thanks guys! Back to the floors.. The original floors... are bad. (big surprise right?) The frame is surprisingly solid, but you can kind of see that where the frame to body mounts are, is bad... along with a lot of the floor pans.
I saw one today. Now sure of year. It was Black, very cool. I never seen one before. The trim reminded me of a ford crown. I had to find this thread. I was telling them about it on here. Great Car!
Keep the updates a-comin'. I just cut out the rusted floorpans of my '56 Plymouth Savoy. I'm muy interested in seeing what you do there.
I knew a guy, that had a `55 Lancer two door hardtop project for sale a couple of years ago. It was cheap but I didn't/don't need another project. But couldn't stop thinking how cool it would be as the Mopar version of the Two-Lane Blacktop/ A.G. 55! Straight axle, all business black naugahyde diamond tuck interior, black paint, w/ fenderwell headers, radiused wheelwells, chrome reverse wheels etc. It would have to have a radical 392 Hemi & 4 spd. The more I think about it I should have sold my crap & built that! My cousin even has a 13:1, Hilborn injected, roller cammed 392 on an engine stand, Oh well, I guess it doesn't hurt to daydream!!!
wow this car is really coming along, very nice project...you are definetly a skilled metal fabricator...working miracles! I have not seen very many 55 dodge convertibles, this will be a bad ass car when done. keep up the good work!!
Thanks again for the great compliments! So most the floor is shot, we know that much, so out comes the wasted metal...
I definitely know what ya mean! I've had the urge to do a mopar gasser for a while, though i'm undecided which car i'd wanna sart with. My top three choices would be a 53 or 4 Plaza coupe, a 52 suburban wagon, or a 62 valiant wagon. I have odd tastes...
While we are waitng for some non-rusty floor panels we have some disassembling and clean up to do up front. After some serious power washing:
What're you gonna do with the frame? Leave it patina'd, rattle-can it, er what? Enquirin' minds need to know...
That is going to be killer car! My buddy has a 55 hardtop that is pretty cool and a matching vert would be the bomb!
Glad you asked! While we waited for the floors the body came off the frame so the frame could be blasted and painted:
Wow man!!! I need to employ you to help me get the quarters right on my 59 Plymouth. I'm at wits-end...
i'd willingly help ya if I was the man behind the torch, but that's Bobby's handi work, (and the build is in NJ , which might be a hike )
Dart165, yeah, that's a challenging redo, BUT it sure looks like one WORTH the time and trouble!!! And from your GREAT pic progression, it APPEARS you, sir, have the TOOL and the TALENT. I'm willing to predict that WHEN IT'S DONE, you won't remember the hours, late nights, busted knuckels, etc.!!! You can just bask in the accolades this convt. will bring! Congrats on your determination and talent.
thanks for the positive comments! So the floors finally came in, and while the panels are good for the most part, they're not perfect. Onward with some cutting grinding and prepping to get them ready to be fit onto the skeleton.
So i know I've asked this in other threads but do any of you guys out there know any company that makes drop spindles for these cars?
cool convertable! back in the early 70's my parents had a grocery store and there was a small (barely 5' tall) elderly lady that lived a block away. she had a 55' 4dr 2 tone blue that rarely came out of the garage. she would let me look at the car while she shopped and it had 9000 original miles on it. she was so small she had blocks of wood tied to the pedals and she sat on pillows so she could see. after i loaded the groceries in the car she would sit and let it warm up. after backing into the alley behind the store she would put the wood to it and roast the fucking tires all the way home. her son would stand in the road to stop any cars as she would not get out of it until she was in front of her garage. i finally got a ride and holy shit my asshole was so puckered up i could hardly walk the next block home. one day the car just vanished and i found out the son had sold it so she didn't kill anyone. my first ride in a hemi car, what a memory!
How impressive, I love that front end, I have aspirations of putting a 55 Dodge front end on my project 56 Plymouth 2-dr Suburban, like the Canadian Kingsway. I would love to find that side molding for the 2-dr wagon as well. Remarkable body work and a great build plan, my pal Danny (gotgas) has the market cornered on those MoPar wires. They were an option for that car, hard to keep clean but spectacular. Thanx for sharing this brave build, gives me hope and insperation for mine. Rock on!! ~Sololobo~
As i'm goin along here, i intend to post up anything relevant to the build as far as parts sources, info etc. hopefully anyone looking to build one of these cars can use what they find on this thread and post what they find elswhere to help everyone out! We are gonna run disc brakes on the front of the 55. Through a bit of searching last night i came up with a few places that have disc brake conversions for 55 and 56 dodges desotos plymouths, and chryslers. Disc brake conversion kits: AAJ: http://www.aajbrakes.com/ ECI: http://www.ecihotrodbrakes.com/dodge_plymouth_discbrake_conversions.html MPBrakes (not for the 55 Dodge, but if you have a 49-54 mopar): http://www.mpbrakes.com/products/product-detail.cfm?product_id=253 A good source of general tech information about forward look cars: http://www.forwardlook.net/forums/category-view.asp
The Jalopy Journal
