Many Pictures of updated, detailed pictures just posted I know i already had a thread awhile back about our 1950 Plymouth as a general discussion/introduction thread. This thread is specifically going to be about the car as a work-in- progress project/build thread. For a brief overview: We bought a 1950 Plmyouth Special Deluxe last summer. 22,000 original miles, entirely original, flathead six, etc. Its a four door (OH THE HORROR!!) out of Kansas City, Missouri. Has been in CT since the mid-80's. The car was never driven and sat in a climate controlled garage with other cars in the collection. The paint was literally falling off the car and the car was starting to rust. Unfortunately we do not live in a climate that allows us to keep the car in its original state so she has to be refinished. as much as we'd like to own a two door; we love the four door. able to pack the friends and family in and drive everyone to dinner, the beach, or the shows in comfort. ole "betty" runs great and goes down the road awsome (even has its original tires on it) To start off the thread here are some of the original photos of it fro the summer. more pictures and some info on our "plans" to come in the next post in a moment.
So here is where we are at currently with the car and what our plans are about 2 1/2 weeks ago we began working on the car. I started by stripping the paint off with a razor blade and a DA while my boyfriend went to work fixing the small dents, pulling fenders, door panels, etc on the car. We've been hammer down on this project for the past 2 weeks. Every chance we get for spare time, you can find us working out in the garage all bundled up Joey shaved the rear doorhandles and he's currently debating on whether to shave the front handles or not. The passenger side door was hit at some point and was given a hack fix-up job a long time ago. That is the biggest fix right now. Just pulled the rear fenders and bumper. Grill and front fenders are coming off sometime soon. Plans are to drop it several inches in the rear and maybe an inch or two in the front. It's obviously getting a new set of wide-whites and a new set of wheels (potentially Smoothies or something similar). The car is virtually almost entirely stripped of paint with the exception of the nose, the front fenders and part of the roof. Right now the hardest parts are eliminating the old primer (AKA GLUE!) and fixing the passenger side door We are thrilled after stripping the car. We are left with a rust-free car that is truly in GREAT shape We didnt get to chop the top due to shirt funds and complete lack of such a skill but we're expecting it to still look great. With some minor customizing i think we'll have a sharp looking, low-budget car to enjoy Any color suggestions to paint it? If you have any...please post an example
This going to be one great build. I love the way you guys tackle the project with a lot of enthusiasm and pride. Going to follow this build thread for sure. Good luck!
Love them mopar 4 doors... of course I am partial.. I have one too but going a different route.. as my nic implies.. too bad i didn't know ya a few years ago.. i would have given ya a perfectly straight back door off a 49 coronet.
Way to go....4-door customs are cool....there were quite a few of them in the 50's One I remember was a 49 that was chopped..(this may be more than you want to tackle just now)...it appeared in either Rod & Custom or Car Craft....removing just the rear door handles on 4-doors was very common..you didn't have to put solenoids in them....be sure to nose an deck it while your at it ...a dark metelic would look good...good luck
someday down the road we will replace the flathead six in it and the engine that will replace it will be a hemi Right now we're low budget so the body is our number one priority. we were thinking gunmetal roof. funny you said that. the only thing we were thinking is that the lighter roof would make the roof look taller than it was with the dark body. I thought the entire thing would look neat in gunmetal haha. We also liked the idea of doing a really deep, dark, satin or matte blue. we love, love, love the idea of matte or satin black with the chrome trim BUT with that being said.....it seems almost all are always that color or its at least really popular color. has anyone ever seen a matte/satin blue?
anyone have any suggestions for wheels? Looking for something relatively inexpensive but sharp looking. we were thinking that Chrome Smoothies would look stylish but we don't really have the funds to add in powder coating to the entire deal We really have no clue what will look fantastic on this car. suggestions?
Personally, I like youir car but I'm a bit Mopar biased! As for color, If you have gone through the toughest part of stripping the paint then I would be super inclined to spray a gloss. The trend is the satin finish, key word, "trend". You could paint it gloss and it will always be considered "in style". Just my opinion. Color; dark blue, deep dark maroon, super dark green, black. Any one of these would set your car off right! Two tone; not sure about that one. It may draw more attention to the "high hat" that these Mopars posess. Wheels; hubcaps. Period. The front hubcaps in the picture are way custom material. Stock Plymouth's with a center bullet have been custom fodder since the beginning. Paint the wheels a complimenting color, wether it's interior or other trim color then put a hubcap over it. It will have a nice trim ring of paint that could be seen poking out around the cap. Lowering; I cut 2 complete wraps off my front coils. Some may think it was too much but I'm just fine with it. Then relocate your front shock upper mount to the frame and your handling will increase dramatically. The rear; 3" block. Be carefull with the aftermarket blocks. They are hollow. I would recommend a solid block. Check with Jeep shops. Early Jeeps had narrow springs. You may find a set of blocks through them. Engine; Keep it Mopar. I love the thought of a Hemi. Lean towards a DeSoto. They are around and can be had relatively cheap. They are smaller also which will help the installation process. 318/360 are good to. Be sure to find the drivers side exhaust manifold that has the provisions for the steering column. Best of all, build and run the flat 6. The cool factor will always be there. Put an O/D auto or manual (833) and get 26-28 MPGs. You could even swap in the "big" 6 from the DeSoto's or Chrysler's. Stay focused and you'll have a super, reliable car when finished!! Good luck! BloodyKnuckles
haha...I knew you'd hate them! Keep tryin' to get down there but seems like it's been hard to make parole since moving here...house stuff, kid stuff, biz stuff...I'm workin' on it...dying for some hot rod intervention
thanks bloodyknuckles! i noticed your car inthe plymouth thread awhile back. That thinng is pretty sharp! Thanks for the suggestions too, very helpful! We were thinking satin or matte finish simply because we think it will keep that "old" feel when looking at it; not so much for the "trend". We didn't want anything to be dramatic like a candy or metal-flake since we don't think it will compliment the car. Whats on yours for hubcaps? those things are petty sweet looking.
You can't beat those flatty 6 mopar engines...I have had 5 cars with them and all came back to life with minimal effort...were reliable...and as Ron said the O/D will give you some great gas mileage...Gloss is Boss in my opinion as well...MoparMan4GZUZ I dig that 49
The hubcaps are identical to yours only with an add on bullet center. Wether gloss or matte make it so you truly love it and always will. Keep this thread rolling with updates. We would love to see this thing come together. BloodyKnuckles
yup 22,000 orig miles. we actually bought it with 21,000 orig miles on it but we put 1000 miles on it last summer after we got her running full-steam. I will definately be keepig everyone updated. we truly are not that far away from paint so that's always a promising thought! just need to touch up the remainder of paint still left and finish patching up that door...then its time for paint prep! Will get more pics as soon as we finish the door and finish stripping the car down. thanks everyone for your thoughts, sucggestions, and comments.
and i believe we have decided on a color scheme for this build! We are going to go with a very dark and deep flat or satin blue with the possibility of some gun-metal pinstriping if we can find someone local who can do it for a reasonable price. he is busy trying to finish up the passenger side door repair. its coming along great. Also busy working on getting the old flaky paint out of those hard to reach areas. The fenders went to work with him today to the auto body shop to finish striping them and they will soon be in epoxy primer. we are almost ready for primer!
Update on the door: he got it as far along as he possibly could without being completely perfect. He runs an auto body shop/garage and there are some real pro's who live for this stuff that work there. They love the car and have offered to fix the door to perfection. Door was removed last night and will hopefully now be in fantastic hands for a complete professional fix. Finishing up the last few things, sanding, removing glass, removing primer, and also removing the little bit of paint left on the car. We're getting excited!!! Stay tuned for more photos soon. We're expecting another storm tomorrow and another one tuesday. At this rate we'll never be able to get the car out of the garage. we'll be digging out in july at the rate we're going
Hi welder! Pictures are coming soon! Garage is so tiny and we have fenders, etc laying all over we can barely move haha. The weather this weekend is supposed to be sunny and 30's so maybe we'll put a milk crate in it and drive it out of the garage for some close-up pics. I have some cell-phone pics i took 2-3 weeks ago. ill try and upload them. as for an update: After some photos shared by welderxx and LeRoy French; we're feeling like the French 4 door has been a true inspiration to our 4 door plym build. Knowing that LeRoy went ahead, back it he 50's, and customized something that wasn't really popular and still made one badass ride makes us feel even better about doing this project... whether its the "norm" or not. We started removing the front bumpeer and grill last night so we can get to the last little bit of paint/primer left on the car. We also removed the trunk-lid so we can remove the weather-stripping and paint it with ease. Rear fenders have been removed. One door has been removed (the one with the dent) and it is at work ready for the body guys to go to town and finish it up. The rest of the doors are coming off for primer and paint soon. We also removed the original rubber floor mats. they are hanging in the basement under special care. Theyre pretty fragile right now but we managed to keep them intact. We want to put them back in the car. Both the front and rear seats have been removed. Found some pretty neat reciepts and valet tickets and such stuffed under the seats from Kansas City where the first owner lived. The entire undercarriage was coated in that crappy undercoating from the 50's. the floors and trunk floors were also very well coated in it. We're not going to waste our time trying to pull it all up. Most of it is still concrete solid. I've spent the last 2 weeks removing what's loose with some handmade tools. We're going to paint the floors and trunk floors with rust-stop paint, etc so we dont have to worry about them. The floors had some heavysurface rust under the loose undercoating but nothing to worry about. We're doing this as a frame-on project. we dont have the space to take the body off and go crazy...especially in the dead of winter. Luckily there is lots of room under her that we can do a good enough job with a wire brush and a high quality paint, a spray gun, and a brush for the undercarriage. we think she'll still look great if we just pay attention to details. We are planning to louver the hood sort of like the Leroy French's four door but we probably wont go as crazy with the Louvers. Just enough to let the heat eascape AND add some "taste" to it. We have not filled in the holes for the trunk trim and the hood but we're not seriously contemplating haveing the car nosed and decked. We love those trim peices but we're also in love with the ass-end of the car and think it would look great if it was cleaned up and smoothed out. I'd personally love to change the tail lights but I don't think we're going to get that crazy. Like i said before, we're not chopping it; although Leroy's photos are quite the tease. Not enough skills and the pockets aren't deep enough to do it. We'll be buying the blocks to give it a different stance quite soon but it probably wont happen until the car is in primer. Right now its a race against the weather. Spring is going to start to pop in in a few weeks and when that happens and the weather starts to fluctuate the garage tends to sweat and hold moisture. we're aiming to have the car done by then...so we're going at it. we're going to have to start seriously debating color options soon. it's still way up in the air. We're most likely going to have someone pin stripe it. we just need to find someone local who does it and at a reasonable price... We know what we want for tires. Not sure what we want for wheels/caps (thinking smoothies?) Anyways; right now we're just finishing up the little stuff -----> trying to get all the paint and primer out of the nooks and crannies. we really can't wait for some warmer weather and salt-free roads so we can take her for her first drive.
Thanks for the tip on your thread Farmergal. I really admire your dedication to the project, especially with the situation you have to work in. Having done the razor blade trick I know what a pain it is. Looking forward to your progress. Eli
Thanks Eli. We busted out another few hours until 10 pm last night. My boyfriend runs a body shop and is an excellent mechanic so we are fortunate for that. He has a kid that works for him who is top notch when it comes to paint and body work and he came to take a look last night. He's very excited and thinks we're getting close to primer. We're going to finish the little bit thats left to finish at home and then its going to the shop for finishing. going torip the fenders, etc off for primer and then put them back on for paint. Might as well not cut corners now! Needless to say as of last night; all the paint is OFF the car. THANK THE LORD! Now its on to fixing whats left of little tiny dents and dings, preping the floors for rust treatment and paint and then ol' Betty is off to the shop for some finishing. after talking with the body kid last night; we're forcasting a few more weeks before shes completely finished. Yipee!
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