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Hi All from New Zealand. First post but a several times browser. Thought I should make myself known. I am a 60+ year old dairy farmer from nz. I have been the owner of a 1938 Dodge D9 sedan since buying it off my grandfather Alick in 1981. He had bought it new in 1938 and decided to stop driving and tender the vehicle so he wouldn't be tempted to change his mind. It was drivable, which I enjoyed for a couple of years and then started a what has come to be 35 year project of putting it back to a pretty new condition. It sat around in bits for many years as marriage, family, cows, farming and numerous interrelated projects all came before my old car disease. A restart to the project began in earnest in 2006 when I pulled out the detached and disassembled body from my workshop and took it to a friend who had a small local garage and panel shop. We agreed that his old timer panel man would start and continue the panel repairs when he had quiet periods and I had a few dollars spare. Fast forward nearly 15 years and here we are. At times it sat with no progress as his business ebbed and flowed and the same with my and my wife's farming business. It has ended up a bigger project than I ever imagined but I have enjoyed the ride. Heaps of time sourcing parts here and overseas and meeting lots of old car folks in the process. It will be a complete rebuild but not concours at all. I have tried to keep it period correct as much as possible but haven't gone to the extent of original bolts,nuts etc. Also the export D9 didn't have two taillights, a radio, a clock or two wipers. It was a pretty basic car. I have found these items and restored them all to give it a little more detail. Started the rebuilt motor for the first time since disassembly many years ago last September. Great moment!!! Hope to be finished in a month or two......thought that a few times over the years though. Lockdown has slowed things too. Anyway, just thought I should make myself known. Hope you are all doing ok in this current situation. Best wishes to the old car folks out there.

On Friday, our street commemorated the 75th Anniversary of VE Day with music, dancing, a singalong and a day of socially distanced celebration.My wife dressed as a Land Girl, my son wore US Navy uniform and I wore British Army (Middlesex Regt) battledress in honour of my great uncle, as we paraded around the road in our Plymouth. Our neighbours gave us a rousing reception.

can't wait!, although, when l tell Julie about this event, it will be "international work on your truck month" ( SHHH, don't say anything to her )

A few more pics. First one shows me picking the car up from Grandad Alick in 1981. He was 84 and I was 22. I look way more like him now. The others show 1980s to nearly now. Have lots of pics. If anyone wants specific details I could see if I have relevant photos etc.

Well today I went ahead and threw new spark plugs into my '50 Coronet. I thought it might make a difference but damn... I had no idea. The gentlemen I bought the car from back in January said that the plugs were changed about 6 years ago but since then the car only had a couple thousand miles on it. The car was a bit temperamental at times when it came to starting and running her so I figured if I have fuel and air ... must be my spark. I also wanted to pull the plugs to see if they were oil fouled and I wanted to do a visual into the cylinders (however I had no scope). Well I pulled the plugs and first noticed it had Autolite 308 plugs vs the recommended 306. Not sure if that would make much of a difference. I also noticed that the gap were a bit tighter then the spec on the pugs I pulled. Well I properly gaped and installed the new 306 plugs and she fired right up ... no hesitation. When I looked at the plugs they actually did not look too bad. The way it was running I was expecting some issues in a cylinder or two, but there was none that I could see. All looked pretty good. The only plug that had an abundance of carbon was #6, but even then it was not too bad. See pics. Again ... I did not think changing the plugs would have made such a significant difference. Well I am happy it did .

Pete, It's amazing what you find out about people. I had a friend also into the Civil War. He and his wife happened upon a stand for 'The Daughter of the American Revolution.' Gene was talking to them and they asked if he knew of any one in his family that was in the Rev War? He said "No but my wife has." They were over the moon and wanted all the details. He said their eyes lit up. They asked him. 'does she know what regiment he fought under?' He replied, "Yes we do.". They were beside themselves and started telling them how you can get documents about her relative and that the Government is very helpful. They then asked, 'what regiment was he in.' Gene replied, "the 12th Highlanders" Their faces immediately turned to frowns because he fought for the British side.

Speaking of the Commonwealth ,New Zealanders also contributed!

Ok folks, coming up, just around the corner and drawing near fast..get out to the shop, wipe the dust off them wrenches and get ready to turn and burn...this is one day out of the year...momma can do her own honey-dos for one day...no excuses...no forgiveness..!! you don't need a truck if ya not man enough to work on it.....?

A great friend indeed threw this together this morning. I’ll give it a shot. Won’t hurt.

she's a big girl...sure she will appreciate the time you not pestering her.....lol I can hear it now....oh, you been in the shop working the last month...?

It’s not just WWII that people don’t know about or remember. It seems like anything that happened before last Tuesday is long gone unless it is what some rap artist wore at a concert five years ago.That they remember

J 12 Y have extended tips and were used in Chevrolet sixes. A J12 would be the plug used by Plymouth. Your intake valves hammered all the gaps closed the first time you cranked the engine . no gap no spark no start,

Just got back from a 983 mile round trip to Michigan to pick up 4000 pounds of Acorn welding tables was fun.

additional information - Brake Drum Replacement

My AC 45 have 40000 miles on them. Last time I pulled them to check the gap 2 years ago, they looked as new. But I believe I put them in in 2008, maybe time for new ones. But it starts and runs fine and averages 18 mpg, so my motivation is pretty low.

Keep at it Roland. Sounds like you are getting it narrowed down. Fwiw I am not too keen on running with an original style pump and this stuff that passes for gasoline these days. As I was building my truck I decided to ditch the old style pump and install a big Carter rotary style pump back at the tank. I installed a large canister type pre-filter ahead of this pump and another just ahead of the Carb. This has functioned well for me in daily use for 5 plus years. Some might consider this overkill but I feel it was a prudent thing to do. Also I dose every other tank full with MMO. Jeff

Too many possibilities to troubleshoot this problem online. Hindsight, what's that? ? "I'm the one that's going to die when it's time for me to die so let me live my life.....the way I want to."

Im a believer in new plugs. they may look good. from the what it worth department George Asche recommend I use auto lite 045 in my 47 ps you will probably see your gas mileage increase.

PIcked these up today off facebook marketplace. Deals get snapped up quick but they are out there. The double ended ones are thin-I'd call them a tappet wrench but apparently they just call them low torque slimline

Keith, my car (and it sounds like this is common due to carb percolation) is also hesitant to start after it has heat-soaked for 15 minutes, but it always fires up after cranking a few seconds. But even in the hottest temps, and we had some scorchers in Alabama last summer, the car never failed to run properly in stop and go or highway traffic (after going to an electric pump). That is why I think you are dealing with more than just vapor lock...most likely faulty fuel flow. Mechanical fuel pumps can do devious things and fail intermittently, sometimes after they get hot (suction leak...weak check valve?). My original mechanical pump would work for a time then with no warning lose prime, I never could figure out how to predict when this would happen (I was awarded a flatbed tow one time....). That pump is now in a land fill...... I had no emotional ties to it. ? I suspect our ethanol-contaminated gas aggravates any weakness in the fuel system due to vapor pressures the old pumps were never designed to handle. A strong pump is fine as evidenced by many forum members, but I wonder if a weak pump might flake out when faced with low pressure adversity. Stay with it.....but try to avoid tunnel vision, don't discount the most obvious possibility.

Air Raid Precautions http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/war/wardens.htm

No - he was blowing a wartime ARP whistle from my collection. There's a video clip on my facebook page...

Yep, took a little heat and persuasion but it came off. Guess I need to pull it all the way apart and make sure there’s no more bearing laying in the bottom of the case. Guess I’ll be calling Andy tomorrow.

Got the extra box thrown in with the sale from yesterday,along with a running s-10. thinking studebaker?

Will know more in a day or two, photos forthcoming. Tomorrow will take photos of the VW and list it in the classified. This car was garaged fOr 30 years, it is clean, rust free. The 63 is the love bug year. Should keep it, but no real interest and too old to properly build that car.

The plugs need to be tan color and dry. Are you checking for spark at the end of the coil lead 3/8-1/2" from the block or other meal ground while cranking? Or at the grounded spark plug....possibly wet with fuel ? Spark should be a snapping 3/8" blue spark from the coil .

That would help, but with one change, crank the engine to suck fresh air into the manifold and cylinders. My assumption is you have a bad condensor - I've used the junk available in the aftermarket and had a failure similar to what you are describing. Bad coil will do similar things too.

Great looking celebration!! Glad to see all the Union Jacks are the right way up! There was a minor celebration where I live in Canada but nothing like you had in the UK. People tend to forget but Britain and the Commonwealth withstood the full might of Hitler's Germany from June, 1940 and the defeat of France, until June, 1941 when the Soviet Union was attacked by Germany. Winning the Battle of Britain is the only thing that saved Britain from German invasion. Both my parents are English and my mother had just given birth to my older brother 20 days before VE day. My father was in the Royal Army and was overseas in the far east, Malaya, and the war did not end properly for him until VJ day. He did not return home until mid April, 1946 arriving on my brother's first birthday and seeing him for the first time. It is important to remember these times as they help put things in perspective. Coronavirus is bad but what we are being asked to do pales in comparison to the sacrifices of WWII.

This advice will likely come in handy when I continue to try to get my neighbor's '51 Desoto back on the road. The ignition is being stubborn... Thanks for sharing your experience!

Thank you Norman! Just converted to inches and I get 30" overall and about 9" for the top end. Appreciate your efforts bud! A new tilt column should fit in nicely.

I had brand new fuel pump with the blue felpro gasket and the thickness of the gasket was enough to make the truck not run. Re-assembled without gasket using just a thin coat of rtv sealant and it runs great.

Speaking of brush fired Dodge trucks - read an article a while back about the MASH film location in Malibu Creek State Park. Apparently the vehicles that were hauled up there for the filming were left and then later on burned in a wild fire.

You guys look fantastic! And so does your car? It's refreshing to know that your country keeps that date alive. One must never forget. In my section of the woods in the states I have to remind everyone that it's Veterans Day...and Pearl Harbor Day too, etc. People just simply don't care. They don't even know simple WWII history. They also don't even think about the men and women who fought (and died) to assure they could have the freedom to just forget about them and be arrogant about it as well. Pisses me off. I had an uncle who was a bomber pilot in Europe. He's been gone for 20 years now. Sorry for the rant, but that kind of thing gets to me. Again, nice looking group!!?

My B3B had the same grinding/bumping feel in the steering. After disassembling the gear box, I found that the sector and worm gears were badly scarred. Fortunately I had a good donor sector gear which I installed. The worm wasn't as bed so I reused it and I will live with it for now. I'm guessing this problem is common and probably results from driving the truck for years with no gear oil in the gear box. NOTE: I found out the hard way that you can't just swap out gear boxes between 48-50 Pilothouse trucks with the 51-53 models. In '51 they slightly changed the gear box mounting hole locations in order to lower the steering column and thus the steering wheel. The good news is that the gear box internal parts are interchangeable for all six years.

Modern self energizing drum brakes, our vehicles do not have those, actually take less foot effort to stop than discs. Discs have better fade resistance, which is the reason they replaced drums. They don't stop better, anything that overcomes the tire's grip on the road is more than adequate for braking and if you can't lock your brakes you have a problem. Tire technology has substantially improved since our cars were new and that is the major difference you feel, not that you have discs.

I used pine wood and painted it with Black POR-15 and a topcoat of Black Rust-o-leum for UV protection. The boards are very strong and nothing will penetrate that POR-15 coating. The company Mar-K did a test of many different finishes and POR-15 outlasted all. Check out the Wood Finish testing they did here (http://www.mar-k.com/index.php?p=tips-and-tricks)

And another one coming friday,the one in the garage,where i found my first one

So truck Landed, a few more photos.

Heres my old girl!

I had one sit a long time like that and rusted the top 1/2 of the ring gear. It made a wow wow wow noise . It was not real loud but enough that I had to replace it.

Evaporust should take care of that. Worst case there may be some light pitting left, and maybe some noise but maybe not as the rust appears to be only on part of the tooth surface. I'd just clean up and install. And would avoid bead blasting unless it is to be taken completely apart to clean. Blasting media gets into every crevice, bearing and other hiding spots.

So my up and coming truck.made the deal yesterday.