Rusty_OToole

Pitted points usually means a bad condenser. An NOS condenser is probably bad when you install it. They had a short life even if never used, they were made of wax paper and tinfoil. Modern mylar condensers have a much longer life. See if you can get a new condenser of the proper value, probably about .25 to .28 MFD, at least that is the spec of 6 volt ignition on Chrysler products around 1950.

Speaking of dumb ads today I received a dandy in the mail. It is a full color fold out brochure, 16 1/2 X 11 inches. It was sent out by a local Chrysler dealership. The first line in in giant letters says "IMPORTANT NOTICE SAVE THOUSANDS" the very next line is "YOU HAVE BEEN PRE- SELECTED TO ATTEND A PRIVATE SALE THAT WILL NOT BE ADVERTISED TO THE PUBLIC" FAIL. My first reaction was what the heck are they talking about? Not advertised to the public, I've got the advertisement in my hand? My second was, if they would lie about that they would lie about anything.

Most likely the original engine. A 251 with the full flow oiling is an excellent engine, and it was available in 1952. Stock size for a Chrysler Windsor. The 265 may not have been made yet. It came in cars the next year. I wonder if you could check with Bombardier? Maybe they bought engines from Chrysler with no numbers on them because they had their own identification system? Is there any sign of a metal plate that was removed from the right side of the block? Such as rivets chiseled off? The industrial engines had an ID plate. If your customer does not want the engine I would like to have it myself.

CHEAPER to keep it original unless it is a total pail. By that I mean, a wreck with half the parts missing and the fenders rusted thru and beat right off it. Then it would be a toss up. Example: Complete body and paint in original plain enamel finish, $5000. Custom paint job in the latest style, $20,000 and up. Rebuild original engine, $2500. Replace with Chev 350 crate motor, which requires new mounts, new transmission, new rear axle, shifter, rad etc etc, $10,000. Sandblast and paint original wheels, new tires in original size, $1000. 26" Dub wheels and rubber band tires, $5000 Rebuild original front suspension, $750. Replace with repro of 1970 Pinto, $3500. Etc etc etc etc

Just a reminder that under the Auto Pact, for every Canadian made car sold in the US a US made car is sold in Canada. A common sense way to save having 2 factories on opposite sides of the border make the same car. So anyone who refuses to buy a Canadian made car is threatening the pay check of a US auto worker.

What people do, and what they want to see in an ad, are 2 different things. Imagine a beer ad showing a fat guy with a beer in his hand and a bowl of pretzels watching TV. Now imagine a beer ad with bikini models on roller skates. Which reflects reality? Which would sell more beer? An ad showing an elegantly dressed couple out on the town, getting out of their Cadillac at the opera or handing the keys to a car hop at a swell country club would sell cars. Even to people who have never been to the opera and never play tennis.

Is this it? 501 Radio Motorola Inc.;

It will be far more valuable original. It will also be easier and cheaper to fix. There is a lot of wrong information on this subject passed around by people who have never done what they are purporting to advise on, and don't know what they are talking about. Your car is a simple and popular design. Parts are available. If it runs there is a good chance it needs only minor repairs. Far easier and cheaper than hot rodding it, and by keeping it original it will only grow more valuable. For a good object lesson think of this. What about some poor sap who spent $50,000 hot rodding a car like yours in the 1990s and is now stuck with a car stripped of its original parts, with gray tweed upholstered Toyota seats, teal paint with a magenta flash, Chev 350 V8 and 3 speed auto, 1974 Mustang II suspension,and Boyd Coddington wheels. Compared to someone who spent $20,000 to restore one completely original. Who has made money and who is going to take a bath?

I fixed one once with a red fibre washer. A neoprene O ring might work. I'm not recommending a substitution if you can get the right part but in a pinch it could get you going.

Here are the paint codes for 1955 Chrysler AutoColorLibrary - Color Chip Selection If you scroll down you can see the paint chips. Click for full size. They don't show your paint code or colors. Closest is 67, black and tango red.

There is nothing to go wrong with a mercury switch unless the mercury leaks out. If the power is getting to the bulb then the ground must be faulty. Can you take the socket out, clean the contacts, and make sure it has a good ground? PS every house thermostat has a mercury switch in it. You could take one out of an old thermostat, glue it to your light socket and not even drill a hole.

It's a rare truck because only a few hundred were sold for civilian use during WW2. Then again, they aren't that rare because the same model was made for several years before, during and after the war. So I would think it should bring a good price but more because of its excellent condition, than the year it was made. I know agriculture was considered vital to the war effort which would explain why he was able to buy the truck. It would be interesting to learn what kind of authorization or application was involved in getting a priority and what criteria were used to qualify.

About a week before this thread started there was a thread about cars and trucks built during WW2. The questioner was looking for any such vehicles. Some doubted any were built. Wonder where those people are now.

Here's another one that floored me. A friend had a 59 Chrysler New Yorker that needed a new roof. He looked around and found a junked 57 Plymouth. The roofs were identical. You could cut the Plymouth roof off at the door posts, weld it on the Chrysler and no one would be the wiser. So they used the same body for Plymouth Dodge DeSoto and Chrysler. Only Imperial had a unique body. If you look at pictures of the 57 Plymouth Dodge DeSoto and Chrysler you can see where the front part of the body and even front fenders are basically the same, only the grille is different. Around back all have different rear fenders and tail fin styling.

By the thirties GM had worked out a system where they used just 3 basic body shells to cover all their cars. They were called A, B, and C bodies. A body was for all Chev and Pontiac cars, and the base model Olds 66. B body for the larger Oldsmobile 88, Buick Special and Century and some LaSalle and small Cadillac. C body for most Cadillacs, Buick's Roadmaster, and certain years of Olds 98. Oldsmobile's model numbering system had 2 digits, the first being body size,6 7 8 or 9 for A B or C body. The second number for cylinders, 6 or 8. Models ranged from 66 to 98. The rule wasn't always rigidly observed. The Olds 88 of the early 50s used the Chev A body and so did the earlier 66 model from the forties. So they weren't too particular in identifying body size in their names. Each body would be used for 2 or 3 years with facelifts in the in between years. They might bring out a new A body one year, a new B body the next and a C body the third. For example in 1948 Cadillac got a new C body and so did the Futuramic Olds 98. But Buick stuck with the old C body for one more year because the head of the Buick division didn't like the new body. In 49 they brought out a new A body and B body. About this time Olds gave up the C body and made only A and B body cars. So it can get confusing. 1959 is a unique year. They decided to go even farther and make all GM cars off one body except for Corvette. Chev, Pontiac, Olds Buick and Cadillac all started from the same body shell, suitably modified. This was to allow them to have a new body every 2 years by getting the maximum use out of one body. The reason this was a 1959 only deal is that in 1960 they brought out the Corvair. So now they were back to 2 steel bodies plus Corvette. Next year they came out with the Pontiac Tempest, Olds F85 and Buick Special that used a heavily modified Corvair body shell. By 64 they had a Corvette body, a Corvair body, a Nova body,a Chevelle body, a BOP compact body in 3 flavors (Tempest F85 and Special) plus the full size bodies. Whether they were still using the same shell, suitably modified, for all full size cars I'm not sure. One way to tell if 2 cars are made from the same basic body shell is to look at the windshields. If the windshields are identical they are brothers under the skin. The windshield and cowl area is the one part least likely to change because it is so complicated and expensive to design and build.

There should be a web site for this model somewhere. The Frank Sinatra edition did have a few features, for one they offered a special shade of blue to compliment Sinatra's eyes. There was a box of tapes in the trunk with his music on them. Possibly special upholstery etc but I don't recall for sure. The odo I don't know. The suspension is by torsion bars and is adjustable. You have to be careful here. The adjuster for the right side is on the left and vice versa. I have seen guys try to correct a lean and made it worse because they cranked up the wrong side. The shocks have nothing to do with ride height. Look for a sagging or broken spring in the back. If it is all in the front it can be adjusted up.

This goes way back. In 1929 Walter Chrysler created the DeSoto by putting a six cylinder engine in the Plymouth. Body chassis etc were the same, with more luxurious trim. Around 1916 Billy Durant created a new car by taking a Buick body, cutting it in 4 pieces and moving them apart. Then they welded in strips of metal and there was their prototype. Ford and Cadillac used the same body in 1903. Ford had a 2 cylinder engine, the Cadillac 1 cylinder. You could tell them apart by the shape of the radiator. If you want to talk custom bodies, a company like Murphy or Derham would fit the same body to any chassis the customer preferred. They kept the more popular bodies in stock, these were known as "bodies in white". When exactly they started to rationalize in this way I don't know. But would say it dated back to the earliest days of the industry in one way or another, but became common practice in the twenties. When all steel bodies came in, it really paid to do this because the high cost of tooling could be spread over a larger number of bodies. When they were made of metal panels over a wood frame the cost of making a different body was much less.

Use one of those curly low energy bulbs. They don't break as easy and you won't burn yourself on them. Wear safety glasses or even better, one of those plastic goggles that fit tight to the face. You could have the pump all mounted, with 2 rubber hoses on it complete with hose clamps. Then cut the line and stick the hoses on in less than a minute.

That was the French engineer's aesthetic of the time. Their ideal was a cube of metal with a driveshaft out one end and nothing else. All pipes and manifolds to be built in, concealed or enclosed. Likewise wires, control mechanism etc. Manifolds, if exposed, should at least be symmetrical and artistically shaped. Gabriel Voisin the aircraft pioneer and builder of the Voisin automobile, spoke out in favor of the American school in the late 30s. He agreed that the American engine was an unattractive lump of iron, bristling with wires hoses and pipes. But he pointed out that they were designed from the inside out, not from the outside in, and that their design was efficient, light in weight, low in cost, and durable. Also that the carburetor, generator, wiring, etc were all easy to get at for inspection and repair in case of a breakdown. So from a practical standpoint they were superior, even if they were over the head of the artist who knows nothing about machinery. In his view the American form follows function school made better sense philosophically as well as from a practical standpoint. You can see why the Bugatti engine was the last word in French design, even if it had many features that impaired its functionality.

I'm no Model T expert but I thought you retarded the spark fully for starting, then advanced it fully for running.

If the end of the crankshaft looks like the one in Mochetvelo's picture you can make a crank out of a straight rod or bar. Drill a hole near the end and drive in a roll pin. Bend the rod into a suitable crank. Add a piece of tubing on the outer end for a handle that can turn on the rod. I have such a crank in my garage, don't know what it came off of, I found it in the trunk of a DeSoto I bought.

You will only get what is in the line. The tank does not need to be drained.

You know how to use the manual advance on cars that had only manual advance. On cars that also have automatic advance the manual advance is used to adjust for different grades of gas and different road conditions. Today's cheapest regular is higher in octane than 1928's best hi test. Once the engine is started you could probably advance it all the way and leave it there. You can experiment and see what happens, if you notice spark knock on hills back off the advance until it disappears.

I don't know about the numbers but there are other members who do. You may get more response if you start a new thread like "Help me ID a 55 Windsor".

Oops the piston tops may have a different shape. The point I was trying to make is the Poly and Hemi are closely related, and many parts interchange.