Projects 1940 Plymouth Coupe Build!

Holy crap, we did it!

Here are some shots of our 4 hours of work... eegad.

Midway through a brewski was in order..











AND ITS OUT! That one leaf spring just wouldn't give it up, so there it stayed!

 

This thing was pretty Mickey Mouse... now you can see why I decided to work with this other frame....

 

Here is the frame installation...










This is where we ended tonight:



And with the frame in place I bolted it up and jammed the engine and tranny in there to sit for a bit... I have to pull the engine and tranny again and cut the motor mounts down and then fix the tranny cross member... then the whole frame comes out AGAIN for me to be able to paint it and install brake lines, etc.

Finally I will slide the painted, nice looking frame in, put on the leaf springs while under the car and then the rear end... Then she rolls again!

A big thanks to my wife for taking the pictures!

 

Previous owner needs to have his welder taken away!

Keep at it Scott.

 

Man, that was some real hillbilly fabrication on that old frame clip.

The new frame looks great.

I wonder if a P-15 frame would go under a '40? It's sure nicer with the boxed rails and no x-member to get in the way of everything.

 

Looks great! You did some nice work on that frame. Looking forward to seeing more progress.

 

aint that the truth,,, frame swap is looking good apache,,

 

thanks for the pic,,sorry i didnt see your reply sooner,,work and working on the car finally,,, any way after taking one side apart the suspension parts are not that old,,, except for the original coil springs and O,E shock mounting,,, so i am sticking with the 1940 upper control arm,,,like you said,its lasted this long,,,,,,ordered new coil springs from eaton,,full size,, and dropped up rights and shock kit from fat man,, not disturbing any of the control arm stuff excpet a new upper outer bushings so alinement shouldnt be to bad,,,,see what its like puting a new coil spring back in,,,any suggestions?????
so i hav e a NOS pair of moog improved design upper control arms to find a home for,,,

 

Haha, yeah, I can't believe how bad that was.. good ratrod material.

Thanks Ulu! I don't know if that frame will work or not, it sure would seem easier wouldn't it?

Thanks steveplym, more progress on Wednesday when I get back out there.

I wish it were done already, It's quite the undertaking. Thanks fstfish66!

 

I will be practicing for my second and final interview for my job in California this evening... so no work on the coupe tonight... I think I earned it. Wish me luck!

Dave,

is this the distributor that you were talking about with the small distributor cap and separate HEI coil?

 

Yes, that will gain you about an inch or so, of much needed space in front.

I know you have disliked (and not trusted) that frame for a long time, and with good reason! I hope you enjoy cutting that sucker up!

With that body up on jack stands, you can now roll that frame back and forth underneath, to continue your high quality work on both the chassis, and under body. That's going to be a real nice Road King when you're done! I hope you will enjoy it as long as I have mine.

 

GOOD LUCK!

BTW, what field of engineering do you practice in? We do structural for public buildings, and mainly the public schools.

 

Good luck Scott! Hope you did well!

 

nice project and looking good =)

 

Cool, Thanks for the info Dave. Yeah, that frame is a lot more scary when a body isn't on it now that I look at it... could have been fatal. I am looking forward to getting back to the body work on it and driving it!

Thanks Ulu! I have worn a lot of hats... Manufacturing/Production/Mechanical/Reliability/Quality Engineering, Diagnostic Engineer, Team Leader, Manager, etc. I can do it all pretty well, just trying to find the area I like... This car hobby has really helped me greatly in doing all of my jobs.

Currently I am the Design Engineer for a company making pressurized vessels for HVAC, large scale water filtration for HVAC, sandblasting media pots, and soon to be beer brewing tanks! I am in charge of their largest, most important accounts.... but they don't pay very well, this is not a lean shop (and wont be), and there is rampant hard drug use/dealing on the shop floor daily... The DEA has been here 3 times in one year (2 times last week) busting people for dealing anything from Heroin to crack to meth to prescription pills.... Needless to say I think its time to leave for a better atmosphere and climate

The place that I am interviewing at is in Southern California south of LA (I'd rather be up in Central California). It is in military defense and aviation and the job is a Liaison Engineer who has to have a mechanical background and engineering background (sounds like it was made for me). Pretty sweet gig from what I understand that would pay me well, plus all of my family is in Tahoe, Vacaville or Fairfield.... anything is closer than Indiana

 

Thanks Eric, glad to hear they are going to start rolling on your coupe at the body shop. I am really looking forward to it.

thanks jfreak, I appreciate it. I am definitely going to have my hands full with this one.

 

Hope you do well also.Never can have to many old mopars in Cali. Exterminator

 

Thanks exterminator, I feel like I did pretty well. I have been following your build and it seems like you are getting a lot done out there. Must be nice to have decent weather

 

Well, I got the motor mounts trimmed up and pretty close to where they need to be. Here are some shots:






Its pretty much level as well.. I will tweak it and fix that:




The tranny and oil pan are protected by the frame, so it seems like it is in the right spot.




A shot from the front down the length of the frame:

 

They didn't change it because they were weak. They changed it because the new ones were much cheaper to make.

Welded stampings are often much cheaper than forged parts.

 

Last night I moved the motor mounts back another 1/4 of an inch and will wait to do further work on it until I get my radiator core support in the mail. So I can put everything where it needs to be. I also degreased my leaf springs... man what a chore.

I started to clean up the leaf springs today with my flap sander that goes on my big grinder.. I will need to stop by the store and pick up another wire wheel to finish it, but I will get these finished up this weekend and hopefully assembled by next weekend after they cure from paint. I will need to work on getting some of the pits smoothed out, but that won't take too long.

Here are some shots:

 

Hey 59, my name is Jim, and I was sent to your build by rockable. I had contacted him to find out if he knew where I could get a front sway bar for a 1941 Plymouth special deluxe 4 door. He said that he sold his Plymouth to you, but I am not looking to get parts from your car if you are going to use them, and I kind of figure that the 4 door would use a thicker bar. I have not done any real research on these cars, I just contacted rockable on a whim when I saw that he was working on an old Plymouth. If you've got any ideas, let me know. I probably will not have time to come back to your build here, so if you could send me a PM that would be best. Thanks for your time. Have fun on the '40 Jim

 

apache, good luck on your interview, all i can say is i understand moving to a better climate,,i lived in ill for 22 years,only reason i left was the weather, came back east,,i sure miss the midwestern people,,,and ide love to be in calif,,,maybe some day ill get to vist,,,your car is looking good,,,hope its ready to roll if you have to relocate,ive been there,,,

 

I was thinking the same thing when i was comparing the moog improved design control arms,, 2 pieces sorta spot welded together compared to the factory forged pieces,,,

 

Well I got the leaf springs cleaned up the rest of the way... I will grease them up assemble them then paint. That shouldn't take more than another couple hours worth of work to make sure everything is ready to go.

Here are some pictures:

 

nice and shinny,,,

 

Well I got some Kwik clips for the leaf springs and assembled everything, lubed it up, and got most of it in primer. Tomorrow I will flip it over and get the back side in primer, then into some paint. My radiator core support should be arriving tomorrow too! That should get me back on track to getting this whole frame finished.

 

Well I have been busy lately working on the coupe and cleaning up the garage. I have the leaf springs in black paint, but need to flip them over to finish them up. I also received my core support from powhatan42 here off the HAMB. He had what I was looking for and got it to me pretty quickly. Thanks Glenn!

I moved the engine back since I now can see where it needs to be to clear the radiator. I need to move the drivers side mount back a bit and drop it down a quarter of an inch to even it up with the other mount. Overall, I believe I will be able to get all of this crap taken care of rather quickly and get the frame back out to do the final welding on it.

I will post some pictures this evening... I didn't feel like running through the snow to get my camera last night...

 

here are some pictures:






not much room here.

 

seems we are all moving right along now that the harsh winter is almost gone,,,,,apache remember you can put the radiator in front of the shell if you have to if you dont have one made yet,,,