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

To me, the '49 Chevy tail lights look somewhat similar to the stock lights on this '50 DeSoto Woodie Wagon. I like the overall look, and I don't see anything wrong with the painted tailgate hinges.

 

I guess I'm not as well educated as I thought. Had to look that one up.

 

It's just my opinion, but I think that the Chevy tail lights look better on Brian's car with the slanted C (D???) pillar (and entire rear of the car) and the stock tail lights look better on the woody with the nearly vertical D pillar.

 

This car had tiny horizontal lights just above the bumper in the quarter panel. The pot metal housings are WASTED (like every piece on this thing), hence the switch to the vertical Chevy lights. Which I mounted higher, like the earlier DeSoto woody in the photo you shared. They required a little trimming and a little fillet (I used Mar-Glass) to make them fit the somewhat flatter contour of this car compared to the Chevy fenders. I think they work. The back up lights are '46 Ford front park lamp repops with 1157 bases, I have red LED bulbs, so they're now additional taillights. In addition, I'm putting an LED light strip intended to go beneath a pickup tailgate on the stainless window channel at the top of the tailgate opening. It's gonna look like runway lights...

 

I like the Chevy lights way better than the original.

 

I also looks like the woody had bumpers that were not as imposing as the Stock ones on you car. I sure like what you did with the bumpers. Big improvement

 

Yes, the '49's and '50's were much more "restrained" than the '51's and '52's. Without them, the car has really, for a MOPAR of the time, very crisp lines. I particularly like the line of the top, which is flatter crowned that it's GM and Ford contemporaries, and the canted C pillar. Without the toothy grill teeth and extra gingerbread, the front end is as clean as any custom Merc to my eye. Less turns out to be more.

 

Bryan, The rear bumper swap looks like what they should have done at the factory, the huge bumper the car was born with looks like a after though, what you have done makes it more pleasing to the eye, you sir are a man of vision. HRP

 

I'm puzzled: Do you have to lower the rear glass before opening the tailgate? I can't see how the sealing surface works in the handful of pics I've reviewed.

 

Yes. Just like every wagon with roll down tailgate windows.


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...next year when you get bored, you can make it into a woody...

 

In my spare time!


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Any update on the wagon. I suspect the interior guy has been busy with your car. Been awhile since you posted anything on either car.

 

I remember the fight I had getting my clips on. Ended up putting a nut cert in and bolting them in place. A real PIA


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The windshield saga continues: Today, glass guy #2, who actually knows what he's doing, came down and we glued the torn gasket (torn buy glass guy #1) back together. The butyl adhesive needs a couple hours to cure, so we adjourned for today, leaving it to cure before installing the stainless. I had bought a complete set of w/s stainless from CA for the center divider bar, and it, happily, looks MUCH better than the original. Turns out, mine wasn't busted after all, but I WAS missing the little stainless connector or filler piece at the top, which this one has. It's slightly different than the '52, as the lower cover clamp is also a stainless, separate piece. The chrome is pretty nice, so it was $100 well spent.

 

Haha, thanks! Never owned a classic wagon, myself.

 

Been a couple weeks since I've been able to do anything on the car. We were in Florida for a week, then home a week, then to New Orleans for a week, then back to Florida last Wednesday to fetch back home to Michigan an '02 GMC Sierra that I found there. That probably sounds goofy to anyone from the south or west, but here, a 20 year old Chevy or GMC pickup is swiss cheesed and wasted, this one is cherry pie. Our son rode shotgun, I gave it to him.
Anyway, the glass guy came today and we FINALLY got the w/s stainless on. It went pretty well, I still have to get the center bar on, but that can't happen until I get the garnish moldings on the inside, and that can't happen until the headliner is in, and there lies todays problem...
The upholstery guy finally came down with the headliner and windlace. We put that on and started on the headliner, which he'd made using the intact original that was in the car, but not installed as the pattern. We got to the bow in the center of the rear door opening, and I said, "There's something REALLY wrong here."
The next lasting was WAY to close to that one, didn't line up with the mounting holes in the body, and the headliner, when I lifted it and pulled, was almost 3 feet too short.
WTF?
The answer was immediate and obvious. The headliner he'd copied for a pattern turns out was for a sedan, NOT a wagon. We never unrolled it and laid it out to check, because it was inside the car with all the other parts, we both assumed it had come out of this body to paint it.
So, after making the 7th bow, which was obviously not there, and modifying all of the others (because the loft of the top is evidently different from a wagon to a sedan), we're starting over. He's going to be able to salvage the first half of the one he'd made, and has enough fabric to make a new one.
So, once again, like everything else on this car, one step forward and two back, but I have a handle on the solution.

 

Tough Build

I know what you mean about these cars being harder to build. When I did my 53 I didn’t think it would ever get done but they do. The good part about them being so different is............they are different.
Tom


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It it was easy, we would all drive sweet hemi DeSoto wagons. Press on, brother.

 

The upholstery guy is AWOL, I did get the taillights wired up, but nothing else is happening. I’m getting irritated...


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This upholstery guy AWOL deal seems to be a pandemic. I was just talking to a good friend yesterday looking for a new upholstery guy because his went AWOL too. Seems like a business to possibly get into these days.

 

I'm getting seriously unhappy. I was going to call him today, as he assured me he'd be "done" by today, but I've had a crappy day, and since he has my interior, and my $6K, I figured right now might not be a good time to yell at him because I dented the front bumper of my new RAM pickup...

 

On a happy note, I DID finally get an appointment at the Sec. of State branch here in Kalamazoo and got the title transferred for the wagon, and an application for the '52 plate I bought last weekend. So, progress on some fronts...

 

Brian...Following your posts since the beginning of the superb '34 roadster, I trust you to persevere.
The 'Patience of Job' (that's pronounced 'Jobe') LOL and as if you didn't know.
Forage ahead, Brother. We are all with you in spirit!
BTW: Another great choice, I might add.

 

I just got off the phone with the upholstery guy, who says now he’s actually WORKING on my stuff today and will have everything done by the end of today. He’s been since January, asked in March if I’d pay in full, and had things nearly done. He showed me photos of the seat covers, sewn but not installed, and door cards, likewise sewn but not on the panels. So, foolishly, I did, with his assurance that everything would be finished up “pretty soon”.
Of course that was not the case, and my excitement about having this interior done has turned to to stress and frustration. Not that I wasn’t warned, by everyone who’s had him work for them. I went with him because the work he does, when he does it, is excellent.
So, chalk that up experience. No matter how it looks, I’ll have a bad taste about the whole job, and I’m sure I’ll regret not doing it myself.



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Way to keep after it...what will you do with all your spare time after this is finished....

 

Another oxymoron I'll have to store away for a rainy day, a "fast, honest upholsterer". Good one !

 

There it is in a nutshell... LOL. A slow but excellent job is better than a fast crummy one any day...

 

I know that feeling. I always say I’m going to wait til it done and delivered, and I usually fall for some story and pay up early. In my case, all that does is delay the deliver! Seems I take a long time to learn tough lessons. Most painters and upholsters are cut from the same cloth and there the best at getting paid early. No offense to the good ones, just my experience. Others may vary!