Inliners International Forums General Discussion MOPAR '53 Suburban Project

My dad and I are building a 53 Plymouth Wagon, that will eventually be my daughters car (she is turning 9 next week)

So far here is where we are:
The 218 Cu In engine had compression of ~ 100 on all 6 holes after we free'd up the valves with a mallet, so we got it fired up and it purred like a kitten with good oil pressure, so we just replaced the gaskets, and strapped the head on our milling machine and whacked it .080" to get a little higher compression ratio. Installed an Edelbrock intake, with a pair of B&B carbs, along with Longdon's manifolds, and HEI. Fabbed up a mount of a GM 1 wire alternator to finish off the engine mods.



Made an adapter plate to mount a 94 Mustang T-5. We ended up using the stock flywheel, and pressure plate (had it rebuilt/resurfaced) and the clutch guy found a clutch disc that would work. (S-10 I think?)

Picked up a 8.8 rear from a Ford Explorer (4.10 sure grip) with rear disc brakes:

and added Disc brakes to the front, using the stock hubs and Jeep rotors with GM calipers and a set of Fat Man spindles.

Here is the body we started wit a 400.00 rusty hulk from Michigan, but it was too far gone, so we bought another one from Nevada for 600.00, but someone cut the roof off to make it into a El Camino, so we used the roof from the first on the shell for the second:

This is the only pic I have of the original body:

Still needed to do a little floor patching:


To do the floors I bought a Harbor Freight bead roller, and modified it so it would work:

THe floor patches above were made from the door skins and other rust free spots from the original body, so all the steel is 1953 vintage
The body is back on the frame:

The dash is finished and wired:




As you can tell by the pics it will be my daughters car

The car is currently at the shop getting the exhaust bent up.

Murf,That's a fair amount of work you've completed and looking really great. Your daughter at 9, it's sure fun for you. At 16,watch out for the dudes that want a ride to school from her!

Yeah, I'm having second thoughts about a station wagon for a teenage girl

Looks great. The only solution to your future problem with this thing filling up with teenage girls it to turn it into a hearse, including casket. It will not stop the party wagon but it might slow it down a little bit.

I wish I had your problems.

From memory, the clutch plate from a '52-'53 Ford would have done the job...

Very nice, though I'd much prefer to have kept the Borg-Warner overdrive.

And if you have no further need for that darker red rig in the background there, just let me know...

The Wagon was a 3 spd non OD setup originally, and the T-5 cost me a case of Beer, so it was a no brainer. I even got the driveshaft from the fox body Mustang with it, and was able to use it with a 1" spacer on the rear axle pinion flange.
As to the ride in the backround, it is a 1950 New Yorker, it WAS a straight 8 Fluid drive car, but it was pretty slow, I mean REALLY slow. I swapped in a 505 Cu In 440 with 12.5 to pistons, tuned for E-85. Used an Ultrabell bellhousing on a 518 Auto OD trans from a small block Dodge, and a Dana 44 from a 1980 International Scout (Correct width, and 5 on 5 1/2" Bolt pattern like the original) added disc brakes all around, using GM calipers and Ford Bronco rotors. Car has about 20K miles on it since the rebuild.

What happened to that Chrysler inline eight? Some inquiring minds here will definitely want to know.

God's Peace to you.

d
Inliner #1450

Actually sold it off about 10 years ago when we started building the car. The guy that bought it used it to replace a cracked (frozen water/coolant) block in a 50 Town and Country Hardtop. That was the real impetus to build the car as a street rod, we sold the running straight 8/Fluid drive and rear axle for more than we paid for the car. My dad was getting ready to retire, and wanted to build a car that he could tool down the interstate at 75 MPH with no worries, hence the OD Auto and disc brakes. In 20 K miles All we've had to replace is fluids (knock on wood)

I actually bought the car for him for Fathers day 16 Years ago, as He had at one time or another owned all the different Mopar engines except the straight 8, so I found him one. He drove it for ~ 5 years, and it ran well, just not up to the highway running.