1952 Plymouth Cranbrook

As first announced here: http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/sometimes-you-just-cant-say-no/72452/page1/

The Cranbrook was delivered tonite...let's dig in.

Did some "under the dirt" exploration Started by polishing half the grille just to see how it comes up. Not bad.

Great now what about this interior

Yep, that will clean

Probably going to need a new gauge cluster but we'll pull it apart to be sure

Not much better on the back side

That's all I did tonite, just poking at it a bit. The wiring is very corroded and brittle throughout so we are going to rewire the whole car. Switching to 12v at the new owner's request as well. I'll probably mock up a 6v starter circuit just to work on getting it running for now though.

mmmmmm.....

crusty cranbrook.

reminds me of the 50 new yourker convert i did a while back. HEAVY damn car.

On the drive to work I had a DOH moment and realized why I couldn't push the car into the garage....it was in gear. DOH. Should go much easier out of gear, and I've got a co-worker popping by to help out later this week.

Nothing done on the Cranbrook tonite, had to go pick up my new Asphault Adventures car for winter duty and eventually for running in Saints 2 Sinners next year.

Not sure I'll build thread this, there won't be too much building (famous last words)

Nope, that wasn't it, still doesnt want to roll with only one person pushing...danged heavy car.

JThw8 wrote: Great now what about this interior Yep, that will clean

I was going to suggest that it would be the perfect candidate for a Mexi-blanket, but that's coming out much cleaner than I would have expected.

Woohoo, finally a weekend all to myself and my evil automotive plans. Got a quick job to do on the CV in the morning, ambient air sensor, the HVAC thinks outside temp is 127 degrees so it tries to mix in outside air when on heat...not good in sub 40 temps.

But on to the Plymouth. Going to try and make it run this weekend, need to make a temp fuel system and do some other pre work. Building a completely new starting and ignition circuit and this is what I have in mind

Its 6v pos ground but for the purposes of the diagram that's not relevant. Here's what I have starting at the battery, + to ground - to solenoid and another line to ignition switch batt terminal. Line from solenoid to starter, line from ign switch start terminal to solenoid, line from ign switch ign terminal to coil -, coil + to condenser in distributor. Did I miss anything? No charging circuit yet so I haven't dealt with voltage regulator or anything. I know electrical in theory but for some reason it make my head go fuzzy when I try to map it out.

One of my best buds in high school drove a '53 Cranbrook. Lots of good memories.

I might have brochure(s) for that.

Lemme look.

Well today has not gone as planned...sigh.

Did a quick starter circuit, starter tried to do things but couldn't budge the motor. I had some fears that although the motor had been pickled at the time of the flood it was not properly cleaned out and issues could occur. They drained it after the flood and it turned over at that time but they did not re-pickle it and the remaining moisture has caused the pistons to get stuck. Pulled the head. Looked like something tried to build a nest in cyl #3 but the only access was through the spark plug hole so it must have been something small.

If I can free it up it may run but without a full rebuild its probably going to smoke. On the hunt for a running flathead 6 for it now. Barring that this build thread may get interesting...either a driveline swap or a whole chassis swap.

Wheelbase is within 1/2 an inch of a longbed S10, if it were my car I'd already be on the way to pick up the running $500 S10 longbed I found. There's also a mount kit to drop a small block mopar in one of these so that may be an option. Honestly I know the new owner wants to drive this thing so I've kinda been pushing for a drivetrain update all along. Even with a 4cyl S10 under the body it would be a better driver than the stock drivetrain.

That doesn't look too bad. My neighbor's hobby is old bulldozers and crawlers and he has revived gas and diesel engines that have been sitting with water in the engines for decades. I'll ask him what his technique is.

Photo doesnt really capture the bad parts but I agree, if its just the cylinders and I can free them up I can probably save it

Soaking them in Kroil right now and going out and bashing them with a block of wood and a 5lb sledge every once in awhile. I have mild movement right now. If I can get them to rotate I'll put a piston at the bottom of its bore and run a hone down it then the next one and so on. If the rings arent damaged it might just run again.

The cost and effort of rebuilding it isn't worth it to the owner (don't blame him) so if I cant make it run on the cheap we'll update.

It's Sunday morning, the sun is shining, its warm, I was able to fix the heat in the Crown Vic in under 10 minutes, its a good day! Aaaand, I got a 1/4 rotation out of the crankshaft this morning. I know that doesn't seem like much but in a game of inches that was a mile. hope springs eternal More soaking now and then I'll take the hone lightly to the cylinders which are at the bottom of their bore so they don't meet resistance on the way back up.

back again, and now we have a fully viable rotational assembly. No pitting of the cylinder walls from the rust, a light hone and they look as good as you'd expect 62 year old cylinder walls to look.

Time to order a headgasket, I think the old girl is gonna run.

Picture time, build threads without pictures are boring.

Here's the head as it came off, you can see the remnants of whatever was built up in #3

Some scotch brite pads and a little effort...much better

Cleaned and painted the topside, no point in half assing it now.

So call me a flathead dummy, but can/will you mill the head a bit to true it up and get a bump in compression? Or does that mess up valve to head clearances or other things I can't think of at the moment?

RossD wrote: So call me a flathead dummy, but can/will you mill the head a bit to true it up and get a bump in compression? Or does that mess up valve to head clearances or other things I can't think of at the moment?

Its a massive lump of cast iron, it's still as true as the day it was made.

Yes you could get a bump in compression by milling it and yes there is risk of going to far and interfering with the valves.

I've only every played with them in stock form or off the shelf modifications so I won't go any further than that. If it weren't cost prohibitive I'd talk the owner into doing some flattie hot rodding with an aluminum head, dual carbs and dual exhaust but so far the only head I've found was $1500 so um...no.

RossD wrote: So call me a flathead dummy, but can/will you mill the head a bit to true it up and get a bump in compression? Or does that mess up valve to head clearances or other things I can't think of at the moment?

In the karting world, its considered bad practice to mill a flathead head other than a light cut to square it up, any gains from the compression will be negated by the reduction in flow.

Today's adventure in Plymouth recovery is the distributor. New electrical bits (points and condenser) were already purchased but it was a much bigger mess inside than I anticipated. Honestly I dont know why I expected it to be better, it was under water and it's not sealed. Got the electrical bits replaced and the upper plate clean and moving freely for the vacuum advance but the mechanical advance weights were seized up solid. They are soaking in Kroil and they are moving now, just not as smooth as I'd like, however I cannot seem to get the top plate off them to fully disassemble and clean so more soaking and finger crossing for now.

After a holiday delay and honey do lists completed I was able to get back to the distributor. It's been soaking in Kroil but the advance weights were still sticky so I had to completely disassemble which involved drilling out a retaining pin in the base to get the shaft to come out.

All the bits out and ready for cleaning.

Well as long as it's apart might as well make it look a little better so clean it and mask it...

Painted and reassembled. It took much longer than anticipated but it's one more part I now know is right. It is quite satisfying working on something of this age where things were made to be serviced and repaired rather than just replaced.

Finally a little free time today, got the head reinstalled and the distributor back in. Kind of slow going since I insist on cleaning and/or painting anything before it goes back on the motor, no point in putting dirty parts back in place. Maybe, just maybe, we'll have a test fire soon.

In reply to JThw8:

Like the progress.

I'm kinda the same way. While yur there why not prep n paint. Maybe that's why it takes forever for me to complete a project.

fasted58 wrote: In reply to JThw8: Like the progress. I'm kinda the same way. While yur there why not prep n paint. Maybe that's why it takes forever for me to complete a project.

One of my pet peeves with watching wheeler dealers. I've seen Ed completely disassemble a front suspension to put bushings in or whatever and then toss greasy rusty ugly a-arms right back in there, for gods sake, especially on a show about flipping cars, clean it off and hit it with some rustoleum or something.

JThw8 wrote:

fasted58 wrote: In reply to JThw8: Like the progress. I'm kinda the same way. While yur there why not prep n paint. Maybe that's why it takes forever for me to complete a project.

One of my pet peeves with watching wheeler dealers. I've seen Ed completely disassemble a front suspension to put bushings in or whatever and then toss greasy rusty ugly a-arms right back in there, for gods sake, especially on a show about flipping cars, clean it off and hit it with some rustoleum or something.

bingo

All buttoned back up, no more procrastination. Well it sure looks pretty but the %$#@ won't start. First it was a no spark issue but a bit of fiddling with the points setting got that sorted. Fuel is being done manual, just a spray bottle down the carb for now. At least enough compression to blow whatever water had settled in the exhaust out the other end. Everything seems right, assuming I have the timing off, but I should be close enough to get at least some small signs of life...a bit frustrated, timing has never been my strong point.

Check your timing with a test light on the points?