Paint Update-

Well, the car has finally come home.  I'm very happy with the paint work done by Amero's Pinstripe and Paint.  The finish is like a mirror.  Its great to see the car looking like new.  Now it will be cool to start putting the stainless parts, lights, etc back on the car to bring it to life.  The first step will probable be the wiring, then the headliner, and then the glass.

Stay tuned...

Paint Update-

I'm amazed that it has been six months since I've updated this section of my website!
It's been a long process with my painter, but worth the wait.  And I have not had to store the car for almost a year!

Below are photos I took on a visit to see the color for the first time.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that the color was exactly what I've been seeing in my head since I bought the car.  We did several trial and error paint samples through the mail (the paint shop is about 70 miles away), and finally hit the color I thought I wanted, but it was very hard to tell with a sample only 2" square.  The color I was trying to duplicate is the Factory 1950 Malibu Brown.  This is close, but not exact.  

There are only a few parts left to paint brown, the hood, trunk lid, and bumper splash pans.  Then the car will make it's journey on a car trailer back home.  I can't wait to see it come together now!

More to come.....

Paint Update-

Below are a few photos of the car and its misc. parts at the body shop, Amero's Pinstripe and Paint.  The body has been worked over, rust removed, and primed.  At the time of the photos a few of the fenders and doors, etc. had yet to be primed, but have now been done.  The color should start to be put on in the next week or so.  You can see how much work the drivers front fender needed, even with such a slight fenderbender.  The side of the fender had kinked out a bit, and was stretched enough that it had to be pie cut and welded back together to get it back into the right shape.  I'll post more photos after the paint color is sprayed.

The following photo is of the car just after being loaded on a trailer to make the journey to the paint shop.  Eldon Amero of Amero's Pinstripe and Paint in Twin Falls, ID is going to do the paint for me, the only part of the project I'm not going to do myself.  I borrowed a trailer from a friend and towed the car to the paint shop just as a winter storm hit.  We got the car off of the trailer just as the wind and snow started.  It snowed six inches that afternoon and I was really glad to have gotten the car to Eldon's shop before it was too late.  I will get the car back sometime in February looking new in a shiney coat of Malibu Brown paint.  This is not the original color for the car (Palm Beige), so I am doing a complete repaint including the door jambs, firewall, and inner fenders under the hood too. 

Now that the car is at the paint shop I can focus on the interior as time allows.  I purchased a Sailrite walking-foot sewing machine to sew the upholstery fabric, as it was the most inexpesive walking-foot unit I could find at $429.00.  I searched for a used upholstery machine and the cheapest I found was over $1000.00.  This machine seems well made and should do the job.  Now I just have to get the fabric ordered.  I am going to take the original seats and door panels apart and use them as patterns for the new interior. 

I still have to get the engine painted and replace the gaskets too.  Another item to tinker on while I wait for the car to be painted.

Also, check out the photos of the radio rebuild done by Bob's Radio and TV on the Parts Page.

I've finished taking the car apart for the paint job, as the following photos show. 

I decided to go ahead and take the dash out too, as it was only eight more screws and i won't have to worry about it getting scratched or oversprayed.  Taking the dash out made it much easier to remove the wiper system, firewall insulation pad, and the cowl vent.  It was also the only way to take out the front edge of the door windlace, as they are pinched in between the body and dash sides. 

My cowl vent was really hard to open before I took it apart, and I assumed it was old dry grease in the handle linkage.  When I took it apart however, I discovered that the hinges were rusted solid, and that the frame was bending in order for the vent to open.  I hope a good soaking with penetrating oil will bring the hinges back to life.

As you can see from the photos, there is a bit of surface rust under the dash area as well as inside the roof of the car.  I think all of this is the result of the cowl vent seal going bad years ago and the resulting damage from condensation building inside the car from the water soaked into the floor mats and headliner insulation.

Overdrive update:  I decided to find another OD rather than try to modify the Dodge fluid drive unit that I had.  And Bill Ward of www.oldplymouths.com happed to get an e-mail from Vic Franco who wanted to sell one.  It is on its way from Arkansas now, and I should get it in a week or so.  I'll post a photo of it when it arrives.  Thanks Bill!

Radio update:  I sent my model 604 radio that I found on e-bay to Bob's Radio and TV for am AM/FM stereo upgrade.  I should be getting it back in the mail any day.  Dan, the owner (who's Bob anyway?) converted the old tone button to toggle AM/FM/CD.  It is also now a four channel speaker system.  The fader, balance, bass, and trebble controls are mounted on the side of the unit, out of site.  The appearance of the stock radio face is unchanged asside from a small LED to indicate what mode is on.  I'll post photos when I get it back.

More to come, stay tuned...    Pete

At last, an update!  I haven't done much to the car in the last three months. I've only spent a couple of days on the project, here and there.  The following photos show the rest of the body stripped and ready for the painter.  I thought the stainless was going to be harder to get off of the car than it was,  it came right off.  The windshield and rear glass came right out too, as the rubber was still pliable enought to come out without cutting it.  I still have to take out the headliner and windlace around the doors, as well as remove the grill from the front clip, and I will be ready to take the car to the painter. 

I wasn't sure if I wanted to take the rear window out, as the rubber looked pretty good.  So did the trunk seal, but when I took it out, there was a bunch of surface rust under it.  When I saw the rust there, I went ahead and took out the glass.  I found surface rust in the bottom corners of the window frame too.  Now that all of the glass is out, I can take care of it before the car is painted. 

Another area of rust that reared its ugly head is under the rubber seals that are between the leading edge of the front doors and the front fenders.  Luckily for me, it is only surface rust and will quickly be subdued with Por-15.  According to Bill Ward, progress is happening at Steele Rubber on reproducing these rubber parts, but not anytime soon.  I'm not sure what I'm going to substitute here, but I'm going to improvise since the new seals probably won't be ready before I put the car back together (I think...)

I decided to pull the front clip and the engine/tranny.  I was lucky with the nuts and bolts that hold it all together.  They all came off without effort.  I was expecting to break or strip several and them be mired in fixing them.  I was really worried about getting the manifold nuts and bolts off, but none of them were even tight, and the hardest one, at the rear of the block, was already off.  Now if I can just get those spark plugs out.

I followed Bill Wards editorial on removing the front clip, from his website www.oldplymouths.com, and had no problems finding the bolts.  One thing to mention though, is the cardboard heater duct.  I detached it from the heater and left it on the firewall.  When I lifted the clip off, found that it is neccessary to lift the clip up to clear the inner fenders over the upper a-arms.  The top of the inner fender hit the cardboard duct and bent it up and out of the way, tearing it a bit at the firewall.  Next time I will take the duct out completely first.

I spent just over six hours whittling and chipping the dirt caked grease off of the engine and frame.  I'd forgotten how tough this stuff is!  And after 51 years there was a lot of it, about enough to fill a five gallon bucket.  I put the engine in the back of my '53 chevy truck and took it to the car wash and blasted it long enough to get the bulk of the greasy mess off.  I then used oven cleaner to dissolve the rest.  I will still have some spot cleaning to do when I remove the oil pan, timing chain cover, side covers, and tranny. 

My next step is to replace the  engine seals once I get them in the mail.  At the same time I will degrease all of the engine parts and paint them the original siver color or black.

I am going to take the oil pan off and see whats lurking in the bottom.  Also I will check the water distribution tube and see if it needs replacing.  At the car wash, I put the spray nozzle in the block drain cock and pumped the water jacket full of water unitll it ran clear, but the water that came out was like dirty chocolate milk.  I hope the distribution tube is a brass one and doesn't need to be replaced.
 

I haven't decided whether to take the front clip off of the car now or not, I think it would be much easier to get the manifolds off  with the clip out of the way.  I am also thinking about pulling the engine/transmission for the tranny swap, so that I can really clean the engine and paint it.  I have an engine paint kit from POR-15.  Other than cosmetics, there isn't a pressing reason to pull the engine.  The problem is I don't know where to stop with the dissasembly.  If the engine is out, then maybe I should change the water distribution tube, etc, etc.....

More to come.......

Pete

When I bought the car, I didn't think that the rust was that bad, but after pulling up the floor mat, I saw what was really there.  The original floor mat was a rubber mat with a horse hair pad on the back, which held about a gallon of water at any given time.  Luckily there is not any rust in the trunk or body, and was only in the floor.

As you can see from the photos, there were a few holes about the size of siver dollars, lots of little holes along the inside edge of the rockers, and the body mount bolt head wells were all but gone.  Also, the floor access panel lower edge was rusted back about 2 inches, and the old felt gasket was holding the screws on the car.  Luckily, the edge of the floor under the felt gasket wasn't completely gone and I was able to rebuild it.  These photos were takenafter I scraped all of the original coating off, wire brushed with a drill and wire wheel and vacuumed all of the debris.
 

The first step (after removing any loose scale and cleaning) is to spray the metal surface with Metal Ready, which neutralizes the rust and leave a zinc-like coating on the metal.  The Metal Ready needs to stay wet for about 20 minutes, and then gets hosed off with water.

Once Dry, the metal is ready for the POR-15 rust preventive paint.  I simply brushed on the paint, and used the fiberglass cloth to cover the larger holes.  the fiberglass cloth is layed into the wet paint and saturated with another coat of paint. 

Once the paint was dry, I used the POR-15 putty to fill the holes covered by the fiberglass from the bottom of the floor.  I used an abrasive wheel to scuff the paint where I put the putty, and used the  putty to fill all of the little holes in the floor.  Once the putty had cured, I painted it with another coat of the paint.

Next I sprayed the entire floor with ruberized undercoat (from the hardware store).  I put on 4 coats, for uv protection and sound damping.

The final step is to paint the underside of the floor to completely seal the metal and prevent any future deterioration.