1950 Desoto

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falconvan

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 27, 2007
Messages
1,287
Location
Festus, Missouri
I just brought this home back in February. Neat old Mopar that has already had some nice upgrades. It'd been fully rewired and converted to 12v and has a nice front disc brake conversion kit on it. The only thing I wasn't real crazy was the semi-auto trans and the Fluid Drive. The motor ran excellent and it drove pretty decent but it leaked oil from the front crank seal, the oil pan, the rear main, and the side tappet covers which has made an unbelievable mess underneath. Just a lot of 70 year old dried out gaskets and seals. So the initial plan was to pull the drive train, clean everything up and put a full gasket kit in it and reassemble.

Also decided to ditch the Fluid drive and semi-auto and switch to a regular Plymouth 3 speed bellhousing and trans.
 

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So after pulling the motor apart I found everything was original but the motor was packed with sludge, crank needed turned down, cylinders needed at lease a .010 bore. Not junk but any means but more than I anticipated. It's a 236 which is one of the 25" flatheads so they are fairly well sought after.

In the meantime I had bought a nice running 218 and three speed trans from a 50 Plymouth. The motor ran really nice and had new valves, springs, and hardened valve seats so for now I am going to mothball the 236 and just use the 218.
 

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I tore down the front of the car to make the swap easier and did a lot of de-greasing, power washing, and painted the front frame and firewall.
 

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The 218 is a 23" engine and the 236 is a 25" engine so to get the clutch linkage in the right sot plus going to the shorter bell housing meant moving the engine back 2", nothing the crossmember, and building brackets off the crossmember to support the back of the shorter bell housing. Also had to shorten the shift and clutch rod to make them work.
 

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With the engine mocked in place, I also built a bracket to change to a later model master cylinder.
 

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Thankfully the floors have been repaired and the previous owner did a pretty good job so no rust repair needed on them. The seat was total junk, I found this one in a late model Dodge 15 passenger van. Fits really nice and the rounded shape and side angles fits the year pretty good.
 

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Love the Desoto's.
I had thought of putting a Plymouth engine in my Dodge custom as there are more of them out there and cheaper. Then I got a good look at my frame.:eek:[ddd
The 49-50 Dodge Coronets and DeSoto's share the same body tub. The DeSoto has a longer wheel base though. All in front of the firewall.
Nice look with the van seat. I would go with that but I need a split back.
[P [P [P
Torchie
 
Thanks! My preference was to keep the 236 but decided to take the budget route for now. But I’m going to keep it in storage for later.
It’s got a good body but a really cheesy repaint although they did have some pretty cool pinstripes put on it.

Plan for now is just get it mechanically right and make it a budget cruiser. Don’t want to break the bank on a four door but she definitely deserves many more miles of road time.
 
Another great falconvan project. Always been a fan of Mopars of that era. You have a good plan for the DeSoto
 
Thanks! I decided to go ahead and pull the head and change the head gasket. It had a couple of head bolts loose where the guy I bought it from put the chain to pull it. Plus he told me it had a valve job and new seats and he seemed like an honest dude but I hadn’t heard it run for myself.
Looks like I got a good deal, very clean inside and has a set of .040 pistons.
 

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Right on; that was a great show! I like the one where agonize sold Richie the stolen convertible.

Ugh; 3 hours of absolute misery getting the water distribution tube out. The last 6 inches broke off in the back and I didn’t think it would ever come out.
Finally got it out and got some paint on the motor; enough for today.
 

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Got a lot done today. Head is back on, finished up my trans mounts, boxed the cross member where I notched it, and a few other small things. Drivetrain goes back in tomorrow.
 

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