2015 Update [John]

Last post, December 2014, we thought the car was just about finished. But it wasn't. Here is a longish report of some DeSoto Firedome activities since that 2014 post:

• In January 2015, I gave up on finding the missing rubber front door sill plates. I found some stainless, had it hemmed and brushed, and then embossed a DeSoto legend on it with the help of my son-in-law's laser. Doesn't match the rear, but looks fine and holds down the carpet edge.

  

  New stainless door sill plate

• In April, my wife and I drove the wagon to the 2015 state-wide meet of the Imperial Owners in Cambria. Great fun, won an award, new friends, about 600 miles round trip. 

  

  Stopping on the Rincon, just off 101

  

  Toured the Warbirds Museum in Paso Robles during the Imperial Club statewide meet. 

• The car ran fine, but on the return trip, we noticed surprise, unintended, upshifts from 3rd to 4th accompanied by a loud crash. These had happened before, ever since we bought the car, but they became much more frequent. 
• Summer, the transmission issue stayed the same, highly annoying and embarrassing. I sought advice from several friends, and a friend of an Airflow Club friend ventured that this behavior sounded like a worn blocker ring. Unfortunately, he said, they are no longer available. 
• A week later, I saw one for sale on eBay with the mating direct-speed clutch gear, but for a different year. I contacted the seller, and he had one for a 53. I'm very grateful to AMS Obsolete!
• Harold's Automotive in La Mesa installed it, and changed the clutch at the same time. They also replaced a leaky, pitted, master cylinder with a new one from Andy Bernbaum.
• While we were under the car, we noticed severe rust deterioration of the inner rocker panels on both sides. These boxes stiffen the body, and they need to be strong. In December we had the damage cut out and new steel welded in to repair them both. 
• The front end developed an annoying squeak. I greased the chassis, but noted one lower control arm zerk fitting was broken off. Only took three hours and some professional help to get the broken stub out and replace it. That cured the squeak.
• The AM radio doesn't work, which is sort of a "who cares" problem. But sometimes it's nice to be able to listen to something in the car. These days, most of our household listens to music, audio books, podcasts, and streamed programming on iPhones and iPads. But this is a 6v positive ground car, so we couldn't just bolt in a modern car stereo with an aux or Bluetooth interface. We solved it though. Took out the speaker and radio chassis from behind (actually in front, I guess) of the dash speaker grill. Purchased a 120W 6v-to-12v inverter, a speaker amp, a pair of 6 by 9 speakers, and a stereo cord from Amazon. We fabricated a new chassis to hold the gear and mounted it all out of sight on the original speaker grill. Finally, we added an accessory power port and USB charging station just below the dash. Now we have tunes! 
• The guy who repaired the rocker panels complained that the car was hard to start and idled roughly. He was right, and I decided I had to do something. Years ago, I had a 64 Clark Cortez motor home that would not run, and the Dyno Shop in Santee CA was able to help. I decided to spring for a professional diagnosis and tuneup. Dyno Shop put the car on their chassis dynamometer and spend several hours diagnosing and fixing problems. There were many:
• Carburetor high-speed jets were too lean.
• Choke was not functioning.
• Carb failed to deliver adequate vacuum for the distributor advance. This was traced to an incorrect internal carb gasket. 
• Vacuum line (flare fit) nut leaked at the carb (NPT).
• Vacuum advance actually advanced too far and required a limiting stop to be added.
• Centrifugal advance curve was wrong, corrected by replacing one of the fly-weight springs.
• Ignition timing needed to be set after all these faults were corrected.
• The Shop recommended replacing troublesome ignition points with a Pertronix electronic kit and new coil. 
• After this work, the car runs like a different car. Starts easily, pulls away from stops with no accelerator pumping, much more power, quieter, smoother. In view of the problems the pros were able to find and correct, it was worth the hours and cost to have this done. 
• Yesterday, we installed the electronic ignition points replacement and adjusted the timing again. Found my broken timing light works fine if it's powered by a 12v battery from another car. 

So, NOW are we done? I'm told you are never done, so I suppose not. Kind of wish the wipers worked, but we just don't need them here. Many hot rodders actually remove them. The steering feels a little loose. But it's been decades since I had a car without rack and pinion steering. Maybe it's normal.  But I think it's time to shift my focus to the '36 Airflow project.

The short list [John]

Just a few things left to do

What's left?

There are few things still, but nothing very urgent.

• The wipers don't work. I took the instrument binnacle off (one more time) today to check the switch, and it appears to be bad. Don't know if the motor runs or not; you have to take the radio and speaker assembly out to get near it. This car won't be driven much in the rain, so fixing the wipers can wait.
• Actually, yesterday it did rain, and we drove the car up and down the hill once. Today, the turn signals seem to have bad grounds. They blink. but dimly and with short duration. We have "solved" this several times before. Maybe it's supposed to be routine maintenance.
• Clock doesn't work. Few 6V automotive clocks do work in my experience. This one doesn't run, has a broken-off adjustment knob, and doesn't light up with the panel lights.
• Backup light housings are there, but one has no bulb socket and neither is connected. Don't know if the switch works.
• There were no horns in the car when we got it. Found a pair on eBay but they don't work. This needs to be fixed. 
• Radio doesn't work. It's original, tube-type, pushbutton. What might be cool is an amp and speakers hidden inside it with a USB plug available. Then we just use an iPhone as source. But it will probably require an inverter to make 12V out of 6V. Might be a fun project though.
• The front door sills came without plates. We are looking for some brushed stainless that can be hemmed and attached to hold down the edge of the carpet and protect the painted sills. 
• There are now three seat belts in the back seat, and we got matching ones for the front. Need to install them.
• Even with the new front springs, the car has a list to the left of an inch or so. Adding a separate air filler to the driver's side rear air shock might cure it. We got the kit but it's not in yet.
• Need a bumper jack for this car, and I noticed the spare tire leaks around the valve stem. Should fix both of those I suppose.

Engine noise

We've been troubled for several weeks by a clicking lifter after driving up an extended hill. Seafoam and CD2 additives quieted the noise for a while, but it came back. By now the engine oil is a diluted mix of SAE 30 and these engine cleaners, plus Marvel Mystery Oil, and it looks pretty thin. Yesterday we changed the oil and filter using SAE 20-50 oil for what is certainly an old, and probably a worn, engine. Five quarts (recommended is six with a filter change) gave a way overfilled reading on the dipstick. On close examination, the dipstick was found to be adjustable: the ferrule on the top has a setscrew. The ferrule was set right next to the handle, making the dipstick as long as possible. We adjusted it so it reads full with six quarts of oil. The engine is now quiet -- no lifter noise yet. The car is much quieter also, thanks to pad and carpet and a little extra insulation. 

Interior [John]

The plan

Repairing the rust around the windshield required removing the already damaged headliner. The seats, covered with original vinyl, were barely serviceable but would have looked tacky with the new paint and headliner. Three of the four door panels were blown, with the backing board so soggy it couldn't hold a clip, there was no front carpet and the rear floor covering was trashed. Pretty much a complete interior was needed.

A couple of local shops estimated $5,000 to $7000 to redo the interior, and it you take the estimated hours times their standard rates, that's probably reasonable. One place turned it down -- too hard. To be clear, it was a big job:

• remove headliner
• repair rusted out tack strips or devise a new system
• install the new headliner
• recover the visors and reinstall in the newly installed roof beam above the windshield
• install new wind lace around all the doors. 
• fabricate all four door panels and reupholster
• remove all the wood in the cargo area to get at the ripped rear fender covers
• make and install new ones
• reinstall the wood. 
• fabricate, upholster, and install kick panels. 
• remove old flooring from rear seat area, repair any rust holes and apply sound deadener
• cut and install pad and carpet. Bind the edges. 
• solve door missing front door sill protector plates. 

Armando, our body guy, recommended "a lady in Tijuana" who he thought could do the whole thing for $1000, but he recommended we buy all the materials north of the border. Sounded good, except that taking the car across the border to a shop we've never been to, leaving it there for a week or two, solving the language barrier, do we need Mexican auto insurance? -- all sort of intimidating. And we didn't have a real quote from the Mexico shop. We did order and obtain the materials -- replacement tack strips from South Dakota, ready-to-install headliner and wind lace from a web source, two colors of upholstery fabric from a local shop, new draft seals from oldmoparts.com, padding and carpet from another local supplier.

As we deliberated, Ramon, one of the workers at Tony's radiator shop, recommended a guy he knew from high school, also named Ramon (but answering to Raymond). Raymond has years of experience in automotive trim, but he is now semi-retired and might come to your garage or driveway to work. We called him and agreed on a price that was about half the local estimates and double the rumored proxy estimate for south of the border.

The results

Work progressed at a good pace. Weekends we helped out with non-technical tasks like removing the wood, drilling and hogging out new holes for the visors, patching a couple of rust holes in the floor.

The front edge of one fender well had a 3" hole in it,

Veneer on the cargo area floor had been wet, and some of the grain was raised and stained. After removing the wood from the car, we glued some edges down, sanded, and refinished with polyurethane. Not perfect, but it will serve, and the new finish is much more weatherproof that the original.

Raymond got the new headliner in, straight and wrinkle-free. Wind lace is installed, and window garnish moldings cleaned and reinstalled with new stainless screws. The original screws were plated with some kind of brown finish, but the stainless will be fine for this restoration. Phil and I installed the visor supports and they look about right. New door panel boards with new upholstery and new clips are all in. Pad is glued down with removable sections for access to the brake master cylinder and transmission fill and service. Dark brown carpet looks good, receding visually from the dash, seats, and door panels.

Raymond advised adding insulation behind the interior panels to keep the car cooler in southern California heat,

Carpet pad in progress. Clearance under the front edge of the front seat is limited -- no room for pad over that part of the tunnel. Note new door panels with dark fabric on arm rests. Earlier we had the arm rests rebuilt and they were covered with the beige fabric.

Front carpet ready for glueing. The right edge of the heel pad raises for access to the brake reservoir. New kick panels in place.

New off-white headliner installed

Driver's seat

Newly upholstered rear seat, grab handles, carpet. We are reusing the rear door sill plates for now.  When we solve the missing front sill plates, it might be worthwhile to make the rear ones match,

Right rear. We added the upholstery to the metal plate that supports the rear seat pivot. 

And a front passenger view.

Overall effect is very nice. We found the correct replacement (used) dome light with lens and installed it, and got some used but nearly perfect wiper arms and blades on eBay.

Are we done yet? [John]

Body work and paint on the Firedome wagon are about done. The rust repairs went well--I can't see any flaws in the tailgate, lower doors, or around the windshield. While the car was apart and being worked on, we had the rear bumper straightened and chromed, two of the grille teeth rechromed, stainless stone guards on the rear fenders straightened and polished, and the gear selector and turn signal levers refinished also.

Comments on the past several months of progress

For much of this project, Phil and I have functioned sort of like general contractors. We did some of the tasks, usually where we had tools, expertise, and interest, but much of it we subcontracted. Here are our notes.

Body shop was excellent. There are dozens around San Diego. This one was recommended by the machine shop that did our first repair on this car, the power steering box rebuild. Armando does some conventional collision repair and takes on a few hot rod and restoration projects. A high-end El Camino body restoration was ahead of the Desoto, and a '62 Lincoln after us. Both of these jobs went to full disassemble and were stripped to bare metal, and I think they were expensive. This Desoto will never be worth the 5-figure prices some other cars bring, and we wanted to keep our costs down. Armando recommended rust repair and full blocking of the car but not stripping. Exterior chrome was all removed, but not windows. Fenders stayed on. The refinish turned out great, Phil and I think, and took about half the labor of the El Camino and the Lincoln. 

After soliciting opinions and advice on the National Desoto Club website, we decided to go with Armando's recommendation. He has painted a lot of cars and he's an expert. We all went to the paint store and selected a single-stage paint in a period-appropriate color. Like Johnny Rivers' secret agent man, the paint color has a number, but no name. Not to worry however, women who have seen the car universally describe the color as periwinkle. (I don't personally know what that means.) Armando recommended a white top, and we selected the Ford off-white used for years in the 60s, as I recall, Corinthian white.

Armando recommended a chrome shop in Tijuana, and took care of delivery and pickup of the parts for us. Results are fine for this car, and prices were reasonable. Rear bumper straightening and chrome was $300, which seems much less expensive than stateside shops can do. There are said to be some substandard places, but we found going with a good guy's recommendation was a pretty reliable way to find a good shop. 

Finding suppliers

Tapping into a network of small shops who recommend others has proven to be the best way for us to find good, affordable, and prompt places. Richard at the machine shop recommended Armando for paint and body. A parts store clerk told us the best carburetor guy in East County was Rick, now retired, but still doing a few jobs. Armando knew dependable, affordable chrome shops and upholstery shops in TJ. Ramon, at Tony's radiator shop, had a high school classmate who was now retired from a well-known upholstery shop and was taking on occasional projects. If we continue with the fix-up hobby, referrals will continue to be our chief resource in tracking down suppliers and experts. And yes, I've already purchased a '36 Desoto Airflow to work on.

I'm a little shy of publishing detailed contact info for the people who have done great work for us on this open web site. But I'll be happy to put you in touch with any of them if you email me at drjohn96 at me dot com. 

Results and outlook

What's left: interior. A few things don't work yet, like back-up lights, horn(s), wipers. Clock and radio. (How badly do we really want an AM radio?) Also still in the Maybe category is driveability. Driving styles have changed since this car was built; we drive 70, not 50. On freeways this car's engine seems to run faster than it needs to: 60 mph is 3000 rpm. Engine speed could be reduced by swapping the differential and speedometer drive for those from a salvage sedan. But I'm not sure it's worth it, given the amount of driving we plan for this car. Around town it's pretty good as is.

Here are some recent some photos of the subject 1953 DeSoto Firedome Estate Wagon.

Fresh paint, parked in front of the local pizza carryout.

Presbyterian church parking lot, overlooking La Mesa skyline.

George Laurie provided a new Hernando De Soto for the hood ornament. I found Australian George through the National Desoto Club web site at desoto.org. Nice site, run by a great club, with an interesting newsletter.

Sitting in the driveway after its first wash.

Tailgate detail. The hinge pads were junk. Fortunately, my son-in-law has a laser cutter and is a skilled engineer. He took photos of the hinges, tweaked the dimensions and cut new ones from 1/16" rubber. I like the slight oversize -- but it's not original. Does this make the Firedome a hot rod? 

Charissa, daughter of a friend. She approves and is ready to go for a drive. All she needs is a license and about 6 more years.

Interior in work. More on this in the next post, but you can see the next project in the background on stands, patiently waiting. 

Body work

Rust repair:

We had some rust repair done over the past several weeks. Most serious was the rust around the tailgate hinges and the lower quarter of the tailgate itself. Wasn't much left of the original gate innards.

 

Newly repaired tailgate. About the lower third is new metal
welded in with new fixtures for hinges and lower seam.

The inside braces at the front of the roof, top of the windshield, were also badly rusted. These now have new metal welded in on both sides. The windshield frame was also affected, and this was repaired and smoothed. We found a new windshield gasket from Andy Bernbaum, and it fits well. The next several photos show the repairs.

Driver's side roof liner repair. Finally we can mount the visor!

Passenger side roof liner. Will need a new headliner now, or
at least the front section of it.

Nice new roof corner on driver's side with windshield opening
fabrication in progress.

 

Rust on cowl was repaired, both sides.

Driver's side.

Passenger door repair

Driver's door repair

Paint

We debated repainting the entire car, since much of it wound up in primer, and finally took the painter's advice on paint type. The body will be a medium blue, with the top an off white. Will post pictures as soon as it's done -- promised for about a week from now. We decided to go with a period color and paint style instead of the more modern bright metallics with base coat/clear coat. 

Coming together [John]

More Progress

We hired a spring and suspension specialist to install new coils in front. Turned out to be way harder than he thought it would be, so I'm glad we didn't take that on by ourselves. Car sits a little taller now in front, and when he finished, there was still a noticeable list to the driver's side. Turns out the front tires were different sizes, a P235 and a P255, with the smaller one on the left. Repro wide whitewalls have clean sidewalls out -- no visible sizes unless you crawl under the car and look at the backs. (Hadn't done that.) We ordered a pair of new tires and while installing them, found that there were actually two P235s and two P255s on the car. Now they are all the same, P255s, and one of the P235s is the spare. There is still a list though, and it seems to be related to less than an inch of misalignment of the front bumper. Later.

Cinco de Mayo, 2014

Since the car was running so nicely, we drove it to the Del Mar Good Guys Hotrod Spring National meet, six of us. On the way home, we heard hissing, and steam came out the hood scoop. Pulling into a service station I saw rust-colored water spraying from the radiator tank. Refilled it, left the cap loose, and drove slowly home. A small radiator shop near us rodded out the radiator and resoldered the tank, found it was a copper-brass unit -- not imported aluminum. Unfortunately, it could not hold pressure now that the crud was gone. New custom-built radiator core, new heater core, all new hoses and thermostat, replaced seeping freeze plugs. Overhauled starter, repaired rusted-through battery tray, fabricated a battery hold-down clamp, and detailed the engine compartment.

New radiator core, still copper-brass, with fresh paint

New hold-down clamp for the small but high-capacity 6-volt battery.

Fresh red paint on valve covers, intake manifold, and visible portions of the block. Shiny black paint on the rusty old air cleaner, complete with reproduction, factory, instruction decal.

New heater custom-built heater core, hoses, and fan duct (dryer pipe fits). Can't see new thermostat, battery tray, rebuilt starter, or new freeze plugs

Driving home from the shop, I noticed performance was a little sluggish, as if the timing was too far retarded. I found the vacuum line from carb to distributor advance was connected but not sealing. Some teflon tape blocked the leaks and it ran much better. 

Re-setting ignition timing

We found months ago that the timing marks on the vibration damper were almost totally obscured by rust. At that time we set the timing where we thought we saw a scratch, and the engine ran so much better, we decided that was it. While I was fixing the failed vacuum advance, I decided to see if timing could be improved. The theory (this is from the Internet, now, so you know it's good) is you should advance the timing until the engine exhibits pre-ignition detonation under heavy load, then back it off just a little. I advanced the distributor several times and could not get a ping out of it, even going up our hill. However, eventually the engine started resisting cranking -- as if it were cranking against igniting cylinders  I recalled reading that's another symptom of too much advance, so I backed it off until it would crank nicely again. Idle was now way too high, so I adjusted that down to 550 or so (still a little high probably), and went for another test drive. Much more power, smoother running -- this is a nice engine! Although it does puff a little smoke on restart after resting. That's likely to be caused by leaky valve stem seals, which I think we can live with.

Now what?

When I picked up the car, Tony said another of his customers wants to buy it. He insisted Tony pass me his contact info. He says this guy thinks the DeSoto wagon would make an extremely cool low-rider. Hmmm. Phil and I would need another project. After visiting the low-rider hall at the Good Guys meet, I have a new respect for the art some of these cars exhibit. 

Whatever we do with it, I think the tailgate needs to be repaired. It's so rusty along the bottom edge the skin and tailgate frame can't hold the hinges. Tomorrow it goes to Armando. We'll see how that comes out, and whether he wants to repair some other rust issues. 

A low-rider. This one seems to have a 53 DeSoto grill. A lot of 53s that still exist don't have teeth, and this is why.

Progress Report [John]

Here's an approximate summary of where we are in making the Firedome Estate Wagon functional and handsome. The table shows our initial inventory of needs, far from complete as it turns out. The next section tabulates the additional issues we have found so far, and the last section lists improvements we thought we might want to make.

	Status	Notes
Needed Improvements	March 2014
Side mirrors	Done
Air cleaner	Done
Tune up	Done
Gas cap	Done
Tailgate logo letters	Done
Side moldings	Done
Replace gas filler grommet	Done
Detail dash	Gauges now work
Replace rear license bracket	Done
Front plate bracket	Done	Not original, but functional
Fix hood hinges and hood fit	Done once	Springs are weak and fit is poor
Deal with driver side armrest	Done	Both front armrests renewed
Detail interior	Partial	Needs floor covering
Clean up engine bay wiring	Mostly done
Fix cowl vent; replace gasket	Mostly done
Get all lights to work	Mostly done	No interior lighting
Fix tailgate rust; chrome or refinish hinges	Needs repair, soon
Replace weather stripping
Detail or repair spare tire well as needed
Replace window rubber
Fix horn if needed		Have horn, needs repair
Research correct color CA plates and get personalized plates to match		Maybe
Wiper arms and blades. Motor and linkage?
Clean paint off rear window frame
Dash pad
Repair windshield frame rust
Front carpet or floor mat
Rear bumper brackets
Fix heater (might need core)
Repair radio or new radio
(Maybe) repaint
Replace visor		Rust in roof frame must be repaired first
Discoveries
PS unit required rebuild	Done
Brake cylinders leak	Rebuilt	Master and all slaves
Install included wire wheel covers	Do not fit; made for some other car	Sell on eBay
Carburetor didn’t work	Rebuilt
New points, cap, rotor don’t fit	Not an issue.	Engine has been swapped. Has 330 ci Firedome from a 56 S-23
No plug wire covers	Done	Found new ones and decals
Lost “S” from hood	Done	Found another
Transmission doesn’t downshift	Fixed	Control circuit winding missing
Turn signals, brake lights don’t work	Done	Mostly bad grounds
Tires leak	Done	Bad bead seal against rusty wheels
Exhaust leak	Done	New flange gaskets
Idles too fast	Disabled choke	Pugged vacuum leak on bojack pipe to manifold
Electrical short makes ammeter twitch	Fixed	Stoplight switch wires had draped across the exhaust pipe and shorted
Fails to crank	Fixed	Replaced ignition switch; taped bare wires in dash
Weak battery	Done	Replaced
Engine wouldn’t run	Done	Changed fuel pump. Tried three fuel filters.  Boiled out and lined fuel tank.
Gas gauge doesn’t work	Done	New sending unit, adapted for the wagon’s weird tank
Temp sender not connected	“Done”	Jury-rigged. Car’s sending unit won’t fit 330 engine.
Wiper towers missing	Done	Found replacements in South Dakota
Battery tray rusted through
Grill and bumper rechrome is rough
No kick-panels
Heater controls are very stiff.
Cowl vent is dirty, leaky, and hard to close.
Options	January 2013	March 2014 outlook
Swap tires, maybe wheels,		Probably not
Improve stance	In work	New front springs in hand
New shocks		Not needed
New upholstery, or new seats		Probably not
Seat belts	Rear added	Need front installed
Repair and chrome rear bumper
Refinish or replace steering column		Might repaint
12V conversion		Probably not
Hop-up existing engine		Probably not
Manifold and carb	Have 4V setup	Probably won’t install
Cam		Probably not
Distributor and ignition	Tuned up	Ok
Swap engine		Probably not