Projects 49 Plymouth Business Coupe update

Nice! Where did you get your clips for the beltline trim? Do yours snap in or is there a nut on the backside?

 

We had a bunch of clips left over from other cars so we basically used what would fit. We had to use a couple of those "cut to fit" clips. We never use snap on clips unless its nearly impossible to get a nut behind it. The door pieces were the trickiest.

 

Man it's looking great!! Can't wait to see it put back together!

 

Next order of business is to get the drivetrain ready to go back in. Ford has a fairly explicit recommended 60k and 120k service for these engines so I'm taking care of all that while it's out. Mostly it's getting new timing belt, outer gaskets and seals, cam seals, water pump, valve adjustment, and I'm checked bearing clearances.Everything looks really good but I'd rather check it while it's out. And it's getting a coat of paint, of course.

 

I got the bottom end buttoned up; I went ahead and changed rod bearings as they were out of spec but the rest looked good. Today it got all new front and rear main seals, cam seals, and a timing belt. Not too much more to do before it gets set back in the chassis.

 

Looks Great!!! keep the photo's coming!

 

Lots of little tidbits done the past few days: I had a run in the door that was troublesome so decided to just konock it down with some 400 and reshoot the door. The rest is good. Scrubbed lots of dust and overspray off the frame, finished bolting a few more things on the motor, tore down the intake for paint/new gaskets, and got the flywheel/clutch/pressure plate lined out. When I bought the ranger 5 speed the guy gave me the clutch and pressure plate and said it had only been put in about 6 months before. It bolts right up to the SHO flywheel. The weird thing was that the entire pressure plate was packed with feathers and hay! The Ranger was a farm truck so I guess he used it around his chicken house. It took about two hours with an air hose and a long skinny screwdriver to get it all out.

 

I can't wait to see the engine back in this project. Keep us posted.

 

nice progress ....

 

Thanks! Lots done today; drivetrain is bolted in for good (barring any unforseen disasters). I've got upper gaskets on the way, now I need to pick up some header wrap and get them wrapped and installed. I also saw a pretty cool video on how to build your own fuel injector cleaner. I'll be giving that a shot before too long. The car sat a while and the gas smelled funky so I want to make sure the injectors are clean and working before installing them. They go under the upper intake and a lot of stuff has to come off to get to them.

 

Looks real good! Do you have a link to the diy fuel inj cleaner?

 

Thanks, here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlO4krw2h8o

 

Sweet!

 

These old Plymouth's are really starting to grow on me,,excellent work! HRP

 

Thanks! I got attached to them because they are cheap and plentiful. Not much aftermarket support but id rather build my own parts anyway. I dont have my intake gaskets yet but here's an idea of what it will look like assembled. I went ahead and put the door trim, handles, and door panels back on today. Hopefully I can get the headers knocked out this week.

 

That looks so cool!

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Diggin the 49 Brotha!

 

Thanks! I built the injector cleaner today and it worked great! the only thing I did different was use my battery charger for power as I couldn't get an AA battery to open the injector. Worked great, a noticeable improvement from start to finish in the injector stream. I used Seafoam for the cleaner. It was about $40 total for the parts and a new seal kit for all 6 injectors.

 

That's an awesome idea!

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Yeah, it sure beats paying $25-$30 a piece to have them done.

It doesnt look much different but I've got a lot of hours this week altering the engine wiring harness, mounting the injectors and fuel rail, and figuring out how the hoses are going to lay out in the back. I was going to do the headers first but this made more sense when I started looking at it. The EEC, relays, etc will be mounted to a plate behind the seat so lots more wiring to change but its getting there. Also started putting the intake back together. The boxes of parts are getting emptier! Hopefuly there's a trial engine start by the end of the month.

 

Wow!! This is looking so sweet!. Keep up the great wok.

 

Agree, looking mighty nice.

 

Great looking car and really like the interior!

 

Thanks, dudes. I hope it'll run as good as it looks.

 

This is coming out better than I could have imagined! You've got balls and that's gonna be a nice driver!

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Man, I hope so. This is my first shot at wiring up a multiport fuel injected motor so Im a little nervous about the outcome. But when you really sit down and look at how the PCM works it's really just a bunch of binary and analog I/Os which is something I work with daily at my job; just in another application.

I decided to build a shelf behind the seat to mount the PCM, ignition module, and the amps for the stereo, plus I'll be putting a bank of relays on it. Here it is mocked up, I'm going to work on the wiring harness and get everything lengthed/shortened to where it needs to go before I neaten it all up. This eats up a ton of time; looks like I may not make my January engine test run. Hopefully it wont take too much longer.

 

This may not look like much progress but this is several hours this week of lengthening, shortening, soldering, heatshrinking, and studying diagrams. It's coming together well other than a few PCM functions Im still researching to see if they are necessary for proper engine functions. These PCMs do engine and trans functions so some things will be eliminated. But I'm feeling confident and it's looking good. Also found a spot for the coil pack; I was going to mount it on the front of the engine but I think this will work out better.

 

Disguise that coil pack with a box that looks like a big voltage regulator and has a fake-vintage ElectroVolt or Sparkmaster logo on it. I just made up those names so make up your own logo to match.

Tell everyone it's a experimental V6 Hemi from ~1955. Fun stuff!

 

Hah! Great idea, I'll look into that.

 

Today I relocated the battery to the trunk, welded the O2 bungs in my headers, and made a liitle bracket to mount the fuel pump and fan relays. All of the PCM wires are ran except for the battery power, ignition power, main grounds, and these two relays. One I get it started and verify that everything works as it should, I'll paint this panel and neaten up all the wiring. Should be wrapping the headers soon and getting them on so I can start routing wires and hoses around them.