Desoto

Blue Eyed Devil wrote:Not too far from where it was originally! Haha...

Yea. Same, but the ones you sold were in much better shape. But I think these will clean up very nice.

All the thanks should go to Steve Blade, Our newest prospect. While talking to him today at his garage he ask, do ya know anyone that may be interested in a Desoto Grille? He was more than willing to help out a fellow club member and it now rest in the mouth of another Desoto.

Glad the guy that bought it was from Germany and didn't want to ship the lower valance - that one looks a little rough. I do still have the upper "yard rake" structure that goes behind the tops of the teeth if that one is too rusty to use. I'll bring it to the Thaw Out...

Blue Eyed Devil wrote: I do still have the upper "yard rake" structure that goes behind the tops of the teeth if that one is too rusty to use. I'll bring it to the Thaw Out...

Yea, it is a bit ruff. Decided I wasn't going to even try to keep it. Was going to try and figure something else out. If you still have it that would be awesome. Need to make sure I get you your wheels back if your going to be down this way too.

Thanks Benny!

I can drop off the wheels at the Thaw Out if he will have room in his ride to get them back to the shop.

alot better

I've been trying to work on mine. And working outside is ruff when half the time my time to work on it is super late. Neighbors don't like it.

I've been working on getting the front end prepped for the grill.

Glad to have a job, but wish i could work on my stuff and hang with the club more.

I wouldn't be too down. You said it yourself. At least you are working. Jobs are getting hard to come by right now.

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Got my motor back! It's in the house. Now I just need to get the bolts to attach my motor to the engine stand. And I'll need to borrow someone's lift to get the motor up to begin the work. But I'm one huge step closer!

I got my motor back today also.

So... there are times where you start one thing. And that leads to another, and to another. You then begin to think... maybe I should have just slapped it together and not gone this far. Well... this is one of those times where I'm glad I went the extra few steps.

I had been debating on leaving my motor how it was (as a long block), clean up as much as I could, and leave it at that.

Then I thought, well I bought a full gasket kit, it won't take much to at least go ahead and look at the top of the pistons and put new head gaskets on now.

Then I thought, well I guess I should go ahead and have the block honed and put in new rings.

So tonight I spent the time pulling the harmonic balancer, the crank, and the pistons. The last things in the block before I take it to the machine shop.

Well...I was organizing everything...and low and behold what did I come across???? a bent rod on piston #3.

So....... the long and the short of it. I'm glad that I took the block completely down. Because I would have been so excited to get the motor finally in the DeSoto, here in a few months, to only have to have pulled it right back out.

So it's been a while since I've had a real update on this ride. Here are a few pics to show it off and to bring you up to date.


1953 DeSoto Firedome.





It originally had the "baby" Hemi. It had been removed before I bought it.


Olds 455bb


Old timing chain...


New double roller...


All cleaned up and ready for placement...


Just for fun...

So with that being said... I'm going to need to schedule a work session to get help to put this motor in the DeSoto and make motor mounts for it.

I will have to look at my calendar and see when I have a free Saturday coming up. Will setup a work session when I have some dates.

Had some time tonight tonight. So I painted the motor. I know that the Olds BB wasn't ever gold, but I love the fact that Olds used gold on their motors at all. So I decided I'd paint mine that color.