Rusty_OToole

So Chrysler was still outselling Ford in 51. This was thanks to Chrysler's very strong presence in the medium price field. Dodge, DeSoto and Chrysler Royal and Windsor were all very popular. Plymouth always trailed Ford by a wide margin. But the Ford company only had Mercury in the medium price field , and if a customer didn't happen to like the Mercury it was an awfully big jump in price to a Lincoln. It is interesting to see that percentage wise, Ford and Chrysler are almost exactly reversed between 51 and 52 while GM holds steady in spite of a sharp drop in overall sales.

Must be picked up. Bring your own shovel.

I'm going to guess Hudson Terraplane or 112 based on the grille. It does look like a Ford at first glance but I don't think it is one. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Later = Checked some pics on the net and it isn't a Terraplane. Closest match seems to be a 35 Ford but something is the matter with the grille. Still later. There seem to be some scratches in the grille and headlight area that are confusing things but I go along with the consensus on it being a 35 Ford. The car behind it is a 39 Ford Deluxe.

Don't have the exact figures but Chevrolet was the world's best selling car with Ford in second place. Chrysler Corp had actually taken Ford's position as second biggest car company in the world, in 1941 or 42. But in the postwar period Ford pulled ahead. In 53 or 54 Buick actually outsold Plymouth to take 3d place in the sales race. 1951 and 52 was when Ford revved up their high powered sales campaign known as "the system". It was "system houses" that gave car dealers a bad name in the fifties for swindling their customers. It resulted in new consumer protection laws including the "Mulroney Sticker" or price sticker in the windows of all new cars. It also killed the sales of the independents. But allowed Ford to outsell Chev for 1957.

Waste of money. Won't help cooling because the exhaust is on the bottom of the motor where the used cooling air dumps out. On a conventional car it will help reduce under hood heat but not on your car. In fact it might make it run slightly hotter by not allowing the heat from the exhaust to disperse.

Some frames even have extra bolt holes so you can move the motor mounts. This is a good swap, the bigger engine is, well, bigger and can be taken out to 265 cu in with stock parts, 283 cu in or possibly bigger if you bore the cylinders.

Just rebuild the pump or buy a rebuilt.

Ha ha ha ha ha it was worth $4800 when you started, now it is worth $800.

It wound up in the junkyard just like 9 out of 10 hot rod projects.

That is the air scoop for the air conditioner. The evaporator unit was in the trunk back then. There should be outlets in the package deck with ducts to direct the cold air forward. The compressor must have been removed years ago when it stopped working and someone did not want to spend the money to fix it. Is the condenser still present, in front of the radiator? It is possible someone put the scoop on there to kid the neighbors that he had air when he didn't. But I consider this extremely unlikely. If you can give us the numbers off the ID plate and the engine number or take pictures of them someone should be able to translate them for you. Photos are good. Everyone likes photos.

The Plymouth emblem is called a "fratzog"

No lead substitute or other substance required. When your car was built lead content and octane ratings were low. Your engine is equipped from the factory with hardened valve seat inserts just like the ones being installed to update old motors today. Hi test gas was 75 octane or thereabouts, regular 60 to 65. The cheapest regular you can buy today is 87 octane so it is better than the hi test of 1939 If you like you can add a jigger of Redex, Marvel Mystery Oil, Bardahl or your favorite brand of upper cylinder lubricant to each tank of gas. It can't hurt and it might help. Also, it is important to add fuel stabilizer if you don't drive the car very much. Today's gas can go sour in as little as 6 months.

If the pin comes out easy it is a sign the axle hole is pounded out. If that is the case your king pin will always be loose and wobbly no matter how good the bushings fit, unless you correct the worn hole. Usual cure is to heat the end of the axle red with a big oxyacetylene torch and pound the end of the axle with a big hammer. When it cools it shrinks tight around the pin.

This is driving me crazy. Any auto machine shop could push the pin out in 2 minutes on a hydraulic press. Why you don't take the pin kit and axle to a shop and have it done right is a mystery to me. You will spend days working on it, do a lousy job, and save less than $100. I'm waiting to see how you hone the bushings to size without a Sunnen hone. That should be interesting.

Look at it this way. A reamer is nothing but a sophisticated version of a hand scraper. With care, the hand scraper can fit bearings as accurately if not more accurately. You will be surprised how close a fit you can get if you are careful. You will also be surprised how long it takes and how much material you have to take off. At least it seems like a lot but it really isn't that much, because if it is done correctly the shavings are very thin.

When you install the belts put plates under the bolts so they can't pull through under stress. While you are at it reinforce the seat mountings so the bolts can't pull out of the floor. In a severe crash the seat can come loose and squash you against the belt.

Mustang... Weight IS a factor. The area of rubber contacting the ground changes with the weight of the car. Load the car down, the tires flatten out like pancakes and the area of rubber on the ground increases. The pressure in the tires does not increase (well maybe a tiny bit). Pump the tires up real hard and the contact patch on the ground gets smaller. In any case, the contact patch will come into equilibrium with the pressure in the tire so that the pressure on the ground is equal to the PSI in the tire. Think of the car as resting on a column of air equal to the contact patch X the pressure in the tire. If the air pressure is not holding up the car I would like to know what is? And if the air pressure is 30 pounds per square inch how can it hold up more than 30 pounds per square inch?

According to the formulas in the Wikipedia article, it wasn't. There were 2 formulas of black paint used for Ford bodies, a first coat which contained asphalt and carbon black as pigments, and a shiny finish coat with asphalt only. The car bodies were given 2 coats of paint then baked at 400 degrees. It may be that the baking was the key to the fast drying and only the black japan paint would stand it. Also the black japan paint was tough and durable, as well as cheap and fast.

Don't tighten the packing nut too tight just enough so it doesn't leak or leaks very slowly. You only need to add packing when the nut bottoms out. The old fashioned graphite rope works better than the new teflon type. Just unscrew the nut, add some packing and tighten the nut on again. You won't have to remove anything.

You could think of it in comparison to a diesel engine. Diesel fuel is very heavy and oily. It burns slowly and makes a lot of smoke. But in an engine designed to burn diesel, it works very well. Diesel engines generally turn slower than gas engines but develop terrific power and do it, while burning less fuel than a gas engine. Even though the fuel is very low octane and contains no lead. An old long stroke low compression gas engine is something like a diesel. The design is optimised to burn a heavier fuel, turn slower, but develop great power in the lower to middle speed ranges. It is not a high speed, or racing power plant by any stretch of the imagination. That is the theory. Today's gas is optimised for today's short stroke, high revving, high compression engines. The only gas available for old style, low compression, long stroke, high torque engines is tractor gas and I believe tractor gas is only about 60 or 70 octane.

Low compression, long stroke engines have different character than short stroke, high compression engines and require different fuel to develop full power. Low octane fuel with the heavier or oilier components, burns slower. It creates more "oomph" to push the piston down. The light fast burning gas is better for a fast revving, short stroke engine. Those who have tried adding kerosene to gas, in motorcycles having 5 to 1 compression, report easier starting, smoother running, more power, and cooler running too. It could also have something to do with carb jetting. I know some old cars won't run well on modern fuel unless the carb is adjusted and jets changed.

The story I heard was that once mass production took hold, the painting process was a bottleneck. It took too long to build up coat after coat of paint and let it dry. Ford asked someone in the plant "What is the fastest drying paint?" the reply, "The black enamel we use on fenders and chassis" "use it to paint the whole car" "But what if our customers want different colors?" "Tell them they can have any color they want as long as it is black". This black enamel was used on a lot of cheap tinware at the time. My mother kept important papers in a black tin box passed down from her grandfather, it was finished in a tough but dull black, more of a semi gloss or satin finish really. I believe this cheap tinware was painted with something called black Japan enamel because it had a lot of Japan dryer in it. ........................................................................................................... Later: I wasn't far wrong. See this Wiki on black Japan paint. It used an asphalt base which accounted for its flexibility and toughness. This is why it only came in black. It also kept the cost down. According to this article it was possible to paint a car in black and have it cure in 48 hours while it took 14 days to paint any other color. They even give the formulas Ford used. PS I think they waited less than 48 hours for the paint to dry, either they baked the bodies or they assembled the car before the paint was fully cured but somehow I doubt they waited 48 hours. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_black .............................................................................................................. Still later. Apparently the black japan paint originated in Pontypool Wales in the late 1600s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontypool_japan

You can also use waterproof marine grease for outboard motors. Be very sparing in its use, half a pump on the grease gun once or twice a year.

The idea of adding kerosene is to lower the octane of the gas and replace the "heavy ends" that are no longer present in today's gas but were present in the teens, twenties, thirties and forties. Low octane tractor gas would be ideal if you can get it. If not you can add some kerosene to regular pump gas. In theory your octane should look like your compression ratio, the lower the compression the lower the octane gas you need. There were a couple of long threads on this in the general discussion forum. One man reported he drove a 1932 Buick for thousands of miles, as a tour car in the seventies, on a mixture of 25% kerosene and 75% regular gas. He said it ran great, had plenty of power, did not ping, started easy, and ran cool. A 32 Buick only had 4.5:1 compression (I looked it up). This would suggest a fuel of around 45 octane . If I had a pre WW2 car with compression under 7:1 I would experiment with adding kerosene. Others offered to try it in the other threads but so far no one has reported back. I got the idea from an English antique motorcycle magazine. Their readers reported good results in using kerosene in their 1920s and 30s motorcycles.

They used to turn up at swap meets. In the early fifties seat covers were so popular there were shops that sold nothing else but seat covers and convertible tops. They were a best seller at auto dealerships and parts stores. Then, the new woven nylon, vinyl and other synthetics came in, starting about 1955 and people stopped buying seat covers. Guys used to find hordes of NOS seat covers in old parts stores and dealerships. Look around at swap meets, some may turn up. By the way it is not that difficult to make your own seat covers if you have access to a sewing machine.