| She sat in a private scrap yard with a beltline that went from San Francisco to San Diego. With graceful front fender lines that curved into the door and running boards, she begged for another chance to show her stuff on the road. Up front a Dodge Ram ornament graces the butterfly opening hood. Eight hundred dollars later and three engine blocks (none of them the right one!) I was the proud owner of a 1947 Dodge Business coupe. My P15 Club Coupe (The Blue Goose) now had roommate. This unnamed beauty, one of 27,000 built after World War II, traveled the roads of Southern California. Now she sits, awaiting her rebuilt D24 engine. Her flathead 6 is stroked 1/2 inch more than the P15, resulting in 12 inches more displacement. She shares most of the same running gear with the Plymouth, but her skins come from her bigger cousins, the Desoto/Chrysler family. She is the step up from the P15 in the Chrysler Corporation family. Additional features include an automatic choke, optional electric windshield wipers, larger brakes, and Fluid Drive! Using the same C3 manual transmission as the P15, it was coupled to the 230 cubic inch flathead 6 with a hydraulic torque converter. You still use the manual clutch to shift into gear, but at idle you release the clutch without stalling! When you are read to go, just step on the gas. You could start in any gear, including third, without stalling. The flat head 6, while only having 102 horsepower, made up for it in the torque department with 184 Ft. Lbs. at 1200 rpm. Staring in third gear, not a problem. Fluid Drive, coupled with the "Floating Power" motor mount system had the Dodge marketing department boasting the D24 was the "Smoothest Car Afloat !" Sharing the same engine technology as the P15, she had all the "new" post war features like scuff-resistant light weight aluminum pistons with four rings, downdraft carburetor, oil-bath air cleaner, Oilite gas filter, automatic manifold heat control, full-pressure lubrication, and burn-resistant exhaust valve seat inserts. My D24 is pretty much the Plain Jane business man special. Brown mohair seats, beautiful wood grained dash, with chrome accents that still make a classic statement of style today. Along the way someone added a Mopar 802 radio. The 802 radio is directly interchangeable between all 46-48 Chrysler products, except the Dodge. The Dodge required a special curved faceplate replacing the standard one. This allowed the radio to blend into the gentle curve found on the chrome dash trim. Fortunately, I found the parts from someone who had a junk chassis and saw my newsgroup post on the internet. She is also getting a new clock which fits in the gaping hole on the glove box door. Her firewall has never been scarred with a heater installation. She, like my two P15s, is a work in process. The engine and transmission are ready to be reassembled. The next major job is to remove the body from the frame, and start restoration on the frame, suspension and running gear. Check back, I will be posting photos of my progress in the WIP section. And she still needs a name…..
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