Rusty_OToole

If the car has been sitting a long time you may need to clean the points . Give them a shot of electronic contact cleaner and drag a strip of white typing paper through them.

If you mean a rim tape or flap you may be able to get them from a motorcycle dealer. I'm surprised Coker doesn't have them.

For customers outside the US, US mail is preferable. Not too expensive, and it avoids customs brokers hassles and expense. I live in Canada and always request that sellers mail things if possible. If not possible I think twice about buying.

Radials will work well on your truck, but be careful to get some that are narrow enough if you use the stock narrow wheels. Marshal 791 radials from Walmart are quite narrow, or you can buy wide whitewalls from specialists like Coker Tire for a lot more money. Most modern radials are too wide for your wheels, of course you could get some wider wheels off a Fifth Avenue or later model Dodge pickup. There is a lot that can be done with the old solid axle suspension. If set up properly the ride and handling are very good at least on fairly smooth roads.

How tight does the pitman arm fit against the steering box? You can hand fit the taper by using blueing, and filing the shaft down where it touches. Continue until you have good contact all around. You may need to ream the pitman arm with a tapered reamer if it is worn. This will move the pitman arm closer to the box which is why you need to have some clearance when you start. If this is not practical you may need to make a new shaft or build up the old one with weld or braze and remachine it.

The test light should go on when the key is on. When the key is off the test light should be off. You want everything to be "off" when you shut off the key. Your problem is, something is still "on" which drains the battery. With the key off and the test light in place, try hooking things up one at a time and see if the light comes on. If it does, there is your draw.

For normal driving you can start with the lever in HI and just shift up at 14mph or faster. LO is for hills, sand, snow, slow driving, heavy loads etc not necessary most of the time.

Golfing coupe refers to the little door on the right side of the car. This was known as a golf club door. I'm surprised to see it show up on the registration. Golf club doors were usually found on coupes and roadsters with rumble seats. Yours is the rumble seat model, I can tell by the steps on the rear fender and the fact that the trunk handle is at the top. If you open the lid there is a little seat in there.

Roger is right, that is the way to track down a current draw. Unfortunately the old Chrysler products use circuit breakers not fuses making it harder to do this test. Try disconnecting the alternator. If that stops the draw it is defective, or not hooked up properly. If not the alternator look in the glove compartment for a light, or in the trunk. Be sure to have the doors closed or the interior light turned off, easy to overlook and not usually the cause of the draw unless it is on all the time.

Has anyone used synthetic oil in a pre 1955 long stroke engine. I am thinking specifically of a 1951 DeSoto and 1954 Packard but could be any typical motor of the 30s to early 50s. It seems to me the synthetic should work particularly well in this type car because the long stroke causes higher piston speeds, more friction and wear than modern short stroke engines. Assume the engine will be freshly rebuilt or overhauled, and all sludge and dirt cleaned out.

If you have an ordinary cable from the parts store it is too small. 6v needs a cable twice as big as 12v. Either special order from the local parts store or from one of the antique parts specialists.

Ash was the most common wood used in body construction. It sounds like yours has grown punky with age. I don't think they ever expected that car to last longer than 10 years, if that.

I've only had that happen on air cooled engines, a VW and a Triumph motorcycle. Something about air cooling doesn't cool the exhaust valves well enough in tough going, or something. You need to use top quality exhaust valves.

Starter cables should be 1 gauge. About as big as your thumb with copper inside as big as your little finger. Make sure they are fastened securely and clean off any paint so they are making good metal to metal contact. A six volt starter will turn slower than a 12 volt but should turn with authority not hesitant. If in good shape the car should start as quick as a 12 volt car. 6 volt is more critical of having good wires and good connections.

Inspect the generator tag.should be marked 6v or 12v.

I may have misread the original post. "restored over the last 20 years" registered as "restored over 20 years ago". If the work was completed in the last couple of years it may not be necessary to refresh all lubricants (although it can't hurt) and replace hoses, belts and brake fluid. I also meant to include an auto club membership. Cell phone, auto club and credit cards. They will see you through.

nzcarnerd is correct. From 1938 on Chrysler Canada made their own engines, all flathead sixes based on the US Chrysler/DeSoto 25" block. Before that they used engines imported from Detroit. Presumably the same ones used in american cars. I have specs going back to 1941 if that is any help.

A quick web search tells me there was a Norgren-Stemac company in Denver. They seem to have built a new building in 1957 or 58. Beyond that, no idea what they did.

There is a Van Houten cocoa company. They invented cocoa in Amsterdam in 1828. That probably isn't it. You may have part of a dealer sign for a Van Houten car dealership. Norgren Stemac may be the company that made the dealer signs, in Denver.

Try thinning the paint so it will flow into the letters. Wipe off excess with a rag dampened with paint thinner. Wrap the rag tight around your finger tip. There is a bit of a knack to it, it may take a couple of tries to get it perfect.

If it was me I would start by going over the car. Change oil, trans lube, rear axle, steering box, grease chassis, everything that takes grease or oil. Inspect all rubber under the hood and elsewhere like fan belts, rad hoses, fuel lines, brake lines etc. Replace any that were softened or mummified or cracked or even looked old. Replace brake fluid, inspect brakes. Do a complete tuneup. Check tires. Now start driving it. Take it for a leisurely drive about 10 miles away. Stop for coffee. Check for dragging brakes, look under hood, check for leaks, make sure everything is ok. Drive home. Next time go farther. Work your way up to where you can drive 100 miles at a time with no fear. Try some hilly roads. If you can go 100 miles with no oil burning, heating up or other signs of stress you should be good to go. Take along some tools, spare parts, oil, water etc also drinking water, canned food, blankets, first aid kit but you shouldn't need them. But in case of an emergency have a cell phone and a credit card. By the way by 1941 a trip like that in a new car would have been routine. If you had a breakdown it would have been unusual. If you are used to British sports cars and motorcycles, this trip should be a breeze.

Especially on the cheaper cars and pickup trucks. Medium price and high price cars got OBAC as standard.

Probably about 3 days after Chevrolet cars became popular. I have seen a reference in about 1936 to "my fast running little Chevy". It is an obvious contraction or nickname. It may not have been used in print for several years after it came into use in conversation. Newspapers in those days either avoided slang, or did not use brand names except in the advertising columns. I know of one case where a reporter toured India for a major big city newspaper using a Chevrolet and chauffeur furnished free of charge by the Indian Chevy importer. When he got back to Canada he felt a definite frost from the Chevrolet people which surprised him as he had made many complimentary mentions of the car in his dispatches. It turned out the editor cut out every single one of them. He had quite a fight with the editor to get fair play for the Chevrolet people, who he felt had treated him very generously. This too was in 1936 but was not the source of the above quote.

20 year old cars are common now but they weren't in the fifties. We are really spoiled and don't realize how lucky we are. Late model cars will go for an astonishingly long time with minimal upkeep compared to the Model A era. At the end of WW2 all cars were at least 3 years old and cars 10 years old or more were common. But as soon as new cars were available the old ones got junked. The interest in old cars was practically nil. Just today an old friend, who is not into antique cars, told me how they used buy cars from the junk yards for a few dollars, thirties cars that were being scrapped because they had a dented fender or bald tires, most of them were driven to the junkyard by their owners or by used car lots who just wanted rid of them. Including coupes , roadsters and touring cars that would be worth a fortune today. He said there were lots of Packards but nobody cared about them. Fords, Chevs, Dodges and the like they considered the best buys. You could keep them going with odds and ends picked up in the junk yard and if something expensive broke, scrap it and pick up another one. They would do this every few weeks. Among those guys Model As were popular for obvious reasons. I can believe that up to the early 50s, nearly half of all Model As built were still on the road. The herd rapidly got thinned out in the fifties and sixties, then in the seventies they became valuable collector's items and few got junked after that. But I seriously doubt 44% of all the ones produced survive to the present day.

Lowest category is parts car. Rusted, wrecked or stripped to where its only value is to be stripped of usable parts. Restorable means "Needs complete restoration of body chassis and interior. May or may not be running but is not weathered, wrecked or stripped for parts to the point of being only useful for parts. Needs everything, may or may not be operable, but is essentially all there and has only minor surface rust if any rust at all. While having a challenge for the restorer will not have him chasing around after missing parts" Next category better is Good, meaning a drivable vehicle needing little or no work to be functional but not in the best of condition. Even from 20 feet away it is obvious it needs work. Next is Very Good, a nice car that shows wear and tear only if you look close Fine, looks like it just rolled out of the showroom. Will win minor shows where they are not too picky. May be driven up to 1000 miles a year if you are real careful. Excellent, the best in the world. Will win major shows.95 point car, in other words an expert with a magnifying glass cannot spot 6 flaws on the car. Normally transported in climate controlled trailer, if you drive the car it immediately drops in class. If you are buying a car on a value for money basis do not even look at those 2 for one second. There is no way in the world you can make anything out of them, at best you will end up with a nice car that cost you more than it is worth, at worst you will spend a lot of money and end up with nothing. If you don't understand how this could be, suppose the owner of those cars went out and spent $1000 on spare parts tomorrow and threw them in on the deal. Would you pay $1000 more for them? Neither would anyone else. The best value for money is to buy a #3 car (Very Good) and maintain it carefully. Lube, oil change, regular cleaning, washing, waxing. Once in a while it will need a few hundred or a few thousand in repairs. If you don't neglect or wreck the car it will always be worth more than you paid for it and you can write off the running expense as entertainment. For comparison a 1941 Cadillac sedan in #3 condition is worth about $14000. There is no way in the world you could restore the heap in your picture for only $10,000. You might be able to do it for twice that if you are a good mechanic, do as much as possible yourself and have friends in the trades who will help you on the cheap. Of course if you did do a really good restoration it would be worth more money. If you were lucky you might break even on your out of pocket expenses and nothing for your labor. But you would have to be an awfully clever restorer to do that well. So, buy the better car and enjoy it. Do not buy the best in the world because it will soon deteriorate into a #3 anyway, even if you keep it locked in your garage. Get a nice car and let the other guy take a bath on the restoration.