 |
|
|
|
|
Don and Bonnie Turner of Newberg, Oregon USA have had quite an experience building this beautiful 1949 Deluxe Business Coupe. At the bottom of the page are some excerpts of experiences he has shared with Bill.
Take the time to read some of Don's comments - it will be worth you time.
|
|
|
|
|
Some of Don's comments as he went along in his restoration -
"The overdrive transmission that I put in works really well, and with the Pertronics ignition and the professional carburator rebuild, the engine runs so smoothly, that it will accelerate in 3rd o'drive from as slow as 30 MPH, with no bucking, lugging or other complaining. And if I want more acceleration, I can just floor it and it kicks down into 3rd and stays there until I let up and it falls back into overdrive."
"We chose a Honda color they called "Fawn Metalic." My son is restoring a 79 Lebaron Woody wagon, and he let me have the six way power bucket seats out of one of his parts cars. The seat fabric is a dark red, and it looks so good with my paint and the woodgraining that I did on the dash, that I am going to use the same color red to reupholster the seats and cover most of the panels. The headliner will be grey, as will the carpeting. I solved the doorseal problem by cutting a piece of 1/4 inch closed cell foam and bolting it between the fender and the body. Then when I applied the weather stripping to the door, I brought it clear up the front side of the door so it compresses when the door is closed."
"The power disc brakes have caused me the most problems of any other modification I have made. They do what they are supposed to do, and bring the car to a quick straight stop with hardly any effort, but they have brought with them a crescendo of unanticipated consequences. First, the stock wheels that I had cleaned and painted would not clear the front discs. So I bought 5 wider wheels at the junk yard, and cleaned them and painted them and had my Les Schwab "Broadway Classic" white wall radials mounted on them. Then when I put the skirts on the back fenders, I discovered that the wide wheels did not allow room behind the skirt for either my stock full cover hub caps, or for the 1950s style "flipper" hub cap that I had been planning on. So I had to go to my son's Lebaron again for a couple of pretty good flat profile full wheel covers, which I supplemented with a couple more at a local hub cap store for $70. But it doesn't end there. The first time I drove out of a parking lot with a steep sharp angle exit ramp, the vacuum chamber that is mounted under the floor in front of the master cylinder, hit the ground. I had thought it would be ok even though It had been necessary to modify the mounting bracket that came with it in order to get the push shaft to clear the cross frame member. No damage was done, but it was clear that it would not be good to keep banging that thing on the ground, so I fabricated a skid plate and bolted it to the frame cross member and the rear of the master cylinder. So now I just have to remember to drive the car as if it were lowered on all four corners, but that's ok since after working on it for going on 4 years now, and considering the cost overrun on this project, I know I will be driving it with great care regardless of the conditions."
"I got the door locks and trunk lock rekeyed by our local locksmith and installed them all. I drove it to a local glass shop Friday and had them reinstall the rear glass. That was another $70. It seems that when the young man from "Speedy Auto Glass" came out to my place about a month ago, he had never seen a car where you had to run a cord around the gasket body channel, then hold it against the body and pull the rubber out by pulling on the cord. Together we learned that trick and got the windshields installed, but the rear window didn't go so smoothly. He had it in and out three times, and just couldn't get the gasket to lay flat against the body on the outside at the top. He was sweating and slapping that glass, and I was worrying he would break it, and even though I have 4door and a 2door that I have been borrowing a part or two from now and then, I had discovered earlier that all three windows are a different shape, and my business coupe has the largest one. I finally talked him into stopping before we broke it and told him it would be fine that way. Not only was the new gasket gaped open at the top, but it was so wide it didn't look very good. I even called Steele Rubber and complained a little, but they said they had sold something like 75 of those gaskets, and no one else has said there was anything wrong with them. I worried and worried about that rear window gasket, and about 3 weeks after we had installed it I woke up well before daylight and as I lay there thinking about that ugly rear window gasket, I suddenly realized what the problem was. That young Speedy Glass kid and I had installed that gasket inside out! That wide rubber that was so ugly on the outside of the car was supposed to be on the inside to provide something to tuck the headliner behind, since the 49 Deluxe models do not have inner metal surround on the rear window. Now the rear window looks very trim just like it should, and today I reinstalled the stop light in that rear window. It also came out of my son's red Lebaron and it really helps light up the rear of the car when I put on those power disc brakes."
"My next project is to install a beeper on my turn signals so I can remember to cancel them after I have completed a turn. The Signal-Stat turn signal I bought is a big chrome job that includes a hazzard switch and is smart enough to handle both the brake light and turn indicator with one 2 filament bulb, but it is not self canceling. And I can't hear a flasher clicking, even when I have my hearing aids in. And driving down the highway with a turn indicator blinking is pretty much a give away that you may have just escaped from some old folks care facility. I bought a little $9 buzzer at NAPA that is supposed to be wired in to warn you that your lights are on when you turn off the ignition key. I think I can wire it in so it will buzz in time with my turn indicators. If it works I may buy another one and use it for what it is intended for. I have been known to walk away from a car and leave the headlights on, but our Toyota Sienna is so smart, it turns the lights off for me. But that just makes it more likely that I will forget and run down the battery in the Plymouth if I don't have something to remind me. Once I have these little details completed i'll be ready to install the headliner that I purchased some time ago, and then to proceed with the rest of the upholstery. At the rate at which I work, I figure I should be done around Christmas (2004).
"I have everything working now (12/23/04). The last thing was the gas guage. Bought a little transistorized voltage reducer from JC Whitney, and after waiting almost 2 weeks for it to arrive in the mail, I carefully hooked it up to test it, and with deliberate precision proceeded to touch the leads to the 12 volt battery. But I had forgotten that I now have the car wired as a negative ground, and so of course there was a little pop and a puff of smoke, and it was time to start over. Fortunately, I found an old car parts dealer here in town who builds these little transistorized gizmos for guys like me, so driving about 30 miles over and 30 miles back, I was able to finish the gas guage repair without waiting another 2 weeks. But I learned something that probably saved me both money and time in the future. The instruction sheet that came with the little transisterized part from Whitney warned that the electrical feed to the ammeter should be removed from the starter solenoid, because when the started switch is activated, a voltage spike of up to 240 volts can fry any transister that is downstream. That could include my new 12 volt radio/tape player. So I hooked the lead to the ammeter directly to the positive battery terminal as the instruction sheet recommended."
"The seats are plush tufted power buckets out of a 79 New Yorker. The upholstery is red with grey carpet and headliner. I built and upholstered a console on the hump for the new radio/tape player. It sounds great from the two speakers behind the seats and from the two speakers I crammed into the old radio box behind that beautiful Plymouth radio grill."
Now, there folks, you have a great example of the types of challenges that come with restoring one of thes old beauties. By the time you get one looking as good as Don's, you have learned an awful lot - probably more than you ever wanted to learn.
One last question though - what happened to the original taillights on this car? The business coupe, from the factory, had a rectangular taillight just above the dust pan between the fender and the center brake light assembly. - Bill
|
|
