Lingle

been working on the truck but havent done a post in months so sorry about that. got my intercooler mounted, but this caused me to have to relocate the A/C condenser so will be mimicking what GGDad is doing and mount the AC condenser remotely under the cab. since I am mounting the intercooler directly to the radiator/sheetmetal support, I am ok with the 3/8-1/2" of gap between the core and the front clip. next up is finishing the inner fenders to allow the piping to pass through, then back on cab sheetmetal. Happy times!

can I ask, I think it was above, what software are you guys using? I dont have access, and cannot use my work software even if I had access to it for personal use, to a free or reasonably priced software to do basic things. I would like to have some laser cut sheetmetal made but the local shops to me are not interested so hoping if I can find a good software to get to do some basic work.

Im in for $250

Count me in for $200

Love seeing the fender repair. Im currently doing the front cab corners with parts from DCM, I will post photos later this week or early next week but was thinking how to do the fender repiar and boom! ggdad to the rescue!

havent been working much on the truck since last update but I did stop by DCM Classics when I was in Holland, MI over the weekend(actually on Friday). that place is pretty sweet and the staff were awesome! got some sheetmetal parts while there to work on my cab. hope all is well with everyone!

I have the motto that "any progress is better than no progress" and I enjoy learning all I can. I think that low gloss black looks cool, almost like a matte black, which I think looks sweet. Im super nervous when I get to it to paint my project. Im going back with the stock Dodge red(or as I call it Coke red), and I too am not a painter nor bodyman, so it may not look the best. Keep up the great work!

sorry to hear about Puma. she was such a sweetheart the time we visited

congrats on retirement! also, the build looks awesome

nice start to the project! I would recommend getting the Dunn book as it contains alot of information. This site search will help you with many of your questions like master cylinder, etc. With the closure of the other pilothouse site, I dont know if there are paint codes here but I am sure we can find some. if I remember I will check my book at home if Dunn happened to put those there. Good luck and look forward to seeing your posts

saw that as well, sad to see the devastation in Florida but always nice to see the trucks in the wild!

got some more work done, wont be able to work on Mater until next week but got the foot floor area installed and welded in, started to look at the firewall and looks like the pre-bent pieces I made last week will work good, going to be fun filling in all the open spots, Im not a sheetmetal/thin metal person so learning as I go. the black lever in the phot is my transfer case shift ever, and the square opening next to it is where the gear shift lever goes. somewhat angled photo but the top of the sheetmetal firewall will be parallel to the ground and be welded into what is left of the existing firewall

Thanks everyone! given my floor structure being fairly close I opted not to do bead rolling(also finding someone to do that was proving difficult and purchasing the tools wasn't at the top of my list).

summertime is hard for me to find time to work on the project but am finding some time to do some things. First up I have sourced some new engine parts, newer bypass blower, upgraded injectors and finally after 6+ months of searching I found turbo parts. sheetmetal for the floor and firewall have been sourced, 14ga to get as close to stock thickness. Just started layout work so here are some photos, I am hoping by this weekend I have them all trial fit, firewall bent up and can see about replacing the toeboards/cab parts near the front cab mounts. the black lines in the first photo are for where to drill for the spot welds I plan to put in. I will fully weld the sheet to the existing cab structure but to the floor structure spot welds. recommendation on how many spot welds(i.e. # per inch)?

any input on those high bay lights?? Im looking at future shop projects and want to do those

could be, cant recall if you replaced the condenser but I had a boat motor that would fire up and run, but on shut down the heat soak would make the condenser not want to work again until cooled back off. points are really just breaking a circuit so cleaned up dont typically fail but depending on how much they are and how hard to get, Id throw in new point and condenser.

nice work! always fun when you get to make your own tools

dont know if this helps at all, this is what I got awhile back from DCM website, might not help but thought Id share in case they help. the file names dont quite make sense, specially on the 48-55 C1 name but I planned to use these when I get my rubber parts(likely in a few years) 1939-47-dodge-truck-and-pylmouth-truck-46-48-power-wagon-48-53-dodge-truck.pdf 48-55-dodge-truck-c1.pdf

i do not have anything that small but looking at Don Bunn's book what ggdad said would hold true. any reasonably sized car trailer would transport the truck.

thats the plan, I suspect you are mostly talking about the aluminum pedal support bracket between the pedals and the dash? for the firewall Ill try to make it as rounded as I can, but I dont have a English wheel and the neighbors finger break press can do decent radius. I kept the old firewall I cut out as a reference and see how well I do

finally getting some time to work on Project Mater! got the firewall all mocked up. Used a trailer fender and cut down to fit for a nice looking area around the bell housing. Then made a wireframe buck out of TIG rod to get the shape of the firewall ironed out. I follow Karl Fisher, MakeItKustom on YouTube, to learn about sheetmetal and other autobody items and this is how he makes various sheetmetal parts. as seen below, I made the firewall as close to the engine as comfortable to make room for the Vintage Air HVAC system as well as a heater. Likely I will weld shut the cowl vent.

great work! I have not found a flare tool that doesn't leave some sort of marking, specifically on ni-cop tubing since it is fairly soft material. I have a older snap-on brand flare tool for English sized tubing and it leaves some marks on ni-cop but none on other tube material types

nice work! question though, what software did you use to make those prints? Ive wanted to get a decent CAD software to do some design work as its frowned upon using my company one for personal use and if I can find a decent one for reasonable price, Id get some. keep up the photos, looks like a great machine!

even shop kitty got a cameo in the video!

holy cats! 91??