'59 Plymouth Forum

Good day all. I have managed to locate right and left long quarter pannels for 59 suburbans. I have a 59 SF vert. can anyone tell me the difference in quarter pannels. To me they look the same but I only have pictures not an actual suburban to look at. Will these pannels work on my vert is all i am wanting to know.
Thanks
Craig

The right side panel will definatly not work! The Suburbans has a panel in it that they can take off. Guess for the gas tank?
For the left side: I don't have a clue!

Hope this helped you a little bit

Thank you Matt. I was unaware that there was a pannel that removed off of the wagon.
I got an email from a man today about quarters and he thinks WPC news has a company who makes the quarters now. I have looked in my WPC magazines and seen no info there but mine only go back to August of 04 as that is when I became a member. Does anyone know of the company he is speaking of? Any way it is not that big of a deal I can have them made I was just trying to make my job easier.

As a side note. I got my car back from the mechanic on tuesday. He got the car to run perfect. I was shocked it did not burn oil. It has sat for over 10 years. I drove it home. the tranny shifted smooth and no over heating problems. But my brakes are flat out scarry. the pedal fades to the floor in a hurry and I had to pump them constantly to stop. Not sure what to start on there. I also have no brake lights an older gentleman was kind enough to let me know this, and followed me till I got to the street I live on so no one would rearend me. I guess there are still good people in the world. So I am officially anouncing that the restoration of the plymouth will now officially begin. I have spent all winter locating parts for the car. I did have it over at an auto bodyshop for a while over the winter and had the car looked over. Jim the lead bodyman did find rust in places i never thought rust could be. he took pictures and gave me a recomendation of replacing the bushings between the the frame and the body. He says it has had a frame off before and my rust is minimal. That makes sence because when my dad bought the car it was supposed to be 99% restored. Jim did find somthing that did piss me off though. the passenger side quarter pannel is full of metal flake bondo. I think that is just a short cut to thinking when you just bondo it up. any wy I ramble see you guys in about a week
Craig

Craig,
If you are not actually losing brake fluid, then you need to rebuild the master cylinder. So, your brake lights do not work? Look at the master cylinder again..the brake light switch is attached to the bottom of the cylinder..either the wires are broken, or the switch is "shot", or both.
I wish I could answer the quarter panel interchange question. I believe the Parts Book would have that answer..better yet, a crash sheet.
I think it was only the 9-passenger Suburbans that had the spare tire access "door", while the 6-passenger wagons stored the tire in the rear well. I may be wrong, though.

Before you are going to look at everything and rebuild some stuff, check the light bulbs! They can be broken after all those years.
About the quarter panels, I don't know if the panel only was on 6 passenger Suburbans. Looks like they all got them. All Suburbans in the showcase has them but i'm sure someone can give us all info about it

Don’t give up Graig!!! Your problem is easy to fix. Roger and Matthew are right with their posts: Wires broke, bulbs broke or finally brake light switch shot! The first two possibilities you can check very easily like this:
The brake light switch is attached on the bottom of the Master Brake Cylinder. Remove the two cables from the brake light switch and put them together – with battery hooked up and ignition on. Now there are two possibilities:
1. The brake lights work now! – That means your brake light switch is shot
2. The brake lights don’t work! – Change the bulbs and if that doesn’t work check the connectors of the taillights.

I bet the brake light switch is shot. I had the same problem with my SF a couple of years ago. I changed the switch and half a year later it happened again. The problem is, that every time a switch must be replaced, you have to bleed the Master Brake Cylinder. But for now, try it! If switch is blown, let me know I have a cheap and better way to solve this problem once and forever.

Stefan

PS: Meanwhile I’ll try to find the picture.

I installed a brake lite switch under dash by pedal so pedal activates switch. Push pedal down and that releases the button on switch and brake lites come on. I'm using a switch from a 75 Ply Duster but I think others would work as long as they have 2 connections on switch for your 2 wires that come from your old switch. I think a new switch costs about 2 or 3 bucks in a parts store. If you buy one from a parts store most likely you won't get the braket with it to attach it to car so you have to make one. You can trial fit it to car using a really small C-clamp before drilling. I put mine on 2 years ago and the C-clamp worked so well it's still holding it together. I guess you'd have to leave old switch attached to master cylinder to act as a plug and look original.

Sorry I have not replied sooner but my life has been kind of upsidedown this past week. I got the brake lights to work, it was a broken wire. I am printing out your suggestion and putting it in my how to fix 59 plymouth papers. Thank you for this little tidbit I am sure it will be usefull in the future. Especially when I go to disk brakes in the front.
Craig

John, what a coincidence John! We life thousand of mile from each other, never talked about this matter and yet we had the same idea – amazing!
Graig – We are all waiting for some new pictures of your SF, how about it?


Stefan

Here we are: I found the picture!