Projects Project 48 desoto...aka: Fernando

very cool. working on the same car myself. i like looking at the progress. are you going to do anything to the body? customize it a little or anything?

 

Awesome project. I really like how you're doing small, sub-projects and reconditioning without losing the original flavor. Nice vid as well....subscribed!

 

HELP!!!!!!!!!!! i am having the same problem with 'Grandpa" 49 desto s13...
trying the rebuild the mastercylinder after storage goo and gunk. all is clean an back in but having the same problem, as Thrashingcows..... the pictures here on this page are broken. does any body have a picture of the proper order of vavles /piston/check valve/ etc. ( as per this page) (THESE PICTURES WONT SHOW ON MY COMPUTER) broken link??/
thanks

 

Dragging this one back to the top.

Just got Fernando home after a year or more in hibernation.





Will be trying to re-wire the entire car from front to rear with an after market E-Z wiring harness....we'll see how that goes. And hope to get all the new glass installed, along with new window and door seals. And I'm sure there will be many other projects along the way.

 

Finally getting off my lazy butt and working on the Desoto. I am working on the 12V conversion wiring system, but needed to find a place to mount the fuse panel. I did not want to make any new holes in the car, so I had been looking and thinking about things for several weeks to come up with a game plan. Well yesterday was the big day.



I'm only going to be using the passenger side heater, so I had lots of room left over on teh drivers side from the dual heater set-up. So I knew I was going to be mounting the fuse panel in that location. I ended using the original support bracket for the DS heater as my main mounting point.







Changed the bends in the bracket to coincide with where I wanted the fuse box panel to sit.







Then I pulled out some scrap stainless I had from behind the shed. Cut a 6" x 6" square and then drilled and tapped a couple holes for mounting the fuse panel. Put a couple long screws in from the back side, with washers and star lock washers. Next was a trial fit of the fuse panel on the new support panel.

 

Then once I knew the fuse box panel was fine I had to get it mounted up in the car. Couple holes, build one small upper bracket off the E-brake mounting bracket, couple nuts and bolts and it was all in.



Ready to go in....







All mounted up....







Hope to have the fuse panel in and wiring strung to the appropriate areas in the next week or so.

 

So I started stringing the wiring through out the Desoto the last few days. First I had to sort it and wrap it. I like to use hockey tape to wrap my wiring, cheap and looks good IMO.



Had to organize it, and wrap it up and tape up as many of the wires so it would have less things to get caught as it was fed throughout the car.





I think there is going to be enough wire....

 

I first mounted up the fuse box, then tried to tie the new wiring to the old wires to drag them up through the pillar post on the drivers side. That did not work since the old cloth wire kept catching on things inside the pillar. I eventually had to cut the old wiring and carefully drag it out of the pillar. Then had to feed a stiff wire down through the pillar and tape the wiring to it and drag it back up and through.





And all strung up above....

 

Then get it sorted a little better and fed down through the package tray area and into the trunk.



The old rear harness...



And the new wiring strung....

 

Then it was onto the forward harness. I was shocked when the wiring fit within the factory firewall grommet and bracket!



Again I think it has plenty of wire!



And the fuse box and wiring run to the front and back. It's nice and clean with everything up out of the way.

 

Well haven't been updating on Fernando regularly...just too many projects, on too many vehicles etc.

So here is an update from the last few months...

I've slowly been working on the re-wire job. Not having much fun to tell you the truth, so hasn't been high on my "to do" list. I get easily side tracked on other projects. But I have finished the front and rear wiring.

I was able to re-use most of my OEM ligth fixtures, just needed some new guts. I dug into my box's of old misc mopar wiring to help in that project.

Box of misc....



Old vs new rear taillight wiring and connections...





Then I bought a whack load of new 1,2,3,4,6 and 8 terminal plugs for my wiring connections. I crimped on the new terminal ends, then solder each one, di-electric grease and then shrink tube.

 

Back end all finished off....







the green wire is for the reverse lights. I have not installed them yet, and might not since I plan on selling the car. The new owner might decide on a different reverse light set-up, and I did not want to cut up the body.

 

Once the main wiring harness was through the firewall I had to sort it all out. Three bundles....Front end lights, turn signals etc, then engine compartment wires, and finally all the wires that are not needed...elect fan, AC compressor, etc.



Then on to the front end wiring....

Removed the old headlight wiring, and made up all new harness....





Then the same for the front turn signal assemblies....





And all wired up neat....



As well as a new set of horns...well used from a 80's Dodge van I believe....

 

And I had to hook up a couple jump wires to see the car with the lights on!

 

And I installed all new gauges in the OEM dash...except the speedo. I used Auto meter (Autogage) units, these were your typical 2"-ish gauges. I had to pry them out of their housings, but eventually got them all out.


Then had to figure out how to mount them to the OEM cluster...without damaging the cluster. That was my main concern. Got them in, not pretty form the back, but think they turned out OK from the front.







I have also had the doors, trunk and ignition re-keyed! And I have ordered new steering column turn signal assembly, headlight switch, heater switch and a few other pieces to make the conversion to 12V a little easier.

That should bring things about up to date.

 

LOL That reminds me of that episode of Happy Days were Richie borrows the family car for a illegal drag race and Fonzi puts a set of hi performance heads on it and Richie beats a much lighter Roadster.

 

http://www.hulu.com/watch/635134?utm_source=tvcom&utm_medium=aff&utm_campaign=tvcomaff&cmp=913
Above is a link to the Happy Day's Episode called "Cruising". Where Richie Drag races Howard's Desoto after the Fonz has it modified for SPEED! My favorite...

 

How big of a pain is it to remove the gauge cluster? I'm considering new gauges, but I am not going to change the cluster, I like the stock look. I assume just loosen three (3) nuts and the cluster will come out? Stupid question I know, but what size are the nuts? Helps if you go in with the correct size wrench.