Rusty_OToole

I agree heartilly with the advice to take the starter to a good rebuilder. The mica insulation does need to be undercut or cut away slightly. You can do this using a broken fine tooth hacksaw blade that has been ground down to a suitable thickness. The reason your starter is giving trouble is, the brushes are riding on the mica insulation and not making good contact. There could be other problems. A good auto electric shop will rebuild your starter good as new.

It was my understanding that the DeSoto was basically a Plymouth with a six cylinder engine and deluxe trim. Many chassis and body parts were the same. From the info above it seems they used the Plymouth body but changed the cowl and firewall area. This would make sense if they used a different hood and grille to give the DeSoto a distinctive appearance they would have to alter the body to fit.

I ran into this problem on a 51 Chrysler. If I recall correctly a standard brake line fitting with flared steel line will screw into the gas tank but will not seal. I used a red fibre washer to make it seal, this worked perfect. I just happened to have a washer the right size in an old carb kit. A neoprene O ring should work if you do not mash down the fitting too hard.

If there is a drain plug you might want to drain out the old oil as it is most likely dirty and nasty. But there is no harm in mixing the oil if that is what you mean.

I don't know why it would take heat. Soft iron rivets are made to be set cold. You can paint all the parts, rivet on the spring clips when they are flat, assemble the springs, bend the clips around with a hammer and touch up the paint.

It's called "Knee Action Fluid". GM dealers and parts stores used to sell it. Nearest substitute is hydraulic jack oil or motorcycle fork oil. Most guys just use the jack oil. If you really want knee action fluid, there may be some vintage oil companies that still make it. Kanter products has "Delco shock oil" @ $12 for an 11 ounce can (ouch!)

Why don't you convert the car completely to 12 volts if that is what you want? If you must have 6 volts for gauges, use a Runtz voltage drop, or a zener diode, or just take a center tap off the battery. It sounds like you now have such a hodge podge even you can't figure it out, and you built it.

Start by giving it a thorough cleaning. Save any car parts, even odd bits of metal or rubber you do not know what they are. They always turn out to be some irreplacable part you can't get anymore. You can throw out the dried up ballpoint pens and old McDonald's wrappers ha ha. While you are at it make a list of things that need to be repaired. If nothing else needs done, inspect all rubber parts like hoses especially under the hood. Also, it is a good idea to change all fluids if they have not been changed recently. Oil, trans fluid, brake fluid, PS fluid etc. You do not have to do all this in a day. Make a list and map out a plan. Especially if you plan on using the car regularly, keeping the car maintained according to schedule will reduce breakdowns to a minimum. If you have the owner's manual read it carefully, especially the section on scheduled maintenance. You may learn some interesting and surprising things.

I wouldn't go messing with freeze plugs etc. at this time. You could try flushing the rad and check the thermostat is opening when it should. Your car should have a 180 or 160 degree thermostat. How does the coolant look? If it is brown and mucky you may need to flush several times to get the rad and cooling passages clean.

Yes, there is supposed to be a thermostat. It goes inside the cast iron piece that bolts on top of the motor, where the top rad hose comes out. It may not be the thermostat. Unlike modern cars, your 37 has no coolant overflow container. If it gets hot the coolant dumps on the ground from an overflow pipe. For this reason, you are not supposed to fill the rad right full. Leave 2 or 3 inches of air space at the top. As long as the top of the tubes are covered by coolant you are fine. Check when the engine is cold. So, yes, you may have just over filled it. On the subject of heat gauges. Your car came with a mechanical heat gauge. This means there was a brass bulb that fitted into the motor near the back. From there, a small brass pipe about the thickness of a piece of spaghetti, went through the firewall to the heat gauge. Often these pipes were protected by a wire spring wound around them. If the gauge is broken, or if someone cut off the bulb, you have to replace the whole works as a unit. They can be repaired but sometimes you can get a new one from the parts suppliers like Andy Bernbaum or Roberts Motor Parts, or from Ebay. You can get a digital hand held heat gauge fairly reasonable these days. If you get one you can check the temp of your engine. Try checking the motor at the front and at the back. The temp should be fairly even. If the back is way hot and the front way cool it is a sign the water distribution pipe is worn out.

If you wanted to get ambitious and form your own fenders.. they were made by rolling a strip of sheet metal between rollers less than a foot in diameter. It might be possible to turn a set of rollers out of hardwood, on a wood lathe, for a limited use. It is hard to describe but have seen pictures of old factory scenes. Maybe a web search will turn up something

Why could you not adapt another brake drum of the right diameter? I know cars are all disc brakes but some light truck might use a suitable drum on the rear, even if it needed the bolt holes drilled it would allow safe use of the car. You could keep the old drum if anyone wanted to make it original in the future.

Well it's a long way from Hamilton Canada to Echuca Australia. If you went any farther you would be on your way back.

I thought down there you could slip a cop a few bucks and get whatever you want?

Depending on the size of the wheels, bicycle or motorcycle fenders might be cut to fit. A vintage motorcycle parts vendor like Wolf Cycle should have something.

Glad to be of help. Some members are a little gun shy because of the sharpies that come around looking to make a fast buck. You do not fall in that category but it is not easy to tell that at first. It is best to buy the car you love, and find the best example you can find even if it costs a little more. You will end up OK in the long run. But do not put too much stress on the investment angle, cars are not an investment in the usual sense as I am sure you know.

Take the axle nut and put it back on flush with the end of the shaft. This protects the threads and keeps the hub from flying off. Get a bigger puller. The biggest one you can put on.

The prices are not from an on line guide. They are from a paper magazine bought in a store for $6.99. Available wherever fine car magazines are sold. By the way if the plated trim is worn or pitted, the paint not too good etc. then it is not a #2 and probably not a #3 so the prices I quoted are too high.

Couple of points to remember about British nuts and bolts. There were 2 kinds in common use on cars, Whitworth (coarse thread) and BSF (British Standard Fine, fine thread). Both used the same wrenches with a slightly unusual size system. The wrenches were named for the diameter of the bolt's shank, not the head. So a 1/2" wrench fits a 1/2" bolt, making the wrench closer to what we would call a 3/4". The other thing is, British bolt heads were made to a certain size, and the wrench a hair larger. American bolts were the opposite, the wrench was a certain size and the bolt head or nut a hair smaller. So wrenches never fit. Now it gets worse. In 1969 they went to what they called Unified Threads, meaning US nuts bolts and wrenches. Then some time later I hear they went metric. Except for Ford which used American sizes from the first, including sizes of their own like 19/32". And, there was another standard called Cycle Engineers Institute that was common on English bicycles and motorcycles in the early days. If you want to collect old English cars motorcycles and bicycles, and work on them, you might as well go nuts right away.

Have you tried a good 3 jaw puller? It requires a lot of force to shift the hubs after they have grown together with the shaft for 80 years. Find a puller usually used for trucks or heavy machinery, often you can rent them from tool rental agencies. You need a puller that will bolt to the wheel bolts. I have an original puller from a defunct Chrysler agency. It is nothing special except for the cone shape and 5 bolt holes matching the wheel bolt pattern. A regular puller will do as well.

Old Cars Price Guide says #2 $16,450 #3 $10,580. #3 is a good driver, #2 is real nice capable of winning some shows but not perfect. So $14,000 is in the ballpark. As an investment old cars are chancy but then what isn't these days. Buy it if you like it and want to enjoy it, if it makes money that is a bonus. But if you buy solely as an investment you will be much better off buying old paintings, silverware, art and antiques.

DeSoto used the same radio for several years. I have seen them with different color dials, not sure if this was year difference or different color interiors in the same year. See if you can find one to match your instruments. They turn up at flea markets and on Ebay from time to time.

I don't know how many were made but in 1925 the touring car or phaeton body style was the most popular. Closed cars and sedans, while available, were too expensive, too heavy, and a lot of people did not like the idea of being surrounded by plate glass in case of an accident (no safety glass at that time). The first car to really push closed car sales was the Essex coach. This was the first low priced closed car. It started a new trend in the auto industry. By 1930 sedans were the best sellers and the touring or phaeton was a back number. This meant open cars were unpopular as used cars and many were scrapped. So, even though they were a best seller when new, they may be rarer than the closed cars today. Also everything now is vice versa, the open cars are popular with collectors and demand higher prices than sedans.

Old Cars Price Guide says # 2 $15,400 #3 $9,900 so you are in the ballpark. A car has to be awfully nice to qualify as a #2. Near perfect.

The 8 volt (tractor) battery is an old trick. It gives a little more oomph for starting, and brighter lights. Theoretically it could shorten light bulb life but I doubt it would make much difference in practice. Might shorten bulb life from 10 years to 9 years and 8 months, that type of thing. To make it work right, you have to adjust the voltage regulator up to 9.5 to 9.8 volts. Stock 6 volt setting is 7.2 to 7.6. Otherwise the battery won't completely charge. It should not be necessary to do this if the electrical system is in top shape. I did it on a few cars including a 1952 Chrysler hemi V8. I felt the big V8 needed some help in the starting department, this is why they went to 12V when the high compression V8s became popular. Now, on thinking it over, I believe the stock 6 volt system would have been just as good. At least I never had any problem starting on 6 volts as long as the battery was in top condition.