Rusty_OToole

The Century used a Roadmaster engine in a special chassis with a Special body.

I was born in 51 and clearly remember prewar cars in everyday use. Not very many but they were around. The oldest I remember were 38 Plymouth or Dodge sedans, and 36 Chev 2 door sedan. This would be about 1955. They were all off the road by 1960. A friend of mine had a grandfather who owned a junkyard. His dad used to pick up cheap cars there. He tells me for a time in the fifties, his family car was a Model T sedan. At the time it was just cheap transportation.

High School Confidential features an Imperial convertible, Hillman convertible, a rockin hot rod race and a 49 Ford with drugs hidden in the glove compartment. Look closely at the interior shot of the 49 Ford, it has pin striping and weirdo figures by Von Dutch on the instrument panel.

Buick used both the B body and C body that year. The big Roadmaster used the C body. If yours is a Special or Super it should be the same as other B body cars like Oldsmobile. Come to think of it the only cars that used the B body that year were Buick Olds and possibly the small Cadillac. They used basically the same B body in 1949 1950 and 1951 but you need to be careful. Sometimes they enlarged the rear window when they face lifted the body. If you can find some pics of Buicks and Olds Super 88 and 98 you should be able to tell if they share the same body. The roof, windshield and rear window will be the same even if the fenders and grille are different.

Old brake systems, before about 1975, had a residual pressure valve. Its job was to hold a slight amount of pressure in the system to press the seals tight against the cylinders. After a while the pressure oozes away, the fluid leaks out and when you press the brake pedal it goes to the floor and stays there. If you pump the pedal once in a while it keeps things moving and keeps a little pressure on the system so the seals don't leak. When an engineer sits down to design a car he is thinking in terms of not having it wear out prematurely under hard use. He is not thinking what will happen if it sits around for months or years. I think at one time owner's manuals had instructions for long term storage as many owners put their cars up for the winter. This idea went out in the thirties.

Most cars of that age had the master cylinder under the floor. If you roll back the carpet there should be an access plate. Be sure you clean off any dirt before you unscrew the cap, you don't want dirt getting in there.

Cylinder head torque, 65-70 foot pounds Tighten in stages, go over all the bolts 3 times before final tightening. Start from the center and work your way out as follows 17 11 5 2 8 14 20 16 10 4 1 7 13 19 18 12 6 3 9 15 21 If you want to know what a Chrysler built flathead is capable of, read this. You won't believe it until you read it for yourself. I know I wouldn't. http://www.allpar.com/cars/desoto/suburban-1951.html The author is the original owner of a 1951 DeSoto Suburban 8 passenger sedan. He writes of cruising at 70 MPH towing a caravan. 75 MPH in a 5000 pound car, with 4:11 gears = 3600 RPM. I find this hair raising for a flathead six with a 4 3/4" stroke but he says, "at high altitudes it smooths out like a turbine". Personally I would be happier if I could keep it down to 2200 RPM or so. Your 33 Dodge if it has stock gearing and stock size tires would probably be happy cruising at 50 to 60 MPH

I think it just took a long, long time to build up oil pressure. If you don't fill the oil filter and you are concentrating on the light or gauge it can seem to take a long time for the pressure to come up. With the pump and oil galleries empty it would take even longer. But if the oil filter was partly full the pump must be working and the galleries must be full so the pressure would come up in a minute or less.

If the oil filter was full, and you did not fill it, then the oil pump must be working. Put the filter back on (fill it with oil first) and start the engine, pressure should come up in a minute. 318s are tough. You probably did not do any permanent damage.

Zaporozhets?

How about CLR calcium lime and rust remover from the hardware store? It is not harsh and will not damage your rad.

You lost your prime. Try taking out the distributor and driving the oil pump with a drill until pressure comes up. If you do not know how to do this you might ask a mechanic.

One reason car makers changed to 12 volts was to get more oomph for the ignition and starters of the new high compression V8s, another was to drive all the power accessories on the new cars. A 55 Chrysler is a prime example of both. It should be 12 volt but it wasn't. It was the last year before the change. So, 6 volts might be marginal for your car but will work, and it's not worth the expense of changing it. As I said, if this is an issue for you, just buy a 56 or newer instead and save your time and money.

Those brakes were touchy. Should throw you through the windshield if you are not careful. Not progressive like modern disc brakes. On the other hand not as reliable for stopping from high speed. Hard to get all 4 wheels pulling evenly. If everything is working right they will stop you from high speed, once. Then need a ten minute cool down before you do it again.

My favorites, a store flyer advertising a "Blowout Sale" on tires (no wonder they want to get rid of them) and another offering a "Blockbuster Sale" on antifreeze (they must have watered it down).

After wooden wheels went out of use car makers had to add a lot of rubber body mounts, suspension bushings and other rubber parts to make the cars quieter and ride better hmm wonder why?

Should also point out that wood dries out and loses its flexibility over time. A 100 year old wooden wheel is a lot weaker than a brand new one. Also wooden wheels were made of second growth hickory the same as axe handles and sledge hammer handles. Test a wooden sledge hammer handle vs a steel tube of the same diameter, you may be surprised which is stronger.

The flexibility of the wood spoke wheels was a designed in feature, and considered desirable in the teens and twenties. I have seen a picture taken about 1907, of a heavily laden touring car on a so called road covered with rocks the size of your head. The rear wheels were wedged between 2 rocks and the bottom of the wheels must have been a foot closer together than the top in other words the top bent out 3" on each side and the bottom bent in. They got the car out with jacks and pry bars, the wheels sprang back and were good as new. You could not get away with that on wire spoke wheels. I remember another account of a cross country trip in a 1920 Oldsmobile with wire wheels. The author had to replace broken spokes nearly every day. This was on a botanizing expedition in the western US, rough roads and the car heavily loaded with passengers and baggage. Wooden wheels were tough and resilient, and absorbed noise and vibration. The first steel disc wheels in the 20s were thought to make more noise, and give a rougher ride than wooden wheels. In those days wooden wheels were more practical, wire wheels and disc wheels were just something fancy. Wire wheels could be trued up better for racing but for ordinary road speeds, wood was better. In the twenties and earlier, American bicycles even came with wooden wheel rims. They were tough and resilient and would take a beating and bounce back. On the rough gravel roads of those days, a metal rim would get dented or bent. The wooden rim was also easier on tires. I expect the wood spoke wheels on cars were easier on tires too. By the early thirties, with the smaller wheels then in vogue, the wood spokes were only a few inches long. Also, roads were better, tires were better, and road speeds higher. Steel wheels were cheaper to make and wood wheels no longer had any advantage. From the perspective of today it is hard to see any advantage to wooden wheels at all, but before 1925 or so they saw things differently. Or as Franklin used to ask, would you rather break rocks with a wooden handle hammer or a steel handle hammer?

Oh yeah, the wheels are held on with bolts not nuts, and they are LEFT HAND THREAD on the left side of the car, right hand thread on the right side. This alone has thrown a lot of mechanics.

The Fluid Drive transmission is an unusual combination of manual and automatic. It requires its own driving technique which is easy to learn but hard to figure out for yourself. If you look at the Chrysler and Dodge boards on this site, and do a search for Fluid Drive, you will find out plenty. There were a couple of threads about 2 years ago that covered the driving and maintaining of these trannies in depth. They are a rugged, reliable transmission and not hard to fix. Generally, if the wiring is in good shape, the tranny and fluid drive unit filled with the right oil, and the right driving technique used, they work fine. The brakes are more complicated than on other cars. The front wheels have 2 wheel cylinders for a start. Also if you do a complete brake job it is tricky to adjust the shoes correctly. Once they are lined up routine adjustments are simple but they have to be aligned right to work. When everything is hunky dory they are the best drum brakes on the market. Also, the rear brakes require a very powerful puller to get the drum off. You have to have the right puller and know what you are doing, to get the drum off without damage and without hurting yourself. Suggest you or the owner invest in a repair manual before you begin. It will save untold time and heartaches.

Good thinking Albert. Or you could just use a float and needle valve to shut off the gas.

Yes if a too big regulator, and too small generator, were fighting too heavy loads the generator would burn out or fail prematurely. But this would not likely happen if the generator were sized to the load.

You are letting yourself in for some real problems. You may think you can buy some kit and change your car over to 12 volts on a weekend and your troubles will be over. This is not correct. There is no kit, and such a change over is a lot harder than you think . The easiest solution would be don't buy the car. Buy a 1956 or newer car that is already 12 volt. I am serious. Next, would be to keep the car completely stock 6 volts. Harder would be to change to a 12 volt alternator, coil, starter, light bulbs and battery and use a 6 volt voltage drop resistor, runtz or zener diode to run the things that are too hard to change. Hardest would be to gut out everything 12 volt which on your car would include windshield wipers, heater, power accessories, radio and who knows what else. Oh yea your car is positive ground and all 12 volt parts you buy are negative ground so that messes up option #3. Hate to say it but there is no easy way out. Buy a different car, or keep it 6 volt are the best options.

Lately I have been watching a lot of film noir and screwball comedies on Youtube and get a kick out of the cars too.

.008 intake .010 exhaust hot. I would set them to that cold then check with the engine hot. Or check with the engine running, note which ones needed adjusting, and set them with the engine shut off.