The story on my coupe.
I built my 48 Plymouth business coupe in 2011. The car started life as a 90 Dodge Dakota with a 3.9 V6, 5 speed. I bought the Dakota as a parts truck from a young girl with a baby. Her boy friend dumped her, and stuck her with the manual transmission truck she didn't know how to drive, as her only transportation. I showed her how to drive it, she got just enough info to get by. When she got her tax refund, she wanted to buy a car she could drive, they wouldn't take the Dakota as a trade in, and she was a bit short of the money she needed. I gave her the money she needed to get the car and get insurance on it, in trade for a truck I didn't need, or really didn't want at the time. It sat around in my yard for several months before the truck I was using developed a problem. I used the Dakota as transportation for about a year before the clutch quit moving the truck, then it got parked back in the yard.

Back when I was a kid, our local track used to race the old coupes. I loved those old dirt track coupes, the vision of them coming off that 4th turn and coming down the front straight to get that green flag is forever burned into my head. Those old coupes are what got me into old cars and that was what got me through high school. All I wanted out of life was to have a dirt track car and race. By the time I got out of high school, the old coupes were long gone, but I was still addicted to dirt track racing. As soon as
I got out on my own, I built my first dirt track car and raced for 20+ years. Old cars have provided me with a pretty good living over the years. By the time the Dakota arrived, my dirt track racing days were over with as well, but looking at the truck sitting on my side yard hatched a plan in my head.


The Dakota was still a mechanically and structurally sound truck that needed a few things fixed (like the clutch). At the time, I had been running my welding shop for around 16 years. I had already done a few Dakota front clips on a few hot rods for customers. I knew the platform pretty well, and thought it would be the perfect platform for a quick and dirty replica of an old dirt track car, to cruise around in our town with on nice summer days. The idea was to use as much of the Dakota as I needed, put a 4 point roll cage on it, and hang an old Mopar body over top of the chassis, and attach the body well enough to get by for a couple of years of Sunday cruising (which was all I expected the car to last). When I told my wife about the plan, she told me to go for it, it sounded like fun.
The search was on for an old Mopar car body. The guide lines were pretty simple. It had to be a 1953 or older body (the mid 50s car were too big), I wanted the body to have as many of the body panels present as possible, though their condition was not very important, and it had to be as cheap as possible (at a time when scrap was $200+ a ton).
The body I found was about 100 miles away, a 48 Plymouth business coupe all of the body panels were present, but almost all of them had rust holes (even the roof had rust holes in it), or was missing the bottom 6" of most of them. The price was $200. The guy's comment was, I can get $200 scrap for for it, if you want it, that is the price, and I will help you load it. I think he thought I was crazy when I told him it was perfect and I would take it!
The car got built on the Dakota chassis. I originally had a 4 point cage in the car, but one faithful day during the build, I hit my head on that roll cage 3 times, and out of the car it came. That required more effort to attach the sheet metal to the chassis better. The car was painted with a brush, I painted the number on it myself, so the entire thing looked pretty crude, with the big honking 1/8" steel plate bumpers with over run bars attached and all. I painted over dings and dents, welds, cut out wheel openings, and rusted fenders. The car looked pretty authentic.
I put license plates on the car in April 2011. The car just plane worked well, it drove nice, the V6 with the 5 speed was enough to be sporty, but not enough to get me into trouble. We started taking the car on vacations! The car has been in 27 States, and has logged over 100,000 miles. In 2018, I had to go back in and repair a few things I didn't bother doing when the car was built (remember it, was only going to last a year or two). That included new paint, newer seats, door panels and carpet. It also included new brakes and new tires.

Now, here we are another 6 years past that. The V6 is showing its age, the new tires I put on it in 2018 are wearing out, and aging out. I had the car repainted in 2018, and its still presentable, but it was overdone, and the car lost some of its original crudeness. Its too refined to be what it was intended to be. I used to have regular plates on the car because we drove it everywhere, and pretty much any time I had the urge. We have dropped the plates back to "Extended Antique plates" which means we are only suppose to drive the car between April and Oct. We also have the 49 Dodge truck for our long distance driving now.

Since the car will probably no longer be a long distance driver, I am considering taking it back to more represent what it was originally suppose to be. I'm thinking changing out the nice seats and interior for a more old race car like interior. Loosing the inner door panels, changing the dash out for something simple and possibly even putting a roll cage back in it. Even considering changing out the tires and wheels for something wider, to look more like the mid 60s dirt track theme. Might go as far as swapping out the V6 for a rumbling small block. I've had an old street car that looked like it was trying to be a dirt track car on the street for a long time and it was fun. Now I'm thinking I would like a more authentic old dirt track race car that is trying to be a street car for a while.

What do you guys think?
A few pictures of what it is now.

sounds good to me !
i like the idea of the rumbly small block, but have you considered a rumbly inline flathead six ? those things, back in the day, humbled many a flathead ford and early small block chevy.
keeping a 5 or 6 speed standard box would allow a somewhat deep rear gear that would allow peppy acceleration, but having overdrive would allow the inline to loaf on the highway.
my best friend has a 54 chevy custom that is powered by a 235 six with dual single carbs, split exhaust manifolds, [fenton iron headers if i remember right] coupled with a 700R4 transmission to a 3.73 geared 55 chevy rear, and that thing runs really strong from a stop if one jumps on it, but loafs along going down the highway.
there is a 40 ford coupe a couple of towns over that is done in an early "jalopy racer" theme, and it's always a crowd pleaser, although it's WAY nice, and has straight body panels plus a gorgeous black paint job.
whatever you decide to do, please keep the looks of the car as it is now.

I believe going with an inline 6 all hopped up would be a step backwards. The current 3.9, though mine having nearly 170K miles on it, was factory rated at something like 175 hp. The 3.9 is a 318 with two cylinders removed, so the 5 speed already has the SBM V8 bell. With the high miles, it has the tell tale blue smoke at startup and you can smell burning oil as the rpm increases, the motor is just getting tired.

I suspect the car weighs in pretty near 3,000lbs (I can push it around by myself). The 5 speed manual trans is an OD 5th gear, the car already has a 3:55 gear limited slip rear. The current tires are 225 75 R 15 on 6 1/2" wide wheels. It has disc front brakes, 10" drum rear, and has power rack & pinion steering

As is, the car is peppy and fun, (can still chirp the tires going in 3rd gear, if you don't mind the blue haze in the mirror ) and actually pulls down 20+ mpg on the highway @ 65 mph (17 mpg in town). The rumble at idle idle would just be more pleasing to me. The car has a real muffler and tail pipe on it now, dual exhaust and glass packs would be an improvement, but a V6 with glass packs, at idle, just sounds like a stock V8 idling smoothly at 1000 rpm (I've had that set up before). I want it to sound like it has power, but not have much more then what is there now. Back in the 1990s, you used to be able to buy performance cams for the V6 that had the rumble. Can't imaging finding one those old cams these days, and I sure wouldn't want to put it in this V6 without a major rebuild. Building the 3,9 costs the same as building a 318 or 360, but there I am, adding more power then I want for this ride.

All out performance probably isn't going to be in the plan. I would just get myself into trouble. My reaction time isn't what it used to be, and I'm afraid the stupid teenager from my past would come out of hiding if there was actually power at hand.

Here are a couple of pictures of the coupe in its first brushed on paint job.

I agree changing seats and wheel tire combination would go far for the look you're after.

Being a welder, you could probably reverse the wheels yourself. Classic look and method.

Is the 3.9 a magnum? A 318 magnum would be an easy swap and correctly chosen mufflers can get the right sound without the raggedy idle.

Hard to beat the rumble of a V8. And Gene, you convinced me the 5.2 Magnum was a better engine to develop and plan for my 56 pickup (Dakota chassis). So my vote goes to the 5.2, easy to buy, easy to mod, reliable runner, decent MPG when set up right. Plus like you've said the EFI on the 5.2 is easy to live with and handles the types of fuel we have available in the midwest. Looks wise I too love the look of the old dirt track cars with the reversed steel wheels and wider tires, maybe even set the stance a bit lower. Maybe paint the steel wheels a contrast color like the red on the coupe. Perhaps a bit cleaner/lighter look to the bumpers?

This 3.9 is a 91 LA motor, its 2 years before the Magnum (a 93 model year change over in the Dakota). Still has the small block Mopar factory hydraulic bell, clutch and flywheel. Would I need a Magnum flywheel? The motor has the throttle body EFI OBD1 system, don't know if that would convert over to the Magnum or not, but the current system has nearly 200K miles on it.

Never even gave any thought to reversing the current wheels, but the front wheels are a 1/2" more narrow then the rear. The front were 90 Dakota wheels, the rear are the older 7" wide Chrysler 5th Ave wheels. The rear wheels look a bit more reversed then the front, the Dakota wheels have a deeper offset and are not as wide. The current wheels are all painted the same color as the body, and that red has faded a lot, probably could never match it.

Oh, sure! Throw my stuff back at me.

The red & white coupe and the blue and white coupe are both the same car, currently the car is red and white. The white wheels are the same as the car body, but that isn't a pure white, I could probably never match it. Any change in the wheels probably means they will come back with a spray bomb color, which won't match any colors of the paint on the car (maybe I could match the tan on the number). I will post a picture of the coupe just out of the paint shop with the blue wheels and the freshly painted number. I pulled the tires off the wheels, had the wheels sprayed with the white body color, and put new tires on the old wheels and put them back on the car.

Headers (I don't really like headers, but a good set may outlast the car) and glass packs would go a long way towards that rumble I would like. I could probably get by with the stock cam (which would be a huge plus). Guess I need to start looking for a 5.2. My current 3.9 is an LA motor, so an LA motor would mean I could adapt the current ignition system and use the current flywheel/clutch. The Jefferson swap meet is next weekend.... A good set of used Mopar small block headers (the motor in the coupe was moved back 7", there isn't anything to interfere with the headers except the small starter, wide open spaces under there). Maybe a 318/5.2, and another pair of the 7" wide 5th Ave wheels, with a more centered hub, would go a long way towards the goal.

The bumpers will probably stay, that look was what I remember the old coupes having (from way back in 1966/1967) at our local track. I will do some research, I was only about 10 when the local track changed from the coupes to the late models and all the early late models had the big bumpers. There was a lot of bumping and banging going on back then around here. Also, the dirt track race cars around here all set up as high as my coupe does, lower race cars didn't show up around here until much later.

Put in a more healthy 5.2 with cheap headers and glass packs, pull the door panels, swap out the carpet for a rubber pad, change the seats to simple buckets, rid myself of the Dakota dash and add a flat panel with temp, oil pressure, maybe an old round speedometer (instead of a tack), a gas gauge (because I don't like to walk). Could mostly be done by spring!

I'm sort of getting excited, since that last considered project didn't materialize (too many questions, too many variables, too many miles between, too much money, and more work then I was looking for).

Pic 1) This is red & white coupe with the new color and the freshly painted number, still wearing the blue wheels from the previously painted same car.
Pic 2) This a close up of the left rear, 7" wide standard off set Chrysler 5th Ave wheel on the coupe.
Pic 3) This is the left front 6 1/2" wide Dakota wheel with the rear back spacing, on the coupe. If I exchanged these two wheels with the wider, standard offset 5th Ave wheels, the tires would sit about 1 1/4" farther out then they currently do, which should put the edge of the tread about even with the edge of the cut out fender. The tire to fender clearance would remain the same.
Pic 4) This is what the dash and the steering wheel look like, except the current version is gray instead of black, and the magnetic junk on the passenger side is not there. There is however a glove box door there now. That dash cover can be removed, and the glove box and its door can be removed again (my wife wanted it for easy to access of some stuff on long trips).