Projects 1956 Desoto Fireflite Sportsman... Custom?

the best way to make this car look it's best is to use the best looking factory pieces of the 55-56 era. 55 desoto had the best looking grille by far simple bolt in, get rid of all the ugly,gawdy trim at least the badging, lower it as you stated, 56 chrysler had the best looking tail light's and bumper's again a bolt on. as other's have stated leave the body customizing alone, body is custom enough

 

I use a heat gun and a scraper on the undercoating. Less likely hood of fire then a torch.
I think that you could any number of wheel openings/lower quarter panel replacements.
I would look at 57 Chevy wheel openings to give it a more stream lined look. If you don't want to run cruiser skirts.
JMHO.
Torchie

 

Those parts are really cool but, WAY out of my price range.


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We have a guy in our town that has been selling rust repair panels for many years. Over the years, he has collected a pile of wheel arches from different vehicles that people may have ordered but never picked up.
A few years back I was patching a 50s Dodge panel that had both rotted wheel arches. I went to the guys shop, and looked at his collection, and found a pair that I thought would work out great. I think he sold me those arch pieces real cheap, just to get rid of them. I figured out where they needed to be put, and welded them in place. I used flat sheet metal to form around each side of the patch panels. The panel looked good when we were done with it. Maybe there is a place like that near you.
You can do the same basic thing with pictures. Take a straight on side view of your car, then look at different pictures of cars (and later trucks) and see if any might look OK on your car, get pictures, and cut the wheel arches out of the pictures and tape them to the picture of your car. When you find something that looks good in the pictures, see if you can find a real piece to hold up against the side of your car. Some of the 70s & 80s Chevy trucks had pretty flat box sides, and those parts are pretty cheap. Gene

 

If you do this, be sure to mock it up with tape and cardboard or something and then try to remove and replace the rear wheel without touching it first, before you commit to the sheetmetal. 52-54 Ford cars have a low rear wheel opening line and when lowered it gets really difficult to get the wheels off of the rear to change a flat, to the point you may need multiple jacks, individually routed air shocks and to flatten the tire out first. Also depends on the width and diameter of your tire of choice.

Not saying it wouldn't look slick, but it's something to consider before committing to the steel. I know of a couple customs built with the rear wheel well almost flush with the rockers, the builders made the bottom half of the quarter panels removable, with the seam behind the rear quarter moldings, basically the whole lower quarter becomes a fender skirt, makes it seamless and still able to change a tire. Lots of work but cool effect.

 

yeah, the 48 plym I used to have you had to but a jack stand under the frame & jack the axle just right to get the wheel between the arch & the drum.

 

I will definitely mock it up before making it permanent. Have to find that balance between cool and practical for this one. I fully intend to drive this car regularly


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I have the in-laws here so I’m not able to get out and do anything with the car right now. I’m trying to sneak away and get more work done on the seats.

I have been thinking about getting the roof prepped and primed to protect it. There is only 1 dime sized ding, it’s dead straight other than that so it would be minimum work.

I have to bounce around on what part of the car I’m working on based on the day, the time, and work. Mechanical stuff has to happen on sundays while the apartment office is closed so they don’t bust my chops. Removable parts I can bring to work and get stuff done when I get breaks. She’ll get there though!


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So you couldn't keep them away with a CD-19 quarantine excuse?

 

I couldn’t keep them away with the great wall of China completely covered in killer bees carrying flamethrowers


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Actually got something done today. I saw something like this on a how-to post here in these forums. I did it with what I had around. I didn’t get a pic of it but I covered the springs with landscaping fencing with small square mesh. That will keep the mice out of the new foam. Then I covered it with heavy fabric. Got the front seat ready for foam now




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Holy shit that’s funny....


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I'm glad to see that you're sticking to the basics. The point of the exercise is to end up with a driver, and to develop your skills. And, I second the opinion of making damn sure you can remove the tires if you futz with the opening. Bigger would be better, especially if you're going to cover it with turnpike type skirts; because form should always follow function in my opinion. Keep at it. The biggest reward comes when you drive it --- because then, the sweat, blood and swearing fades away.

 

I have not had much time the last few weeks for the car but I did have an adventure with it. My apartments sent out an email that said our garages are not to be used for storage, only for parking. I have been here for 7 years and have built 2 boats, have a soft plastic bass bait making setup, all of our bikes, and various other hobby tools and materials, and my garage is empty compared to most of the people here. But, I dont want them screwing with me about the car, so I loaded all the parts into the trunk, threw the front seat in and told my wife to load the kids up in her car and follow me to work.

I havnt driven the car outside of my parking lot in over a year, but I knew it ran well and it had brakes so no big deal. Started to make a left out of my complex and the passenger door swung wide ass open. That made my kids day. Whipped into the parking lot across the street, jumped out, and closed the door. By this time she was smokin pretty good, but I knew it would clear up. Drove about a mile down the road and noticed my wife flashing her lights at me so I pulled into another parking lot. She jumped out and told me I was on fire. It was just burning off oil but I can see why she was concerned because I felt like Uncle Buck bombing this thing down the road in 6 oclock Austin traffic. I let it idle for about 10 minutes and blow out some of cobwebs while my kids made fun of me relentlessly. Hopped in and hit the road. It cleared up after about 10 minutes and was driving just as smooth as ever. Even the seat, despite only being springs with cloth over them, was pretty comfortable. Got to where I could park it at work and noticed the waterpump gasket I just replaced is leaking again. Super cool. While I had the hood open I noticed smoke by the starter relay. I couldnt pull the negative cable off the battery so, in a moment of absolute genius, I barehanded the wire I thought was the problem and yanked on it. That ended the short, and also burned the absolute shit out of me. Lesson learned.

All in all it was nice getting to drive the car with the windows down. It runs and drives great and it has me even more excited. Plus, now that its at work, I can do more serious stuff like welding/bodywork

 

Patch it, prime it, drop it all the way around and go riddin' around.

 

Been a while since I had any updates. A lot has happened. Changed jobs almost a year ago so I lost the ability to work on the car at the plant, but they were cool enough to let me keep it there for a while. Then I had to put the car in storage because my apartment wouldn't let me keep it there. Then I moved to Florida a couple months ago.
Bonus is that I have a house now, and it has a shop in the back. My wife hooked it up because I was in Austin while she was getting looking for a house.
I got the car hauled out here a few weeks ago. BenD from here on the HAMB brought it out. Super nice guy. I definitely recommend giving him a holler if you need a car hauled.
I'm not wasting time now that I have time and space.

 

First thing is getting the engine pulled so I can reseal it. I checked compression on all cylinders and they were at ~120 except for 2 that were at ~100. I have a complete gasket set that I traded for a while back so I'm thinking of just cleaning everything up and resealing. Have to pull the engine to get the sludge out of the bottom of the oil pan so just going to take care of what I can while its out. plus its leaking oil from everywhere and coolant from the water pump.

 

It needs new motor mounts, the originals are goners so I'll be on the look out for a welder, I'll need it for all the rust repair. While it's out I'm going to knock out all the suspension bushings in the front end. The wiring is disintegrating so I was thinking of getting this universal wiring harness from Painless
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006B3UF0/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_7?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1
A little bit every day should add up.

 

I enjoyed reading this thread tonight and I am glad you are back at it in your new place. I'll be watching.

 

i tried one of those universal painless wire kits it would have worked great if i was doing a general motors product nothin fit on the mopar ended up pretty much cutting all the ends off the wires. save your money buy a kit made for mopar they makeim or better yet make your own good luck with your new place looks good

 

This is gonna be a great one.

 

I thought about just making my own but I would spend way to much on extra wire. Do you know a good source for auto wire? The car has electric windows and an electric seat so it has some extra accessories I need to fuse

 

Wow, I wish I would have known when y’all had this up for sale. I would have been happy to give y’all a low ball offer. Sharp car!

 

http://4rcustomswire.com/ they have any color combination that one could want.

 

I hope you run an air cleaner, for Hemi's sake.
Not just when driving either.

Nothing but clean air should ever get the chance to go down the pie hole.
More than one car at a body shop has gotten a thick coating of bondo dust and overspray, and who knows what for thrown wire brush bristles etc and etc.

 

Make your own wiring harness using two universal fuse blocks. Go for about 20 circuits in all. One fuse block is hot all the time and the other fuse block comes on with the key. Put the headlights and power windows on relays. The old switch turns on the relay and the relay switches the load on and off. Put your fuse blocks where you can easily see them, in the glovebox or trunk.

 

Even a stock DeSoto makes a nice custom.

 

A note on wiring. If you want to build your own panel, I recommend this video from superfastmatt where he gave the types and sources for his Honda s600 roadster and he is very entertaining.

I almost bought a 56 Firedome. They wanted 7k, but after looking at the car's interior and rust patch on the floor offered 6k. Flat out said no. A little high in my area for a car that has sat for 17 years. The wiring was pretty scary too. Only good thing it had was the paint and was a 2 owner. I ended up buying my current car mainly because I could enjoy it today and drive it while working on it.

 

I decided to go ahead and make the wiring harness myself. I'm doing everything else so I might as well. The video from superfastmatt was really good... but super fast. I'm going to reference that while I start planning out my harness. I also read Crazy Steve's entire wiring tech post which has amazing info, but still went over my head.
I'm labeling the old harness and Im going to keep it intact as a reference for my big dumb head when I get started on the wiring.
I'm also going to try and make a body cart so I can roll the frame out into the yard and clean it up. It's solid packed with dirt and rock. The frame is boxed from the factory so its really hard to get at all that crap. Plus it will make floor and rear floor brace repair easier. There is a great thread on here for making one can be broken down when not in use that I need to find again.
Wife and kids are headed out of town this weekend so engine should be out Saturday morning!

 

Heres the thread for making an adjustable body cart
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum...-cart-dolly-for-frame-off-restoration.209590/