Three steps forward, two steps back [John]

Owen visited this weekend, and he volunteered to help. We started with the charging system and found that there were loose connectors and corroded terminals on the generator and voltage regulator wiring. We cleaned up the wiring, replaced some bad stuff and got a nice charging indication on the dashboard ammeter. But, we observed fuel rapidly leaking from the mechanical fuel pump. That proved to need a complete overhaul, and failing to find a remanufactured pump or the requisite parts in this town, we ordered one from a web source. One week estimated delivery, so no more running. Sad, actually, because last week Mrs Phil had paid the sales tax and license fees and got temporary tags that will let us drive it for a couple of months.

With no fuel pump and no running engine, we took on the headlights and signaling systems. John David dropped by and he, Phil, and Owen renewed the front wiring, where we had found loose connectors, broken junction blocks, and perished insulation. Replaced one headlight and, after sorting out some grounding problems and corroded lamp sockets, the turn signals, tail and parking lights, and headlight high and low beams are again functional. No stop light or backup lights yet. Heater and defroster fans run, but the heater core is bypassed, indicating it probably leaks.

The threaded bolt belongs to the adjusting screw and is missing a lock nut and star washer. Fluid leaks quickly past this bolt. 

We inspected the power steering box in the hope of finding where the fast leak was and determined that an adjusting screw lock nut and star washer are missing. From the exploded diagram of the box, it appears that nut was not intended to provide an oil seal, so the shaft seal behind it is probably bad. The power steering stop leak is probably not going to be enough to fix this.

All in all, some good progress. As we expected, we are finding more things needing attention as we work our way through the list. But fixing things is kind of the point, isn't it?

A day at the junkyard [John]

Phil went home to do some Saturday work for our employer, and I set off for Otay Mesa, near Brown Field, site of numerous auto recyclers. I confirmed what parts stores in East County had already told me: it's either hard or impossible to find parts cars from the '50s around here. I was able to rack up almost 15,000 FitBit steps, which is a good thing, but I didn't find much in the way of parts for the DeSoto. I did get a couple of license plate brackets -- one from a late '70s Chevy and one from a Ford Fairmont, probably a '79.

I scrounged for suitable mirrors. In the '60s, I now recall, many manufacturers made their side mirrors with a pointed-but-rounded front surface, sort of like the original iMac. My '69 Mach 1 had mirrors like that, painted body color. Not suitable for a '53 car I decided. I found a Ford Ranger, about an '89, like the STX I once had, that had a simple, black, door mirror that I thought would be fine.

Candidate mirror on an 89 Ranger

But the other door mirror was gone. Almost all other Rangers I found had "West Coast," truck-style, multipoint-braced mirrors that I rejected for this project. I did find one other Ranger with both black mirrors, almost like the one I liked.

Anti-theft mounting screws have kept these mirrors in place  long after the truck was junked.

But this one and its mate were mounted with anti-theft screws -- socket heads with a post in the center -- and I had no compatible driver. So I settled on a pair from an '80 Ford full-size wagon. These were electric in the Ford, but if I use them on the DeSoto they'll have to be manual.

Ford side mirrors might work on our car.

Neither plate bracket was lighted, of course. Brackets with integrated lamps seem to have disappeared from cars in about 1955. But we found a plate illuminator at a dune buggy and VW bug shop that might work. 

Front plate bracket from the flat-faced Caprice. It's curved. 

I liked that it attaches to the bottom of the bumper, hiding the bolts and avoiding drilling new ones either front or back.

First start, good news and bad news [John]

This morning we installed the rebuilt carburetor, reinstalled plugs after a compression check (not great, not terrible), and cranked it up. The engine started immediately, blowing a good deal of smoke as we expected. 

Steering wheel was very difficult to turn in the garage. We found the fluid reservoir empty -- easy to cure, but not a good sign. A quart and a half of fluid made the steering work, which was good enough to support a drive around the block. 

I eased it out of the garage and around the block I went. Brakes work, transmission is weird. Hard to tell when it does that automatic upshift in L; more apparent in D. Linkage is sloppy -- took several tries to get it into reverse, but eventually I got it to back up.

Pretty day today. Sometimes it's worth it to live in Southern California. 

We put the car back in the garage and noticed a few things:

• Gear selection is very iffy. We'll need to find the sloppiness and address that, at least. Maybe the transmission and overdrive (wiki says it's really an underdrive) are OK.
• Accelerator pedal and linkage is sticky. Holds the throttle up off idle unless you pull the pedal up. At low idle speed, the engine dies. 
• To no one's surprise, the power steering fluid has made an even distribution of drips across the driveway, and at least a quart of it is on the garage floor below the steering box. I knew there was a reason for the empty reservoir.
• Cranks very slowly after 10 minutes of driving. Dash ammeter shows 0, and there is 4V across the battery terminals, engine idling or revving, and 2V across the generator terminals. Looks like there's no output at all from the generator.
• Headlights work, turn signals work, stop light doesn't work, horn is missing, gas gauge is optimistic (claims 2 gallons is a full tank). Oil pressure gauge shows reasonable output. Radio doesn't work. 
• Can't back it up: hard to get it in reverse, and if you do, it might refuse to go forward again. Also, no side mirrors.
• No license plate brackets. We will need those soon.

Well, it is a project after all. Wouldn't want to finish it in a day anyway.