[Sticky] What did you do with or to your DeSoto today?

Today I took my DeSoto to the Route 66 MoPar show at Presley's Jubilee in Branson. There were about 110 cars but only three DeSotos. Beautiful weather though with rain not starting till about 6pm and the show was over by then.

Mine is the blue and white '59 Firesweep and the others are a '55 Fireflite 2 door hrdtop and a '51 Custom convertible. Notice that as nice as the '55 is, the color is actually '56 pink and not Emberglo as is should have been. Still not bad though but I would have painted it the correct '55 color.

Lot's of newer Chargers and Challengers that actually made up most of the field. Kind of boring to me as these are a dime a dozen but what the heck, these folks like to show their cars too.

Rich Hartung 1939 Desoto.
Yesterday being June 3rd I attended with my car as a participant at the WWII renatctment weekend event at the reading, Pa event which is held at Spatz field. This event is one the of the largest WWII events on the east coast.
I have been participating in this event for the past 15 years and have had the great pleasure to have met and talked with a lot of distinguished WWII veterans.
Las t year I met a veteran that was in the second wave of the landing on D-day at Omaha Beach. This gentleman was a Medic. When I met this gentleman his son was with him and we were talking about my 39 Desoto and then he introduced his father to me. I immediately saluted this war hero and he returned the salute. During my one on one talk with this gentleman there were approx. 30 people listening to what he had to tells us. This was such a great experience for me personally. The rest of the people just let me drive the conversation which lasted about 30 minutes. At the end I reached out to shake his had and say thank you, but he said no thanks was needed, he stated just remember the brave men that gave their lives for us to be here today and then he saluted me and I return the salute back to him. At that point the people that were standing around all applauded him and he had a tear in his eye.
The moment and experience of this day will be with me forever and we all cannot thank our WWII vets enough for what they did and any veteran for what they gave this great country.
Rich Hartung Desoto1939@aol.com

Saturday we took my '32 SC to the Erwin, TN Autorama, about a 30 mile drive. About 200 cars, mostly rods. An unrestored 1930 Stanley Steamer car was the most interesting one for me. It was the size of those huge Pierce Arrows. Had a concrete lined Steam Pot. Anyways, beautiful day to drive and the DeSoto ran great.

Brent,

Yes, the 42 is still running the original M4 vacuum shift transmission. Fluid Drive.

I also order a carburetor kit for the B&B Carter (single barrel) carburetor and rebuilt it. It came with a video, so it was not too difficult to rebuild.
I ordered it from mikescarburetor.com.

After sitting for about 2 weeks, when I went to start it, the battery was low.
So after recharging the battery, It did start fairly easy.

Saturday night we took it out for a drive, and it ran pretty good.

Dan,

Glad to hear that '42 is running good! I look forward to seeing you and that car sometime this summer- maybe in Ann Arbor in July?

Mike's carburetor kits look pretty complete. I'm glad to see they use a real needle inlet seat instead of the flat ones some others use.

I attended the annual Father's Day car show at the College of the Ozarks. Rainy in the morning but by noon all was clear and wound up being a very nice day. Even though I did not place, it was great just hanging out with the crowd talking about my DeSoto. Only three awards were given and all went to Chevys - imagine that. But the event was free and a great brunch buffet was included at no charge for the participants as well.

I took my 51 Coupe around the Scottish highlands on the NC500 route. The car drove beautifully although I don't think it was designed for the highland passes. Managed to travel 773 miles over 5 days, a nice relaxing cruise. Only wee snag was a puncture near Ullapool, a village half way round on the west coast. Managed to get 20 MPG, well impressed canny wait for next cruise.
Ps still can't add photo,s.

Last Tuesday, I took my '48 Custom 4-dr sedan over to Xenia, OH, for the 52nd Annual Greene Co Antique & Classic Car Club show. And I can honestly say that of the 155 cars at this show, I had the best De Soto that was there! (Of course, that's easy to say since I had the ONLY De Soto that was there!!) I was helping out with working the show, so I didn't spend any time around my car answering questions such as who made it, who was De Soto, etc. There weren't very many vehicles there older than my '48 (not counting the street rods), but there was a 1917 Mitchell 7-passenger pheaton; not sure if I've ever even seen a Mitchell before. (They were made in Racine, WI from 1903 to 1923.)

Bill

Hey Eric,

Email me some photos you would like to post and tell me where you would like to post them and I'll see if I can upload them for you.

Send the pictures to stellarrestorations@gmail.com

I just came back from the National Cherry Festival in Traverse City Michigan. They have a classic car show on the Sunday after the festival opens, and I enjoyed going to it. Alas, my DeSoto wasn't there, as it is in my garage with the valve train disassembled, But Kim Forster brought his 1959 Firedome! It was the only DeSoto at the show. Here are a few photos.....

I always find the engine compartments to be the most interesting. Notice the bellows style brake booster with remote vacuum reservoir. Notice also the air conditioning system with the thermal expansion valve. A great car!

A group from the Great Lakes regional Chapter met at the Ann Arbor "Rolling Sculpture" car show today. A total of 9 DeSotos were there. Mine wasn't, as it is still "under the wrench", but still had a good time pouring over other member's cars. This show was fun because it was held on closed city streets almost like an art fair. I think everyone had fun.

The S11 model was well represented, including two class 7 cars.

Our local AACA chapter displayed at a local church "Celebrate America" fundraising event. Funds were being raised to support the family of an LMPD officer killed earlier this year in the line of duty. The weather was perfect for early August in KY and the church provided a hearty welcome and free food!

One old timer asked "who owns the DeSoto?". I introduced myself and he recalled working at a service station when he was young and dreading when a Hemi powered DeSoto or Chrysler drove in wanting a tune-up. He said it was a challenge to change the two plugs closest to the firewall - as I can attest - as well as working on the distributor at the back of a hot engine.

Mark

I too took my De Soto to a car show on 5 August. It was all of 1.8 miles from my home to the Hawker UCC church for their annual Show in the Shade car show. You can park under the trees on their land just south of the church. They had a new record number of cars - 93; not bad for a show that's just several years old. And of course, I had the best De Soto there (because it was the only De Soto there!) My '48 Custom was the oldest Mopar at the show, and the only car older (that wasn't a modified) was a 1941 Chevrolet Special Deluxe 2-door sedan that was all original and it was in really good shape.

When I was signing in at registration, I told the lady that I wasn't interested in having my car judged. She still suggested that I do so. I asked her if they had a Best De Soto award, and she said yes. "Really?!", I asked. She turned to another show worker and asked, "Don't we have a Best of Show award?" "No, no, no", I quickly replied, "I didn't say Best of Show, I said Best De Soto." She told me that they didn't have one of those awards. LOL