1947 Dodge Cornet Rust-Tow-Mod

eugene13

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This showed up by trailer, It's really straight, has all the glass and a useable interior. We're hoping we can get the grey primer off with damaging the patina. Our plan is to install a Mustang II front suspension, a 350 Chevy engine and automatic overdrive transmission, and a Ford 8 inch rear with a triangulated 4link suspension, all with Coil over shocks. This is our "Client", who wishes to remain anonymous. It's amazing how the "Unabomber" chic looks normal these days. My job for the day is to unpack everything and check the invoices. To remain loyal to the brand it would have been nice to install a hemi with a push button Torqueflite, or a 440 wedge, but Small Block Chevy's are cheap and abundant and the Chrysler stuff isn't. Pretty neat working on a car that's a year younger than me.
 

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very cool. I've helped a friend with a couple of restomods and the Mustang II/ Ford Explorer+4 link rear end is a popular combo. Looking forward to the updates!
 
Nice, I'll be watching this thread.
 
Made a lot of progress today, removed the front sheet metal and the engine and transmission, anyone need a 230 cubic inch 6 cylinder flathead with a Gryomatic transmission? Interesting combination, it has a torque converter that shares the engine oil first off the crank, then a clutch, and then a 3 speed transmission. Here's our first step, we have to cut off the front suspension and install a Mustang II cross member from Heidt's Hot Rod Shop, I guess you can call this the "before" picture. You find a lot of interesting things in old cars, money, steak knives, jewelry, make-up, and once a baggie with with some white powder that turned out to be laundry detergent, this is the first time for a piston, I'm assuming it's from this engine, our client wants me to make it into a gearshift knob.
 

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Here are some more artifacts we found after we washed everything down, I think these are inspectors marks from 73 years ago, these cars were built by human beings. My grandson was trying to read the tag and managed to polish off all the paint. One of my high school friends' mom had a Plymouth of this vintage, he had to cut these braces out so we could sneak into the drive-in.
 

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Another busy weekend, since we will have to remove the body to complete all of the four bar welds we decided now was a good time to put the chassis on our jig, my son also decided that he didn't like the first iteration of the front end connection, so he cut it off and started over, what he ended up with is what I suggested in the first place, aah, a teachable moment. I like this a lot better, it's cleaner, stronger, with more longitudinal weld and we wont have to build a separate structure for the bumper mounts and radiator support.. When we opened up the frame we found about a hundred pounds of dirt inside each rail, I think this old girl put down a lot of miles on dirt roads. Here's the final result all tacked up, it'll get welded up next weekend.
 

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Here we are, all welded up, my son gets to do all the welding and fitting and I get to install all the new parts, this is the first time we've used the Heidt's cut and fit kit, I give it five stars, the parts are well made and the instructions are clear and concise. We're using the lower "A" arms that don't require strut rods, they simply make the lower pivot longer and back it up with a triangular gusset welded to the back of the crossmember. Yes, that's a bottle of anti-seize you see sitting on the crossmember, we use it on every metal to metal fit, My rule, "If you're not wearing it you'
re not using enough". I love these GM style brakes, so simple and easy to mount, the pin does it all, holds everything together, retains the inside puck, and guides the caliper. I had a problem getting the caliper to fit on the right side, the millwright in me said grab the die grinder and the machinist in me said grab a file, the machinist won, simply knocking off the paint was enough. Last is the coil-over shocks, I can't believe that tiny little spring is going to be enough to hold up the front end, but we shall see.
 

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