Projects 1950 Plymouth Special Deluxe 4 door - 1st real rod project - Jace Black

First off, I would like to thank everyone who participates in this forum; it has been a goldmine of information, not found much elsewhere, and I am appreciative.

I've had an affinity for rods since I can remember. Over the years, I've participated in hundreds of events, and even helped organize and promote such successful events but never had the chance to get a ride of my own due to a lack of funds.. or not being in the right place/time. Yes, even talented tattoo artists don't have every client trying to trade em a pre-60 for ink

I have a rather strong background in bobber motorcycles, but that stemmed only from not having a rod, honestly.

Fortunately, I picked up my first 'old' ride the other day, and couldn't be happier. It's a 1950 Plymouth Special Deluxe I had purchased from the 2nd owner because he needed to raise money for a kidney transplant. I got lucky, after scouring craigslist, papers, and the communities for years looking for a started rod.

I truly appreciate all that you participating members do here, and hope that one day, I could lend some knowledge to someone who knows jack about their 'first score'.

This community is amazing!!!


Glad to see there's people in the same area!

Yeah, she's full original stock.. I was amazed that everything is here, down to the last little bolt... even some extras. I will upload more photos from when I drove to check her out.

She's a runner, so I have been told, and that I just need to replace the battery and blow out the fuel line from the pump -> tank, as the brass mesh deterrorated and is pluggin the line a bit. I plan on doing that today after inking my clients.

Plan is to drop n chop, body, engine, then interior.. lookin for the fulton visor and appleton spots..

I picked up a 3" lowering block kit to drop UNTIL I can be able to bag her.. not 100% sure about cutting 2 springs off the front yet...

probably gonna sno-seal or 100% acryllic the blacks to WWW the feet until I can be able to throw cokers on her...

I think a fulton, the 3" block drop, and www's would at least get her going until I can find someone who won't totally mess up the 3-4" chop...

These are a few of my ideas.. subject to change.. but crawl, walk, run, right?


I don't have a garage yet.. but I put her up on jackstands this morning to work on disconnecting the fuel line/dropping the tank and to scope out the UBolts for the lowering and she's definately got 1950 dirt LOL... good thing is that there's no snow bad thing is it gets dark at 430pm Was a bit tricky finding a spot to place the jacks..

I guess I might just take off the wheels while I'm at it to paint the rims and do the WWWs not sure yet.

ANY Advice/Suggestions/Communication is more than welcome, since I am trying to tackle this myself, without much experience with rods, and without knowing anyone local...

 

Heres my 49 (bascily the same thing) bagged, chopped and hardtopped.

 

Congrats on your first old ride man, it's an awesome feeling. I also had a '50 Special Deluxe that all my buddies thought was hilarious because it was the only car around named after 2 pizzas! I had a lot of the same ideas as you when I had mine but never got around to most of them before I got rid of the car. I will tell you I did 3" blocks on the rear and it was super easy but you're going to need s10 ubolts to make it work. As for chopping the springs on front I never did it but my buddy who bought the car from me did and he said it wasn't that bad. Good luck to you, it's a fun car!

 

Thanks for the info!

Tank, actually, I've been looking at the pics of your ride starting from the day 'fore it was picked up.. nice work.. I was a bit confused, though, that you have the before and after pic with the 2 door facing it, couldn't tell if yours was 2 or 4.. got me all confused.. but still the same kinda idea I want for mine...

 

The before and after pic happen by accident. I happen to be at rust revival one year and a car that looked just like mine when i bought it was there. Same color too. The owner had no clue what i was doing and that my car was the same as his.

My car is the exact same make and model as the car that is the before. Club Coupe

 

Kool project you got going on. If you ever need a hand I'm in Springfield..

 

From one old Mopar lover, cool car. When you look for mechinal parts don't foget to check NAPA first. Good luck and have fun.

 

Good luck with it! I don't have a garage either,just gotta wait for a non windy, cold, wet day and do what you can.

 

yep yup... the skies cleared up after my 3rd and last client today, and I was seriously jonesing to go home early, hit Lowes for some 100% acrylic paint, and trade in the 'sedan' car cover I got for an 'suv' cover.. toss in the battery and blow out the fuel lines, drop the Ubolts to install the block, etc etc.. It was fierce... lease is up in a few months, and I'm not going to settle for anything without a garage Thanks to my '50.

 

Grats on the project. I've had a thing for Plymouths lately so here's a bit of inspiration. Normally I would hide all my cut lines, but I left them in the canopy of the truck in the background so you have an idea how much I dropped the top.

 

Looking forward to seeing how it turns out.

If you are going to be running the flathead you should check in over at the P115-D24 site http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/index.php?referrerid=1152 there is a lot of flathead Mopar knowledge over there. Even if you plan on swapping the running gear you should be able to scrounge up parts that you may need there as well.

 

Nice car; I've got the exact same car along with a 48 Plymouth coupe in the stable. My 49 is my weekend driver. I had no intentions of chopping it since it's a 4dr but I found a thread from another site where a guy chopped his 49 4dr and i was hooked. Mine is going under the knife as soon as summer is over; im collecting parts for a 318/5 speed swap and disc brake conversion to do at the same time. Check this thread out; this dude does an awesome job on his.
http://olskoolrodz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=40363

Here's a shot of my beater, too.

 

I haven't managed to work as much as I have wanted to on her yet Central Oregon poor weather + work.. I have managed to drop and clean the tank, replace the fuel lines, toss in new fuel filters, do the brakes, lower the rear (till I can bag her)..

Fired her up but fuel is spraying out of the carb, nothing like I have ever seen. ;( My pal says It's time to rebuild carb kit it....

 

SO we have gone through the entire car, and have done just about everything possible with reconditioning the systems and more...

PROBLEM: Vacuum Advance is trashed (rusted out) and I only need to FIND a vacuum advance that will work with this distributor!

ANY help would be greatly appreciated?!

The Distributor is the only non-original part on the car and came from a 1939 Plym Roadking P8..

Distributor part # IGS-4103A-1

I would imagine that NAPA (or another local part store) would surely have something that would work, but the guys at the local NAPA really had no idea about it (

I'm really hoping for a solution that won't require me having to wait for part to be shipped, but at this point, ugh... I would also like to avoid paying $100 for a 'vintage' replacement....

Ideas?

 

Congrats on the Plymouth. My wife has a 1953 Plymouth Cambridge. It is a nice solid driver. We have been able to find most any mechanical parts we need from Napa or Kanter. We also like swap meets in our area not only for the parts, but to meet people who know where to find them. Junk Plymouth six cylinders are everywhere if you look. Really cheap too! Speed parts are still around if you want to go that route. The best money I have spent on ours was for the shop manual. Good luck!

 

Thanks!

So after rebuilding the carb, the dizzy, new plugs, wires, condenser, points, etc... wouldn't fire up.. wouldn't fire up.. read some guides on timing had it all set 57 times, no startup.

A couple of mechanic school students came over and started all saying different things and as the last one left, said "I wonder what this wire is for..."

So I traced it thru the firewall, under the dash to the ignition switch... then tried to figure out what to connect it to.... connected it to the black on the coil and it fired right up.

I finished adjusting the dizzy, as the screw was still loose -and by ear, then tightened it down and drove around the block successfully.

Reverse was a PITA.. but all and all a good day.

..and now on to getting it running 'better'.. seatbelts, all the bulbs, turn signals, maybe a battery disengage lock? oh fun.

)

p.s. Steering is a B******!

 

Started going through the electrical.. wow.. lots of frays/shorts/etc. I have been thinking really hard about going with an EZ Wire setup and just redo it all. I mean, got the bulbs replaced, the brakelights are what I am concerned about. Running tails run fine, but no action on brakes.

I am thinking it's gotta be the flasher relay(?)

I will also need to add the flashers and I am really open to suggestions on this.. I have been looking at one of these: http://www.reidsrodparts.com/ELEC1.html

.. and I know I am going to wanna throw in the cig lighter.. so would this:
http://www.ezwiring.com/wiring_harness.html
be a good move?

I'm just stoked I can drive her around the block )

 

Great project!!
My Grandfather bought one new, my family inherited it and it was our car until '60 or so1 I really want one, but I prefer a stocker.

 

It's probably the brake light pressure switch. About ten bucks and 15 minutes.

 

Do you have any pics of it with the 3" blocks in the rear

 

Great car! My first was a 49 ply four door. Not everyone likes a straight 6 but its a bullet proof engine and will take you anywhere! I would leave the motor and just give it lots of TLC while you do the rest of the car.
Get yourself a rebel wire kit from the parts for sale on the hamb. I've used 3 of them on different cars and they work great an are more affordable than EZ or painless.
Good luck man!

 

This is with 2 front springs cut also. I will post an update of the adventure soon.

 

It was the brake pressure sensor (underside, near rear driver tire). Took a couple days to get it from NAPA... and a few mins to replace (while under there)... Thanks Mike! Another thing was gutting the brake lights, replacing bulb housings n bulbs.. stock fabric-coated wiring is is doing pretty good, so just replaced connectors... people LOVE to give you 12v bulbs, regardless of how much you emphasize '6 VOLT POSITIVE GROUND'. Also, had to make sure mu posi ground was, actually, on a good grounding spot (was on block)...

 

I appreciate the advice! I am trying to stay as 6 volt and orig as possible by trying to preserve as much as I can, without sacrificing what I want to do...

 

Looking for a stock 49-50 AM/FM radio.

 

Just saw this, and thanks!

I decided to not chop (as much as I wanted to) and go Visor n Skirts on her instead... Nobody really wants to do the chop around here without ****ing it up ... so I was thinkin' 3" block, visor, cut 2 springs, skirts, 3.5" whitewalls, fender chrome trim to help break up the back bubble...

 

Float sunk a lot, until I found that brass needs to be welded right to not have holes. Had to adjust the float to compensate for the extra weld-weight; Golden.

License plate running light was installed. Thing is that, since it's a positive ground 6v, you have to make sure the bulb casing grounds to frame (AND a 6v bulb)...

Turn signals were added by tying into the brake wire and installing two new bulb housings in the running lights (under headlights) as well.... which brought me to..

Found small chrome strips to secure the clear lenses into the front grille. Awesome! 2 mysterious chrome strips and two screws, who knew?

 

Driveline started scraping, thought by cutting springs off the front, the car would 'level out' to compensate for the back 3"? Ended up cutting out 1", still scraping while the lady and baby are in the back though... Might cut n tunnel and reduce bumpers? I know bags are the answer, but I am not a baller. ;(

 

I think your going in the right direction, sticking to a low budget. What kind of miles on the car, and what condition is the engine?? You can have some real fun with the flatty 6 cyl. I've done it before in the 60s and I am slow in doing it again with my 47 Dodge pickup. Straighten out the scraping issue. You got it down and the stance looks good from what I can determine. Wish I could do my frontend that easy, but the truck's got a straight axle front end and no room to speak of between the engine and axle. Blocks will do fine in the rear. Engine will stay a flatty 6, already split the exhaust manifold. (check out my albums in my profile) working on a tubing dual carb manifold, milled head and cam. Keep your thread going for us Mopar fans.
I know you want to keep it near stock, but for reliability, think about going to 12 volt. The starter will hold it okay with short bursts, change ign. coil to a resistor coil, put in a nice radio as I do not think you will readily find a 6 volt FM radio.
Rereading your last post, I get the idea that your Bumper is "scraping" For those trips with the family, you might want to give the rear a little ADJUSTABLE attitude with a pair of AIR SHOCKS. Won't break the bank like a air ride setup.

 

When mocking up the rear drop, make sure your wheel/tire combo will fit between the fender & drum when you try to change tires.