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1952 Dodge Coronet

muddermilitia

muddermilitia

ThatTrazerGuy
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I have been into hot rods since I was a little kid. Dad took me to the car shows/swap meets all the time. By the time I was 12 or so, my interest had turned towards the big fendered customs of the early 50s.

Last October, on my way to a junkyard that was going out of business, I pass an old 50s car for sale in front of a small mechanic shop. After the junkyard trip, I swing back and check out the car. It's a 1952 Dodge Coronet 4-door. I talk to the mechanic that did a bunch of work on the car and was helping his friend (the car owner) sell it. I come back later that day with my wife and brother and we end up buying it. Now, on to the pics:

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Wow that looks clean. Looks nice even in the 4 door. Gonna be a sweet cruiser man. So sweet
 
Bitchin'.


Now explain that whole torque convertor manual transmission thing you mentioned elsewhere.
 
sweet ride!:waytogo: i have been waiting to see something on this car ever since i looked in to that crazy transmission
 
I'm torn on the vehicle I want you to bring in July lol.


The Trazer or this... Lol
 
blazinzuk said:
Wow that looks clean. Looks nice even in the 4 door. Gonna be a sweet cruiser man. So sweet
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Yeah normally I would go for the 2 door. But after looking at some pics online of 2 door dodge's, I think the 4 door version actually looks better. This is definitely not what I had in mind for what our project was going to be. 49-51 Mercs are my fav, followed by early 50s Cadillacs, 49-51 Fords, and 49-54 chevys. But the more I look at this, the more I like it. I have some more pics I will upload once I get back home
AJMBLAZER said:
Bitchin'.


Now explain that whole torque convertor manual transmission thing you mentioned elsewhere.
Click to expand...

chicken joe said:
sweet ride!:waytogo: i have been waiting to see something on this car ever since i looked in to that crazy transmission
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Yeah the transmission is really weird. It's called a Gyro-Matic. It has a clutch as well as a torque converter. I found this video online that shows some of the shifting. Keep in mind though that this guys get some of it incorrect. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv_bHI07NDg&safe=active

You have to use the clutch only when shifting ranges with the shift lever. You do not have to use the clutch when you are stopped at a light. Putting the shifter forward and up, puts the car in low range (he calls it 1st-2nd) you then release the clutch and accelerate. When you are ready to shift to the next gear, you release the accelerator, listen for a metallic "click", then you must immediately press the accelerator and it will shift. Low range is extremely slow and is really only designed for pulling something up a hill or pulling a car out of a ditch.

If you move the shift lever forward and down, it puts the car in high range or driving range (he calls it 3rd-4th) This is what you will use for your normal driving. Release the clutch and accelerate just as before. When you get to about 30mph the motor will be high revving so you release the accelerator, listen for the click, and hit the gas so it will shift into 2nd. It's only a 2 speed transmission but with a high and low range.

If you are too slow to hit the gas after that "click" it won't shift and will stay in 1st gear. Once the vehicle is warmed up, you can usually shift a little sooner like around 25mph. It really takes getting used to, but once you have the hang of it, it's really easy to drive.

Deuling said:
I'm torn on the vehicle I want you to bring in July lol.


The Trazer or this... Lol
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I will bring 1 or the other lol. I need to get some road miles on this before I go on any longer trips.
 
So the mechanic got this car ready for his friend to take to a show last august. It has brand new whitewall bias-ply tires, newer exhaust, the head was rebuilt and decked for a little bump in compression. He went through the brakes, new plugs and wires, and a few other things. The interior is in real nice shape minus the front half of the carpet is missing and the seats are stained. Anybody have any luck with carpet kits from JC Whitney? I also need to figure out why the gas gauge doesn't work. I'm planning on 3" lowering blocks for the rear and cutting a coil from the front springs.

I'm going to hit up the swap meets this summer and try to find a sun visor and rear fender skirts for it, as well as some rust free front fenders. You can kind of see in the pics, that there is rust spots above each of the headlights. For the future, I would like to have the headlights frenched and mid 50's Packard tail lights grafted in the back. For anybody that's into hot rods and customs, you may have heard of Voodoo Larry. Well his shop just happens to be located about 5 minutes from my brother's house, so I think I might have him do the headlights and/or tail lights this next winter.
 
Me having 2 kids I think it would be fun to have a 4 door. I have always had your car high on my list of 4 doors that look good.

But man I would kill to do a 50 caddy done up lead sled merc style.
 
Ok here's some more pics I took:

















Here's an old service sticker that's in the door jamb:





Car is still 6-volt with positive ground. Car has a little over 29k miles on it.

 
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Ever figure out the story on it being such low mileage and good shape?
 
AJMBLAZER said:
Ever figure out the story on it being such low mileage and good shape?
Click to expand...

I think for most of it's life, it must have been owned by an older couple who only drove to church on sundays. Then I bet it got parked for quite awhile and was picked up by a local car guy (in the same club as the mechanic and previous owner of the car) I guess that guy was a big Plymouth fan. Got the car thinking he could use parts of it to restore his Plymouths (I guess a lot of dodge and plymouth parts can be swapped) only to find out that this year dodge has no interchangeable parts to his Plymouth.

Plus the Dodge was in so good of shape, he just couldn't tear it apart. So he held on to it for awhile. Fast forward to early this year. The guy I bought the car from went to his mechanic buddy and said he wanted a car to cruise to the Iron Invasion car show in late September. The mechanic contacted the Plymouth guy and they struck a deal to pick up the 52 Dodge.

After the show, the owner found out the place he is storing some of his cars at, no longer is doing outside storage so this guy had to get rid of the dodge and another 1 of his cars. Plus I think he really wanted a faster V-8 car
 
They are out there. Gives me hope for the day when my time comes to have a toy or two again.
 
This is so damn cool!!!

lol Gyro-matic

Oh man, don't drop it. It looks sweet as is. Get it reliable and run it. OH so awesome
 
Ordered 3" drop blocks for the rear today. Gonna lower it over Memorial Day weekend. Going to cut 1 coil from the front springs and see how it sits once the springs settle. I did read about how to modify the front control arms for a little more drop if needed.

Still need to see why the fuel gauge isn't working, I think the float needs to be replaced (they are made of cork so its probably totally disintegrated at this point) Also gotta remove the seats so I can remove the remaining carpet, hopefully the floor is still in solid shape. Then I'm going to order new carpet from JC Whitney and I think I might try and get the bench seats cleaned at a detail shop. Maybe they can remove some of the old stains or at least the "old grandpa smell" as my wife calls it haha.

Warm weather is on its way and I'm getting really anxious to drive this car!!!!
 
The rear lowering blocks showed up yesterday. I'm way too impatient, think I'm going to install them tonight after work
 
I installed the 3" dropped rear blocks last weekend:







Now I gotta decide if I should run hubcaps or no hubcaps. I also need to decide if I like it better with the rear stone guards and rear fender trim or with out. I'm missing the stone guard and fender trim for the passenger side.







 
With the hubcaps.

I kinda like the stoneguards too.
 
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