Bob_Koch

The 318 is entirely possible, though a lot of work to do well. If you feel you have the skills then I say go for it. Parts are more difficult than a Chevy or Ford, but then us Dodge boys like challenges. The parts are out there. I think the best place for you to start is to read through this forum through the last couple of months. You'll get a good idea of what is available and what is possible. Many of your questions have already been addressed right here.

For rubber look for steele rubber: http://steelerubber.com For other parts look for Roberts Motor parts: http://robertsmotorparts.com The wiper motor might have to be an ebay item or someone that can repair an existing one.

Ain't it grand when that happens! Glad for ya.

I think a good hardware store like Lowe's, Home Depot or a well equipped ACE have clips that will work. They usually have drawers of hardware do-dads like axle nuts, clips and so on. You could probably catalog order them but you only need a few.

Here's the address in Healdsburg. Take the family with you as the fall colors in the vineyards are fabulous.

The windows were down. It looks like the truck is still in frequent use. I don't know about the lions.

Took a drive to see the fall colors in the vineyards today. Was surprised to find this pilot-house being guarded by two lions. It was at Leonhardt vineyards.

I have been working on my truck for almost 6 years now. It wasn't running when I got it so decided to do a complete frame off restoration. DON"T do that unless you have the time and commitment to stick with it over the long haul. This project just goes on and on. Through the kids graduations and weddings and periods of unemployment. Oh, yea, and all the DPTECA club duties. My wife has been very understanding. I thought I would have this done in 1 year. YEA, right! I've learned that it's a journey and one that will be with me for some time still. In the mean time I've learned all the things I never had earlier in life, but wanted to. Now I can sand blast, weld pretty decently, do some body work and I can spray paint. These are skills I never got to learn before, but I'm getting to be able to now. It's fun, but it's alot of work. In addition, it's given me the opportunity to meet some terrific people and even run one of our trucks down the Bonneville salt track.

Glad you've joined us. There is some electrical stuff and even blueprints for our trucks over on the DPETCA site if they'll help. http://dodgepilothouseclub.org/know/know.htm

Here's just a few links to previous forum discussions on this. A search on "interiors" brought these up. These are just a few as there are many more. http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/search.php?searchid=761039&pp=25&page=2 http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=22728&highlight=interior http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=21836&highlight=interior http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=21669&highlight=interior http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=21367&highlight=interior http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=19757&highlight=interior

I can only dream of being able to do work like that.

It's those suprises that bring challenges. I tend to like a good challenge. I think your truck is in capable hands.

This one didn't get cut up.

Dang, it's a '53 with good fenders and had a 5 window cab. Well, guess it's better than going to the crusher. At least they know quality trucks.

Glad you made it home safe. You won't find a more helpful group of people to help with your pilot-house truck than right here on this forum. The experience and helpfulness is terrific. Looks like you have a great start on the truck already. If you haven't already do so, stop by the DPETCA website as well. It has alot of material that can help you as well. http://dodgepilothouseclub.org/index.htm

Don't know about the weight, but the 318 - 360 is a larger engine and has sucessfully been put in our trucks often. You either will have to push it forward, which puts alot of weight way out front, or tub the firewall to make room. Let's remember these trucks are 60 years old and had an engine that only put out approximately 100 horse. You're going to need to strengthen the frame to handle the additional stress that the power from a V8 will be capable of generating. And then you need to consider how you're going to stop this new beast because I know you're going to want to go faster than 55MPH with the newer engine. And you're probably going to want power steering since you're doing all that work. This all adds up to reworking the whole front end. It's been done by many of us, but it is a lot of work.

Makes me wonder when it was included in Dodge cars.

Reminder - We have our Dodge Truck Club chat session this Sunday evening - September 26th 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 hope you'll join us. Here's the link: http://www.dodgepilothouseclub.org/chat/ -------------------------------------------- Note: If your email address has changed this year, you may not have received an email from DPETCA lately. Please send any address/email changes to funrated@gmail.com Once we lose your email our communication is null.

He lives in Blissfield, MI

Why didn't you tell me this Before I went to Bonneville?

OK guys, here ya go. Videos of Tim's first run and his 100MPH posting. Tim wasn't able to make the rookie meeting because he was dealing with registration, so the official had to verbally give him info about the course. http://dodgepilothouseclub.org/videos/Clips%20-%2001%2035_MP4%20512%20NTSC%20Download.mp4 Same thing but on YouTube: Starting line and send off. If you can hear the audio the officials talk about this being a real hot rod. http://dodgepilothouseclub.org/videos/Clips%20-%2001%2039_MP4%20512%20NTSC%20Download.mp4 Here's the YouTube link if the above doesn't work: Tim gets 100.6MPH! http://dodgepilothouseclub.org/videos/Clips%20-%2001%2050_MP4%20512%20NTSC%20Download.mp4 The YouTube version: The original links are in mp4 format, which is apple quicktime. Some people may have trouble with this so I uploaded to YouTube and added those links. Hopefully this works for everyone.

A nice looking truck. I like the interior.

There are blueprints for your truck B - 108" W.B. available on the DPETCA site. It takes awhile to figure them out but I think the dimensions you need are there. http://dodgepilothouseclub.org/know/blueprints/index.htm

It all sounds logical, Merle, but the opposite is true: Here's part of the article about traction: "Experience shows that narrow tires provide better traction at Bonneville. Bonneville traction strategy requires just about the opposite to what works at the local drag strip. My own unproven theory explaining this fact is that, at speed, wide tires sort of “Hydroplane” on this bit of loose material. I also suspect that wide tires at speed are near “Hydroplaning” on air alone. It must take “some” time to force the air outward towards the side of the tire, and at “some” speed, air would pile up and be forced under the tire, eventually providing about the same traction one finds on an Air Hockey table. The narrow tires, especially ones with little tread, a rounded profile, run at maximum recommended inflation pressures, have less tendency to trap air and seem better able to bite thru the loose dusting on top. The proof of this is in the pudding. Look at the photos of the Bonneville cars that have proven to be fast. Drive tires on the successful cars and bikes are, narrow with a very pronounced round profile. That round shape, combined with high tireair pressure yields a very small “tire contact patch”. As unlikely as that combination sounds, it is the proven winner on the salt." http://saltflats.com/traction.html What was suprising to me was in my 5th run I pushed the truck harder than I had before, expecting that I had done really well, and got the worst speed. Ed, our timing official figured it was slippage on the salt. Then he added this comment, "the salt will humble you.:" I felt humbled.

Timings from Bonneville runs are listed now. Tim and I ran in the 130 MPH Club on Thursday . Zak (they spelled Zack) ran on Friday. http://saltflats.com/2010_WOS.htm Copied this from the Saltflats.com website. It gives an idea of what the surface is like: The racing surface at Bonneville is funny stuff. Hard to describe. As it's a natural surface, it can exhibit great variability. You can get an idea of the nature of this racing surface by doing your own experiment. Take a whole box of table salt and pour it onto a pie plate. Spread it out smooth, so you have a layer about ½” thick. At this point it is like sand. Loose, granular, and not anything you would want to race on. Now fill the plate with water. Don’t just dampen, fill it so you have standing water above the level of the salt. Mother Nature fills Bonneville with water to well above the salt every year. Now, let it sit to dry. It will take a few days or even a few weeks to really dry. When it is truly dry, the salt will have changed. It will no longer be loose and granular like sand. It will have become a single solid mass. Hard, crusty, white, abrasive, gritty, it would seem like an excellent traction surface. But is it?? You will notice that while it is hard, and seems to withstand a blow or major direct assault, if you rub it gently, it sheds a powdery granular material. It is that loose, shed, surface material that is the major problem with Bonneville Traction. Just a bit of the loose granular material goes a long ways. If you imagine that powder as behaving like just a slight dusting of sand over asphalt, you begin to get an idea of what must be going on at the tire/track interface at 200 MPH. If you rev up a car and drop the clutch at Bonneville, you can lay some pretty cool rubber stripes on the salt. The salt surface is plenty tough enough to pull rubber off the tires. But you will also notice that that same process digs trenches in the salt. Depending on the particular spot you choose for your burnout experiment, the trenches might be 1/16” of an inch, or one and a half inches deep. Like I said, the salt surface varies. It's not much like pavement.\ here;s the full article: http://saltflats.com/traction.html