I just turned 59 and have always loved the 60's - 70's muscle cars but I found a car I have fell in love with. It's a two - tone copper and beige color 1958 Dodge Royal Lancer Spring Edition. It still has the factory 325 - 4 barrel motor with push button auto. It's been in storage for years and not cranked up in over 5 years. It needs a rear bumper and a hell of a good cleaning but overall pretty nice. Trying to find any and all info on the car. It will be next week before I can go back for pics.

Those are BIG cars! That rear bumper is going to be hard (and expensive) to find, as will most any parts, other then drive train. Look for frame rot above and just behind the rear axle. They make great cruisers, and have pretty much all the "modern" underpinnings. Gene

Very BIG cars! I'm pretty much an A-body guy so they are HUGE to me! I really don't want to correctly restore this car as I always have to HotRod anything I work on. I'm thinking this is a pretty rare car and should be restored correctly. I have access to a 58 392 Hemi so you know it's going under the hood after a good rebuild. I don't plan to cut or alter the body or frame in any way and keep all the original parts/pieces. I will check for frame rot everywhere. Thanks for the info Gene!

My view on restored cars is this: If your concerned about the originality of an old car, keep all the stuff you change for the future. Then fix it up and enjoy it. As long as you don't cut it up too bad, it can always be returned to its original format. I suspect that unless this is a super complete and original car, the number of people that are going to be looking for a restored version of this particular car would be relatively low, and they would be expecting to have to restore it themselves. Most buyers want something they can get in and drive.
I vote to build the hot rod, and keep the original stuff you upgraded from for the next guy. Gene

GREAT FIND,,,,, lets see some pics thjey have a great roof line,,, 325 hemi or poly??

I totally agree. I know anything is only original once and I have great respect for that but as long as I don't butcher the car then nobody should complain. I plan to upgrade the 325 poly to a 392 hemi w/ dual fours of course, upgrade the brakes to discs all four corners, large sway bars front and rear, maybe lower it a bit, put as much tire under it that will fit and two-tone the paint a hot red and charcoal silver maybe. I think the roof line is the reason I fell in love with this car.

Norn, sounds like a good find and nice plan for it.

I've built a couple of 57s (a Dodge and a Plymouth) for myself and worked on several other 57/58s. The 392 is a close to a bolt in as you can get. Just use the 325 Motor Mounts that are currently on the car. Electrically everything should be in the same place so that should all connect bact up. The 392 will bolt to the cast iron torqueflite that's in the car and it should last unless you get really spirited with your driving. AAJ makes a nice front Disc brake conversion that uses the stock spindles and I believe they also have a rear disc kit that reatins the stock splined axles.

I've always just run a front sway bar on mine and was lucky enough to find a couple of 58 Imperials to use as donors.

Properly done the 392 should actually add value to the car over the stock 325.

I was hoping swapping in a 392 would be fairly easy. How strong is the cast torqueflite compared to the newer aluminum torqueflite? I know that a 392 crankshaft extends about 5/8" farther back behind the trans/block mating surface and an adapter flex plate is required and available. Of course I would have to use a smallblock push-button torqueflite and would have to compare the linkage and speedo assembly. We have multiple 60's - 70's A, B, C and E body parts cars and future projects to rob parts from. I had planned on swapping newer front spindles and discs from something newer and also replace the rearend with a newer one piece axle. I will come up with something for sure but you can be sure it will be safe and accurate. I build race cars as a hobby and can fabricate most anything I need. I plan to take pics Monday afternoon even though the car is still in storage. I have to make room in my shop for it yet.

Assuming the Torqueflite is in good shape to begin with it’s not quite as strong as the aluminum units but it will take a fair share of abuse especially if you keep the tie size reasonable. The biggest problem is that while standard rebuild parts are around there is no aftermarket support for things like shift kits or stall convertors (but if you feel you need those parts you will probably want to upgrade to an aluminum unit anyway.

The pushbutton TFs (both the Cast Iron and aluminum) are actually shifted by a cable. The only linkage will be the kickdown and it is a pretty straight forward hookup to the later transmission if you want to go that way. I don’t really remember on the speedometer cable as I always replaced the cable and housing with a new one anyway.

You will find the emergency brake is a drum mounted on the back of the transmission and it uses a trunion joint instead of a U Joint. My experience is these are just as strong as a U Joint and at least a while back rebuild kits were still available. Most of the 1962-1964 pushbutton TFs were also trunion Joints but without the emergency brake. Personally rather than go thru the driveshaft changes that would be needed, I would try to find a 1965 (one year only) TF. The 65 TF uses a conventional slip yolk making building a drive shaft a lot easier. Though this was a column shift transmission, the shifter actually still operated a cable. The problem is the valve body shifted just the opposite of the pushbutton units and would require a VB change to one from a 62-64 unit to make it work with the cars original pushbuttons.

The rear end under the car is already a 8 ¼ the only thing odd ball about it is the tapered axels for the rear brake drums and like I said I think a disc brake conversion is available for it. Finally you will also need to modify the rear crossmember as the transmission mount is different between the aluminum and cast iron TFs. If the Cast Iron TF will work for you I think you are going to find using it along with the stock emergency brake and converting the existing rear end to disk is really the best way to go.

As far as tires about as big as you can fit comfortably in back will be a 235/70/15 without doing any frame or inner fender mods.

As far as front brakes, I was converting these cars to front Disc long before any kits were available. I’ve used both mid 70’s C Body 11 ¾” and the smaller A body units. The C Body conversion required changing to the large ball joints and spindle modifications. Both the A and C Body conversions required trimming the wheel stops and shortening the tie rod ends and tie rod sleeves to make them work. The AAJ kit is bolt on and uses the original spindle so no other mods are necessary. Personally I would never go back to converting A or C body brakes to one of these cars again. If you want to I can walk you thru the steps necessary if you want.

If the car has power brakes which will be the bellows style booster, you could continue to use it, but I think you will be stuck with the single pot reservoir. My cars are manual brakes using a newer dual reservoir master cylinder and I personally don’t find it causes any excessive pedal pressure to operate them.

If you get in a bind on finding a rear bumper give me a holler I might be able to dig one up.

For grins here’s a picture of 57 Coronet I did several years ago (dual quad 440 with a 64 PB Torqueflite, 9 ¼” rear end and C Body Discs.




And my current 57 Plymouth (Tri Power 354 Hemi, 833 Overdive 4 speed, 9 ¼” with 4.10 gears and AAJ front Disc brakes)

Nice cars Mike! I did know that a 65 was column shifted but was actually operated by a cable. I didn't know about the reverse vb though. Actually I do have a 65 poly 318 with trans that we removed from a 65 Belvedere to install a 440 and I also have a 63 Savoy with /6 auto. I will check to see if both trans are 727's. If they are then I will still need to modify and install a cable operated emergency brake cable connected to the newer rear end. I will probably just get the AAJ disc brake conversion and be done with it. Will larger tires fit if offset spring hangers are used on the rear? I might need help finding a rear bumper, I'm not sure yet. By the way I'm amazed that these cars only weigh 3700 - 3800 lbs. I figured they were at least 4500 lbs.

Hi again Norm, I had a couple of other thoughts when I woke up this morning and thought I’d type them up while I still remember them.

On the AAJ disc brake kit I think you will find it cheaper to buy just the basic kit (brackets and bearing adaptor) and then source the rest of the parts you need locally….they provide a parts list.

Then there is the steering gear. Most of the ones I’ve come across that have many miles on them have some slop in them and they are an odd ball unit and a real pain to remove. There is actually a huge plate in the drivers floor board that has to be removed and the steering gear and column have to come out thru it as a unit. I would strongly suggest that if there is any question about the gear, remove it and have it rebuilt while you y have the engine out.

There are several options for upgrading the ignition. The 392 has a unique length distributor shaft, and there are aftermarket distributors available along with an adaptor to use a later model unit. I personally prefer to use stock Chrysler parts, and all that is required to convert the original distributor to electronic is to change out the upper shaft, breaker plate and pickup and vacuum advance from a 318 electronic. One new hole will have to be drilled, but that’s minor.



When you rebuild the HEMI, (Hot Hemi heads will probably be your new best friend for a while LOL), you will probably want to convert the oil system over to a full flow set up and a spin on filter. Hot Heads has three adaptors, and unless you really want to use an remote set up, the one you will need to fit the body will be the one the places the filter upside down like the original oil filter is indexed.

A few years ago I was hearing horror stories about the modified oil pumps Hot Heads was selling, so you might want to research that before you make a decision on a new pump. I was able to get stock type replacements for the last 2 HEMIs I rebuilt so I have no firsthand experience with the Hot Heads units.

For what it’s worth, here a picture of the modified cross member (it’s from the 4 speed in my Plymouth but it would be the same mods for a TF). Basically the mount portion of a donor cross member was grafted to the original crossmember.



The last thing I can think of is valve covers. I ordered about the tallest set I could find. They just barely clear the master cylinder, and this is on a short deck 354. This particular style would probably not work with your taller deck 392.

Thanks for all the info Mike! You have a wealth of knowledge on these cars. I can recite quite a bit of knowledge on the 60 - 70's Mopars but this is my first attempt at a 50's. I prefer to stay all Mopar too so converting the distributor is a done deal. I was thinking that a 392 Hemi and newer small blocks had the same length distibutor shaft but I guess I heard wrong. This car will be next in line as I am just at the beginning stages of tearing down a 75 W100 Adventurer Sport Power Wagon short bed. It's a factory 440 power everything that a buddy of mine bought brand new that I have wanted ever since. He finally sold it to me but it needs a full resto but still runs with the original drivetrain. My problem is time and of course extra money but that's everyones story I guess. I am taking pics tomorrow of the car and will try to post them tomorrow night.

Finally got my daughter to post this pic. Can only get 1 picture to load. I recently upgraded to a smart phone and found out how dumb I really am. Car is already in the tear down stage and these are the best pics I could get. The car is positively a spring edition.

I have a friend with a 58 Spring Special, he put 413 in it some 20+ years ago. It gets pulled out and driven about once a year. Paint and upholstry are one of those "someday" projects.

The small block distributor is a drop in for the Dodge low deck early hemis. All others require a longer shaft.
Melling has reintroduced the M-50 oil pump used in 392 hemis, so no need to fool with adapters. Hot Heads has a lot of parts, but they are not the only ones.
www.trwaters.com has a few items, as do others.

Your friends car is almost identical to mine Mike. I want to keep a period correct engine and no engine has the "WOW" factor as a hemi! I'd like to put some kind of overdrive in the car but will address that at a later date. I just want a good cruiser that I can drive anywhere. The car has factory power steering but has manual brakes and is non-ac. It will have all the creature comforts when I'm finished. Not sure on what type wheels to use. I'm not a full hubcap type of guy. Maybe chrome reverses with baby moon hubcaps. Looking for ideas I guess. It's good to know there are vendors still catering to the old hemis.

I hear you about the Overdrive Norm. I’m running the Chrysler 833 4 Speed OD in 57 Plymouth and love it. If I ever went back to an automatic, I think I would use the 518 automatic OD. I think the Imperial Owners club was making a conversion that would allow the transmission to use the original pushbutton shifter which would be a sweet setup. The nice thing is the 518 will use the same adaptor the 727 does.

Getting the “right” wheels for these can be a challenge. JMO but most modern wheels just don’t look right on these cars. The ones I ran on the Gold and white 57 were actually mid 70’s Chrysler road wheels that I modified to use original 57 Dog Dish caps on. If I were to change oner to different wheels I think I would probably go with the Torque Thrust Ds (the mag with a dark center.

As far as AC I took the easy way out on both my Dodge and Plymouth and used era correct under dash units. They work great and I think look appropriate to the car.

By the way the dash on the 57 Dodges lend themselves really well to a 2 tone paint scheme that matches the body color.

If you can’t tell I’m looking forward to watching your progress on the car. LOL.

Killer interior Mike. That is awesome! I don't think that is an original seat is it? If not then what did it come from? I prefer the look of the original under dash ac also but not sure if I will be able to find all the pieces/parts I need to correctly install it. Are you using an RV-2 compressor or whatever style was used in the late 50's? I will probably upgrade to a basically hidden Sanden 134 compressor. I was told that Vintage Air makes a drop in ac system for these cars but I'm sure it is expensive. I was thinking of using the Torque Thrust wheels but not sure if they were period correct. I know that chrome reverses are but not sure of the look. I'm really getting excited over building this car. I guess that building 60's or 70's cars have become ho-hum to me and this car is new to me therefore a new challenge. My wife says I'm acting like a little kid at Christmas. I told her to buy me car part presents then. We will see. I might just have to put the Power Wagon in second place behind the 58!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A 1967 Chrysler 300 that was about to be crushed donated the seats and buddy seat. The passenger reclines and the drivers is power (4 way). The car was a 4 door so the stop brackets had to be removed to allow them to fold forward but that was minor.

As far as the under the dash units I usually pick them up whenever I find them in decent shape. At most the motors sometimes need to be lubed and switches cleaned. Brackets are usually pretty simple to fabricate. The rest of the parts I source locally; the compressor, a receiver dryer and usually a new universal condenser. After I have the components installed I buy the required fittings and hose and custom fit them then have the local Car Quest or NAPA crimp them. When I clean them up I normally paint the case interior body color and that’s about it.

The one in the Plymouth is a really nice MARK IV unit from the early 60’s with a nice chromed metal faceplate and vents.

I did a build thread on another site you might be interested in (it only runs about 5 pages the other pages are on other projects I was doing). As it’s most current post first you need to start on the bottom on page 16 and read it from bottom to top to somewhere on page 12.

This should bring up page 16.

http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/journal....=5&reverse=

That's good info Mike. I'm not worried about fabricating anything I will need for this resto. Once I get into the resto then I'm sure I will need some guidance as to what works best. All my hot rod buddies want me to install a complete late model hemi drivetrain with all the latest technology and suspension. I'm not totally against that but I'm not spending that kind of money the first time around. I'm an old school carburetor type of guy that would rather tune a car by the seat of my pants rather than a laptop!