Rusty_OToole

Bodies were normally framed with ash. It has a consistency between hardwood and softwood and is not too hard to work. They would use oak sometimes where extra strength and rot resistance was required such as the sills that went on top of the frame and supported the whole body. There might be a custom wood working shop near you that has the skills and equipment to help out. There used to be a wood working shop here in my small town, that made doors and windows to order. They could work wonders with wood.

It's probably an aftermarket job. I don't know if heaters were even available in 1929. If they were it was as a dealer installed accessory not a factory installed feature. I know hot water heaters were available from the early 30s but didn't become a big fad until 1937 and 38. I know this because I have a big stack of MoToR magazines from the 30s. There were no ads for heaters, suddenly in 1937 there were ads for all different brands of heaters on every page. They were sold by garages as well as car dealers. Starting with the 39 Nash Weather Eye, heaters became integrated into the design of the car as a complete heating and ventilating system. By 1950 the sale of heaters as an accessory slowed to a trickle. So 427, yours was most likely installed in the late 30s although it could have been earlier. If you examine the heater closely you should find a trademark or brand name on it. It would be neat if it was a genuine

There should be a plate on the firewall giving the paint code or color code, also the upholstery code. Any good auto paint shop can mix the paint to the original formula. They may have to phone or email their paint supplier to get the formula but they can get it. All major paint companies keep the formula for paints back to the 20s and earlier.

This may sound strange but a flex hose can fail in such a way that a flap of rubber blocks the hose. The harder you push the brake pedal the harder it shuts off the fluid. When you release the pedal it relaxes and allows fluid to flow thru slowly. Try slamming on the brakes on a dirt road. When no other traffic is coming of course. Check the skid marks and see which brakes are locking up and which aren't. This will at least give you a clue where to start looking.

Maybe some people don't like being insulted by peabrains that nit pick all the faults they can find, or used to have one just like it except it was a 66 Chev, or try to tell you what's what and all about a car you have owned for 20 years, or sit their grandchild with the chocolate ice cream cone inside without asking, or drag a cowboy belt buckle the size of a hubcap over your fender peeking under the hood, etc etc. I'm not saying anything. But some people are funny that way.

There were actually 3 different filters for that engine. 4 if you count no filter at all. Different models used different filters, in ascending range of cost. The cheapest was the bypass or partial flow, the best was the full flow. The cheapest one was a sealed can hung on the side of the engine with 2 steel lines to it. This had to be completely replaced when it got plugged. Next was a similar filter with a bolt on top, you could take out the cartridge and replace it. Finally the most expensive was a sort of tower that bolted right to the block.

Power timing is a technique for getting more power and economy out of your engine. The factory recommoneded ignition timing is on the conservative side. By advancing the timing you get more power out of the gas you burn. Here is how you do it. You need a wrench to loosen the distributor, and you need a road with a gently slope or hill where there isn't much traffic. Advance the timing a bit, and try it on the road. Your car is most likely to ping when pulling hard in second gear from low speed at full throttle. You want to advance the timing until you get just a trace of ping at full throttle. Then back it off a bit until it doesn't ping. This will be the setting that gives the best power and economy.

My point was that the cheapest regular you can buy today (87 octane) is better than what they had when your car was built. Your engine was made to run on low lead or no lead gas. Several brands of gas back then had no lead and bragged about it. Others had very little lead compared to what came along in the later 50s and 60s. The real heavily leaded gas wasn't made until 1955 and was taken off the market in 1970. Those are the engines that you need to worry about, the high compression V8s of the 1955 to 69 era. Not the really old models. You don't need to worry about octane, lead additives or any of that stuff. If you really wanted to be all Felix Unger about it, you could add some upper cylinder lubricant like Marvel Mystery Oil, Redex, Bardahl or some other gas additive. Something that says on the label that it lubricates valves and piston rings. One thing you SHOULD add is gas preservative, if you don't drive a lot. Today's gas goes bad a lot faster than the old stuff. If it sits in the tank for 6 months or longer it could start to go bad. You can buy a pink stabiliser fluid to prevent this from any auto supply or hardware store. I like to add it to the last tank of gas before putting an engine away for the winter. This goes for cars, lawn mowers, everything.

Would like to add, that when I check the fluid level on my 51 DeSoto I always stuff a rag around the hole before removing the plug, that way it is impossible to drop it down inside the housing.

Here is another angle on the same question. Your octane should look like the compression ratio. Your engine has around 6.8 or 7.0:1 compression. When it was new it ran on 68 or 70 octane gas. Today your car probably has 8.5:1 compression and you burn 87 octane regular. If you have a high performance car it probably had 9.5:1 and it needs 92 octane. You can't even buy 70 octane gas anymore. The cheapest regular is higher octane than hi test was in 1953.

This topic has been covered plenty. Try a search in the Chrysler and Dodge boards. The servicing and operating of the fluid drive is easy and needs only oils you can buy at any auto parts or farm supply store. But if you don't know how they work you will need to check out the previous threads. You could spend years figuring it all out yourself. Unless it was locked in a time capsule since 1949 your car has probably been using detergent oil right along. Detergent oils date back to 1947. 10W30 should do the trick. I have a 1951 owner's manual that recommends nothing heavier than 30 in hot weather and comments that they recommend lighter oils than in previous years for easier starting and better lubrication.

Chrysler and Plymouth intakes will not fit a DeSoto but Dodge Red Ram hemi will.

I tried to give you the answer you wanted. But if you wanted to be more authentic, Plymouth and Dodge used the same type flathead engine up to 1959 and they had the tranny with the emergency brake on it. There are still lots of them in remote junkyards and they are cheap. Parts are reasonable too. You could probably buy one and have it rebuilt for $3000. This may sound like a lot but it will cost that much or more to put in a late model engine. In the long run, it might be easier and cheaper to buy a flathead 6 engine and trans, rebuild it and drop it in. This would save a lot of making new parts and trying to make things fit that don't want to fit. For something really different, how about a 1952-54 Chrysler Windsor 6? They came with 265 cu in and 120 Hp. They are the biggest flathead 6 Chrysler made and it will fit your car. The block is 2 inches longer than the original from your car, so you will have to relocate the motor mounts and rad but it can be done. If you get a kick out of this idea I can tell you where to find some flathead Chrysler hot rodders. One has a car just like yours with a hopped up 6 and a late model 5 speed manual transmission. He drives it all over the place.

I hate to say it but the best answer is probably a small block Chev v8. They fit easier than most anything else. Naturally you have to make mounts, adapt parts etc. but there is no insurmountable interference problem. You will have to swap out the rear axle too because your car's emergency brake is on the transmission. Without the transmission, no emergency brake. Best answer to this is to replace the rear axle. Here I am a little foggy but either the A body, up to 1976 Dart and Valiant type, or the F body, 76 up Volare, Fifth Avenue, Aspen, Mirada etc etc has the right width rear axle. You will have to measure and go to the junkyard and check. In any case, one of the 2 rear axles (from a V8 model) will fit, work well, have parking brakes, and have the same wheel bolt pattern you have now. You may have to relocate your spring perches. You can buy new perches cheap from Summit Racing and have a shop weld them on. Don't forget your car has left hand thread wheel bolts on the left side. To answer your next question. Yes you can get disc brakes. Do a web search for Rustyhope, he makes the kit. May I also suggest you ask these questions on a hot rod web site like HAMB? They may not be too popular around here.

There is a lot that can be done without importing any parts. You can have the head milled .065" for more compression. Some go up to .100 off. You can make your own dual carb intake by welding 2 pipes and flanges onto your old intake. Likewise, you can split the exhaust manifold to make dual exhausts. If you are on 12 volts, you can convert to electronic ignition by adding the control box off a 1972 to 85 Chrysler electronic ignition. This is the only stock electronic ignition that will work with points.

This guy can help if anyone can. I see he lists disc brakes for 1939 but he may help you if you ask him nice. http://www.rustyhope.com/page2.html

A clever fellow could connect a 7.2 volt wall wart to a cigarette lighter plug and just plug it in when the car was parked.

Drive it more. I agree with DeSoto Frank right down the line. Your car sounds OK to me. This kind of thing didn't occur when the cars were in everyday use because the battery stayed charged up. A slight discharge at idle didn't hurt anything because the battery quickly charged up once you got going. If you can't drive more then get a 6 volt charger and leave it on the car overnight or possibly for several days. Don't overcharge it but if the battery charger is only charging an amp or 2, or if it is a trickle charger it won't hurt anything. 6 volt batteries are funny. It takes them a long time to discharge and a long time to charge up. Some years back I had a 1951 Chrysler. It took months for me to get it on the road. I thought I kept the battery charged up. But the first time I took it on the road, the generator showed a charge for the first 50 miles. I thought the regulator was overcharging but after an hour or so the ammeter settled down to the normal range. Recently I bought a 51 DeSoto. The battery was low when I got it. I charged it up, it drew 4 or 5 amps for a couple of days, I thought the battery was shot. I would charge it overnight then let it rest for a couple of days. After a few weeks of occasional use and recharging, it only drew 1 amp. So I left it on charge for a few more days and it finally charged up all the way. Having a fully charged battery makes quite a difference in starting. If you don't have a 6 volt charger they turn up in thrift stores and yard sales. I have half a dozen I picked up that way, all for $5 or less. There isn't much to go wrong with them and they are easy to fix. You could even use a "wall wart" as a trickle charger. It wouldn't charge up very fast but you could leave it on all winter. A 7.2 volt would be perfect.

If you don't like rearching springs you can have brand new ones installed for between $200 and $250. Any springs will flatten out and take a set after a few months. Then continue to sag slowly for the next 100 years. The prices I quote are on the high side. You may find if you call a spring shop in your area, you can have it fixed properly for not much more than the air shock band aid solution.

If you installed a modern automatic and kept your stock rear axle your engine would rev faster. Your old, obsolete transmission has a lock up torque converter, the new modern ones continue to slip slightly at hiway speeds. Your car should cruise smoothly at any legal speed on today's hiways. As has been pointed out, when it was built there was no speed limit on certain hiways in the east and in the west, if there were speed limits they were widely ignored. When the interstates came into use in the 50s the speed limit was 70 and engineers said they had been designed for speeds of 100 MPH which would be phased in as drivers got used to higher speeds. This was before the 55 limit came and went. Now in most areas we are back to 70 but with about 100 times as many cars on the road. You could replace your transmission with a Torqueflite, someone makes adapters for this. But it wouldn't make any difference in engine speed in high.

Would help if you told us what engine you have.

My book gives the same speed (450-500) for manual trans or fluid drive. I take it this means neutral. I would set it to 500 in neutral and if you have a problem with stalling increase it a little.

Take it to a spring shop. They will rearch the springs, put in an extra leaf to bring the spring back up to strength, replace the sliders and rubber bushings, and generally make them like new. All for $200 bucks or less. How can you beat that for a deal? Ask around the local garages to find the best spring shop in your area. You should also put in new shocks all around. It won't make the car sit higher but it will ride like new. A front end alignment won't hurt either. You would be surprised how nice an old car drives when everything in the steering and suspension is up to specs.

Auto electric shops used to have a machine for this. They use them to remagnetise the magnets in tractor magnetos etc. Most rural areas and small towns may have an old auto electric shop that can do this.

http://www.oldmoparts.com/ Andy Bernbaum should be able to help