41 Plymouth SB Mopar Engine Swap

Here you go. As you can see, this is about in line with the deepest bulge in the OEM firewall. Distributor clears.

 

One day a metalsmith, the next day a carpenter. I decided to build the bulkhead for my trunk, weld in the tabs for the side panels and make the patterns. This will save the upholster a bunch of time and, hopefully, save me a bunch of money.

I still have lots of room between the cockpit bulkhead and the trunk bulkhead for the spare tire, tool bag, folding chairs, battery, moonshine, etc. I'll fit the door with slip hinges, so that it can be easily removed. It's probably going to be a female dog to get the battery and tire in and out, however. Oh well, it all comes off with 5 screws, after you remove the side panel. Let's see, that's more like 15 screws.......

 

This style of dzus fastener and a piano hinge at the bottam......maybe

 

Nice work Rock! Are you planning on using some sound deadening material behind the side panels?

 

Oh yeah.

 

Custom rumpled valve cover!

 

Actually, that is duct tape. These are not the valve covers I will be using.

 

Man, you have got heaps of room with that engine, those tappet covers will make awesome wall art once you are done using them for set up and keeping the engine clean from foreign debris !
Looks like you have been making leaps and bounds toward getting things done, good for you, it looks great too

 

Good to see you back at it Rock.

 

Looking good. Keep after her and soon you will be on the road. I took me almost 4 years. No deadlines in my shop.

 

I am in no hurry. I have a 54 Chevy to drive when I want to cruise or go to a show. The 41 is a project with no timeline or deadlines. I will be finished when I get finished.

 

Spent the weekend putting the front end back on and fitting pieces. Still don't have the front fenders fitting like I'd like them but did get the hood to fit pretty well. I have to leave a 1/4" between the hood and the cowl, plus ship the cowl seal by 1/16" or else it will catch on the cowl. I don't want that happening after paint!

Anybody got any experience with fitting these fenders? I have a gap of about 3/16" and about 12" long in the PS fender. Of course it is right where there are some hinges and other brackets in the way, so I can't beat it out from the inside of the kick panel.

Also, mounted the horns and the CD box. Spent a lot of time just figuring things out.

 

Looking good Rock. I've had the same problem with my fenders.....I took them off, changed the angles of the lips a bit at a time and mounted them again. Done that a few times.....I was also unable to bring the fenders up high enough, so I modified the small piece at the bottom running underneath the body. (next to the running board.) That seemed to work for me.

Looks like you got to fit the hood nicely. That's one thing I still need to do.

 

Hey Rock, i had to re read that quote, i thought i read that you have the chevy to drive when you want to cruise and go slow

Looks like just a little bit of tweaking and that front will be sitting sweet.

 

looking great!! You know I love these Plymouth builds.

 

Thanks, guys. I had to have some surgery on my left foot this week, so I won't be able to work in the shop for a while. Not sure how long it will be but I know I have to wear an orthopedic boot for a month.

Oh well, hopefully my foot won't hurt after 8 hours on the concrete after this.

 

Hope you get better soon Rock!

 

Awesome work, wishing you a speedy recovery.

 

Get better buddy, before you know it you will be Rocking on again old mate !

 

I can't stand for very long right now but I was going a little stir crazy, so I went out to the shop for a couple hours. Last time, as I was fitting the hood, I discovered that I was going to need to space the hood seal up 1/16" in order to keep it from scraping on the cowl each time it was opened. It was that or have a helluva hood/cowl gap. It's still going to have to be 1/4".

Anyway, I took a piece of 3/4" X 1/16" aluminum flat stock and used my shrinker and stretcher to fabricate a shim that won't rust. It's not rocket science, it just takes a little patience, as the cowl is slightly curved.

After installing it, the hood is about level with the cowl now and it doesn't scrape. Mission accomplished!

 

Rock, on my 48 dodge there is a canvas/something strip laid out on the cowl with twisted brads to keep the hood from scraping when opening or closing.

 

This shim is underneath that seal. Look closely.

 

Nice work!

 

awesome project and fabrication skills, great work

 

That's what I get for just looking at the thumbnails

 

Absolutely love these Plymouth build threads, looking good Rock.

 

Well, since I'm relegated to light duty work at this time because of "the boot", I decided to solve a problem that has been bothering me. If you keep up with Farmer12's thread, you know that we've been discussing alternatives for parking lights and front turn signals. Today, I came upwith what I think is a slick solution.

With a little help from my buddy at O'Reilly's, I came up with some sockets that are designed to twist into a circuit board and that hold a 194 bulb. I chose this one because 194's come in orange and clear. I chose this socket because it is shallow and that is important when trying to squeeze these into the housing that was designed for the parking light only.

I fabricated a simple bracket from some 18 ga. scrap. The plastic housing of the socket will press into a 9/16" hole and will stay there without adhesive. Since the sockets are designed to screw into a circuit board, the terminals are on the front, which is perfect for this installation. I simply soldered leads to the terminals and bunched them together with some shrink tube. This did not take long to make, once I had the pieces.

Sorry for the fuzzy pictures but you'll get the idea.

I'm thinking I'll have to add a relay to each parking light to turn it off when the turn signal is switched on.

For all you traditionalists, these don't twist in but they aren't LED!

 

Thank you for posting the solution Rock, great work!

 

Ingenuity in action!

 

Worked out the rear brake light/turn signal sockets today. I drilled out the old socket and separated the housings. Then, I took a 9/16" bolt, cut it off and drilled it through with a 3/8" drill for the wires to pass through.

I painted the pieces and reassembled them. I modified an 1157 socket as shown and soldered it to the housing. Also, I added a ground wire so I don't have any trouble with flickering lights, etc. It will be grounded to a tab I welded to the trunk lip.

No rocket science here but it did come out clean. You need a big iron to solder the socket to the housing. I used a 5/16 tip and it was marginal.

This will clip right into the original hole and use the original lens.

Also, I fired up the the bulbs for the front lights and the orange looks like it should as a turn signal and the clear bulb is perfect for parking lights.

PS. Don't try to drill a 9/16" hole through the retaining spring with your favorite step drill if you intend on ever using it again. That steel is HARD! A round file works better.