Nat Angell

Dan, I'm near you, in Lexington and have a 50' that I'm working on. It sounds to me like you know more than I do about them, but will be glad to help any that I can. PM me if there is anything I can do later, Nat

I really had a time getting the windows out. I thought the engineer how came up with that design was a nutcase till you told me hows it's supposed to be done. I took the keepers off that hold the window to the lift mech. I was leary of how I was going to get the keepers back on because they are between thewindow and the door skin. later, Nat

Thanks a load. I was afraid I was going to have to try to remove a hidden stud that I couldn't see.Later, Nat

Can anyone tell me what holds the vent window in on my 50 B2B? I have the door panel off and the window out and can feel the bolt , screw, or whatever it is that holds it in, but can't tell what it is. I don't want to reach in with a pair of vice-grips if it is a phillips or a slotted screw and I can't see it to tell what it is. I have almost all the body work done and the brakes fixed. I had to have the radiator recored so it should be ok now. I have all the glass out except for the vents, and don't want to screw anything up if I can help it. I've been looking at the weather stripping for it and need some imput on where is the best place to buy it from. I've looked at the Roberts site and biermans, but hope someone can tell me a cheaper place if the quaility is ok. I had no idea that this was going to be as expensive as it has been. It seems as if everything I've bought for it cost twice as much as I expected and it's been twice as hard as I anticipated but I guess yall knew that didn't ya. Thanks for the help, later, Nat

I found all the brake repair parts for my 50 b-2-b at O'Reily's Auto parts. They didn't have all in stock, but got them by the next day. HTH, later, Nat

Went this morning and oicked up my recored radiator. I really hated to spend this , but at least now that is one thing less to deal with. I'm getting ready to paint the cab. Bed strips are on the wat from Mar-K. Seat bottom is recovered and seat back is nearly done, so it won't be tooooooo long maybe. later, Nat

As a lot of you know, I bought a 50'dodge truck. It had been sitting since 1971. After I started it up I only let it run for a few seconds. I then started on the other stuff, like cleaning the fuel tank, seeing if it would hold water, ect. I only took less than a gallon of water to fill it up, so it had 38 year old water in it and was full up to the gooseneck. I let it run for extended times just checking things out and I just like to hear it run, I have been doing the body work and fixing the brakes in the meantime. I thought I would flush out the rad. and block, so I hooked up some jury-rigged piping and started flushing out the system. I got a lot of rusty water out and kept it up till I only had clean water at the dishcharge. I thought that was good enough, so I put it back together and filled it with water only to see it leaking out from several places in the core. I took it to the local rad. shop and had them clean and repair it. After tanking and testing the core is shot. I have to replace the core after it held water for 38 years. Just like building a house, everything costs more and takes longer than you think. Later, Nat

I'm over in NC and also have a 50 dodge truck. I'm doing the same thing. I rebuilt the master cyl and all the wheel cyls. Got all the part at O'reily's. also the brake lines but had a lot of trouble getting the flex lines for the fronts. Lot's of knowledgeble people on here. Maybe I can help someone like these folks have helped me. Later, Nat

I have also thought about useing the rattle can bed liner under the fenders and the bottom of the running boards. It would be chip resitant. I don't know what the underside of the running boards were coated with from the factory, but all of the bolts came right out of mine except 2 that rung off and had to be driller out and retapped. I went to Fastenal (sp) and got enough 5/16 fine thread bolts to replace all I took out. I want to undercoat the fenders before I paint the truck. I'll just sand the primer on the underside and coat with bed liner and then mask before painting the fenders. Thanks, Nat

I'm in central NC 27292 The one bar I have is , or was painted, but the one on the hood is chrome or stainless. The one I have left is in rough shape, but could be repaired. Most of the ones I've seen show the topmost bar as chrome or stainless and the bottom 3 as painted. I would like to have the 3 painted bars. Thanks, Nat

I have a '50 pilothouse 1/2 ton truck I'm fixing. Notice I didn't use the word restoring. I want it to look nice and origional would be nice, but it will never be a true show quality truck. When I bought it, it had 4 flat tires, vines growing all thru it and had been sitting since 1971. It had so much rust there was no exterior color left. Under the hood and on the interior you could tell it had been red and the bed was black. I know the purist wouls say paint it back origional, but my wife wants yellow and black, so that's what it will be. My question is should the bed,rear fenders, and running boards be gloss black? I have painted the frame, axles, springs, inner fenders and heat shields low gloss black and it looks good, so was wondering what ya'll think low gloss black would look like on the bed /fenders/running boards would look like. I can't tell from what origional color there is left if it was gloss or not. Also when ya'll buy the skid rails for the bed. do you buy the ones without the holes and it so, how do you get the square holes for the carraige bolts? I appreciate all the help you have been and will continue to be. Thanks, Nat

I posted I need grill bars for a '50. but I didn't mention it is a 50 Dodge TRUCK!!! I have the bar that is attached to the hood, but don't have the next 2 down. I do have the bottom one, but it is badly rusted an will need some welding done to make it usable. I'd really like to find all 3 bars that bolt onto the cowl. Anyone have these? Thanks, Nat

I an=m fixing a 1950 and am pretty well along with it, Just finished the brake rebuild, and nearly finished the body work. I am missing the grill bars and havn't seen any for sale. Anyone know of an aftermarket set or anyone have a set for sale? thanks, Nat

I picked up a head casket yesterday cause I wanted to see what the valves looked like. Remember this truck has been sitting since 1971, so I had no idea what to expect. Since I have the fenders off it's no trouble to get to. I loosened each head bolt and everyone of them screwed out by hand after initial breaking. It literally only took 15 mins to have the head sitting on the bench. The most complicated part was getting the lower rad hose off because someone had put the clamp on sideways so I had to find a real short screwdriver. The valves looked like new, clean, working easily. There wasn't hardly a ring ridge,I could feel a small amount, but couldn't catch it with my fingernail, maybe .001 or .002. I put the head back on, but havn't torqued it down cause I don't know how much it needs to be torqued. Does anyone know off the top of you head, pun intended? If I can figure out how to post pics you can see that I have the doors fenders,running boards, and the whole bed off. The drivers doors is more than I can fix myself so I have it at a friends shop, he's going to fix it, but the rest is within my meager ability. In the last pic you can make out the rear fenders under the welding table, the fronts are standing up and the bed parts are stacked on my welding bucks. Later, Nat

I bought an old 50 1/2 ton Dodge pickup. It is all completly origional, but not in very good shape. The rear fenders were bent and broken at the bottom, back of cab had a good bit of rust-out, front fenders were a mess. I've been working on it for a few weeks now, and have the fenders fixed, cab repaired, and a general clean-up started. The truck has been sitting since 1971, partially in a shed. I removed the plugs and put ATF in each cylinder to soak not knowing wheather it was stuck or not. It soaked for 3 weeks before I tried to turn it. A new battery spun it right over. I removed the fuel tank and cleaned the varnish and gunk out, put gas in it , poured a little in the carb and it fired up easy. Had to replace the fuel pump, it leaked, and the rubber fuel line from the fuel line to the pump had to be replaced. It now runs sweet. It doesn't have any brakes, master cylinder was dry and full of gunk. I pulled the brake drums and the shoes and wheel cylinders look new and no scoring on the drums leading me to believe the brakes were replaced just before parking it. Now the problem is when I took the master cylinder off to rebuild it the spring and valve came out with a pile of gunk. I have cleaned it up and have a new MS kit, but don't have a drawing or a parts break-down to put everything back in the proper order, and havn't found a repair manuel for it yet. Can anyone show me a break-down of how the valve goes? I don't want to rebuild it incorrectly, it's too much trouble to take it back off if I've got it wrong. On a side note, when I took the seat out to clean out the rat nest and leaves I found a cigar box under the seat with the origional owners manuel in it. As I said it is all origional, correct wheels, even the spare tire carrier is there. I'm not a true purist, and doubt it will ever be a showpiece, but would like for it to look good and be dependable even though it won't be a primary vehicle, just something to play with. I rehab a lot of old tractors and this old truck will look nice beside one of them. Thanks in advance for any help you can give and will try to take some pics of it in it's present state. Later, Nat