sluggish01

So my front clip setup is set to arrive next week and I’ve been kind of stalled and unmotivated until then so now I’m getting excited. Quick question. I have the original front axle setup that a guy is interested in buying. What is a fair selling price for something like that. It has all new king pins, bushings, ball joints etc and has been blasted and primed.

Decided to order an independent front suspension setup from TCI so that should hopefully be here within the next month. Got the rear suspension and axle cut out last night and the SRT rear cradle slid into place. Still need to secure it into place but the ride height is where I like it. Going to hang a fender on just to double check before finally securing cradle in place. Will get more pics when I have the box and fender temporarily hung on there.

Well the engine has been purchased and will be coming home for mockup on Friday. Sorry to offend any purists on here but I ended up purchasing a 6.4 Hemi from a wrecked car. I'm sure it has created a pile more work for me but I couldn't pass it up. My question is this. What kind of work do you guys figure I will need to do to the frame to keep it from twisting like a candy cane, or is it pretty stout from the factory. I gotta think that going from about 100hp to 470hp, some mods will be required to the frame. Will I need to box the whole thing, part of it, none of it? Some words of wisdom from the experts would help here.

Can't believe it's been so long since I was here but thought it was time to update. The plans have change a bit over the last several months and progress is slow(COVID made me crazy busy at work) but here goes. It has been completely disassembled and body and chassis have been blasted and primed. hopefully get some paint on the chassis in the next week. Everything is in great shape with very few surprises once stripped down. A couple minor body repairs needed but no rot anywhere so that was very lucky. Found a painter for the body who does nice work. Hopefully I can piece it all back together without ruining his handiwork. The motor has been cleaned and painted, only to decide that it is not going to be used. I've decided that the truck needs a hemi so I'm now on the hunt for that. I picked up an explorer rear end so that needs perches welded on and then installed. I will get a few pics this weekend when I get back in the shop.

Has anyone looked into removing the leaf springs and putting coilovers on these trucks? Just curious if it was worth the effort or the cost. Since mine won't ever be used to haul loads and it's really not heavier than a car, thought it might be an option.

Funny you mention that. I made the decision yesterday not to pull the head. It’s not leaking, oil and coolant are clean so I’m just going to clean up the rest of it and put it back together.

I would love to see your power steering setup and get some details a well. My email is mjloston@gmail.com. Thanks in advance

Got much of the engine cleaned up tonight and some parts into the varsol tank. Got a list of goodies I plan to order in the next couple days, hopefully I can get some of it shipped during this COVID-19 era. I searched through tons of build pages on here and scoured the internet for a power steering conversion/setup but came up empty. There must be someone who has put power steering on one of these trucks. Can anyone chime in on this?

Well that's good news, thanks for the info. It was running good with no issues, just ha some oil leaks. According to the number on the block it is a 1954-56 engine, although unknown at this point whether it is a 228 or 251. I'm assuming it's a 228 but will confirm when I pull the head off and measure the stroke I guess. Once I determine the engine, I will order the gaskets I need. Rustoleum overhaul here I come.

Makes sense since brake rotors are smooth too. I’ve checked with local hot riders about getting the clutch resurfaced and they all directed me to the same place, which is the one I contacted with no luck. I’ll order a new one if the vendor won’t help me out. next question. I want to clean and paint the motorand change some leaky gaskets. It runs fine so I don’t want to rebuild. Am I opening a can of worms to pull the head off or is there really nothing in there to concern me. I’ve read that all components are in the block except the plugs obviously. I don’t want to pull the head If I’m going to have to do a bunch of internal work as I am not a motor guy and don’t want to mess anything up.

The one they sent me accepts a much smaller shaft diameter than mine. I only noticed last night when I got the old clutch out so I will be contacting the vendor Monday to see if he can help. I'm doubtful though as I bought it quite a while ago. I checked locally and it seems there is nobody that resurfaces them, at least not the smaller one like this, only for big rigs apparently. If someone else knows of one local to me in Ontario, I would be open to that, I just couldn't find one. Related to the clutch, should I get the flywheel resurfaced? It is pretty damn smooth like a brake rotor. I don't know if they are supposed to be like that or not but it doesn't seem like the clutch would grab it. Or maybe a new flywheel is a better bet?

Yup did the same. Problem now is that I was sent the wrong clutch. Now I have to try and find the right one. Anyone got a line on clutch Suppliers?

Paint has lots of cracks and some bingo cracks too since that pic was taken. Paint definitely needs love.

Wasn’t expecting a hiccup at this point but here goes. I’m trying to remove the bell housing from the engine. All bolts are out and I can move it back until it hits the flywheel, I’m assuming it lifts vertically to be removed. The problem is the 2 locating pins in the housing, they don’t appear to be clearing the block in order to remove the BH. Am I missing something here or is there a trick to removing it.

Since I have to tear into it to do the clutch and a bunch of the wiring is garbage so I figured this was a good time to tear it all apart, and added some modern safety components. Plus I get the quality time with my daughter before she is a teenager and I am not cool at all.?

also what master cylinder did you use?

Okay. I have changed the topic heading and this will be my build thread. Bear with me as it is my first build thread. Sorry I tend to be long winded but here is the story on it. 17 years ago, when I was a volunteer Big Brother, my girlfriend and I bought a lottery ticket for the Big Brothers Home Lottery and ended up winning the early bird prize of $10,000. Pretty excited, as it was a few days before Valentines Day, we decided to take a romantic weekend getaway with our new found fortune, and whatever was left at the end of the weekend, we would split evenly, we weren't married and no joint account after all. Since we were both cheap and pretty much broke, not much was spent that weekend as we celebrated in our cabin most of the weekend?, and we each ended up with $4000. I had been looking for a cheap project truck for a while so I decided to take another look with my cash. Keep in mind it is February in Alberta, Canada so it was cold and the classifieds didn't have much to offer in the way of summer toys. Lo and behold, this 1956 1/2 ton Job Rated pops up so I go have a look. Bought locally originally buy a farmer about 1/2 hour away, passed down to his son, truck had never left the province, in fact barely left the farming community it lived in. Son is moving off to Vancouver and can't take it with him, so it's up for sale. $3500 later and I'm driving it home on a nice balmy -30 degree day in February with summer tires and no heater, and a bad clutch, but hey I can drive it home so I'm excited. Truck seems pretty solid, worth what I paid anyway, so I decide to put some rims and tires on it, replace the king pins and put it on the road. April rolls around and my girlfriend and I are out for a nice picnic with the truck and it's proposal time. Year and a half later, the truck is our wedding limo. Married at a ranch with a bunch of straw bales in the back for seating. Great time. Three years later my daughter comes home from the hospital when she is born and yup this is her first drive in the real world. Almost 5 years later the clutch finally gives out(yup, same one that was bad when I bought it) so it was parked, as I had another project on the go, and a year after that we move across the country. Truck gets loaded up and sits since 2013 only being run a couple times, but never road driven again. Fast forward to now, my daughter is 12 and wants a truck for her first vehicle. She has her heart set on my 2012 Ram dually but she has been informed that isn't happening so she is slowly accepting the fact that it will be the 56. I'm betting she will grow to love it along the way. The plan is a low budget build with a few critical upgrades like brakes, steering and seat belts. I'm hoping we can do the majority of the work ourselves and am even seriously contemplating the paint and body myself as well. Having never done either, it will be a challenge but that looks like it would be the most costly to farm out, so I may attempt it. Anyway here are a few pics of the truck when I got it and where it is at now. I'm sure I will have lots of questions along the way, and appreciate the knowledge here. The cobra was the project that put the dodge on the backburner for a few years, then there was the move across country, starting a new business, etc etc. A you can see, my daughter has been a bit of a car fan for a while. The Firebird will be the next project and has a special meaning to me, and was a motivating factor for me to get at the dodge. It belonged to my best friend since high school. We dragged it out of a field back in 1986 and with tons of help from his dad(and his wallet), put it on the road. We spent countless hours cruising around in this thing in our teens and twenties, blowing up the motor in the process, and swapping in a worn out Buick motor about 25 years ago that is still in there. When he got sick, I went to see him as much as I could, being a 18 hour drive away made it tough but I went often. He didn't have much energy and couldn't get out much but had lots of hope, so when he was resting I would go out and work on his shop. getting it finished so that we could work on his car and bring it back to life. Things were looking a bit better for him, so I started working on his car once the shop was done, hoping he would get the chance to drive it again. He managed to get one last ride in it when we took it to get new springs put in. A white knuckled ride as it handled like crap, so it wasn't ideal. But he drove it so he was happy. Unfortunately he passed away a few months later and the car never got finished. We talked a lot in his last few days, mostly about cars and memories. He left me his Firebird with one condition, I had to get off my ass and finish the truck first and then the car, but both had to be done before my daughter gets her license. A weird request but it gave me a laugh and so here I am. Dodge rebuild has begun. Plan is to drive it this summer at some point.

Well I got the body off and started to clean up the chassis underneath, scraped off nearly a 5 gallon bucket of crud off the tranny with much more to go. Fortunately, the frame looks to be in really great shape other than minor surface rust. Body looks good but I know there is bondo hidden in there so I'm not looking forward to that. Was quoted $2500 to blast the body but like most people I'm trying to keep cost down, I do have to weigh cost vs time though so it may still happen. While searching for a rear diff to lower gear ratio and get improved braking(plus thinking this is not original so I don't know what I have) it occurred to me to check and see what gears I have. I marked the tire and the driveshaft and started rotating to count the number of turns and give me a rough idea of gearing. Well I got a 1.25:1 ratio of driveshaft vs wheel rotation. Obviously I do not have 1.25 gears but what the heck would cause that odd number. everything turns smooth, so it's not like it is skipping broken teeth or something. At least I assume it's not as I drove the truck for 10 years before parking it and there were never any issues with the rear end. Maybe I should edit the title and make this a build thread, never done one before.

What power steering setup did you go with.

Been a long time since I've been on here. In fact o long that I no loner have the old email address and can't log in under my old user name. Anyway, I am in the process of rebuilding my 56 with and for my daughter to drive. It's got lots of memories, including the fact that I brought her home the hospital in it when she was born so it's the first vehicle she ever drove in outside the womb.? So it only makes sense that it is her first ride. That said, I would like it to have some modern upgrades that are safer and more user friendly. Key points being brakes and steering. As far as brakes go, I have found some disc brake conversion kits, but it would be nice to find a mater cylinder upgrade that was dual port. Power brakes would also be nice. I'd like to keep stock pedals so a brake booster would have to go under floor(unlikely). I'm also open to other options like the electric brake booster setup. Secondly, I'd like to put power steering on the truck for her. Is there a conversion kit out there for these a I am having a hell of a time trying to find that. If anyone can help with these things, I'd appreciate it, Particularly the steering issues. I had contemplated doing a Dakota chassis swap to get all of the modern conveniences but i'm having a hard time bringing myself to do it. Plus it's likely less work doing just the upgrades. I'd like to be driving it this summer so I can get it out of the garage and on to the next project.