Features '36 Chrysler coupe - mild custom

Alright, winter is officially over, finally! Over the past couple weeks I've been gearing up to get the Chrysler out of storage, which first and foremost meant getting wheels and tires back on the car. I blasted and painted some stock 15" '40 Plymouth wheels I had. The set of 30-40 year old Coker Classics on those wheels looked like they have never seen the road, but after a honest assessment I was only comfortable running (2) of them. So I bit the bullet and picked up some brand spankin new Stones to run out front (6.70-15). I had to run tubes on all (4) because my valve stem holes were so elongated that they would not hold a new valve stem. So my idea was to go Incredible Hulk and do-it-yourself extraordinaire by mounting the tires by hand with only a tire iron, and then balance with a HF bubble balancer. The plan was going great until the 2nd rim when I pinched a tube. When I started trying to pry the tire off the rim I realized that this whole idea was more trouble than it was worth, what a pain, I was sweating my ass off, and scratching the shit out of my freshly painted wheel to boot. Frustrated, I ended up hauling the wheels/tires to my buddy who has a machine and got em mounted and balanced for the best-in-town price of a 12 pack.
The car does look sinister without the skirts and caps, and I drove it that way for a day, but I just can't resist classing my baby up.
I also scored a 1950ish Chrysler steering wheel off of eBay which I'm excited to mount, photo included. Next order of business is to install my new turn signal switch, which will pretty much complete the re-wiring adventure I started last summer, street legal anyway.

 

beautiful car! great decision on buying that one! congrats

 

Thanks! Absolutely no regrets.

 

The dog ate my car!!! http://jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/my-dog-ate-my-car.936378/#post-10540243
In other news, the charging system doesn't seem to be doing it's thang. I don't believe it has worked since I rewired the car. I wired it up exactly the way it was when I started, and it did work before the re-wire. It has the old, and I'm talking at least 30-40 year old voltage regulator on the firewall and a mopar alternator from God knows what. I'm weighing my options but leaning towards just scrapping the old alternator and regulator and trying to rig up a 1 wire GM unit or similar. Definitely taking suggestions on this. Suggestions on what alt to use...will the pulley match the belt, something easy to swap in without a bunch of custom bracketry. Reminder, this is a 1951 251 Flathead 6, car converted to 12V. Any slick alternators out there that look like old generators?

 

I am in love with your car! just a heads up they make special valve stems for those wheels. you don't have to run tubes.

 

Thanks!!! I had no idea there were special stems for these wheels.


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Worked out the charging issue today thanks to some help on the hamb. Turns out the field wire had grounded out which killed the external voltage regulator. New regulator fixed it, and I am very happy to be keeping my early 60s Mopar charging setup. The troubleshooting is documented here: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/index.php?threads/mopar-alt-chrageing-problems.151994/
Thanks again Don!


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Been a while since I've checked on this thread.....your car looks great with the wheels & tires (I like 'em without the caps, but they fit your look perfectly-mine is a little rough). I was going to mention the special valve stems also, I believe some wheels came with the oval stem holes-no sure which though. Damn nice lookin car!