Bought this the other day

No real clue what I am going to do with it yet, but I like it.

It's a '38 DeSoto, apparently it was crashed in the '60s and the only parts they could find to fix it were Plymouth, so it has a Plymouth grille and aprons...

Wow, what a boat! That thing is cool man, judging by the way your Pilot House turned out I'd say you'll figure out something to do with it.

Very cool find .......looking forward to seeing what you do with it.

great score!!!

lots you can do with that, it's cool.

I like it! I built a 39 Plymouth years back...similar body from the cowl back

Great score! I like the way it looks without headlights.

Thanks guys. I cleaned it out a bit today to have a good look at it and it's pretty solid. A bit of rot at the bottom of the pillars and around the rear windows. A few other nasty areas, but all in all, it's pretty clean.

There was a a perfect right rear fender buried in the back seat which is pretty cool. I should be able to cut up the one I take off to get the right profile pieces to repair the front fenders which will save some time as well.

Every time I look at it now I think of these guys



It seems to sit comically high with the stock suspension, were they all like that?

Cheers...

Doesn't seem to be any wood either, I expected some timber in the pillars and the roof structure?

Good find, Wendle. We need to hear about your plans for it.

bob w said:

Good find, Wendle. We need to hear about your plans for it.

Click to expand...

Still not really sure.

I just started looking for something with more seats in it, since we've had another child since I finished my Pilothouse, so we don't all fit in it any more.

This turned up on eBay real cheap, I won the auction, but it didn't hit the reserve.
Rang the guy up, worked out a deal, convinced the family driving down to Melbourne (450 miles) to pick it up would be a good weekend holiday, so now it sits in my driveway waiting for me to do something with it.

Thinking about a little Nissan turbo straight 6 and auto with IFS and linked rear end out of something newer. This one deserves a cushy ride and power steering etc.

Need to look into the logistics of the Nissan engine a bit more, they are nice and neat and light, good on fuel and make huge power, but I want to run LPG again so need to look at replacing the computer with an MSD box so the crank angle sensor can tell the coil packs when/where to fire with out all the other redundant junk that's not needed with LPG.
I think they run a Jatco trans too, so have to look at how to control that.

I'm just going to measure everything up and strip it down to see what I actually have to work with for now. Won't start on anything constructive for a while.
Unfortunately, I'll probably have to sell my Dodge to make room to work on it, but that will give me the money to do a better job on this one anyway.

Cool find..Check out [ Boys in toys Desoto] on youtube.I know its not the same year,but really cool.I love the headlights..Good luck with your build

Nice find, looks pretty solid.

love it.... '

Hello,

I've done a little bit of work on this over the last year or so.

Got everything cleaned up enough and straightened out enough to get steering and suspension, engine and transmission all mounted.

Also got the body repaired enough to make if stiff enough to lift on and off without falling in half so it's all forward from here

Ended up using a late model 5.0 Windsor with the (Australian) BTR 4-speed electronic auto. After a bit of research I found a stand-alone transmission controller for these so I can lose the engine ECM and swap the big intake plenum setup for a normal manifold to run straight LPG.

Also used an IFS front crossmember out of a little Isuzu truck and built a 4-link for the rear using a Dana 44 axle out of a Ford-badged Mazda B2200 pick-up.

Running 6.00-16 Firestones on Toyota split rims

I'm not spending a great deal of time on it, 4 or 5 hours a week. Hopefully that will be enough to get me finished in another 12 months or so?

Looks really good. Keep us posted.

i have to agree.. looks like top notch work!

Thanks guys.

I do have quite a lot of detailed photos, I'll do a proper build thread at some stage.
More than likely I'll wait until I actually have the time to keep posting progress and keep it interesting

Excellent start Wendle.

Nice car & love the work so fr! Those have to be pretty hard to find down ubder... keep us posted!!! [P

BoB

I'm tuned in, another LPG runner sounds good to me!
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