Motor News [John]

Phil scraped the grease off the engine serial number. Although the car is a 1953 Firedome, built with a 276 cu in hemi V-8, the serial number decodes to a 1956 Firedome 330 cu in hemi. The 276 claimed 160 HP; the 330 claimed 230 HP with 2-barrel carb. The accessories on the engine might be a mix of 1953 and 1956 parts. The generator has a power steering pump on the back of it, and unless the pair of drive belts are removed, the pump interferes with the used oil-bath air cleaner we found. With longer belts, it looks like it can be made to fit, but there won't be much adjustment in the generator support strap unless we extend it.
This finding narrows our observations slightly. Since this is not the original motor, or even the same displacement, we're not very interested in heading for an as-bult restoration. Not that we ever were. On the other hand, another 70 horsepower is not all bad. This is a heavy car, and with the tip-toe automatic transmission, it's pretty sluggish.

The Letters, continued [John]

I mentioned in my missing parts post that we need a complete set of DESOTO letters for the tailgate and an S for the hood. These occasionally pop up on eBay, and in fact, my daughter bought a set as a gift. When they arrived, we found they were in disappointingly poor condition, and the S was bent badly. Condition is probably average, considering their age, but we are not at all sure we can straighten the S without breaking it.

The "new" old letters

So the new status of letters is we need two Ss, and if we decide to use these, they will all probably have to be cleaned up and rechromed. 

Given all that, and given that my son-in-law Dr Mark has a newly imported laser cutter in his garage, we investigated some alternatives. I looked for a suitable font on the web, and found some candidates. I distorted the proportions to make them fit in the same size rectangle the originals use. and I got the first 5 results shown. 

Meanwhile Mark traced a photo of the originals using a drawing program and came up with the sixth line shown. Local viewers all agreed that the factory font was much nicer looking than any I had found. 

Mark cut a set of the traced letters shown in the last line from a 1/8th-inch sheet of black acrylic. The arms of the T turned out very thin, unlikely to stand up to a car wash. Close examination of the original chromed pot metal letters reveals they are beveled: the delicate face of each letter is backed up by a stronger, larger, thicker piece of material. The laser cutter, although computer controlled and very precise, can only cut vertically, so it can't reproduce the bevel of the originals. However, we came up with an alternative: make a second set of letters, in the same or a contrasting color acrylic, such that the outline of each letter is everywhere a millimeter outside the outline of the first copy. Glue the two together for added strength, and then attach them to the body using some kind of automotive grade double-stick pad. The pad can be cut by the laser to exactly fit the outline of the larger set. Here's how they came out:

And here's a closer look at the first two. These are just stacked and not properly registered.

Laser-cut acrylic letters

Not sure we will use these yet. They are consistent with our emerging goals for restoration in that we are not concerned about restoring the car to completely as-built. Might not last forever in sunlight, but it's a simple matter to cut a couple of spare sets. We might still find originals, but if we have to restore and rechrome, not sure it's worth the money compared to this slightly custom touch. If we do use them, the color of each layer is negotiable. Needs to be visible on whatever paint we pick, and might look more elegant if the top copy contrasts with the lower, larger copy. Opinions welcome.

The Brakes [John]

The brakes were bad. We found the master cylinder was full of debris, had weak seals and a nonexistent boot. We rebuilt it first, then pulled off a front wheel and drum. These cars have two single-acting cylinders on the front brakes, and both of these were dripping fluid. The shoes have a good amount of lining on them, but they were wet with brake fluid. There is a variety of advice on how to deal with this on the web, including some that recommends waiting until your wife isn't home, pulling the shoes and baking them in a hot oven "until they quit smoking." We tried a less agressive approach: spraying thoroughly with brake cleaner, wiping them off, and repeating. They look much better, and we will see how they work in a week or two. One of the shoe retractor springs was broken, but we found one in the NAPA catalog that had similar measurements to replace it.
Next was the driver's side rear drum. Another Chrysler innovation was to rivet the rear drums to the week hub, which in turn fits a keyed taper on the axle shaft. We located a puller for the job and ordered it, and with it the drum came off without too much fuss. Phil put the axle nut back on the axle before he applied the puller. This is recommended to protect the axle from spreading under the pointed end of the puller and to catch the drum when the taper suddenly breaks free. Phil says he was very glad he remembered to put the nut back on. We actually wound up with two of these pullers, and will be glad to part with one of them.

Heavy duty hub puller

The rear drum brakes have a single, double-acting cylinder. Although the cylinder was dry, these shoes were wet too. Stepping on the brake pedal produced no fluid at the rear cylinder. Eventually we found that the short hose that connects the frame-mounted brake line to the Y-connector on the axle was packed full and would pass no air or fluid. Replacing the hose cured that, and the rear wheel assembly is now back together and ready for bleeding and adjustment next weekend, when we hope to rebuild the remaining two weeks.