My 1948 DeSoto 3 window coupe restoration project.

[marcapra]

I was going through my NOS parts and found these intructions in a tie-rod package dated 10-1944.  I thought maybe others could use these instructions because they may not be easily available.  I was wondering how do I put the left side splash pan on because the steering linkage is in the way.  The illustration shown in Tie Rod End Service Packages proves that you have to remove the drag link or both inner tie rods ends to be able to install the splash pan.  I've never worked on my steering linkage, so I wondered why is my splash pan off.  It must have been off when I bought the car, or I don't remember removing it.  

[marcapra]

I tried to fix my sagging driver door handle by installing a new spring to no avail.  The handle still sags.  But my parts car buddy said his driver door latch still works fine.  it's a 4 door sedan, but we think it has a different part no. just because of the shorter remote arm.  So he drilled out the rivet of his short remote arm, and I drilled out the rivet on my long remote arm.  I will just bolt my arm onto his latch and that I'm hoping will fix my sagging door handle.  I'm also getting ready to install my rebuilt and rewired dashboard.  I glued some rubber washers on the cowl where the dash tabs screw onto the cowl to prevent squeaks.  That will be a major step in the restoration, like getting the motor to run, or putting the body back on the frame. I should probably check my wiper motor to see if it still works before installing the dash.  

Edited May 12 by marcapra (see edit history)

[marcapra]

today, i tried to test the wiper motor by hooking up my battery and clamping the positive clamp to the cowl, and the negative side to the circuit breaker plug in with a jumper wire,   The jumper wire started to get hot, and I knew that I must have created a short.  I connected the Neg post of the battery to the circuit breaker terminal of the wiper switsch.  I think that created a short because I think I'm supposed to connect the Neg  jumper to A, B, or F terminals.  After I checked the wiring diagram, I saw that the circuit breaker post is POS because its wire goes to the third terminal of the fuel gauge, which I think is POS.

[marcapra]

Tuesday, May 14, is D-Day!  That is dashboard day.  A major step in a restoration.  I was not sure how the wires routed, so I looked at the terminals of the wires to determine if they went to the rear of the car, or to the engine bay.  Most of them go to the engine bay.  The wires that go to the rear are only about 6" long because they go to a round circuit connector that hold about eight wires.  I saw the incoming wires from the rear of the car go on the driver side of the roof in loops.  Then they snake down through the A pillar to the kick panel where you connect the wire harness to the connector.  I have installed all of the instrument gauges.  The oil gauge and the temp. gauge lines will be put through the cowl hole as I get the dash close to the cowl.  I thought how will I get so many wires through the hole on the left side of the dash to the engine bay.  But the harness is branched, like a tree, so I think I can get all of the wires through, if I put them in one at a time.  I will have to screw the speedo cable into the speedometer, and connect the steering column to the strut.  I will plug the red wire into the wiper motor.  So I will report tomorrow how easy or hard this is.  My brother is coming over to help me.  

[keiser31]

Go, man go!

[marty14]

 My 1st car was a 1948 Dodge Club Coupe bought in 1970 for 100.00 from the original owner. 

That is what got me into the Mopar parts business! Later I also had a 1948 Business Coupe

too. Both great cars but the Business Coupe got way more attention especially if I opened the

trunk!

 

I'm going to send you a message as I still have parts for it that will fit your car too.

 

That is me on top of it!

[marcapra]

Marty,  I love that pic of you sitting on your Dodge.  1970! when we were all young, slim, and had darker hair!  I assume that's the club coupe.  The 3 window coupe was the perfect car for taking your buddies to the drive in without them paying.  They could ride in the trunk, and then if they wanted to see the movie, I would charge them a quarter each to come out! 😆 I had a 48 Dodge 4 door sedan in the 80s, but it was a parts car.  One day I was walking by a mechanic's garage and saw another 48 Dodge 4 door sedan.  It was black too.  the passenger door had been hit hard and was not repairable.  I gave the mechanic my number and told him to give it to the owner because I have a good black door I will sell him for $50 including glass upholstery and everything.  Hey, it was the 80s.  He drove over and I even installed it for him.  I tried to put my dashboard in my 48 DeSoto today and hit a snag.  For some reason, my dash didn't line up with the cowl screw holes.  The dash tabs were about 1 1/2" too far right.  I was all kinds of things that might be wrong including that my body may not be on straight.  I finally found the answer.  I screwed the steering column bracket into the wrong holes!  AS you can see here, my bracket is too far over to the right and too far back under the dash.  I will fix that tomorrow.  

Edited May 15 by marcapra (see edit history)

[marty14]

   That is the Club Coupe in the picture. 

 Also got a bunch of inoperable cars for free by driving around in South Phoenix.

I'd stop and ask if they wanted to sell parts. Most of the time no but if I could

come and get the car it was free. Had a friend who was a repo man. 

 He would tow it back to my place and I would strip them and then he hauled the carcass

away for me!  Nothing like free cars!! 

[marcapra]

Do you have any 42-48 DeSoto parts cars?  But I suppose what you have now is just parts from those cars.  

[marcapra]

I dug out an old NOS MoPar part that I bought back when parts were cheap for these cars in the 80s: a cover for the governor of the M-5 transmission.  The governor has points that are connected to weights that spin according to the speed of the car.  When the speed of the car is below 14 mph, the points remain closed which grounds the solenoid.  The solenoid prevents the oil pressure from pushing the transmission into 4th gear.  but when the car is going over 14 mph, the points open which shuts off power to the solenoid.  This allows the transmission to upshift.  If the car is having trouble upshifting, Tech advises that you check the points in the governor.  He warns not to use a file or sandpaper to clean the points or you will ruin them.  They are silver coated points, so if they need cleaning you should just drag a piece of construction paper through them.  So if my points ever wear out, I have a replacement as the cover also has new points.  

[marcapra]

Today my brother and I got the dash installed finally.  We connected the wiper, the temp gauge, the speedometer, but not the oil pressure gauge.  I think I have made another mistake.  The oil line was over one foot too short and would not go through the cowl hole.  I asked my parts car guy and he said the oil line is about 3 feet long.  Mine is only about 12".  So I will have look into it.  But the dash is in and that's a big step.  I also got the used door latch from my parts car guy.  I bolted on my remote arm to it and now my door has a good latch again.  

[keiser31]

That looks GREAT, Marc! Do you have a working radio for it?

 

[marcapra]

Yes, the radio is totally rebuilt with all new tubes and a re-coned speaker.  I hate today's AM radio, so I want to install a small Bluetooth in it before I install it. There a good video on that on Youtube with the guy who has a 37 Plymouth coupe.   I have a left over part from my door latch, but I don't know where it goes?  

[marcapra]

Well, I made a mistake with the oil pressure gauge line.  I put in a brake line which is all wrong.  It will screw in but it will leak.  The oil gauge requires a 3/8-27 thread.  That's pipe thread and it has a nut and sleeve.  The other end of this oil pressure line has a regular brake like double flare.  Someone sent me a cut off end of the gauge end a year ago and I put it on the end of some brake line.  But I found out at about 2 feet it was too short.  Then I found a line that Joe Cocuzza sent me and that was just long enough.  Of course, since I'm doing everything the hard way I had to remove the dash and lean it forward to get into the back.  I'm including some pics to show you the difference between a brake fitting and the oil gauge pipe fitting.  It's easy to tell the difference.  The pipe fitting has a nut with a sliding sleeve and bubble on the end.  The first two pics show the oil gauge fitting and the last pic shows the brake line fitting that goes into the rubber line in the engine bay.  

[marcapra]

I'm not ready yet for glass installation, but what are your recommendations for windows.  Will pro glass shops take on an old car, or is it a do it yourself job?  I already have all of the glass and rubber.  Can two novices install the windshield?  I'm told that is the hardest glass to install because of the two panels.  

[marcapra]

On 5/16/2024 at 6:57 PM, marcapra said:

Yes, the radio is totally rebuilt with all new tubes and a re-coned speaker.  I hate today's AM radio, so I want to install a small Bluetooth in it before I install it. There a good video on that on Youtube with the guy who has a 37 Plymouth coupe.   I have a left over part from my door latch, but I don't know where it goes?  

I found out that part is a backing plate for the striker on the door jamb.  Without this plate the striker won't tighten down.  Even though I put another latch in the door, it needs to be aligned better.   I noticed that the rotor barely reaches the striker when I close the door.  I will probably have to adjust the door back about 3/16" to correct that.  

[marcapra]

I have started to connect the wiring harness to the engine bay area.   Things are starting to fall in place now, so it's not quite as daunting as I thought before.  I tried to renew the registration online, but it has been so long since I renewed this car, the registration had fallen off the computer.  So tomorrow, I am going to the DMV with the last renewal letter that I have received from 2021 to renew it.   I wonder if I should bring my plates also?  I have a pair of 1947 plates that the car has been registered with since the 80s.  

Edited May 20 by marcapra (see edit history)

[keiser31]

Wouldn't hurt to take the plates, too.

[marcapra]

I registered the car today at the DMV.  I took the plates, but that is not what they wanted to see.  I forgot all about the Calif. insurance law.  I never got insurance for this car before, but I haven't renewed the registration since 1992.  I don't think Calif. had the insurance law then.  So car is now registered, but no tags until I show insurance.  And it might be a few months before the car is ready for the road, so I guess I should wait until then to insure it.  Any ideas on an insurer I could contact?  I already checked with my car insurance company and they don't insure antiques.  

[marcapra]

Now I have a real question.  Is my horn relay on backwards?  I think it might be because the screws come in from the bottom.  This is important because the terminals on the relay are not marked.  I need to put the wires on the right terminals so I am going by the wiring diagram.  So if my horn relay is on right, I would put the wire from the battery on the lower right terminal.  But if it is on backwards,  my wires would be on the wrong terminals.  

[keiser31]

I don't own one of those, but I would imagine it is upside-down given the direction of the screws access.

[Bloo]

How sure are you that's the horn relay? 4 terminals?

[marcapra]

I knew that the relay had to have names on it somewhere, so I took it off the fender shield.  Sure enough the names were on the mounting bracket, under the bolt heads.  It was on the wrong way though.  MoPar slipped up on this one by printing the names on upside down.  I verified this by looking at my original horn relay.  So this is how the horn relay is organized when I turn it right side up.      HORN                   BAT

                                                   IGN                       GRD

Notice that the empty terminal in my above pic is ground, which will fit the pattern when I turn it around.  But I think I put the wrong wire on HORN, which is wire 36.  The Egge instructions say to put wire 36 on the S terminal, but I don't know what that is.  The instructions do say that the HORN terminal is for the wire going to the horns.  So that must mean that the 36 wire from the horn button goes to GROUND.  That makes sense because when you push the horn ring you are grounding the circuit.  Wire 26 goes from the ignition switch GA terminal to the horn relay IGN terminal.  Maybe that's what the fourth terminal is for, the ignition circuit.  So here is how I corrected the horn relay.  The empty terminal is HORN, which is where I will attach a wire going to the actual horns.  

 

 

 

.  

[marcapra]

Today, I got a missing piece from my parts car guy.  I don't know how I could lose a part that is about 5 1/2 feet long.  I'll probably find it some day behind my many garage shelves.  It's called the grille support bar.  It's what you attach the big heavy chrome grille to.  Coming from Kansas, it's covered with rust, so I'm grinding off the loose rust to prepare it for painting.  I'm trying to decide to use the POR 15 painting system on it, or go the easier route and use Rustoleum rust converter on it.  

[marcapra]

I decided to go with the Rust Reformer.  I put two coats on the grille support and will topcoat it with two coats of Rustoleum tomorrow.  

[marcapra]

I'm getting the front end sheet metal ready to assemble, so I can install the grille.  That DeSoto sheet metal requires hundreds of nuts, bolts, screws, and washers!  I'm about ready to take the car on a trial run up and down by cul-de-sac street, but I can't find a #12-28 nut that goes on the thicker stud of the generator.  I went to the best hardware store in town, Hanks, and they said they don't make a #12-28 nut anymore.  But they're wrong.  You can buy a pack of 100 on Amazon, but I only need one!

 

 

one!  

Edited May 23 by marcapra (see edit history)

[marcapra]

I finally did what I should have done first.  I called NAPA and asked them if they sold a 12-28 nut.  I almost felt embarrassed for asking if they sold such a small item.  Was I surprised when he said yes.  Then I asked do you sell them singlely.  He said yes.  So now I solved another problem.  Now my new problem is this.  My stick shift felt a little loose.  So I took it apart and saw that the gearshift bearing was missing the 1/4"-28 X 5/8" screw that holds it from behind.  So I will get that tomorrow when I get my 12-28 nut.  But I have a strange leftover part that was in my gearshift screw can.  It looks like a shim of some sort, but I don't know where it goes, and I can't find it in the Parts Book.  The other thing is the gearshift bearing.  Does anyone know where this shim goes?  

[marcapra]

I finally figured out where the shim goes.  It is in the Parts Book blowup.  It's called the anti-rattle spring for the gear shift lever.  but I discovered that I'm having some trouble with the shifting (this is on a car that isn't running).  It seems bound up and I can't seem to get it in the HI position, which is down.  So I'm going to watch the Shifting into high filmstrip again on MyMopar.com.  It tells how to adjust the shift linkage.  

[marcapra]

I watched the filmstrip again on tv and saw how to adjust the shift linkage.  It's pretty easy.  You don't even have to crawl under the car.  You can do it on both selector lever and the operating lever just by leaning over the fender and using a 9/16 and a 7/16 wrench.  Now the shifter is working OK.  I went to a glass shop today to ask if they do antique cars.  He said yes but he doesn't put on the stainless trim because he has had trouble with it in the past.  I said I have all the glass and rubber and just needed the labor, which he said would be about one grand.  I'm going to wait until the car is painted and driving before I take it there.  

[marcapra]

I've been working on the handbrake adjustments.  I read the shop manual about how to adjust it.  There's a hex bolt that adjusts the upper half of the brake band, and a slot screw that adjusts the lower half.  And the anchor bolt increases and decreases the clearance between the band and the drum.  You use a feeler gauge to get a .015 - .020 inches gap.  My handbrake return spring is 22 1/2" long.  Do I need the extension too?  

[marcapra]

My return spring seems to have the extension built in.  It's 22 1/2" long.  

[Jeff Perkins / Mn]

The spring on my ‘48 NYer is long like yours.

[marcapra]

So Jeff, your New Yorker doesn't use the extension?  

[marcapra]

I put my spring on the handbrake today after adjusting the brake band as best as I could. But when I pull the hand brake, there is still no action on the brake band. I test it by seeing if I can turn the rear wheels. So I think I need to eliminate the bit of slack in the cable as the shop manual describes.

[marcapra]

I have a pair of NOS California plates, and I bought a rare dealer license plate from a 1940s, 50s DeSoto Plymouth dealer.  It's paint is showing its age, so I want to repaint it.  Red background and white lettering.  I was hoping there was an easy to do this, but after watching a guy repaint an old license plate, you have to do it the hard, slow way.  Of course you need to use Sign Painter's paint and sign painter's brushes.  The red background will be easy, but the white lettering will be hard, detail work!  

[zipdang]

1 hour ago, marcapra said:

I have a pair of NOS California plates, and I bought a rare dealer license plate from a 1940s, 50s DeSoto Plymouth dealer.  It's paint is showing its age, so I want to repaint it.  Red background and white lettering.  I was hoping there was an easy to do this, but after watching a guy repaint an old license plate, you have to do it the hard, slow way.  Of course you need to use Sign Painter's paint and sign painter's brushes.  The red background will be easy, but the white lettering will be hard, detail work!  

WOW! That's my last name - HETZEL! Wanna sell it? I don't believe I'm actually related to whoever Dan is (or was), but I don't see my name showing up very often.

[Jeff Perkins / Mn]

5 hours ago, marcapra said:

So Jeff, your New Yorker doesn't use the extension?  

I’ll check tomorrow morning and let you know.

I replaced my band and lining last summer but cannot find my pictures. 

[marcapra]

5 hours ago, zipdang said:

WOW! That's my last name - HETZEL! Wanna sell it? I don't believe I'm actually related to whoever Dan is (or was), but I don't see my name showing up very often.

You mean it's not Zipdang?  I can see why you would want it, but I want it for my car.  If you could find another dealer license plate frame from the era, I might trade for it.  I can imagine finding another one these would be like finding a needle in a thousand haystacks!  I looked up the address of Dan Hetzel DeSoto/Plymouth, and it's still a small Toyota dealership.  https://www.google.com/maps/@34.1448001,-118.3624138,3a,75y,41.41h,90t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1s5rz7lRhYnrlGt5zdUTpshg!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3D5rz7lRhYnrlGt5zdUTpshg%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.share%26w%3D900%26h%3D600%26yaw%3D41.407394%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D90!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205410&entry=ttu

[marcapra]

5 hours ago, Jeff Perkins / Mn said:

I’ll check tomorrow morning and let you know.

I replaced my band and lining last summer but cannot find my pictures. 

No need to check now.  Another guy on the NDC site told me his return spring with the extension measures the same length as my long spring, 22 1/2".  Thanks.  

[marcapra]

After having to tap and die the cable bolt and nuts, I was finally able to back up the lock nut to the rear to tighten up the cable.  But suddenly the cable felt loose and I was able the pull more cable out.  I checked the trigger handle and realized that my cable has broken off of the handle because I felt loose parts under there.  Now I will have to take the handle off and reconnect the cable.  Hope that is not too difficult a job.  Has anyone had to do on their car?