Fitting the Rear Seat
To make the Durango 2nd seat fit properly, I had to remove the center of the tube that connected all three of the rear seats together so that the seat would fit over the higher transmission tunnel of the ’56 Dodge. With the center section was removed I did a trial fit up of the rear seat. The ’56 Dodge transmission tunnel is off set by about 1 1/2 inches toward the passenger side. Which was close to the offset in the Durango. All in all the seat fits pretty well! With the passenger side tumble seat as close to the tunnel as possible the assembly is within 1/2 in inches of being centered. Both tumble seats clear the front seat backrests giving access to the new concealed storage area.
The only other major adjustment that had to be made was to remove about 1″ off the front of the center mounting pads to allow the mounts to easily fit in the original recessed area on the ’56 floor pan.
I pulled the seat assembly back out so that I could gusset the area where I had removed the center main tube and to fabricate the outer floor loops for the seat mounts.
Bzzzzzzzzzzzt! When I had looked at the inner seat mount loops I eyeballed the material to be 1/2 steel rod. NOPE! after buying 3′ of 1/2″ steel rod to fab the mounts from, I discovered that I need something a bit smaller – like 12mm. which is not available around here. Rather than trying to find a smaller piece of rod to use, I will clearance the mounting clamps to fit the 1/2″ rod that I have.
Prep Rear Seat Area
Happy Halloween!
On to installing the Durango’s second seat in the rear of the ’56. I had thought about using the Durango’s 3rd seat as well, but had to ditch the idea once I did some better measurements on it. I would have to narrow the seat by 2″ to get it to fit between the ’56 rear fender wells. The end result would not be worth the effort that I would have to put into it. By eliminating the 3rd seat I can use it’s foot well area for concealed storage for tools or my cameras.
Once again I used the pneumatic descaler to remove the sound deadening tar like material that had been sprayed on the floor. The descaler is a great tool for this since it also tests how strong the rusted parts of the floor are. The driver’s side floor is in great shape and other than where the muffler heat shield was spot welded to the floor on the passenger side no new issues were found there.
After cleaning up all the mess – I have to say I will be glad when I finally get all the dirt and sand out of this car! I cut out the old rear seat mounting platform using the cutoff wheel. I then removed the remaining pieces that were spot welded to the floor using a 4 1/2″ grinder and a cold chisel. Unfortunately I had a couple of opps with the cutoff wheel that will have to be welded up when I get around to repairing the floor, but no big deal.
Mounting the Durango Front Seats
The Durango had a nice set of comfortable modern seats which according to my measurements should fit well in the ’56 Dodge wagon and will provide a comfortable environment for long distance cruising. The 1st task was stripping the floor to seat track mounting brackets off of the front seats. The front seat tracks offer a flat mounting surface that will work well with the relatively flat floor in the ’56.
To begin fabricating the new seat track mounting brackets, I cut four mounting tabs from 2″x2″x1/8″ mild steel angle and drilled 7/16″ mounting holes in each tab to locate it to the seat track. I next tied the mounting tabs on each side of the seat together using 1″ sq tubing. Eight 3″x4 1/2″x3/16″ mounting plates were cut from a length of 3″x3/16″ flat stock. I tack welded the tubing to the tabs so that I could do a trial fit of both of the seats.
My initial thought was to reuse the original bench seat mounting points, unfortunately they would place the seat too far forward, that forced me into locating new seat track mounts. My major concern was to get the driver’s seat centered with the steering wheel/column, which required the seat to be moved quite close to the transmission tunnel which was already off set toward the passenger side. After a lot of trial fitting I found a set of locations for both seats.
Once the seat locations were established, I could determine how much I had to space the rear mounts to level the seat track fore and aft and side to side. Proper spacing was achieved by adjusting the where the tabs were attached to the square tubing and by using spacers cut from 1″x2″x1/16″ rectangular tubing.
All that remained was to cap the ends of mounts and add some additional 1 1/2″x3/16″ plate to each of the rear floor mounts to adjust for the uneven floor. I also had to fabricate 28 nut plates to fasten the new seat mounts to the floor, once I complete all of the necessary floor repairs.
Removing the Coating on the Floor
Before I could install the front seats from the Durango, I had to find the floor under all the tar like material that had been sprayed on the floor 43 years ago. Fortunately most of it hardened enough so that I could use my Harbor Freight descaling tool to quickly remove it from the floor so that I could determine the extent of the rust damage to the floor.
I am glad to say that there were no new surprises!
Slow Day…
I spent most of the day today, updating the OTHG-Phoenix website. Dreamweaver crashed in the middle of the upload, found out that I had run out of storage on the ISP again. This is after it was bumped to 1024 MB. I am thinking that I need to move this site to an ISP that offers unlimited storage.
I did manage an hour or so out in the shop. I pulled the seat track mounts from the Durango seats and did some test fitting. I think I have a way forward to mount the seats. The driver’s seat is an 8 way power job, while the passenger seat is manual. I will have to use the passenger seat to get the basic position and set up, then put the driver’s seat in the middle of it’s positions and then determine how to mount them both. At present it doesnt look too bad. The floor is flat where each seat needs to be mounted, so the mounts should be pretty straight forward.
It does look like I will have to cut down the seat backs to get the top of the front seats where they need to be. I think I will have to install the rear seats 1st to make sure that every thing ends up at the same height.
Finally Up to Date!
With the last post, I finally have the journal up to date with what is going on with my 1956 Dodge Sierra wagon build! I will try to do a better job of keeping everything updated on a regular basis.
Next steps on the build plan:
- Position and mount passenger seat from the Durango. This seat does not adjust up and down so it will be used to establish the median front seat height.
- Position and mount driver seat. This is an 8 way power seat – I will build the mount with the seat in the middle of it’s travel to set the seat position to match the passenger seat.
- Position and mount the drive by wire throttle pedal.
- Patch holes in the floor and clean up interior.
- Mount second seat and establish back rest height.
- Cut down all seat back rests so that the tops of the seat backs do not extend up over 2″ above window opening.
- Reuse or fabricate a console for between the two front seats.
- Remove all seats and the dash panel
- Remove core support, inner fender panels, engine & transmission, steering column, shift linkage and steering box and front suspension, drive shaft, rear axle and springs.
- Strip and prime frame.
- Strip and prime firewall.
- Strip and prime interior.
- Design and fabricate skin for firewall.
- Reskin firewall and prime.
- Strip and prime all suspension pieces.
More to follow when I get these tasks completed!
Working with the ECU wiring harness reminded me that I needed to install the brake switch that I had removed from the Durango. I also had to adapt the brake pedal to the power brake booster actuating rod. My local Ace Hardware had a 5/16 fine thread heim end to fit the rod. The hole in the brake pedal lever was 3/8” and was located too far away to line up with the rod. I welded up the existing hole and drilled a new one that would line up with the rod.
To further align the heim end with the lever, I made a boss by welding 3 – 5/16” AN washers to the lever to space the heim end out far enough so that it would not bind.
The Durango brake switch has a special mounting tab that I pulled from the Durango. I welded it to a 1 ¼ x .125 steel strap that I slotted on each end to allow adjustment of the switch.
In that I am planning on reskinning the firewall, I needed to eliminate the bolt heads that protruded on the engine side of the master cylinder mounting plate. To do this I countersunk the plate to take a 5/16” fine thread flat head cap screw which I welded into the plate and then ground down so that they would be nearly flat with the rest of the plate. Finally I reinstalled the mount, pedal and switch to make sure everything fit and worked properly. As with everything else in the ECU harness, the brake switch connector and plug fit perfectly!
The ECU in the Durango donor was mounted with an isolated mount that allowed the ECU to be easily removed for service. Luckily I pulled the mount before I sent the Durango on its way. I had to make a couple of modifications to it to get it to fit into the passenger side kick panel.
In addition to trimming the ECU mount I had to remove some of the metal from the panel so that I could easily slide the ECU in and out with all of the wiring connectors in place.
When I ordered the ECU harness from HotwireAuto.com, I asked Tony to provide enough length in the harness to be able to mount it in the passenger side kick panel. Tony did not disappoint! The harness is long enough to allow the ECU to be pulled free of the kick panel with all the connectors in place. I have the harness routed behind the evaporator and down through the top of the kick panel which will be left open to allow ventilation for the ECM.
Since I had the harness in the car, I did a quick check to make sure all the plugs on it matched up with the proper connectors on the engine and transmission. Again, a perfect match! My 4×4 friends were 100% right in their praise for Tony and his Chrysler harnesses!
When I get around to refinishing the dashboard, I will fabricate an electrical panel to mount the ECU fuse panel and relays along with the body fuse panel for the vechile wiring harness. It will either be located behind a hinged speaker grill or in the glove box.
After I had determined that the Mark VIII cooling fan would not fit between my water pump pulley and the radiator, I was telling a friend of mine about the problem and my concern that the DeRale 2400 CFM fan that I had bought might be marginal in 100 F valley heat with the A/C on. Fortunately he had a Taurus fan which is somewhat thinner with about the same CFM rating. Since he was not using it, he donated to the cause if I would agree to do some aluminum fabrication for him in the future.
My local metal supplier, JL Steel in Taylor has a computer controlled plasma cutter that can take AutoCad files. After calculating the bend allowances, I laid out the cutting pattern and sent the cad file to them to cut the pattern from a sheet of 1/16” aluminum stock. I cannot believe how well it worked!
After getting the piece to the shop I used my fabrication table as a pan brake to form all of the bends, tack welded everything together. I then cut the fan mounting ring and plates from the Taurus fan shroud and tacked it in place. After that I did a test fit on the radiator. After removing a bit of the back of the fan motor, everything fit fine with enough clearance.
I then took everything apart and did the final welds on everything. Before making the final install I noticed that there was some flex in the fan motor mounting plates which could allow the fan to hit the radiator. I cut some stiffeners out of some aluminum angle and welded them to each of the fan mounts to provide some additional stiffness.
The generic Chevy aluminium radiator that I bought from Speedway had the lower outlet mounted at an angle that didn’t line up well with the water pump inlet. So I used my handy cutoff wheel to remove and reposition it. I have to say that I was not sure that I could get it welded back on but, it all worked out okay! My aluminum welding skills are such that I can get good penetration and a solid weld, but it isnt pretty. How I would love to lay down a weld with that stack of dimes look… maybe one of these days…
Aside from fabricating a new firewall to clean up the engine compartment I think can move to the inside of the car! I cannot believe that I have spent the best part of a year working from the firewall forward!
After waiting for over six weeks, and hearing excuse after excuse as to why it had not shipped, I finally canceled my order for the A/C – heating equipment and placed a new order with Vintage Air. As it turns out Vintage Air was only $40 more and shipped almost immediately!
My 1st task was to locate and mount the evaporator/heater under the dash. Thankfully the dash area of the old Dodge, is fairly roomy so there were no real issues in mounting the unit. Once the unit was installed, I could determine where to mount the ECU and the bulk head fitting for the A/C & heater lines.
The ECU wiring harness requires a 2 ½ inch hole in the firewall directly behind the fuel rail on the passenger side. I had been concerned that the evaporator would be too close to allow the rather thick wiring harness to be routed behind it. As it turned out, there was plenty of room to route both the ECU harness and the A/C – heater lines.
The next task was to mount the condenser in front of the radiator on the core support. Shortly after I had brought home the new aluminum fuel tank earlier in the year, a good friend stopped by the shop for a visit and wanted to know if I had made the tank. I told him that no, I didn’t since I didn’t have a TIG for welding the aluminum. He told me that he had a TIG that he never uses and the next day he showed up at the shop with an almost new Miller 180SD in the back of his truck. He allowed that I might as well use it until he needs it! This is the same friend that is letting me use his HyperTherm 900 plasma cutter as well.
It took me several weeks and two bottles of argon gas to learn how to weld aluminum well enough to build the mounts for the evaporator and to fabricate an aluminum fan shroud for the radiator.
My first aluminum fabrication project was the mounts for the condenser, all in all it turned out pretty well for a first attempt. In addition to mounting the condenser I also located and mounted the overflow tank for the radiator and the reservoir for the power steering pump.
I am currently waiting for a couple of hard lines to connect the condenser to the dryer which will also be mounted to the core support. As it turns out, a lot of equipment is being hung on this one piece of sheet metal!
