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PostPosted: Mon Nov 30, 2015 9:05 pm 
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Hello All!
I've just recently joined your discussion board as it seems any good information relating to these cars is getting hard to come by! I live in southern CA and have spent the last several months knee deep in restoring a 1918 Dodge Brothers Touring Car, which I'm finally starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel on. I'm missing some parts still though, and ebay has only seemed to turn up a small amount of what I actually need, so would posting a parts wanted/needed ad in the classifieds section be the way to try locating some of these? One of the main things that I'm missing and needing right now is the bracket that mounts the vacuum tank and horn to the engine. Anyways, thanks for having me and I look forward to learning tons from all of you!
-Mike

Can't forget a couple pictures of the DB in its current state :)
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PostPosted: Mon Nov 30, 2015 10:28 pm 
'18's are an odd year. Do you know when your car was built? I suggest buying a few reprints of articles from the DBC store. One is the design changes, shows when and how parts were changed through the years by serial number. The horn COULD have been mounted on the firewall or the engine. AND there are two different mounts for the engine. DO you have the horn? IS it a Klaxon 5? I have an '18. Does yours have the 10000 or 10004 distributor? It would be stamped into the tag on the side.


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 30, 2015 10:34 pm 
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DougWalters wrote:
'18's are an odd year. Do you know when your car was built? I suggest buying a few reprints of articles from the DBC store. One is the design changes, shows when and how parts were changed through the years by serial number. The horn COULD have been mounted on the firewall or the engine. AND there are two different mounts for the engine. DO you have the horn? IS it a Klaxon 5? I have an '18. Does yours have the 10000 or 10004 distributor? It would be stamped into the tag on the side.


Oh crazy! Well even crazier is that I actually don't even know for sure what year this car actually is. I haven't ever managed to find any numbers on the frame and the documents for this car are completely nonexistent. So I guess my point is its simply my best guess that it's an '18 just from what I've read and been told in the past! I hadn't stumbled on the DBC store yet so I'll definitely need to do that!


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PostPosted: Mon Nov 30, 2015 10:49 pm 
Serial number SHOULD be on the frame under passenger's seat and on floor board tag, engine number above carb. Let's see some closeups of both sides of the engine and dash. Glove box? Distributor number would help too, the 10,000 or 10,004. 10,000 was only used a few months, has two ground wires from condenser and a funky ignition switch. BTW, the maroon looks good on it, good choice. Aluminum trans? Maybe a shot of the wheels?


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PostPosted: Tue Dec 01, 2015 12:07 pm 
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DougWalters wrote:
Serial number SHOULD be on the frame under passenger's seat and on floor board tag, engine number above carb. Let's see some closeups of both sides of the engine and dash. Glove box? Distributor number would help too, the 10,000 or 10,004. 10,000 was only used a few months, has two ground wires from condenser and a funky ignition switch. BTW, the maroon looks good on it, good choice. Aluminum trans? Maybe a shot of the wheels?

Thank you! I like the color also, seems to fit the cars personality pretty well!

I'll go take a look again and take a bunch of pictures this time! I haven't looked under the passenger seat yet, I was originally looking in the passenger side frame rail up by the front axle. Floorboard and any tags that it might have had are long gone, but I definitely remember seeing the engine number so I'll snap a picture of that too. Pretty sure it's a steel transmission, but I have my doubts about whether it is original to the car or not, and the wheels are also off at the wheel shop in Ohio right now getting all rebuilt from the heavy dry rot.

Also before I run off for a bit, thank you very much for all of your help so far. It's literally been next to impossible for me to find anyone that knows ANYTHING about it, so this is the best information I've ever gotten! Anyways, just wanted to say thank you. Most people I talk to about it just say "Dodge Brothers.....what the heck is that???" hahaha.


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PostPosted: Tue Dec 01, 2015 7:41 pm 
I can't answer all your questions because I don't have all the answers. But I and several others will help. Pictures will tell a lot. The DBC has a four cylinder tech adviser. If you are not a member you should be. DO you have a picture of the wheels before you sent them? How many nuts held the rim on?


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PostPosted: Tue Dec 01, 2015 11:33 pm 
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DougWalters wrote:
I can't answer all your questions because I don't have all the answers. But I and several others will help. Pictures will tell a lot. The DBC has a four cylinder tech adviser. If you are not a member you should be. DO you have a picture of the wheels before you sent them? How many nuts held the rim on?

Well, I appreciate any help I can get :)

I went and took some pictures today, hopefully these will help some, if not I can always go retake better ones if need be. I looked all over the passenger side of the frame by the seat but still couldn't manage to find any kind of number or stamping, maybe I'm just not quite looking in the exact spot?

Distributor, the only numbers I could find on this were patent numbers and patent dates?
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Here's the engine number, I know it's kind of hard to make it out but it says 316693.
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An old picture I took of the wheels before I sent them off, looks like 6 wheel bolts/clamps?
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 02, 2015 7:34 am 
OK, the distributor is a Delco, used in part of '16 and '17, and I think into early '18.That style primer cups I am sure are '18. DB added 50,000 to the serial number for the engine number, so that would be about middle '18ish. The serial number on the cross member would be 4-8 inches in from front door on passenger side. It should say CAR then number. Numbers might be hard to read, tilted one side deeper then the other. Google how to bring up numbers on rusted metal. Do NOT grind, if you sand do it lightly. Hold a light at different angles. There is a way with acid I've never used but a friend swears by. Do you have the ignition switch that came with the car? Horn? Hopefully Rodger will jump in here, he's the expert. How about a picture of the fittings on top of the front axle at the king pins for lubrication? aluminum or steel oilpan? Speedo? Some of the '18's had 7 wheel clamps, that's why I asked for that.


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PostPosted: Thu Dec 03, 2015 11:58 am 
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DougWalters wrote:
OK, the distributor is a Delco, used in part of '16 and '17, and I think into early '18.That style primer cups I am sure are '18. DB added 50,000 to the serial number for the engine number, so that would be about middle '18ish. The serial number on the cross member would be 4-8 inches in from front door on passenger side. It should say CAR then number. Numbers might be hard to read, tilted one side deeper then the other. Google how to bring up numbers on rusted metal. Do NOT grind, if you sand do it lightly. Hold a light at different angles. There is a way with acid I've never used but a friend swears by. Do you have the ignition switch that came with the car? Horn? Hopefully Rodger will jump in here, he's the expert. How about a picture of the fittings on top of the front axle at the king pins for lubrication? aluminum or steel oilpan? Speedo? Some of the '18's had 7 wheel clamps, that's why I asked for that.

Ok, I'll do some more research and try to find that car number again. Unfortunately I have the ignition switch, however it's heavily corroded but I'll get a picture of it for you anyways. I've never seen a horn for it anywhere. The fittings on the tops of the king pins are the Alemite (spelling?) grease fittings. The oil pan seems to be a cast aluminum and I'll get a picture of the speedometer also. It's also pretty much destroyed but maybe it'll at least shed some light!

So it's starting to sound like it's at least reasonable for me to assume it's an '18!


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PostPosted: Thu Dec 03, 2015 8:44 pm 
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Old speedometer on the left, best working replacement I could find on the right.
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Picture of the kingpin, originally just had an alemite fitting, I just replaced it with a cup for now to keep dirt etc out.
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Original gauges with the ignition switch in the background. Hopefully this is enough to tell?
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 03, 2015 8:51 pm 
The number on the firewall is the body number, looks like 10,??? ? That is the sequence of this type body. SO it was the 10,XXX touring car built this year. The little vertacle slot on the driver's side bottom of the firewall is left over from the hacksaw-like choke arm. My '18's have this too, even though they have the new choke cable. There should be a big round hole to the left of the steering column in the dash. The little hat looking hickey on top of your oil float is SCARCE, don't lose it. Most are laying along the road somewhere. What's up with the head bolts? They appear to be Allen screws. SOME of the '18's had OIL cups for the king pins, has a little hat that turns to fill. The escutcheon for the speedo gets nickeled, at least you have all the parts to it. Did you modify the fan? The blades look new. Original 6 blade fans can be found, watch out for cracks.


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PostPosted: Fri Dec 04, 2015 1:47 pm 
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DougWalters wrote:
The number on the firewall is the body number, looks like 10,??? ? That is the sequence of this type body. SO it was the 10,XXX touring car built this year. The little vertacle slot on the driver's side bottom of the firewall is left over from the hacksaw-like choke arm. My '18's have this too, even though they have the new choke cable. There should be a big round hole to the left of the steering column in the dash. The little hat looking hickey on top of your oil float is SCARCE, don't lose it. Most are laying along the road somewhere. What's up with the head bolts? They appear to be Allen screws. SOME of the '18's had OIL cups for the king pins, has a little hat that turns to fill. The escutcheon for the speedo gets nickeled, at least you have all the parts to it. Did you modify the fan? The blades look new. Original 6 blade fans can be found, watch out for cracks.

I'm honestly not sure what the deal with the head bolts is, the motor was rebuilt before it came into my possession so I really don't know a whole lot about it. My only guess is that the guy studded the block and the allen looking portions are the studs and there are only the nuts holding the head on instead of having an actual head bolt. The fan was also something new that the engine builder added for some reason, unsure of the reasoning but I do know it's obviously a newer design since it has Flex a lite molded in the back of it 8)

Also I did some research and it looks like your friends acid etching method might be a real possibility here, but before I do much of anything since the frame is already painted up all nice, I just want to make sure we're both talking about the same area where the car number should be. My understanding is that it will be on the frame cross support that runs under the front seats facing forwards and about 4-8 inches in from the passenger door, is that correct?


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PostPosted: Fri Dec 04, 2015 6:39 pm 
Let me measure where mine is for sure tomorrow. Cross member under front seat is correct, but I will make sure how far from door.


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PostPosted: Fri Dec 04, 2015 6:42 pm 
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DougWalters wrote:
Let me measure where mine is for sure tomorrow. Cross member under front seat is correct, but I will make sure how far from door.

Well I think I may have just found it! It's extremely light and hard to make out, but I'm pretty sure it is it! Definitely a 6 digit number, I'll post a picture here as soon as I get home with my camera!


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PostPosted: Fri Dec 04, 2015 6:51 pm 
Cool beans!!


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