My Dad had a 46 Dodge when he and Mom married in 50. I remember him explaining to me how to operate a Fluid Drive. Would love to see a full demonstration of it sometime. I remember him saying something about letting off on the gas and waiting to hear a clunk which indicated the next gear was ready for use, then depressing the gas again...... This old gal looks good for her age, inside and out. Gonna be a fun project!
This version is essentially a 3 speed manual transmission with the fluid coupler that allows slippage so you don’t have to use the clutch pedal when at a stop or taking off. There was another version of Fluid Drive that was “semi-automatic” which you would start off and then let off the accelerator and the trans would clunk into the next gear and you’d press the pedal again to keep driving. It would also downshift for passing if the accelerator was depressed to the floor and also when you slowed down/came to a stop. It had a low range and high range with 2 “gears” in each. It wasn’t offered by Dodge until 1949 but was available in Chrysler and DeSoto starting in 1941.
That is exactly right. You only had to use the clutch when starting off in first gear or reverse. To go from second to third, you only needed to lift your foot off of the accelerator and then depress it after the clunk.
My dad had a black 48 Plymouth in 1963 in Newcastle 🇦🇺I loved that car he later sold it an bought a black 55 Plymouth with red trim . Thanks for showing us your Dodge she a beauty .
My childhood included my mom’s 1940 Chrysler Traveler sedan (daily driver) Construction and materials used were similar to your Dodge. The cord on the back of the front seat was intended to hang a blanket from for the rear passenger’s comfort.
The boys up north over the border at Coldwar Motors would go crazy over this. I’m not sure what it is about these cars but I absolutely love them. And by the way that rope on the back of the seat is not a grab handle it’s to put your blanket on for winter driving. Thanks for sharing this beautiful time capsule with us. JT: Orlando FLA
I was a little surprised and how nice the interior was, fancier than I would have thought. Lots going on with the door panel but it all seems to work. Highlight for me is the "fluid drive" formed into the bumper. Neat stuff.
What a great old gal...just right for uncle Fred and aunt Tilly to drive into town. Don't you love the solidity of pre-ForwardLook mopars? Real engineered cars, before the stylists got a hold of things. Listen to those doors close! So different than what was to come just a few years later. Luv both pre-55 and post, but may as well have been from different planets
Fantastic condition. What a time capsule. That paint looks like it will buff out to a decent shine. Door panels are very luxurious…far better than any modern car.
sweet! i'm building a 48 for a friend and i found myself a '46 with the suicide doors abandoned in a field with no engine or transmission. a horse was standing in the front fender which was upside down in the snow. i put it back together and put a 318 and 727 auto in it, it now runs and will soon drive.
That springy rope on the back of the front seat, between the grab handles.. is a "blanket rope" the heaters are very weak, so the back passengers would get cold. You would put a blanket over and through that rope, to keep it handy for the rear passengers.
I enjoyed your video of your 1947 Dodge Town Sedan which I guess you know this body style in a Dodge is one of the rarest MoPars made in the 1940's. It's been a year since this video, have you made an update video on this automobile with most everything working except the Motorola radio...Looking forward to an update as I had several MoPars in my day but never a Town Sedan... I have only seen advertisements, so this was a real treat... Thank you, Tom (24)
@@thomasroop7931 I still have the car but it’s essentially the same as it is in the video. I did replace the original heater control valve on the engine with a new setup using affordable and easy bought parts. The dual heater valve is quite expensive for a replacement.
@@ObsoleteAutomotive Yes them dual heater control valves are rare and expensive. My 1941 Dodge had a Trico Vacuum powered Fan that defrosted the inside of the windshield very nicely in foggy or high humidity conditions. I also had a 1948 Desoto with the stock Dual MoPar Heaters in the kick panels in 1976... The DeSoto was a great car and cruised on the freeway at 60MPH after I did a ring and valve job and had the head surfaced, it had a Mercury Vaporizer that was a two-gallon glass jug with a top where a vacuum hose was hooked up to it and at the oner end was a replacement carburetor gasket that the vacuum hose plugged into, It had an air bleed like on a carb on the top of the glass jug and after the car was tuned I used to turn that out until the engine stumbled and brought it back to smooth and watched the water bubble up like in a fish tank, the idea was to cool the valves with the moisture but I liked the bubbling of the water and the novelty of it I guess it was akin to the pellets they used to sell to put down the spark plug holes claiming to rebuild your engine while you drive, I never went for that but the Mercury Vaporizer was cool to watch ... It is good to hear you still have the car how about a road test to give folks how the three speed behind the Fluid Drive clutch is real Kool to operate once you drive the car under different conditions. One tip about checking the oil in the fluid drive torque converter can be done by lifting the rug on the front passenger side floor to access the bell housing, rotate the torque converter to the plug is in site and remove it to check the converter oil level, if I remember right, they take a low viscosity hydraulic oil like 05 WT... They rarely ever leak or even get dirty my DeSoto was a little low, so I topped it off. Them transmissions are a three speed, but they have a real long input shaft that goes through the torque converter , I changed one on mine and got lucky and got it in on the first stab at it.... Be Good , Tom (24)
I remember those stickers like it was yesterday and I hope you have a great day . Good morning to you all and I think you got a pretty good survivor there and I hope you are able to get the clock and the radio working without breaking them in the process.
Another thing about all those grab handles. Look closely at the doors and where the seat is. To get out of the rear seat, you have to pull yourself quite a bit forward, as compared to modern cars, where the door opens at or behind the hip. Modern cars you just turn to the outside and step out, these you have to go forward, and then out, much easier with good places to hold onto.
Great video and great find! You seem like you were genuinely interested in all the details on the history within this car, I hope you keep it just as it is. The car is a true time-warp, a car stuck in both the late 1940s and mid-70s. Still trying to work out what the circular thing is under the dash on the right hand side, clearly visible at the 15:30 mark. Look forward to any replies.
@@ObsoleteAutomotive Awesome, thanks for the reply. Would be interesting if you could connect a modern day universal air-con system to the existing outlets without removing (and wrecking the originality of the existing fitted unit). Again, great video, keep it up.
I love listening to this channel. Guy is not trying to entertain us ,just sharing the experience. As a bonus we get to hear him say "You got your brot lot and your dim lot and over here your headlots" 😊
In 1970 I had a 1941 Dodge Luxury Liner Four Door that had stiff windows, and I had the special tool to remove the handles that looked like a fork with a 1" long pin in the center to push the handle pin out in order to remove the door panel and apply Luber-plate a brand name for a white grease to the door gear meninism and they worked like new with no binding after applying the Luber-Plate... Good Luck, Tom (24)..
Wow, this brings back memories. We had either a '47 or '48 Dodge sedan when I was growing up. When I saw the blankets in the back seat it was almost as if I was 8 years old again and dad was driving us to or from Christmas at one of grandparent's houses. I don't think ours had dual heater. Love the memories, though, just looking at your video. Thank you very much!
There are a couple of TH-cam channels where the old car fans claim peppermint oil left inside a stored car keeps rodents out of the stored cars. You have to change the peppermint oil twice a year.
I like your vidio. I wish you Good Luck with your new Dodge! The is beautiful and in excellent shape. Push and pull steering. Thank You for your awesome vidio! I'll be watching for more!👍
That transmission is a semi automatic. It has 2 speeds in high and 2 in low. They called the Dodge version Gyro-Matic. They also offered a normal 3 speed. Both were fluid drive. I had a 48 Chrysler with the semi automatic. They called that version Presto-Matic. I have to say this 47 is one of the nicest I've seen in a while. The look is very original and well preserved.
@@ObsoleteAutomotive I thought the 3 speed required use of the clutch in the normal way? My Dad had a 49 Coronet with 3 speed Fluid Drive and it required use of the clutch. The semi-automatics were also Fluid Drive.
@@66skate To shift between gears you have to use the clutch and it’s driven like a regular 3 speed. But you can stop in gear without depressing the clutch pedal and the fluid drive will slip and not stall the engine. You can also leave it in any of the gears and just drive with brake and gas pedals though starting off in 3rd is quite slow.
71+ year old FUD here. Nice old well equipped Dodge. My parents had a 1950 Plymouth with what i assume is the same basic flathead 6. Chrysler made those in several different variations and displacement for many years up into the 1960’s in some agricultural/industrial applications. I’ve harvested wheat with Massey-Ferguson combines using those engines. They were also used in farm tractors. They had plenty of torque. I probably would have preferred the regular manual transmission. What does that car weigh? I suppose it has enough torque for starting from a dead stop in third gear using the fluid drive system but much easier in second. Happy motoring.😊
You can start out in high gear but I don't think it's something you want to do very much. I have a friend who collects those, he has a 48 Town and Country sedan. I will ask him and see what he and his transmission guy says. Great day.
Change all oils diff gearbox and motor . I’d run Lucas fuel ⛽️ additive 24/7 in that Dodge . Due to this modern fuel ⛽️ the top end will love it . 👍🏻💯🇦🇺.
I picked up my 65 Belvedere in the Michigan snow. It was cold and slippery but luckily I didn’t have a flat! My trailer tire was covered in half a foot of ice. They would have not been much fun.
@@jeffreyrigged Picking up my 67 Fury I had a trailer tire blow out, rip the fender off the trailer and break a leaf spring shackle all in one go. That wasn’t much fun!
Not right away it won't but I believe it was designed to be using neutral. One of those things if it was not designed that way they wouldn't have designed it that way 🤔
Remove those horrible rear turn signals, install dual bulb sockets in the tail lights, let those be the turn signals. Nice old car otherwise, have fun. Keep it 6v, then everything works.
The car has factory turn signals… the extras are auxiliary brake lights that someone installed a long time ago. These cars only have a single brake light on the trunk so they probably wanted more.
I wonder why it's necessary to push the clutch to switch gears? If the reason for the clutch is to disengage the engine (power) from the transmission, but there is no physical connection between the transmission and the engine with the fluid coupling, what would the clutch pedal actually be doing?
@@Vespanation There is a hydraulic connection. At idle the hydraulic fluid allows the transmission to essentially slip so as not to stall out but the connection is still present. When driving the connection must be broken with the clutch to be able to shift gears like a conventional manual transmission. When the engine is off there is no hydraulic connection so the car will just free wheel.
I must tell you something else. You have the most interesting old car Channel. You are. Everyday, Ordinary man Talking about these cars the way an ordinary guy would talk about them. Extremely interesting.😮😮
My Dad had a 46 Dodge when he and Mom married in 50. I remember him explaining to me how to operate a Fluid Drive. Would love to see a full demonstration of it sometime. I remember him saying something about letting off on the gas and waiting to hear a clunk which indicated the next gear was ready for use, then depressing the gas again...... This old gal looks good for her age, inside and out. Gonna be a fun project!
This version is essentially a 3 speed manual transmission with the fluid coupler that allows slippage so you don’t have to use the clutch pedal when at a stop or taking off.
There was another version of Fluid Drive that was “semi-automatic” which you would start off and then let off the accelerator and the trans would clunk into the next gear and you’d press the pedal again to keep driving. It would also downshift for passing if the accelerator was depressed to the floor and also when you slowed down/came to a stop. It had a low range and high range with 2 “gears” in each. It wasn’t offered by Dodge until 1949 but was available in Chrysler and DeSoto starting in 1941.
That is exactly right. You only had to use the clutch when starting off in first gear or reverse. To go from second to third, you only needed to lift your foot off of the accelerator and then depress it after the clunk.
Wow, what a find. She is in incredible shape for being 76 years old. Thank you for sharing with us.
My dad had a black 48 Plymouth in 1963 in Newcastle 🇦🇺I loved that car he later sold it an bought a black 55 Plymouth with red trim . Thanks for showing us your Dodge she a beauty .
My childhood included my mom’s 1940 Chrysler Traveler sedan (daily driver)
Construction and materials used were similar to your Dodge.
The cord on the back of the front seat was intended to hang a blanket from for the rear passenger’s comfort.
The boys up north over the border at Coldwar Motors would go crazy over this.
I’m not sure what it is about these cars but I absolutely love them. And by the way that rope on the back of the seat is not a grab handle it’s to put your blanket on for winter driving. Thanks for sharing this beautiful time capsule with us.
JT: Orlando FLA
That Fluid Drive is really cool. Quite a nice car!
Super cool car. I have a 51 Dodge Meadowbrook with Fluid Drive and the flat head engine. Very reliable! Thanks for sharing
The fluid drive transmission will last forever as long as it’s not abused! And if it works… don’t touch it and you’ll never have to worry.
She's beautiful, you did good.
Nice idea.😊 About to install reverse lights
What a great car /////////////////////////
MAN, it is really beautiful, everything about it. 😍
I was a little surprised and how nice the interior was, fancier than I would have thought. Lots going on with the door panel but it all seems to work. Highlight for me is the "fluid drive" formed into the bumper. Neat stuff.
That Grill is Massive Great 😊
Nice survivor!😎
What a great old gal...just right for uncle Fred and aunt Tilly to drive into town. Don't you love the solidity of pre-ForwardLook mopars? Real engineered cars, before the stylists got a hold of things. Listen to those doors close! So different than what was to come just a few years later. Luv both pre-55 and post, but may as well have been from different planets
So this car has been off the road for 48 years and stored in a climate controlled museum... Love it... 🇬🇧👍
Sounds like a good running and quiet car.
What a trip down memory lane!! My first car was a '47 Dodge 4 dr with the suicide doors. Fluid drive was cool as all hell!!
Glad you enjoyed the video. The suicide doors is definitely more quintessential of the era.
Awesome car!! Didn't know about the fluid drive transmission. Keep it up!!!
Fantastic condition. What a time capsule. That paint looks like it will buff out to a decent shine. Door panels are very luxurious…far better than any modern car.
That is my Absolutely my favorite big fender mopar!!! 1947 and 1934 best!!!!
Beautifully done car.
Beautiful car!
sweet! i'm building a 48 for a friend and i found myself a '46 with the suicide doors abandoned in a field with no engine or transmission. a horse was standing in the front fender which was upside down in the snow. i put it back together and put a 318 and 727 auto in it, it now runs and will soon drive.
We had this exact car when I was a kid. I love it.
That springy rope on the back of the front seat, between the grab handles.. is a "blanket rope" the heaters are very weak, so the back passengers would get cold. You would put a blanket over and through that rope, to keep it handy for the rear passengers.
Ya, my uncle had a blanket available in his '49 Chevy Fleetline fastback... it had NO heater
I've seen the blanket referred to as a "lap robe".
I enjoyed your video of your 1947 Dodge Town Sedan which I guess you know this body style in a Dodge is one of the rarest MoPars made in the 1940's. It's been a year since this video, have you made an update video on this automobile with most everything working except the Motorola radio...Looking forward to an update as I had several MoPars in my day but never a Town Sedan... I have only seen advertisements, so this was a real treat... Thank you, Tom (24)
@@thomasroop7931 I still have the car but it’s essentially the same as it is in the video. I did replace the original heater control valve on the engine with a new setup using affordable and easy bought parts. The dual heater valve is quite expensive for a replacement.
@@ObsoleteAutomotive Yes them dual heater control valves are rare and expensive. My 1941 Dodge had a Trico Vacuum powered Fan that defrosted the inside of the windshield very nicely in foggy or high humidity conditions. I also had a 1948 Desoto with the stock Dual MoPar Heaters in the kick panels in 1976... The DeSoto was a great car and cruised on the freeway at 60MPH after I did a ring and valve job and had the head surfaced, it had a Mercury Vaporizer that was a two-gallon glass jug with a top where a vacuum hose was hooked up to it and at the oner end was a replacement carburetor gasket that the vacuum hose plugged into, It had an air bleed like on a carb on the top of the glass jug and after the car was tuned I used to turn that out until the engine stumbled and brought it back to smooth and watched the water bubble up like in a fish tank, the idea was to cool the valves with the moisture but I liked the bubbling of the water and the novelty of it I guess it was akin to the pellets they used to sell to put down the spark plug holes claiming to rebuild your engine while you drive, I never went for that but the Mercury Vaporizer was cool to watch ... It is good to hear you still have the car how about a road test to give folks how the three speed behind the Fluid Drive clutch is real Kool to operate once you drive the car under different conditions. One tip about checking the oil in the fluid drive torque converter can be done by lifting the rug on the front passenger side floor to access the bell housing, rotate the torque converter to the plug is in site and remove it to check the converter oil level, if I remember right, they take a low viscosity hydraulic oil like 05 WT... They rarely ever leak or even get dirty my DeSoto was a little low, so I topped it off. Them transmissions are a three speed, but they have a real long input shaft that goes through the torque converter , I changed one on mine and got lucky and got it in on the first stab at it.... Be Good , Tom (24)
Great video nice car thanks ARTHUR.
Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks!
I remember those stickers like it was yesterday and I hope you have a great day . Good morning to you all and I think you got a pretty good survivor there and I hope you are able to get the clock and the radio working without breaking them in the process.
Nice car , good score !
Another thing about all those grab handles. Look closely at the doors and where the seat is. To get out of the rear seat, you have to pull yourself quite a bit forward, as compared to modern cars, where the door opens at or behind the hip. Modern cars you just turn to the outside and step out, these you have to go forward, and then out, much easier with good places to hold onto.
Great video and great find! You seem like you were genuinely interested in all the details on the history within this car, I hope you keep it just as it is. The car is a true time-warp, a car stuck in both the late 1940s and mid-70s. Still trying to work out what the circular thing is under the dash on the right hand side, clearly visible at the 15:30 mark. Look forward to any replies.
The copper color piece? That’s the heater box and blower.
@@ObsoleteAutomotive Awesome, thanks for the reply. Would be interesting if you could connect a modern day universal air-con system to the existing outlets without removing (and wrecking the originality of the existing fitted unit). Again, great video, keep it up.
@@benjaminn2674 Anything is possible but finding the space and appropriate bracketry and whatnot for the under hood components may be a bit hard.
Dude, you have a jewel of a car!! Great find!!! Perfect restoration project!!!!
This is awesome find. There is a Glen Rock, PA, just west of I-83 and a few minutes north of the line with MD.
I love listening to this channel. Guy is not trying to entertain us ,just sharing the experience. As a bonus we get to hear him say "You got your brot lot and your dim lot and over here your headlots" 😊
Is that how it sounds? 😂
The Town Sedan is a rare body style. Plymouth only offered it in 1942 but Dodge and Chrysler offered it after the war.
It is seldom seen!
+ DeSoto
I see. A fluid clutch. I can see the value in the pre-automatic era.
In 1970 I had a 1941 Dodge Luxury Liner Four Door that had stiff windows, and I had the special tool to remove the handles that looked like a fork with a 1" long pin in the center to push the handle pin out in order to remove the door panel and apply Luber-plate a brand name for a white grease to the door gear meninism and they worked like new with no binding after applying the Luber-Plate... Good Luck, Tom (24)..
Those Chrysler cars of that era had a REAL---tube-type radio, as I recall. Back in the Era when cars were BUILT and lasted for decades!!
@@gregmilliken9659 tubes were in radios all the way up into the 60s!
Wow, this brings back memories. We had either a '47 or '48 Dodge sedan when I was growing up. When I saw the blankets in the back seat it was almost as if I was 8 years old again and dad was driving us to or from Christmas at one of grandparent's houses. I don't think ours had dual heater. Love the memories, though, just looking at your video. Thank you very much!
@@mike9rr I’m glad I was able to spark some memories! Always cool to hear about these cars in use.
U have some nice cars I love to try to buy the 79 Dodge van
There are a couple of TH-cam channels where the old car fans claim peppermint oil left inside a stored car keeps rodents out of the stored cars. You have to change the peppermint oil twice a year.
I like your vidio. I wish you Good Luck with your new Dodge! The is beautiful and in excellent shape. Push and pull steering. Thank You for your awesome vidio! I'll be watching for more!👍
Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it!
Lotsa “lots” back here
You got yer brake lots
Runnin’ lots
Turn signal lots
An’ in the trunk do you have Tar arn
Spare tar,
Love the accent !!!
Very cool car….How about doing a cold start video?
Check out my shorts video section. I have a video of a cold start.
That transmission is a semi automatic. It has 2 speeds in high and 2 in low. They called the Dodge version Gyro-Matic. They also offered a normal 3 speed. Both were fluid drive. I had a 48 Chrysler with the semi automatic. They called that version Presto-Matic. I have to say this 47 is one of the nicest I've seen in a while. The look is very original and well preserved.
This car is not equipped with the “semi-auto” transmission. It’s a standard 3 speed manual behind a fluid coupling. “Fluid drive”
@@ObsoleteAutomotive I thought the 3 speed required use of the clutch in the normal way? My Dad had a 49 Coronet with 3 speed Fluid Drive and it required use of the clutch. The semi-automatics were also Fluid Drive.
@@66skate To shift between gears you have to use the clutch and it’s driven like a regular 3 speed. But you can stop in gear without depressing the clutch pedal and the fluid drive will slip and not stall the engine. You can also leave it in any of the gears and just drive with brake and gas pedals though starting off in 3rd is quite slow.
The speedometer changed color with one’s speed, green, yellow, red above 60 mph
Exactly right!
71+ year old FUD here. Nice old well equipped Dodge. My parents had a 1950 Plymouth with what i assume is the same basic flathead 6. Chrysler made those in several different variations and displacement for many years up into the 1960’s in some agricultural/industrial applications. I’ve harvested wheat with Massey-Ferguson combines using those engines. They were also used in farm tractors. They had plenty of torque. I probably would have preferred the regular manual transmission. What does that car weigh? I suppose it has enough torque for starting from a dead stop in third gear using the fluid drive system but much easier in second. Happy motoring.😊
This was high technology when I was one year old. My head is spinning.
Nice and Solid Get a nice Paint Job It will be great Car
You can start out in high gear but I don't think it's something you want to do very much. I have a friend who collects those, he has a 48 Town and Country sedan. I will ask him and see what he and his transmission guy says. Great day.
Change all oils diff gearbox and motor . I’d run Lucas fuel ⛽️ additive 24/7 in that Dodge . Due to this modern fuel ⛽️ the top end will love it . 👍🏻💯🇦🇺.
Bad day to load a car. Better than my 72 centurion on my channel. It started snowing heavy and I got a flat on the way home.
I picked up my 65 Belvedere in the Michigan snow. It was cold and slippery but luckily I didn’t have a flat! My trailer tire was covered in half a foot of ice. They would have not been much fun.
@ObsoleteAutomotive We went up to canton ohio. Flat added few hours to trip. It was not fun at all.
@@jeffreyrigged Picking up my 67 Fury I had a trailer tire blow out, rip the fender off the trailer and break a leaf spring shackle all in one go. That wasn’t much fun!
@ObsoleteAutomotive The joys of towing cars lol.
I've got a 48 Chrysler Royal
Not right away it won't but I believe it was designed to be using neutral. One of those things if it was not designed that way they wouldn't have designed it that way 🤔
Amazing 100
Remove those horrible rear turn signals, install dual bulb sockets in the tail lights, let those be the turn signals. Nice old car otherwise, have fun. Keep it 6v, then everything works.
The car has factory turn signals… the extras are auxiliary brake lights that someone installed a long time ago. These cars only have a single brake light on the trunk so they probably wanted more.
Heavy dew!
I wonder why it's necessary to push the clutch to switch gears? If the reason for the clutch is to disengage the engine (power) from the transmission, but there is no physical connection between the transmission and the engine with the fluid coupling, what would the clutch pedal actually be doing?
@@Vespanation There is a hydraulic connection. At idle the hydraulic fluid allows the transmission to essentially slip so as not to stall out but the connection is still present. When driving the connection must be broken with the clutch to be able to shift gears like a conventional manual transmission. When the engine is off there is no hydraulic connection so the car will just free wheel.
I almost bought a '50 Plymouth in high school!
I’ve owned two!
Be sure to get the tree salesman to throw in some rope and tie it to the car in you're negotiating.
The car looks just great the way it is. Please don't put a spotlight on it. It just ruins the look of the car.😢
I must tell you something else. You have the most interesting old car Channel. You are. Everyday, Ordinary man Talking about these cars the way an ordinary guy would talk about them. Extremely interesting.😮😮
@@danielthoman7324 Thanks! I’m just trying to share my love of old cars. No need for BS or acting. Thanks for the comments!
What a pretty potato!!
I do believe that is a Bypass oil filter.
Or maybe a vibartor
NO TO DONATING TO HARRIS!!!!!
What the hell does that have to do with a 47 Dodge? Just go kiss the a$$ of your orange faced Glorious Leader!
What does that have to do with a 47 Dodge?!