Customs Wagon hunt may be OVER!!! 1952 DeSoto wagon is HOME!

Lol, I took care of that, but we can’t talk about what I did here! It still has a Hemi in it, is all I’ll saabiut that.


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Brian, that's a great color combo!

 

Neither could I!



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Tires ordered. 23575R15. 1.6” WW from Coker, FREE shipping!


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Yep that looks great, I wonder if you gave silver a thought around the windows? It would connect to the sparkling aluminum trailer.

 

That's a big tire. I run that on the back of all my 35-36 pickups.

 

The wheel openings are so big they'll fill them up nicely. I have 21560R16's on the front on now on the Salt Flats, they look like casters.

 

Haha! Thanks, I'm still trying to convince my wife that it's not too much contrast. I think the wide whites will balance it a bit.

 

The wagon is turning out very nice Brian! I like the color combo!

 

I think that color will really pop in the sun, and the light trim sets it off.

 

Looking good as always, Brian!!
I agree with Crazy Steve, once you get the trim, door handles, grill and bumpers on the car, it will break up the big blocks of color and it will look outstanding!

 

It looks awesome outside!!!!
It will look so sweet with the WWW’s and all the chrome. Great color combination

 

The white walls will balance it nicely, and in the pictures looks longer & not as tall. That old brown made it look bulky & large. With your interior it's a home run, we'll done!

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There you go. Looks great. My paint story- got the ratio screwed up on so some hardener. After rolling the car out the next day, it got some red oak leaves on it. They left a nice pattern all over the car. THAT did not "buff out."

 

I forced my own hand.


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Wow. You're rolling along at a brisk clip, man !!! Looking good.

 

Well, the windshield is in. A fiasco. I'd bought a new Steele rubber gasket, as the original was so dried out and brittle I couldn't remove the glass without the rubber breaking. Turns out, the Steele gasket is NOWHERE near the same profile. The original had a fatter profile, and completely filled the glass channel at the top and sides. This one leaves 1/4" to 3/8" in the channel, which because I'd taped the glass-less opening, some of it has no color. It fits, and holds the glass and the stainless, but it doesn't fit right.

So if you've got an old MOPAR, don't expect their windshield rubber to be an anywhere near accurate replacement.

The guys who installed it had NO idea how to set a gasket with an integral locking strip, which I do because all my Spartan trailers have windshields that are mounted with them. Not only didn't they understand how to install the glass, the ignored my advice to set the gasket first, then just put then glass in and zip the lock strip in place. Nope. They spent and hour trying to set the glass in the gasket, then finally gave up and installed the gasket in the opening then the glass, which dropped right in.

Then one of them bent one of the stainless trim pieces, ruining it, because he didn't understand how it fit in the rubber. Thank God I had an extra that had a little ding which I hastily pounded out and we used that instead. I'll give them credit for sticking with it and getting it done, but, it was watching two monkeys screw a football. Then, they charged my $500 for the job that I should have just done myself.

Oh well, it's in.

 

You're a better man than I, Gunga Din. I hate trying to work with sexual intellectuals who don't know from Shinola.

 

When you have a Steele seal that doesn't fit, call them. They will figure it out and get you the right one. Sorry you had trouble.

 

“We always wanted to work on one of them there Desotars”

You are to be commended for not committing a felony when they bent the trim.
GGGGRRRRRRR!

 

I believe that would be classified as justified!

 

Unbelievable that they had the gall to charge you $500 after their lack of knowledge and damaging a trim piece! I'm afraid I wouldn't have been so nice about it as you apparently were!

 

Brian, I think Dick is right about this. At a minimum they ought to reimburse you for the cost of replacing the trim they destroyed.

 

That's what I intend to do, but, I'm torn as to whether the hassle of pulling the glass and replacing with something that may not fit as well as this. I mean, it fits, but it doesn't FIT. I was irked that the guy tried to spring the stainless, but he did it before I even saw what he was doing. The other piece I had a tiny ding that I tapped out, it's not noticeable.

If I had the original gasket, intact, or even a section, to send to Steele I would, but I don't. It was so brittle it literally broke and crumbled. I ended up having to cut the thing apart to get the glass out. It's not like I don't know how to pull and install glass in this type of a gasket, I've done it many times. Obviously, I made a mistake having someone else install the glass. I'm kind of "stuck" now with what I have.

It's irritating, but, I'm not going to let it bug me.

 

Man, I can’t imagine dealing with the guys on the windshield fiasco. I hesitate to ever have someone help because of situations like you had to deal with. Nothing is worse than thinking you might save yourself some headache by paying someone to do something only to wish you would have just done it yourself. I did that once paying someone to fix a few things on an old Harley I had. Once I went back and fixed almost everything they worked on, I decided I was done paying for mechanical work. Thankfully, I do have a good friend that helps me do glass sometimes. He is a car buddy and has owned a glass business for probably 30 years.

On a better note, car is looking great!

 

Here's how the rubber sets in the window opening. Not good. The original filled the entire channel.

 

Have you checked around much, a relative of mine used these guys for their Chrysler.
https://www.oldmoparts.com/parts-weatherstripping-chrysler-desoto-imperial-1951-1959.aspx

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Well, I checked as far as paying Steele almost $400 for a gasket that is no right...

 

Wow, Brian! At only $400, it was a 'Steele'!
I ordered some Ford rubber from Steele, it was a great fit...
Door rubber for my F100. I think you're right in that they may not be familiar with 'All models MoPar'...
Wagon looks 'smashing'! I'm going to Harbor Freight today for the paint gun set. Thanks!

 

I'm I'm

I'm VERY happy with all three of them. The primer gun and detail gun work great, in fact, I shot the white pearl with the detail gun. The finish gun has a 1.8 tip, it worked very well with the base and clear. The primer gun I have the 1.2 tip in, but it also has a 1.8, if you're comfortable spraying finish paint with a $40 gun.