time until you have the whole car polished and waxed.

If you like cars that break apart and fold up in a crash, buy an old Chevrolet or other GM product. Proof positive is before your eyes in this thread with actual tests of a 59 Chev being pulverized by a car half its size, actual crash photos of Chevs broken in half, and films of Cadillac and Buick cars falling apart without hitting anything.

There may be a second Continental coupe going under the knife, believe it or not. A follow up post indicates that the guy who posted the photos is getting set to start cutting up another one. I posted this info in a new thread. If you want to contact the owner of the car or the shop that is doing the work look in the new thread or on the HAMB bulletin board. The shop owner indicated that the car owner really wants a 34 Ford coupe, and tried to sell the Beacon on Ebay, twice, but no one would give him enough for it to buy a 34 Ford body. So if you know where to find a 34 Ford coupe body maybe you can do a trade. Suggest you hurry, he is warming up his cutting torch as we speak.

There is a lot that can be done to that engine to improve performance but not with 90,000 miles on it. They are a tough motor but the extra stress of performance parts can blow an old motor sky high in a month, that would have gone on for years if you baby it. I have seen this happen more than once. I have a few suggestions. I will list them in order of cost effectiveness, in other words, getting the most results for the least work and expense. 1) Tune up the engine and learn to enjoy it for what it is. First step is to do a compression test and find out where you stand. The engine could be down on power due to normal wear. It might be that a valve job and tuneup will give you all the power you need. 2) Sell the car and buy a smaller car with a bigger engine like an Olds 442. A Cutlass with a 350 or a Delta 88 or other large model with a 400 or 455 might also suit you better. 3) Install lower ratio gears in the rear axle. This will give you more "go" off the line and in traffic situations up to 60 or 70 mph. It will also reduce your gas mileage a little. At the time your car was built they were using VERY high gears in an effort to improve mileage. It is probably around 2.5 or 2.75. A ratio of 3.5 or so, as used in older model Oldses will liven it up quite a bit. 4) Rebuild the engine with a few hop up goodies like a hotter cam, headers, intake and 4 barrel carb. It should be possible to get 25% more HP with a few simple changes and not hurt driveability or mileage. If you chose to go this route Joe Padavano is an Oldsmobile expert....... 5) Find a 455, rebuild it and put it in place of the 350. A 455 will fit in your car, it was a factory optional engine. The tricky part may be finding all the correct brackets for air conditioning, alternator etc.

The other day I posted something about a 33 Continental Beacon Coupe that was being hot rodded. Today the shop that is doing the work posted this. "So here is a little info on this car. It will be turned into a real hot rod(not rat). The owner wanted a mid 30's hot rod with suicide style doors. He got a hold of this one and tried to sell it several times. He didn't really want to cut it up, but he had absolutely no luck selling it. It was on ebay a couple times and never brought much value. Not even close enough to buy a 33 ford coupe body. I am fixing the rust on it, which there is very little. And doing a mild chop and channel. The owner has already purchased a 331 hemi, hilborn injection, tremec 5 spd. His plans are gloss black high boy with a hood top and original grill. He also has already purchased 15x10 chrome reverse wheels with pie crust slicks. This car will be pure hot rod and a very cool one at that. __________________ http://www.facebook.com/HighleysHotRodsRestoration" If you think this one of a kind car deserves to be kept original or restored, there may be time to save it if you hurry.

About a year ago I think there was a thread on here from the owner of a Continental sedan, who wanted a Continental coupe to go with it. Unfortunately there were only 2 or 3 known in the world and one was in Africa. Well here's another one. A decent original with all the parts, not rusted, with minimal damage other than some banged up fenders. See it turned into a rat rod with flat black paint, Chev V8, phony air scoop and 32 Ford grille shell. Anyone care to estimate how much this reduced its value? I know its historical value is now practically nil, I expect the owner only cares about dollar value. Hot Rods 1933 Continental Coupe - THE H.A.M.B.

There you have it. Plenty heavy but not quite as heavy as I thought. Thanks for the definite answer.

I dare say there are THOUSANDS of Continental motors still around in cars, trucks, and especially buses. Not to mention industrial engines. You wouldn't know it unless you happen to know which makes bought Continental engines. It is not something that was well known or advertised.

I was thinking of Chrysler unibody cars that used a sub frame in the sixties, or Mercedes that used a unibody and sub frame in the fifties. Both were stronger than anything GM ever made. I "tested" one of those X body cars, a Pontiac Phoenix. A fool spun one around and hit my Dodge pickup from behind, going backwards at 50 MPH one rainy night. The Pontiac folded up like a cardboard box, the back bumper ended up under the back window. I drove my Dodge home, installed a tail light lense and continued driving it for another 4 years. The rear fender was dented a little, and the tail light cracked, other than that no damage. The Pontiac was a writeoff.

I would rather listen to the factory that made the car than some old boob who thinks he knows better than they do. I have heard their engines, rattling away, the valve stems and rockers getting all mushroomed. The problem is, the valve mechanism takes such a beating that even if you adjust everything correctly it will never be as quiet as it was before Mr I like to hear em working got hold of it. Once I bought at 1970 Dodge slant six pickup truck with 160,000 miles on it. When I adjusted the valves it was dead silent, I mean as quiet as a brand new car with hydraulic lifters if not quieter. The old farmer I bought it from used it hard but always maintained it by the book. It was the only slant six I ever owned that was completely quiet. On the others, I could get them pretty quiet but not totally quiet, not after they had been run with too much clearance for a while. Like I say, the truck had been used hard. You could see by the way the inside of the box was pounded that it had carried a lot of heavy loads in the 22 years before I bought it. The engine NEVER had any more valve clearance than the factory called for, and all the hard work never did the motor any harm.

I'd like to see a picture of a step down Hudson torn in half by a collision with anything smaller than an express train. And that is a unibody car with no separate frame at all. Sound of hysterical laughter from Hudson fans, imagining what would be left of a modern Chev if a Hudson were crashed into one instead of a 59 Chev. I have seen old pictures of step down Hudsons that were involved in severe wrecks. In every case the comments were about how the car had kept its structural integrity, usually the doors opened and shut normally and the passengers walked away with few or no injuries. Never saw one broken in half or anything like it. Now a crash between a 52 Chrysler New Yorker and a 52 Hudson Hornet ..... that would be like the irresistible force meeting the immovable object.

A unibody car can be immensely strong with no frame at all. Modern unibody designs often use a rubber mounted sub frame to isolate the suspension and powertrain for noise and vibration suppression. I always thought of the GM X frame models as an example of a unibody car with a king size sub frame isolating all suspension and power train components. Such a design could be very strong and resistant to crash damage if properly designed. The GM cars weren't. They were cheap, flimsy, and not strong or durable at all, even the most expensive Cadillac versions could be reduced to a heap of junk in half an hour without hitting anything, just by driving over a rough road. As we saw in the crash test video, the 59 Chev can be completely pulverized when hit by a car half their size. And we have photographic evidence that they can be torn into 2 or more pieces by a severe crash.

"I don't have an idea, one way or another, whether a Henry Ford type visionary could have provided a Model T like vehicle for postwar Europe" There were plenty of Henry Ford types providing the equivalent of the Model T. The bubble cars are an example of the sub Model T market. When bubble cars were at the peak of their popularity the head of the Austin company said "we've got to come up with something to push those bubble cars off the road". He gave the job to Alec Issigonis, who came up with the Austin Mini, the sixties answer to the Model T. Then there was the VW beetle, another concept of the 4 passenger family car at minimal cost. There were plenty of others. I find the whole genre fascinating. There is actually more brains, design talent and ingenuity in creating the most efficient economy car, than in a price - no - object luxury car.

He's trying to scam a sucker into selling him a car cheap, then flip it to another sucker for a big profit, without investing any money, doing any work or taking any risk or exhibiting any skill or knowledge. That seems to be the way a lot of people think these days. Forget about work, work is for suckers. Give us the fast buck, the slick trick, the scam and the gimmick. Technically, it is possible to do this without actually breaking any laws. But it is a lot harder to pull off than it looks, without crossing the line into fraud or worse.

The trans won't hold the motor if it is automatic. The torque converter will always let the engine turn over (idle) even in gear. Not sure how Rambler connected their pushbutton trans. Chrysler used cables like a choke cable only heavier. Edsel and Packard were electric. I suspect Rambler used cables but don't know, if you look under the car or under the hood, you should soon see if it has cables or electric wires. With the starter out can you pry on the flywheel with a pry bar or big screw driver? If the engine won't budge the last resort is to take the head off. This will soon tell you if the cylinders are rusted up or if they were scored by engine failure in the past. A friend of mine had almost the same model, a 1959 pink Rambler sedan with a 6 cylinder. The engine was frozen when he got it. 1 or 2 of the cylinders were a little rusty, just enough to make the rings stick. He took the pan off, took out all the pistons, honed the cylinders, installed new rings, and put everything back together WITHOUT taking the engine out of the car. I think while he was at it, he took the head to a machine shop and had the valves done. When he was finished it ran like a brand new car, did not burn oil or make any funny noises. He sold it to another friend who is still driving it 5 years later. So, if the engine is truly froze up I suggest you start by taking the head off. It may not be as bad to fix as you think. I might add, my friend was an experienced mechanic so the job didn't worry him a bit. But, the Rambler six is a very simple, and tough engine. If you get a manual and do a careful job you shouldn't have any trouble. I think it cost my friend under $500 for gaskets, rings, getting the head done, paint, fresh oil, antifreeze, etc.

2 methods to do this. 1) remember a stock 6v Mopar is POSITIVE GROUND meaning the battery is connected "backwards". Be sure your jump box connection goes + to + and - to -. 2) First method. Disconnect the ground from the battery, connect the jumper, start the car, quickly take off the jumper and stick the ground cable back on before the car stalls. This is the safest method as it cuts the 6V battery completely out of the circuit while the 12V is connected. Only one cable needs to be disconnected to cut the battery out, the ground cable is usually the easiest. 3) Quick method. Have someone in the driver's seat ready to go, stick the jumper cables on, start the car and pull the cables off. Do not leave the jumper cables connected for more than a few seconds. Leaving a 6v battery connected to 12V is NOT a good idea! There is yet another method. If you need to start a 6v car or move it around and don't have a 6v battery you can use a 12v in its place. In other words, take out the 6v battery and put in a 12v. But be careful. 1) Be sure everything in the car is turned off, such as lights, radio, etc. 2) Do not grind and grind the starter. The engine should start quickly, if it does not, find out what is wrong and use the starter for short periods of time. More than 10 to 20 seconds of use can overheat the starter, if it gets hot let it cool down before you try again. 3) Do not run the car for more than 10 or 15 minutes. Eventually the coil will overheat and possibly the points will burn. I have never had any permanent damage but I did have a 47 Dodge quit due to an overheated coil after idling for half an hour. Once it cooled down it was good as new, no harm done.

I know a guy who uses a Caswell kit with excellent results. It is about the size of a dish pan and of course, will only do small parts. Like door handles, window cranks, small hardware, and things like that. There is a certain amount of skill involved. The part must be cleaned and polished perfect to get a good job.

"May have" froze motor? Why not be sure first? Check the crankcase for oil, take out the spark plugs and squirt some oil in the cylinders, and let it soak for a few days. Then try to turn the motor by hand. If you can turn it 2 or 3 full turns, try turning it over with the starter. Cover the spark plug holes with a rag, the oil can fly pretty far lol. If it will turn over on the starter, and it has compression, you should be able to get it running. Some automatic transmission fluid thinned out with varsol or diesel makes a good penetrating oil for the cylinders. You could take the valve cover off while you are at it and make sure the valves are not stuck. One way to do this, is oil the valves and tap the end of the rocker with a hammer. Not too hard just a light tap with a small hammer. If the hammer bounces back the valve and spring are working. If it hits with a thud and doesn't bounce that valve may be stuck. If the motor really is froze up you can take the engine and trans out together and separate them on the shop floor.

Give us a few pictures and we will tell you in minutes what you have.

The way the economy has been going for the last 5 years I don't know where you find the customers to buy them. I guess there must be lots of desperate sellers who have lost their jobs, homes, etc that you can take advantage of but it sounds like the buyers are getting wise, or running out of free to spend dough.

I seriously doubt any hot rodder in 1958 bought a BRAND NEW Pontiac Bonneville, just to take the seats out. Or went to the Pontiac dealer and ordered new seats at full list price. I do know they scrounged the junk yards for suitable seats and found them in defunct panel trucks, sports cars and imports. By the mid sixties it may have been possible to find a cheap set of Pontiac Bonneville seats in a junk yard but in 1958? Unlikely.

The book I was thinking of was a cheap Ballantine paperback from the early seventies. Have you ever seen the Ballantine WW2 series of books? Before they did the war books they did a series on cars and motorcycles including Stutz, Lincoln, Cadillac, Brooklands race track, etc. They had very good authors like Maurice Hendry and others. But is was nearly 40 years ago I read the book. They did speak of the Blackhawk, and Black Hawk models, and went into some detail on the difference, but after all these years I don't remember what exactly they said. Then there were articles in Automobile Quarterly and other publications. Thinking back, the Stutz never got the attention it deserved. It was a great car with a fascinating history. As the Ballantine book pointed out, in their day they did more racing and built more high performance cars than anybody, yet today they are nearly forgotten.

Isn't the VIN on the driver's door post rather than the door? This is the number usually used for registration purposes? Engine number stamped on a raised pad, on the engine block, left side, front, just below the head. 1950 DeSoto should be an S14 model. Serial number and engine number should start with S14.