i got to ride in it one time, when i was five. what a great time!
I am just dying to get the thing running already, but i have been so busy and haven't had time to do much to it..
BTW - update.. I removed the thermostat housing, as i said in an earlier post. So I filled the water jacket with water again and stuck my coffee-cup heating element in there... cranked the car after heating the water jacket to 140 and sprayed a little ether in there while cranking... *POOF* it backfired through the carb.. probably hosed it up with my luck!
WOW! That's definitely a keeper, even if you have to start from scratch on the engine. FWIW, all the wear parts for Chrysler flatheads are still readily available. Not as common as big-block V8s, but available.
that the coupe? Which model: Royal, Windsor/Deluxe?Mine is the 4 door sedan, Windsor. My 40 Royal is the coupe version. Looks like the chrome is in good shape and you have the hard to find chrome side spears. Also, the tail lamp housings/lenses are hard to find for this year car. They were only produced from about March 49 to September, known as the second series 49's, the first series were carryovers on the 46-48's.
It's a Royal Coupe. I will take some more pictures of the car later when it is not 100 degrees and 110 percent humidity outside.. argh.. damn that global warming... LOL ... I have an idea -- we should change the season name from "summer" to "global warming".... aahhahahha
Mostly the chrome is in good shape. A couple of pieces are dinged/ dented from "road hazards" in the past, i imagine.. One of the rear bumper overriders is pretty well toasted. The taillights are intact, but show some cracking internally.. I was afraid of hearing what you said -- the taillights are hard if not impossible to find.. The only broken lens is the one on the top of where the chrome on the back of the trunk says "Fluid Drive". I guess it is the license plate light.
The trunk is a little rusty and that band around the back under the trunk is pretty well rusted as well. It looks like someone used lead foil (was there such a thing?) to temporarily fix that part.. The door sills are rusted and there's a nice hole right above the master cylinder. Other than that.. when I go to remove what I think is rust on the bottom of the car, it turns out to be some heavy undercoating... or some 45 year old georgia red clay... i'm really amazed at the structure of this thing.. if it were built today, I believe it would be a terrifically expensive piece of machinery what with all the extra gusseting that today is considered "overkill".
The cowl vent leaks... not a whole lot, but i found out when i washed it, it does indeed leak .. can't wait to use that 55 mph A/C ... LOL
Just got the generic wiring harness today in the mail.. woohoo! Can't wait to see how difficult it's going to be to install.. I think I'm going to have to re-use a majority of the old connectors... lots of soldering..
Look at Andy Bernbaum Auto Parts. Great source for all old Chrysler parts. The cowl vent is no problem, as are complete gasket sets, door/window handles, lenses, check it out.
On the passenger side front tire, remove it and there is a panel on the wheel well, remove that and you should see the side valve cover. Make sure that you have a new gasket, which you can order from Bernbaum. The cover is held on with two wing type nuts, easy to remove.
Awesome! I truly value your (and the others as well) information on this car. I wish I had paid attention to the car about 10 years ago.. Now, I am way more thoughtful than I was at age 21.. however, the engine might not now be in the condition of stuck-open valves had i been as thoughtful then.. ah well.. it will run soon!
IIRC, you can get to the cover and remove it and look around (and maybe even compress some of the springs) with the manifolds in place. But I don't think you can get a spring compressor at all of them without removing at least the exhaust pipe, if not the manifold itself. If you're just going to inspect/clean/unstick things then give it a try. Remember, you can remove the hole fender to improve access, if necessary. Not that big a job.
Indeed, what you say is what I intend to do... just try initially to free the valves via the valve covers. I went out and sprayed all the fasteners with PB B'laster on the inner fender... let me tell you.. that is one hell of an inner fender... i was expecting some dinky sheet metal cover where i could barely get my arm in there... however, i found a huge piece of heavy sheet metal with like 10 screws holding it in..
LOL... I know why we won WW2... really .. it's obvious if you work on anything from that period. It's so hard to understand why so many people have embraced socialist ideals in the past 60 years..
I love this car.. It restores my faith in America.. maybe someday we'll get the gov't out of our pockets and back to the way things used to be... but i'm not going to hold my breath. And I apologise for everything I say turning into some half-assed political statement... LOL
Well, I finally had time to remove the cylinder head from the engine. Bad news, #5 cylinder is galled like a mo-fo... has some really deep "marks" at the back end of the thing. Looks like it was probably done quite some time ago. I'm pretty certain it would ruin a hone in a heartbeat.
Can these engines be bored ? Would I be better looking for a "new" block? I was looking at the top of the block and it looks like there's not much room to bore the cylinders any wider.
Also, I've managed to remove the 6 intake valves so far.. Can't get the exhausts to come out yet.. Is there an easy way to remove the valve springs from the engine? This is the first flathead from which I've tried to remove the valves.. I assumed it was going to be quite a bit easier than it is. I haven't managed to get any of the springs out yet.. I've removed collets from all the valves. Unfortunately, I now need to remove the oil pan to retrieve half of one.. those oil return holes are in such a convenient location! I've managed to remove one spring retainer so far... but that's it. I'm going to go out and see if I can do better this morning. If it's this hard to get these crusty, weak springs out, I can't imagine how difficult it's going to be to install the new parts!
I'm thinking more and more this is going to require a complete overhaul, possibly including a different block... it's no problem to me, but didn't want it to cost so much initially..
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