Unregistered users may browse the website, but in order to participate in the forums and view select pages (such as "Club Contacts" and "Classified Ads") a user account is required. Click HERE to email the webmaster and request a free account. The National DeSoto Club uses real names rather than pseudonyms. Notify the webmaster of your user name preference (Johnathon Doe vs. John Doe, etc.), preferred email address, and password request.
Great Bend is where I've been taking my parts to be media blasted/sandblasted, and I've driven by the building that has had this car in the window.
The last time I went by there a couple of weeks ago it was no longer in the window, and I didn't have time to try to look deeper in the building as I drove on by.
If there's interest, I could be available to inspect the car for a potential buyer. Great Bend is about 45 miles from the shop.
It's supposed to be fun!
1949 De Soto Custom Convertible (project)
Well, now I feel silly.
Is that your car, Tony? I just looked again at the dark (on my screen, anyway) engine photo and noticed it has that rare for '55 dual carb option!
I didn't know they had an Adventurer engine in '55!
It's supposed to be fun!
1949 De Soto Custom Convertible (project)
Hey, check it out. I also just noticed that the steering wheel is "upside down" from what is thought of as "normal"
Our Adventurer was the same way. Thinking it was upside down, we went to the trouble of creating a new alignment groove 180 degrees from the factory so that the wheel could be installed the way they are typically expected them to be.
I just may have to save that photo for further documentation.....
It's supposed to be fun!
1949 De Soto Custom Convertible (project)
Tim,
Yes, that's my old car, and yes, they DO have the steering wheel on upside down. It's nice to know that a car I built in my garage went for $32,00 at Barrett-Jackson, and is now up to $40,000... 
Hard to believe anyone could be so ignorant as to put the steering wheel on upside down. I'd tend to believe the interior pic was taken at a different time than the exterior pics, and when the inside shot was taken, the wheels were turned. Of course, I could be wrong!
Tony, it always was a beautiful car, and still is. You did a nice job on it.
I don't think it's a matter of ignorance on the part of the person that installed the steering wheel. They are indexed and can only go on one way.
On our Adventurer, we discovered that the wheel was upside down, and I considered that we were "ignorant", and then when I went to flip it right side up, I discovered the index groove. After that, I went to the assumption that we had incorrectly assembled the 2 halves of the shaft, but discovered that we never took the shaft apart and that the factory rivet was still in place.
Because everybody assumes the wheel to be oriented with the "grips" on the lower half of the wheel, we filed a new groove into the wheel hub so that it could be installed that way. However, it's my contention that the car was born with the wheel upside down.
That's what I know about the one-owner Adventurer we restored, anyway.
It's supposed to be fun!
1949 De Soto Custom Convertible (project)
If you look at the 1st picture of the car that shows the entire left side of the car, you can see that the steering wheel is oriented the same way as shown in the interior shot.
It also looks as though the front tires are oriented just a little to the left, so perhaps a clockwise turn of the steering wheel will bring the front tires to "straight ahead" and also put the steering wheel in the correct alignment that is expected as "normal".
It's supposed to be fun!
1949 De Soto Custom Convertible (project)
Does the dual carb setup use paper element air filters?
Steve
