After years of looking ....finally found.... { as close as I could find } to the Unicorn my father owned ...in the mid to late 50's while he was dating my mother ... Plan is will be to take my mother for a ride in it as soon as I can My father passed away 9 years ago a 1953 Coronet coupe Ive seen 100's of sedans { I see 10,000 53 Chevy's and Fords to 1 of these } his was a Red Ram Hemi car with a Gyro-Matic this one is a flat head six 3 speed the family I'm buying from tells me they made fewer than 5000 coupes in 53 the initial plan is to drive the hell out of it ... on the Back to Bricks Promo tour this summer its a barn car , the story goes ... it was parked in the barn while the owner was sent to Korea in the Army and left it there when he got back ... guesstimate it sat for 50 years until is was resurrected as a father & son project it only has 33 k miles on it when I went to look at it it was a little rougher than I wanted it to be until I saw the licence plate topper from AAA the company he worked for ,For 39 years ...SOLD so I'm calling on the extremely knowledgeable member of The HAMB to help me find the proper era period correct parts I need for it to wake the Flatty Up I already know about Langdon .. and the Montana Guys ... Eggy I'm looking for a Edmonds intake ... OD trans or conversion and suggestions
Cool car and even cooler story! Congrats on the car and post pics of taking your Mom for a drive. Jim
I'd love to see more pictures when you get a chance. So nice seeing something different, nice memories for you, your Mom and family. Sent from my SM-S320VL using Tapatalk
It'll go faster if you take that cheesy Ram hood ornament off and mail it to me...LOL.....less drag ya know. Seriously nice car and I hope it makes your Mom happy!
Can't wait to see more pictures myself. It sounds like it is a really nice car. Sent from my Moto Z (2) using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
In 56 Dodge had an optional 2 BBL carb that raised hp from 125 to 132. I believe there are a few of these kicking around. I think the 53/54 were rated at 110 hp at 3600 rpm. Without spending a lot of bucks, you can have the head milled to raise the cr. There are several ways to split the exhaust manifold, if you handy with a hole saw and welder I can talk you through one that doesn't require trying to weld steel to cast iron. Offenhauser still produces dual single barrel intakes. Check out manifoldsbymoose if you want something home grown. The engine should be a 230. Keep in mind these have a 4 5/8 inch stroke and don't want to go much north of 4000 rpm without changes to bottom end oiling, keep them below that and they will treat you well. You can take .060 of the head assuming it hasn't been milled before, this will give you an 8.25 to 1 cr and allow you to crank in 5 or 6 more degrees of initial timing to deal better with modern gas. Exhaust valve seats are factory hardened so no lead additives are needed. You said it is a standard trans, but most Dodges had fluid drive regardless of the trans. Start it up put it in third, put the brakes on and let out the clutch. If it doesn't stall either the clutch is totally toast or you have fluid drive. This is a fluid coupling that allows the clutch and drivedunit to come to a stop while still engaged to the running engine. This system allows you to drive around in third gear just using gas pedal and brake. Or you can row through the gears as you would with a normal clutch, your choice. Make sure you have a properly operating parking brake. There is no compression braking with engine off. If parked even on a slight slope, fluid drive cars like to wander... Wheel chocks in the trunk are a good idea if you are not 100% sure of your e brake. Go to the allpar web site and search fluid drive for a better description of care and feeding. Two doors are few and far between. That one is nice example. 33000 is hardly broken in for these engines. Keep the temp down and oil pressure normal 35 to 45 psi at cruise, and you will have a dependable and fun if not fast ride.
Fluid drives also require 10w non detergent oil. I built a couple, they are actually decent Transmissions. Just not what you want if you want to drag race... Sent from my Moto Z (2) using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
Yep! Awesome car! Its getting easier to find parts, finally. Sent from my SM-G950U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
The guys over ay www.p15-d24.com have a couple centuries of experience with these engines so consider joining. .
found this nugget in the glove box ... Original Owners manual ! ... only 35 pages ... my 2008 escape is over 300
Wow! I love original literature that came with our cool cars. It's definitely worth reading through it. Sent from my Moto Z (2) using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
update.... Just took it on a 1100 mile trip..from to Detroit to Sault Ste. Marie and Grand Marais 17.5 mpg only used 1 1/2 quarts of oil