1955 plymouth

You should check with SMS fabrics from Oregon, they had all the original print materials needed for my '55 Belvedere, exact match, I received the product, nice stuff. check it out. http://www.smsautofabrics.com/

if you still have the tranny here in about couple weeks or so, I am planning a road trip down to Cali. I might have to stop by, meet you and receive the reward. I will check back when we are getting closer to taking off.

so, I have the title for the truck now, truck is still in the feild, no longer burried in the mud, ready for the tow truck. I did get the title, it is from 1963 looks alot different than the current titles in WA state. Not sure if I sould just keep the old title for nestalgia and apply for lost title or make a photo copy of it and turn it in?

I sent him a message stating I would trade my 1978 Honda if interested, I guess we'll see what he comes up with. Hope there is something worth having down there.

Don't do it man. You must keep the old Mopar, sell the Ford...

Yeah, you are all right, why not right. at this point what do I have to lose? about an hours worth of time? what do I have to gain? who knows possibly a few hundred bucks or some more parts for my cars? anyways. I think you all have pushed me over the edge again, I will contact a towing co. with a flatbed truck to come get it. Hey, I wonder if I could use AAA and tell them I just got stuck while driving:rolleyes:

I went up to the truck the other day, about an hour away from me. Me and two friends dug with shovels and picks for three hours in the rain, hooked a chain aroung the front frame cross section and gave it several dozen tugs. we were able to get the truck above ground level, it no longer sits under mud to the axles. The truck moved about 10 yards towards the old barn, now faces the gate opening just right for a flat bed truck to come along and pick it up. Neither axle seemed to be spinning/rolling during our battle. I am still unsure about this project... The one thing that keeps drawing me back is for one the price / Free when I perform an oil change on the jeep / Complete, right down to the key for the locking gas cap and air filter element still in place, all emblems intact and on the truck, heck this thing still has the glass float bowl on the fuel pump/filter. So I guess I am asking for a little more encouragement at this point, we have done the muddy job of getting it resurected from the grave, now the challenge will begin... So what do you all think, could one of you take a year or two off and come live with me and help get this thing done? hahaha:rolleyes:

Thanks for the good luck and the tales of sucess. We are excited, time to put all this hard work and training towards some real rewarding times. Looking forward to helping people out without he big box store corporate feel to it. I feel the mom / pop shops are well received and people right now seem to want to support the little guy rather than the Franchised stores, so we are optimistic and full of great ideas. I will keep you all posted. Oh, yeah I forgot to mention earlier, we will also be buying classic cars, fixing them up to be good solid drivers and selling them in our parking lot also, I think Im going to label the '52 pilothouse as my local shop truck, paint the logo on the door etc... should be a good time if nothing else.

So, today I went to work and had a funny feeling it might be my last day on the job. The shop owner had been on vacation for the past 3 weeks and got back today, his first order of business was to send me down the road. I have been planning to branch out on my own for a while now. I have worked for Harley-Davidson dealers for 13 years in the Service dept. I turned a wrench for the first 7 working 60 hours a week the whole time, even during the winter months. Had the opportunity to step up into management Jan '05 so I did that, I have ran the shop in WA for the past five years, trained alot of new entry level mechs from newby to journeyman level. The opportunity came a couple months ago to buy a commercial building, has a nice store front, good sized lot, detatched shop building all sitting right along Hwy 20 in Concrete WA, we got about 1.25 acres of ground behind the shop to do with what we will. just down from the shop is the convergance of two rivers, the Baker river and the Skagit river. World class Salmon fishing right in our backyard.

I did some restoration in about the same process you mentioned here with your fenders, turned out real nice, I'm glad I did it, may not be how it came from the factory but it makes me sleep better at night. I say go for it.

I found it hard to pry myself away from that stuff. It is like taking a trip back in time every time I read one of those brochures, you are taken back to just how simple things really were back then. Thanks again.

Truck is looking great. Keep the updates posted for us, I don't think anyone out there should take offense of your truck at the local tractor show, they should be proud to have it attend, especially in those colors.

I found this one on craigslist today, I wish I hadn't purchased too many cars already or I would be a player for this old girl at this price, he's only asking $4300 right now, WOW. here's the link http://seattle.craigslist.org/skc/cto/1440652217.html

Make sure you don't over press the rivets. it is real easy to crack the shoe material if you use too much force setting the rivets, not sure what type of tool you are using? I know you could visit your local Harley shop and they should have a tool used for clutch hub friction lining replacement, if they stare at you with blank eyes you could ask for the tour pak rivet tool, this is a hand held adjustable rivet tool, works well for smaller squeze rivets.

That sure is one sweet car, I'm sure he has the reserve set over 15k or something, I feel it would be worth that for sure, I just can't play at that kind of price tag. I'm the guy who sits back waiting for either the young guy who wants to sell a four door for under 5k because it's not cool for hot rodding, or get the real cheap total projects that will occupy the rest of my life.

Looks good, are you going to use any metal slats between the wood boards? did Dodge do that like Chevy? Even left like it is it looks good. So it seems like we use these old trucks as motivation for our Daughters, haha this is the '59 Chevy we have promised to our Daughter when she gets her licence, not so sure though it has the 283 V8 with the 4 speed? well, we'll see we still have about 5-6 years before that day....

I service Harleys for a living, I try to adapt some real basic "winterization" steps into all of my gasoline powered engines. I would add stabil to the fuel, I prefer stabil over the other guys, (just this mans opinion) once stabil is in the fuel tank, top it off with fresh fuel as to prevent condensation, take the car out for a spin to circulate the stabilizer thru the carb jets also this will warm the oils, when you get back drain the engine oil, this will remove alot of the dirt "mineral" deposits from the engine, you really don't want that stuff sitting on your bearings longer than it needs to, also any moisture that has built up in that oil will also be removed. add your fresh oil, and filter of course and run the car to circulate the clean stuff thru everything, while you have it running at a high idle I would say to fog the engine until you see some white smoke from the exhaust, then shut it down, this will finish coating the upper end of your engine with lubrication, and set your mind at ease for the next couple months. Next I would say to either disconnect the battery and keep on trickle charge "smart charger" so you don't over charge it. You (in my opinion) really don't want to start your car periodically because this will tax your battery unnecisarrily and it will warm the engine up just enough to build up some condensation inside, condensation or moisture is our enemy. Make sure and top off the anti-freeze or drain and re-fill the entire system if you haven't done so in the past couple years. I also recommend placing your car on jack stands to save the tires, make sure your car is detailed prior to extended storage also, dirt and dust will turn to surface rust and pitting on metal parts. I also place "dry packs" inside of my car, on the floorboards, in the trunk etc.. these are cloth type packs sewn together on the ends filled with a cat litter type "oil dry" inside of them. That's what I recommend, now to get out from in front of this darn computer and go get started on my fleet of gasoline powered toys, I should listen to myself more often.

I think I'd be a total fool if I didn't grab it, I thought you guys would appreciate the offer the gal made to me on the oil change for an old truck deal, haha. I have done a little searching, seems like these trucks are a little bit more scarce than our Dodge Pilothouse. Anyways, sorry Reg, this one's for my collection.

Real nice work! The best part is that you were able to do it yourself for just a few bucks. I really enjoy that about this Old car thing. unless you are going bonkers about full factory resto, you really can just go with the flow, or whatever else you have lying around. good stuff.

I must say all of you guys on this forum serve as solid inspiration for the others on here, It's great, I don't know a whole bunch about four wheeled vehicles, I am learning alot just by reading. I hope someday I pull the powertrain from my old rides and clean them up like you have, good job. Keep the inspiration coming.

a couple more pics I took while I was out there. It took some work to get the hood opened, about a full can of wd-40 and about 15 minute of working the hinges, careful not to over-do and break something.

I went and looked at this '48 today, the current owners told me if I changed the oils and radiator fluid in the '78 Jeep they own, I could have this old International truck. It has been sitting since '73 per the licence tag so I would have myself a sure project on my hands, yet that seemed like a great price to start with, real solid truck, body is straight and it is suprisingly complete, right down to the key for the locking gas cap. So what do you guys think? should I do an oil change and rescue an old truck?

Thanks for the reply and additions to the thread. I now have just enough information to be dangerous when talking to people about my truck, I can say "yeah, I did some research and found this old truck was used to carry the artillery to the Marines back in the day, that there gas can is proof of that, you can even smell the fuel residue and it will remind you of days long past and indicate just how far out this old truck had to travel to take the Marines the goods" Or something like that, Ha,ha.

Yes, very nice car, that powertrain sound like alot of fun too, my Chevelle has a hopped up 350 with a 350 turbo auto underneith, and I am jealous of your truck, mine has a lot of work to be that respectable, anyways, like I said before, if it makes you happy, who cares, we are having fun and that is all that matters.

Here are the pics of the can