Shawn F.

Thanks again guys. Any yes anything I do to this car will be able to be taken back off. Paint and trim I am not worried about right now. I do want to start buying some of the trim I need slowly but like I said I want to get it running with minimal money and work right now and get all the brakes completely redone with new lines, MC, etc. They are rusty. I want to drive it around for a while before I tear into it full throttle and have it apart for a few months. If I did that then it may turn out like my 48 Chevy and I will lose interest in the thing. My goal for this year is to get the engine compartment, suspension, brakes and interior very nice. Reason for interior to be nice is so that it is comfortable to drive at the same time. Lately since I have no money right now I have been taking care of rust issues. I am going to buy a gallon of POR 15 and coat the floors with it and crawl underneath and coat under the floors and as much of the chassis as I can. I have begun to take trim off and DA the rust off and sealer primed it. Taking care of the rust is the other issue I want to attend to first before it get's any worse.

1.5 hours up I-85 huh. Not that far. Thanks for the welcomes again and the happy birthdays! Yes I am now 20, I don't feel any older but after the 21 hits I may start feeling older. Wish I could stay somewhere around this age and not get any older.

That is my plan to get it running and reliable first. Drivetrain, suspension, braking and then comfortable interior. I do body work and paint at a hot rod shop for a living, I understand the whole backwards thing with paint, etc. That comes last. Right now I want new brakes and get the engine running and drive it first because if not and I just tear it all down without ever driving it once I know I will lose interest....

I am thinking that if I did the dual MC and disks then there is no reason it would mess up the rarity of the vehicle if I can just put the stock stuff back on later if wanted. As for the T-5 tranny swap that is in the air. For now the fluid drive will stay in the vehicle and probably will stay. Now what about hopping up the little flathead 6 with a new rebuild, cam, dual intake and headers, etc? Will that take away from the rarity? Is it better to leave it completely stock? I do see what you guys are saying here though about the car being rare and trying to keep it stock as possible. I hate to see people take a very nice "stock" car no matter the make and tub it out, pull the perfectly good stock motor out and make it a pro street car or such. Now if it were a rust bucket with NOTHING to it like my 48 Chevy is then I don't see anything wrong with hot rodding it. Like I said, it's all up in the air still, I haven't made my mind up yet and I appreciate the comments and oppinions you guys are giving me. Don't think I am throwing them out the window, I am taking them into consideration, that's why I am here.

Novaman, I am not a Mopar fan. I have one of each, Chevy, Ford, Mopar. I first liked only Chevy when I was younger because my father liked them. My first purchase ever was my 48 Chevy coupe, then I bought for my daily driver my 66 Ford F100 because that was all I could afford (even though now I have more money into it than I would have thought I'd like to put into it) and now I gained more respect for Fords. Now I have my first and latest Mopar and like it as well even though I haven't driven it. IMO every make of vehicle have their own pro's and con's, no one is perfect. My 85 Chevy pickup I drive all the time with a 305 is a good truck, not many problems from it at all and I drive it hard and every single day and others told me they had one and had nothing but problems from it... How far is Mebane NC from Charlotte?

I have the 251ci block. If I rebuild I plan to use this. Any information like this is helpful and I will be sure to save it so when I go to rebuild I will ask for this.

BTW, I was very surprised to find out this car weighs almost as much as a Toyota. That is good! Also, I thought it would be cool to learn a ton about these flatheads and just know them VERY well and be able to rebuild them. It doesn't seem like very many people know these old flathead 6's that well, at least not around here. What I mean is have a specialty with flathead motors.

Thanks for that info on the Flathead, it's good to know. I do not plan to ever change the flathead, I love to have something different. Also I hear and believe these things are VERY tough and they even used the same engine if I remember correctly in some tractors and such. Just like the old inline 6 Chevy and Ford motors that people change out of their trucks. I don't understand why, they are tough as can be, lots of torque, reliable and easy to keep maintained. When I get around to it I want to pull the engine, rebuild the whole front end, take the front clip off and paint the engine compartment then rebuild this flathead. Only problem is finding someone around here that knows how to machine and do the bottom end. I want to read up on how to rebuild and what to look out for and do when you do a rebuild on one of these so I can make sure the machinest will do it correct. I'd like a dual manifold setup, headers, dual exhaust with (of course) glass packs, and dress it up a little bit. I want the interior and engine compartment done first very nicely and reliable and then worry about the trim, bumpers and paint last.

I will get some pictures on here in a few days of the interior. I have ripped it all out because it was ripped up and had tons of rat's nests in it with baby mice all over so right now all that is in it is the seat which needs to be completely recovered in new foam and material. As far as the Spitfire goes, everyone tells me to put a 360 or something in it but I will keep the inline flathead in there. I love the old flatheads and they look cool. I have my 66 and 48 for my go fast hot rods, this one will be my cool cruiser and something to just work on and drive around. Like I said though, I do plan to drive this thing all over the place and drive it to work every so often. As far as the color goes, I think it may have been repainted. The tags in the door and all are painted right over and if you peel the paint off the under color (which shouldn't be primer) is gloss black. The car used to look VERY nice until the owner put it outside and let it sit for 10 years and that is why it's the way it is. When I go to repaint it I am not sure what color to do. I like the maroon looking color and was thinking that since it's not original color now that maybe I just put a similar color on it and put the black cherry color they use on the new Lexus 330 cars. It looks black at night and day it is a dark maroon color and looks luxury to me. I don't know, it's all up in the air right now, first things first are to get it running well and new brakes all around. Does anyone here have any history info on this car. Everyone tells me that it is a rare car but I don't know too much about them and why they are rare. Thanks again and sorry for such a long post.

Thanks for the welcome guys! I understand that most here like to keep their cars almost completely stock and that is just fine with me. I like some stock and some hot rodded. My chrysler is pretty much all stock besides the interior color and material so I plan to keep it as stock as possible with a few modern upgrades like the braking system for safety.

Thanks for the info. As far as keeping the car original I still want good modern (safe) brakes and good steering. Maybe I wont do the steering rack but someone through that out there to me a while back ago and I thought I'd look into it. As far as interior, it will stay stock but just change the color. It has the Highlander plaid (sp) interior in it now which is NOT original. I will keep the seats and designs the stock look, just tan. I wont shave the trim, change the wheels or nothing. Sure some stuff will be changed like the T-5 but like I said, I will keep everything and only change it to the point where if I want it all back stock all I do is take the old stuff off and put the stock that I kept right back on. Nothing perminant. Right now I need to get the engine going and new brakes. I get 50/50 answers on the brakes. Half the people say disk conversion is safe and the way to go and the other half say stock, I am looking into it. Only reason for the T-5 is because I want to drive the car just about everyday or weekend and from what I hear the fluid drive tranny is very sluggish, etc. Sure I like to keep some cars stock and some I like to hot rod but for this I want it to be safe and "reliable" (especially reliable).

I own a 46 Chrysler 3 window (businessman coupe) Windsor with a flathead 6 spitfire. I bought this car about 3 months ago or so and had my eye on it for probably 7 or 8 months before I got the money to buy it. It's all original pretty much and probably will stay that way. The only things I really plan to change are disk brakes up front and change them to power brakes, possibly a rack and pinion steering setup and then lower it 3 or 4 inches all the way around and glasspacks. The interior will be stock appearing but will change it to tan interior. I haven't decided on the whole 6 or 12 volt thing yet. For now it will stay 6 volt since there is nothing wrong with a 6 volt system. As for the engine, it has over 100,000 miles on it but I will drive it a little more before pulling it. I plan to change all the fluids, air filter, dress it up a bit, etc. I am also thinking about a different rear end in it and putting a t-5 tranny behind it for drivability since it has the big fluid drive in it. I will keep all the original parts though and not ruin the originality part of the vehicle. Let me know what you think and any info on the disk and power brake upgrade would be greatly appreciated. Currently I have NO brakes so I can't and haven't even driven this thing.

I thought I'd introduce myself here before posting... My name is Shawn, I am 19 years old and currently live in NC. I own 4 hot rods (classics, trucks, whatever you want to call them). I own a 46 Chrysler 3 window coupe (Windsor), 48 Chevy coupe, 66 F100 (daily driver), 85 Chevy C10 (daily driver). I have been into hot rods and motorcycles since I was probably 4 years old. I have joined this site to gain information about my Chrysler and hopefully help others out here when and where I can. Seems like this place has a lot of knowledgable people. Shawn-