Bob_Koch

Very unfortunate to hear. I put up a link from the gallery that has a sampling of the trucks that were there during the summer: http://dodgepilothouseclub.org/gallery/v/turners/

It feels good to see the progress doesn't it. Glad to see your truck coming along.

I was self-employed for 20 years. We called it "self-impoverished". It was also known as a "non-profit" business. Never intended that, it just seemed to always work out that way. When the economy takes a dive the bankers don't understand, they still want their payment on time.

Here's a few suppliers that have some parts for our trucks, including roberts and bernbaum as mentioned: Dodge City - They're in Ontario http://www.antiquedodgeparts.com/ Roberts Motors http://www.robertsmotorparts.com/index.html Andy Bernbaum http://www.oldmoparts.com/ Mitchell Motors http://www.mmpar.com/mmpars/default.aspx

Just a note to thank you for doing this. It's a great service to all of us. I don't know how many times I've used your site to decode an engine number. I've put a link to your decoding pages on the DPETCA webpage.

I'm watching the progress that bud's truck is making on chopping his cab. Looks great by the way. I see the sections have a small gap between them for the weld. When I was learning welding, I was taught that the metal pieces should make a tight fit. No gap between them before welding. Now I'm seeing the clamps that actually give some space. I've seen these for sale from Eastwood and at Harbor Freight. Someone enlighten me here. When do I want that small gap between my pieces to be welded and when don't I. Thanks guys, I always appreciate the great info here.

blohmiller, it's the chevy trucks that have corner windows longer than the center back. I don't think it looks as good .I like our trucks with the same length. Once place where I think chevy got it wrong.

What a great looking start. Far beyond my capabilities and it should look great when you're done. By the Way, You are welcome to upload all the pictures you want on the DPETCA gallery pages: http://dodgepilothouseclub.org/show/show.htm That way you can upload more pictures and keep a running album of your work. You can then just link to your pictures here on the forum. Dan Olson and Jim Shepard have close to 300 pics each of their restorations. If you download the Gallery Remote software you can upload lots of pics at a time and edit them too.

Tod, You've really done a lot of work on the online parts list. I've been wanting to do one for the truck side for the last couple of years. It's just such a big job I haven't been able to get started.

Thanks Dave for the info. I'm ordering mine. I need all the help I can get and I'm not afraid to shop around even it the catalog doesn't say Mopar on the front. As you say, many items are the same or very similar.

I used the translator and it seems to really be in Hungary. It's not unusual for them to be imported from the U.S. A number of people in Europe have contacted me for info and their truck had been shipped from here. Having a Calif license in Europe is like having European plates on a Mercedes or Jaguar here.

Chat Session this Sunday - October 26th. As always it's the last Sunday evening of the month, which is this weekend. Time: 5PM-PDT That's: 6PM-MDT That's: 7PM-CDT That's 8PM-EDT Where: DPETCA Website We will again be using the chat page on the DPETCA website. There's lots of good questions and information so why not join us. Here's the link: http://www.dodgepilothouseclub.org/chat/

I'm still amazed at where our trucks are found. This one is in Hungary. The article is in Hungarian, but I provided a link if you want a very poor translation. Anyway - great looking truck in a place I never thought to find one. I like the bed. http://totalcar.hu/tesztek/dodgeb48/ http://totalcar.hu/tesztek/dodgeb48!2 Translator: http://www.webforditas.hu/web-translator.php

My bed is totally dismantled so I scratched marks as to placement before I took off the angle strips. Hope this works. By the way, ordered some of my bed parts from Mar-k today. During October they have 10% off and free shipping ($8.95 handling charge). This adds up to a little bit of savings because angle and bed strips normally ship as oversize items. So if anyone out there is planning on ordering anyway, here's a little incentive. Here's the link for the discount code: http://mar-k.com/10__off_in_october__.html

The U shackle is threaded. The springs are not as Tod stated. The shackle is the part that is reverse threaded so put that end on the bottom.

Sure would have been helpful if they had put that in Our manuals

Ed you're wetting my appetite for the adhesive method. If I can convince myself that it works well I've saved myself a whole lot of work. Need to investigate this one further. Still sounds scary.

Have heard of the adhesive system for repair panels. Sounds scary to me as the weight of the bed sides rest on these angle pieces.

Here's a picture of the left rear that's opposite threaded. Don't know why the front would be different.

I removed the angle strips from the bed sides with a spot weld cutter. Getting ready to weld on new strips. Mar-K says to drill 1/4 holes on the outside of the bed and plug weld the strips on. I'm not feeling real comfortable about drilling and welding my bed sides as it took me so long to find a set of good ones. How have you attached your angle strips? Can I put holes in the angle strips and plug weld to the side?

I know on the rear spring it's the bottom one - the one attaching the spring itself. i'm thinking the front is the same that's reverse threaded.

You saved a truck. Thank you for that. Sorry that you had to sell it, often times finances dictate certain things. You are always welcome to join us in any way you can. We do have many people who don't currently have trucks but still watch the forum and the website. Sounds like you got a fair amount for it. I'm glad for that.

This is a '52 (listed as '52 but rear fenders would make it a '53) pilot-house that just sold on ebay for US $19,101.00. Kinda nice to see our trucks going for this amount. Looks like two guys fought it out on the bid list. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT&viewitem=&item=130259250974

I think you've heard from the others that these engines and drive trains are still quite usable even in today's environment. I'll address this issue from another side. First of all, these trucks are rapidly disappearing just from age and deterioration or they become compressed into a steel cube in a junk yard. Anything we can do to preserve them is welcomed. You need to know your abilities if you are talking about major changes like swapping engines, drive trains or frames. These all take hugh amounts of time, effort and money. Many have started these types of projects and are yet to finish and ebay has many of these types of uncompleted projects for sale, which is an indicator of the time and money required. Personally, my truck was converted to a V8 and automatic trans, before I got it, but the hatchet job that was done to accomplish this was horrible. I've yet to drive my truck because it wasn't running when I got it and will still take some more years and money before I get it in decent running shape. I experienced what a delight these original trucks can be to ride in when Jim Shepard gave me a ride in his. These trucks can be quite wonderful without major modifications. I would hope that you would work to get your truck running with it's original engine and drive train first. Enjoy it first, then move ot make changes to it as you go along.

it fooled me too. Sure is a nice looking truck