|
I purchased the car, in Griffin, Ga. about 30 miles south of Atlanta. I had it towed to my mother's house in Stockbridge,
a few miles north of there. I was living in Alpharetta at the time, some 30-40 miles north of Stockbridge. I was hoping I
could fix it good enough to drive it home from there, but that proved to be impractical.
First thing it needed was a battery. Next when you tried to start it, the starter relay would hang up, and keep the starter
going while the engine was running! Made a horrible noise. I eventually figured it out. You could start the car,
then whack the relay with something, and it would stop the starter. I ordered a Standard Motor Products realy from RockAuto.
It's not exactly the same, but it mounted up OK, and it works.
Next, I tried to bleed the brakes. I thought it worked, but after about a 1/4 mile drive, the brakes crapped out. Turns
out the intire brake system needed rebuilding and upgrading. I hope to record a "how-to" on the brakes after I finally get
them working.
After a couple of weeks, the fuel pump went out. I got a nos one off ebay. Then, with the better fuel pressure, the carb
started leaking. Another ebay score solved that one. Since then, the engine has always started up just fine. That's not to
say it's in good condition, because it most definitely is not. It has a lot of blowby, consumes oil like crazy, and the #2
cylinder has low compression. But at least it runs and I can move it from place to place. The powerflite transmission seems
to work pretty well.
After the car had spent a few weeks at my mother's house, I realised I was never going to accomplish anything with it
located 40 miles away. So I got a local guy with a trailer to bring it up to my north Atlanta home. I worked on it there,
until my life fell apart. My wife left me, and we lost the house. This picture is how it sat in my little one lane driveway.
I thought maybe the neighbors would complain about this old jalopy in their neighborhood, but they never did. They were
very curious, if anything.
I did a lot of cleaning. There must have been 25 pounds of dirt/ grease crap under the front end. I swept up up all this
stuff into a pile, and believe me, it was heavy.
I took out the radiator. Also the radiator support. The tow truck driver damaged this peice. (Watch out for that! These
old cars are very fragile!!!) I also found out that the front nose peice had been welded to the fenders. Not
supposed to be like that. Everything is supposed to be bolted together. I later found some more evidence of front end damage.
That's something that will have to be fixed/replaced later, with a junk yard part, because obviously they don't make body
parts for cars this old!
One other thing I got done at this time, was fixing the parking brake. Since the service brakes needed hundreds of dollars
worth of parts, I wanted to get the parking brake working. The push-button Powerflite transmission doesn't even have a "Park"
position, so the only thing that holds the car in place while it's parked is the parking brake. This thing is located on the
back end of the transmission. It's a seperate little brake drum that stops the driveshaft from moving, unlike the normal rear
brake type of emergency brake thing.
Turns out all I had to do was disconnect the cable and lube it. But this was not as easy as it sounds. The cable was routed
next to the frame, with this little clamp holding it in place. This little clamp/bracket was impossible to reach. I had to
lay sprawled over the fender, turning the bolt about a 1/4 turn at a time. And the bolt was about an inch and a half long!
After this nightmare, and removing the drum from the back of the transmission, I was able to clean it up and adjust it
well enough that it actually stops the car. Sometimes...
Also, about this time, I was wandering through a junkyard one day, and found this '56 Plymouth. My car had the wrong
wheels on it, 14" wheels from a Ford Ranger. This Plymouth had the original 15" wheels on it, with some decent tires. They
say Goodyear and UHaul on the sides. So grabbed those up for something like $40. I might add that there isn't a whole lot
of room to put bigger tires on this car. The original wheels are 15" x 5", and used bias ply tires. I would not use radials
on here without power steering. You can get the right tires at Coker Tires, but they're expensive.
The Next day, I went back and took off the steering wheel. If you've got an old Dodge, or Chrysler, the steering wheel
is probably all cracked up and falling apart. These Plymouth wheels were made out of something differnt, that lasted a lot
longer.
NEXT
|
