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1953 Dodge - What have I got into


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After the engine bay is cleaned and painted we are moving onto the brakes, hard and soft lines, master cylinder and fuel lines. The list of things to do just grows and grows, but I'm used to that from the experience of building the 74 Bug. We also rebuilt a 71 vw camper. We had an engine fire just after we bought it, so it looked like this after the fire ?

1234507.jpg

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On 1/8/2019 at 3:38 PM, peteandvanessa said:

The frame "looks" in pretty good shape, but I haven't made any precise measurements, I do know that there isn't a lot of rust under the body. I'm moving in a slightly different direction and sourcing a known running engine to put into the truck short term and run that for now and then consider what I need to do from there. That should limit my cash outlay in the short term since a complete rebuild of the current engine would quickly suck dollars out of my wallet.

 

 

1 hour ago, thisoldtruck said:

Did I miss something?  What happened to the original engine?

 

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Young Ed is correct. When I picked up the truck, it had a motor in it, but looking at it, it had low compression and sticky valves (taking off the valve covers, it's clearly missed ALOT of oil changes). So we pulled the motor to review which way we wanted to go. A quick review of whether we would rebuild the motor indicated that even with a basic refresh of the motor was going to be quite costly. The engine wasn't original to the truck (according to the serial number it came out of a 51/52 Dodge car). So a new option was offered, to buy and install a known working engine from another member on the forum ( 59bisquik ). So I worked with him and got the engine packed and shipped from SoCAL to my home address here. So short term, I will install the known working engine into the truck and sometime in the future refresh the working engine, or refresh the engine that we got with the truck when I purchased it.

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Ok, now I gotcha. 

 

Sorry, I guess I DID miss something!  Ha...Ha.

 

Cool project though!  Hopefully you'll get it running with the new engine all fitted in place.  Are/were the rear springs sagging?  The rear end looked really low in the first couple of pics.

 

Andy  

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12 hours ago, thisoldtruck said:

Ok, now I gotcha. 

 

Sorry, I guess I DID miss something!  Ha...Ha.

 

Cool project though!  Hopefully you'll get it running with the new engine all fitted in place.  Are/were the rear springs sagging?  The rear end looked really low in the first couple of pics.

 

Andy  

The rear end is a little soft, I guess this is to be expected in a 66 year old truck (it's on my to do list). It looked worse than it was, since in the first few pics the front end was on axle stands and bed of the truck was full of hundreds of old 60's oil and grease cans. I snagged a few to put in the back of the truck:

 

 

grease cans.jpg

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If you need any photos of a '53 for reference, or if you have general questions, shoot me an email.  I finished (are they ever finished?) my '53 a couple of years ago.  The wiring (I made my harnesses), brake and fuel lines were definitely easier to replace with the engine out. 

 

I see on the side of the hood that you have "Fluid Drive" emblems (mine is a Fluid Drive, as well).  If you are keeping it Fluid Drive, make sure your new engine's crankshaft has the same thickness "flywheel flange" with the same number of holes as your original.  Also, the Fluid Drive has a longer bell housing to accommodate the Fluid Drive coupling than a "standard transmission" bell housing.  If you are installing the engine & bell housing (with Fluid Drive or flywheel installed) as a unit, I would recommend mounting the starter and the master cylinder before putting the engine back in the truck - much less cussing involved.

 

If you are not going with the Fluid Drive, consider changing to a modern 5 speed while it is all apart - less gear grinding and an overdrive for cruising.  Several of the folks on this site have done this modification.  I kept my truck predominately original, so it is still Fluid Drive.  But I did go with a '90 Dakota diff.  When I rebuilt the front end, I replaced my spindles, hubs and brake with those from a '70 Dodge Sweptline truck.  I did this to make the brakes easier to work on and to make parts readily available.

 

Overall, finding some of the small parts was a challenge.  However, the folks on this site were great at helping me figure things out and some even had spare parts.  One of the things you will get a kick out of is whenever you take it out, your truck will not look like everyone else's.

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, peteandvanessa said:

The rear end is a little soft, I guess this is to be expected in a 66 year old truck (it's on my to do list). It looked worse than it was, since in the first few pics the front end was on axle stands and bed of the truck was full of hundreds of old 60's oil and grease cans. I snagged a few to put in the back of the truck:

 

 

grease cans.jpg

 

love the can on the left...a new kid would have NO idea how to open it.

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5 hours ago, Bobacuda said:

If you need any photos of a '53 for reference, or if you have general questions, shoot me an email.  I finished (are they ever finished?) my '53 a couple of years ago.  The wiring (I made my harnesses), brake and fuel lines were definitely easier to replace with the engine out. 

 

I see on the side of the hood that you have "Fluid Drive" emblems (mine is a Fluid Drive, as well).  If you are keeping it Fluid Drive, make sure your new engine's crankshaft has the same thickness "flywheel flange" with the same number of holes as your original.  Also, the Fluid Drive has a longer bell housing to accommodate the Fluid Drive coupling than a "standard transmission" bell housing.  If you are installing the engine & bell housing (with Fluid Drive or flywheel installed) as a unit, I would recommend mounting the starter and the master cylinder before putting the engine back in the truck - much less cussing involved.

 

If you are not going with the Fluid Drive, consider changing to a modern 5 speed while it is all apart - less gear grinding and an overdrive for cruising.  Several of the folks on this site have done this modification.  I kept my truck predominately original, so it is still Fluid Drive.  But I did go with a '90 Dakota diff.  When I rebuilt the front end, I replaced my spindles, hubs and brake with those from a '70 Dodge Sweptline truck.  I did this to make the brakes easier to work on and to make parts readily available.

 

Overall, finding some of the small parts was a challenge.  However, the folks on this site were great at helping me figure things out and some even had spare parts.  One of the things you will get a kick out of is whenever you take it out, your truck will not look like everyone else's.

 

 

 

Thanks for the offer and advice. Sadly the fluid drive is long gone, all I have is the three speed on the column tranny. I'm aiming to finish cleaning up the engine bay this weekend and getting it painted (nothing fancy, just a general clean up and paint.). I've messed with the starter a few time already when the engine was in the truck, boy of boy was that a slow painful job to remove and re-install. Then I can move onto the brake and fuel lines, which will be easier it do while the motor is out. I'm itching to install the motor, but it will have to wait a while while I do other things. It sure won't look like anything else I've seen, maybe sometime in the future I'll do a full restore, but for now I kinda like the rusty patina look and it will keep the costs down for now. I spent a small fortune on my 74 Bug and they are relatively cheap for new parts, these dodges are far more costly in spare parts for sure. On the 74 Bug I spent upwards of $10,000 (quite alot more, I'd be too scared to accurately add it up). The burned out 71 Bus was done in 6 months and for less than $2,000, that yellow and white paint on the Bus was done at home with cheap rustoleum paint sprayed on, it came out really nice.

 

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I can't tell from the picture, but does your "new" engine have a heat riser in the exhaust manifold? Just asking since I just got finished rebuilding the HR in my '51. I'm in Illinois where today's temp is about 29 degrees but maybe in warm sunny California heat risers are unnecessary anyway. It would be interesting to know if other owners out there just leave them out most of the time.

Edited by Jocko_51_B3B
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Pete -

Make sure the starter you use has the same "starter arm" as your original.  Some of the older models have different arms (the part the stomp starter hits to actuate the starter).  Since it is all apart, you might want to consider "MC from a Cherokee" swap.  It has been discussed on here several times.  Raybestos still carries MC's for your truck ($100+), but it will be a single chamber.

 

If you use an original transmission, make sure you have the shifter arms for it.  I think the fluid drive trans arms are longer...but I could be wrong.  Good luck finding a grille. might get lucky in a boneyard out west.  If you can get the entire nose section with the grille, take it.  It will be less expensive than fixing the one you have.

 

Jocko - Here in South-Central Texas, I do not have a heat riser in my truck.

 

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I love all the help and tips I getting, I read them all. I'll have to check the heat riser. Transmission wise, I'm going to reinstall the three speed back in when I'm ready for the motor. Got the engine bay all cleaned up and painted. That was a dirty job. Going to work on the fuel and brake lines tomorrow.

IMG_20190119_143306.jpg

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When I got the truck the mechanical temp sender was broken, did some digging on the forum here and it looks like I can graft a new temp sensor onto the old one. I got one from eBay for $20, fits perfectly, so when I get time I'll attempt the repair. I'll post here when I do it. 

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