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I sold my old Honda Scrambler a couple days ago. At least I know it went to a good home, a friend of mine who has a garage full of old Hondas Harleys and Triumphs took her home. There was a reason for the sale though. Months and months ago, my new wife said she would like to have an old car to drive. Said I have bikes all over the yard, and a basement full of things, and she wanted an old car. Okay, cool. Initially I had planned on surprising her with an old car for a wedding gift, but since we got married months before our originally planned date, there just wasn't time to get it done. So I've been looking for a long time for something affordable and not a total pile of crap. I found it last week on craigslist. A 1949 Dodge Meadowbrook with a flathead inline 6. This thing is in unbelievably good shape. Now, the real trick has been getting the cash and not letting her know that I'm getting it, because I still want to surprise her with it. Basically, this car has one dent, and very very little rust. All the trim pieces are there, 3 of the hubcaps, pretty much everything. The interior is trashed, but nothing a couple old blankets over the seat wouldn't fix. Oh yeah, I can drive it too. It actually runs! No smoke, starts right up, doesn't miss, it sounds great. So I need to prep it for paint, put some new brakes on it, and do a few wiring things to get the lights all working. Shouldn't be too much, how many wires can it possibly have? Still the old 6 volt system, don't know if I will convert that to 12 yet. Clear title in hand. Hmmm, what else... It's just an old car in great shape. I took pics with my phone, but they saved to the phone memory and not the memory card, so I can't upload them. I'll get some more on Tuesday. I'm hiding it at a friends house until it will pass inspection and get a tag on it, then I plan on making it a daily driver. 3 on the tree Here is a Dodge Wayfarer, but a 2 door with different trim packages. The Coronet was the same line too.

The trim on mine comes into the front doors, not only on the fenders, more like on this Coronet.


There is actually very little chrome on the car, it's mostly stainless steel, so it's all in great condition. The headlight rings and things like that are chromed steel, and they have some pitting, not even as bad as my Scrambler had. I just hope Angela likes it when I'm finally ready to give it to her, I know for a fact she'll be surprised!

very easy to put a single wire alternator set up using a GM alternator, classic hot rod mod.change the bulbs and coil and either step it back down to 6V for the starter or upgrade it if a 12v is available.

Does it have an overdrive? If not that is one thing I would look at as an upgrade. If it does, don't forget that coil when upgrading the electrics to 12v.

Clay

Oh yeah Great car!

Very cool car. But, when she said older car, you sure she didnt mean something like a '80 chevy chevette.

I asked her from time to time when we saw an old car if she would drive this or that, from muscle cars to classics, even rat-rods she told me she would. She's a cool chick.

here is the pic from the craiglist ad for my car

Hey Dave... that is so cool. Wish I was your wife!!! Way to go man!

I have converted several tractors from 6V to 12V over the years.Usually the starter holds up just fine to the 12Vs.It usually just spins faster,which helps it start quicker.If you do run the old points distributor you need to put a resister in it to drop the voltage back to 6Vs or you will burn up the points quicker.The other thing is you need to switch the light bulbs to 12Vs including the headlights,maybe run some H-4 headlights so you can see at night with it.You can also contact VintageAir and put a/c in it.

Dave, that is soooo coooool. I've never met your wife, but she is allllright by me! She's got to be a great girl with a taste for old cars. I know you're gonna have fun fixin it up for her. And I'm sure she's gonna love it! You guys are a cool cat couple!

Dave:
Thats way cool great find. Just remember not only the head light, tail light bulbs, all dash lights and anything else that runs off 6volt will have to be changed including the horn. You starter should hold up fine, but if not, find a shop that actually rebuilds starters and they can re-wind the original to run 12volt.

I have done this many time with old build up's. Again very cool, be sure to post up pictures when you get it home. See you in a few days

She sure is a lucky girl, that's one cool car. Congrats and have fun with fixing the car up. Look liks like a project you both will enjoy doing.

She's a beauty.

Due to the fact that the car on the picture has a swedish licens plate I like to share a notice from yesterdays newspaper. According to the English newspaper The Guardian "the cost for direct import of cars to sweden by private people is among the lowest in the world. The result of this is that Sweden today has the next largest, after USA, collection of classical cars in the world." Perticulary old US cars I would say but also old european cars.
Hasse

Great car, I'm sure she'll be thrilled.

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No power steering either...

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Won't take long to get used to. Soon she will have bigger arms than you.

The old MoPars work quite well on 6 volts. The only reason they changed to 12V negative ground in 1956 was to accommodate the new transistor radios. If you really need to add power steering, the one available as an option from '52 - '54 is a bolt-on. The front brakes have 2 cylinders per wheel and 2 leading shoes, so power brakes are not needed.
Engine parts are relatively easy to find because Plymouth and Dodge shared blocks (Plymouth had a 1/4 inch shorter stroke through mid '54). While there were several different gearsets and most Dodges use a long input shaft, manual transmissions are interchangeable from'39 through '56.

I'll second what the greybeard guy says. I have had a 1948 Chrysler Windsor for a few years now, and the 6 volt electrics work fine. Make sure you get the biggest 6 v battery you can to start it, usually at a farm store. These old cars turn over slow....And check out the internet, there are some great sites for old chryslers, including P15-D24.com. and Post War Heavy Metal .com sites.

I have done a few conversions myself and the starters sometimes will get hot and throw solder under hard starting conditions.

IF you ever need any help with anything...let me know.
I've done a LOT of work on rebuilds with old cars.
Some of mine: 65 Mustang, 67 Firebird, 72 Monte Carlo

Cool old car there, Dave!

And, your wife is a Gearhead TOO???

(you lucky b*stard!...now I'm REALLY jealous!!!))

Yeah Chris, I had to laugh when you described "old". The weird thing about "old" cars is how many really young chicks dig them. When I drive the 48, lots of high school looking girls wave at me as I go by, and I'm pretty sure they're not waving at me! I think it's pretty funny, except when the wife is with me. Then, I just concentrate on the road....

Okay, finally got the pics off my phone and onto a memory card. not great quality, but at least you can see what I got going here.





Just the one dent in this fender, but it unbolts from inside the trunk and should be able to pound it out.



Like I said, I have all the trim pieces and 3 of the hubcaps and the interior parts like window cranks and knobs and all those goodies. I need to get started on this, but the weather has been craptastic for the last 2 weeks.

Well Dave, I guess I DO have to ADMIT that this here Meadowbrook which Horace and John built back in the day AT LEAST looks a LITTLE LESS worse for the wear than did that Dream which Soichiro built when YOU decided to rescue IT, ol' boy!!!


Yep once again Dave, I suppose this is just another case of what Jefferson Smith[Jimmy Stewart] kind'a meant in that famous movie about the intergoings-on of D.C. when he said..."My beloved father used to say that the lost causes are the ones you should fight especially hard for!"

(just kiddin' here, ya know...once again my hat is off to you for doin' what you do with these old "down-n-outs")

You gotta see potential in these old things! Have some faith that a vision can come true! I love the historical value of old cars on the road, just the fact a 60 year old machine can still cruise around town is amazing! I will have this thing stripped down and repainted in no time, it will look so much better just being one color instead of red faded to primer grey.

BTW, the motor on the Dream is being rebuilt right now also, but I need to find a machine shop to bore another .0030" out for the new pistons...

Well heck, findin' a shop to bore that puppy out 30-over shouldn't be all that hard to find back there, should it?!

And BTW...how's the cosmetics comin' on it?

Well, I'm kind'a thinkin' here that buyin' that Dodge juuuuuuust might make that endeavor NOW "achingly" slow , dude!!!

(...that of course would be on a scale that would put "achingly" a slight notch higher in degree of ailment than "painfully", ya see!)

Yeah, I've been wondering how to split time between the two, and still try to keep the car a secret until it's ready to drive... The problem is that it's sitting in my friends driveway about 10 minutes away, so getting over there to work will be even more of a challenge than if it was in my own driveway and I could get on it when I have time, kind of how I do with the Dream now.

Hmmmmmm. Okay, let me think about this and see if we come up with an idea about how to explain to the wife why you've been away from home so much lately.
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Okay! I've GOT IT!!!

Just tell the wife that you've been helpin' out that poor ol' widow Mrs.Johansen on the other side o' town after her tragic loss! YEAH! She MIGHT buy THAT!!!

(I mean seein' as how we've establish that you like takin' on these kinds o' things....YEAH, that juuuuuust might work!!!)

Oh, and BTW Dave...JUST make sure that the "poor ol' widow Mrs.Johansen" IS infact "poor AND old".

(the wife ain't gonna like it if she turns out to be lookin' like Megan Fox, ya know!!!)

Okay okay, first off- old cars, very cool. old bikes, very cool. Old ladies, not very cool at all! Plus, I think she knows me well enough that she won't buy my excuse that I'm helping someone out of the kindness of my heart.

I'm gonna say this too, I need to stop watching "Overhaulin" on the Discovery Channel!