When I dropped the original radiator in the DeSoto last week, I wasn’t surprised to find that it wouldn’t work. The lower hose outlet was smack in front of the A/C compressor pulley. A quick trip to eBay with the dimensions revealed that a ’47 Chevy truck radiator is almost exactly the same size, and, bonus, the outlets are the correct size and in the correct location, i.e., not in front of an engine driven accessory.
This was $300, it came with a beautifully fabricated aluminum shroud and electric fan, with the temp sending unit and relay kit. It turned out I had to trim the bottom of the core support, as this has squared corners and the original had radiused corners, but it’s a good fit. I’ll have to weld some tabs on the core support to mount it, as it’s an inch narrower, but otherwise, perfect. I calculated, looking at the photos on the eBay sellers ad, that it’d just barely clear the water pump pulley, and, I was right. Half an inch.
The past couple of days I’ve been working on the exhaust system. I’ve always taken my projects to “Maxi-Muffler” in Kalamazoo and had them bend pipes for me, but this car I wanted to try my hand at it myself. I ordered from “Summit Racing” a U-weld-it dual exhaust kit, hangers, clams, and mufflers. When I called the order in, the sales rep asked if I would like to upgrade to stainless steel pipes. In the catalogue that kit was almost twice as much, but he said for just $30 more I could get stainless 2 1/4″ pipe. I didn’t hesitate.
I was disappointed when the parts arrived that the Thrush stainless glass pack mufflers I’d ordered came in the familiar red powder coat. I called, and that rep told me they weren’t available in stainless, despite the catalogue listing them. Rather than send back two $28 mufflers for $30 shipping, I kept them and found stainless “Turbo” style mufflers from Jegs very inexpensively, and ordered them. I’ll use the glass packs some day, maybe behind the Hemi that came out of the wagon…
The kit came with 4 each of 90 degree bends, 45’s, some tight “U” bends, and 4 48″ straight sections. Because the car is so long, had ordered 2 extra 4′ straight pipes, and it’s a good thing I did. I had a hard time figuring out how to get the pipes over the axle and around the gas tank, but I managed, and today have it all pretty much wrapped up. I did have to lose the Explorer rear ends factory sway bar, and the massive counter weight on the right side, but the pipes are tucked neatly around all the obstacles, and look pretty good.
After I got started, it wasn’t as difficult as I first thought to mount the hanger rods and insulators to keep the system from wiggling around. For some reason, Summit sent some 5/15″ diameter hanger rods, which weren’t usable with the rubber insulators I’d ordered. I do remember the rep saying that some of the ones I wanted were out of stock, these may have been the substitutes. No big deal, I had saved a couple of 3/8″ stainless rod sections that Kim’s dad Bob had brought home from Kellogg’s when he worked there. I cut them up and made the hangers I needed from them, they are actually better than the ones I bought.
I’d have gotten finished up today, but ran out of .024 welding wire, but it’s done enough to set it back on the floor on it’s wheels and admire my work. The pipes look cool exiting the back of the car under the bumper, they’re straight and symmetrical, I’m proud of the job I did.
Next week I hope to be able to wire it up enough to fire the Hemi. I’m going to send the dashboard gauges out to be converted to electronic sending units, so we’re getting close. The A/C system from “Vintage Air” is here, the evaporator is mounted under and behind the dash, running the hoses and wiring it up will be the next project after firing the engine.
It’s coming along.
Actually, I don’t mind, because I’m not finished up yet anyway. We have driven the car a couple of times, it has 20 miles on the odometer, enough to find a couple of little bugs that I’ve taken care of (the shifter selector shaft seal, and a radiator hose that wasn’t quite tight enough, which I fixed, but now the gas gauge isn’t working), and I still need to get the canvas on the top made and get it licensed, but, there’s light at the end of the tunnel.
Cool McCool's Garage 