Bobacuda

Last time I heard so many jokes that were this bad was at the Circus. It was intense...

Brent, you are one patient and persistent hoarder. Congrats on getting it started.

Post some photos. The horn setup in my B4B looked just like the page from the parts manual I posted.

48D - Good suggestion. Thanks. Bob

Putting it all back together is fairly simple. Put the steering wheel on, then the horn ring hold down, tighten that up - and good luck lining up the horn ring spokes. Then make sure you run the horn wire wire through all of the components, the steering tube and out of the steering box before you finish the process. Tie the horn wire to something outside the steering box so it can't pull out while you are working on the other end. Pilothouse steering wheel.pdf Pilothouse steering wheel.pdf

Going through some old photo albums and I found this one of me and my B4B. I had bought the truck about a month earlier and patched the brakes enough to get it to my parent's house. This photo was taken by my mom after I crawled out from under the truck while doing the final brake bleeding. Late summer of 1975. 23 yrs old, about 2 months left to go in the Navy, just starting to let my hair grow out and getting ready to go to college. I told my kids that this photo is proof that there was a time when I was skinny When I bought it, I just thought I bought an old Dodge. Now I know I bought both a time-machine and a work of art..

Contact John's Salvage in Seguin, TX (they have a website). I think I saw a set on a truck in his yard last time I was there. They are reasonable and I believe they will ship parts.

"Gillespie County Livestock Co." is a farm animal auction. Farm animals are "large animals." How about a photo of a car or truck with a large sign shaped like an animal?

Oh, a name for the new truck. Well, you have George (Strait). His mentor that got him his big break was Kent (Finlay) and he played at Cheatham (Street Warehouse).

Brent, you are a sick and twisted man with a Pilothouse addiction . Perhaps an intervention is required.... But who am I to say...over the years I have accumulated a '67 Barracuda convert, a 70 Barracuda convert, a 72 Cuda parts car that now a days can be rebuilt and a '74 Cuda. On top of my B4B and my father-in-law's '54 Chevy wagon. Oh, and all need to be redone (except my truck). My two kids have already figured out who wants what . I have to live quite a few years longer with that bucket list. As you can imagine, I get LOTS of offers from folks willing to take all of my projects (or parts of them) off of my hands. I am the oft cursed "gonna get to it someday" guy, except that I am getting to them. I just need to build another shed with a lift (tired of crawling) and then I am starting on the '67.

Using an online inflation/value of money calculator, the total labor in today's dollars would be $219.53. Parts in today's dollars = $187.53. Pretty stout bill for stuff the full service gas station used to do for a fraction of that cost.

I am planning on draining and flushing the cooling system and installing the thermostat prior to winter (rusty ant-freeze mixture currently). I am not running one now for that reason, as well as the fact I never had a flathead that ran this cool - it caught me totally by surprise. I thought I would put it off installing a 165 degree thermostat after the road testing. Anyone got a name and part number for a 165 degree thermostat for a 218?

The most I have driven my truck since rebuilding it prior to today was 15 miles. Prior to this morning, I had put 89 miles on my truck. I had work to do in Fredericksburg (TX), so I warned my wife and the person I was going to work with that if my truck failed on the 25 mile (one way) trip, one of them would be getting a call. Lots of hills between here and there. It was about 85 degrees F when I left the house and 100 degrees F when I headed back home. Truck ran basically good - no top end over about 55...and I know this truck would go over 70 back when I first got it. After about 15 miles, I noticed my normally 40 lbs of oil pressure started slowly dropping. By the time I got to my destination, it was about 10 lbs, but it was starting to go up again (slowly). After the truck had cooled for about 3 hrs, it was back to 40 lbs again. The only stumble was about a half mile from the house - a small backfire out the carb as I went up a hill and it ran rough for a short distance, then smoothed out again. I am blaming the oil pressure on the fact that one qt in the crankcase is Marvel Mystery oil, as was recommended by the engine rebuilder for break in purposes. I will be draining it soon to go to straight 30 W or 40 W (damn hot around here). I am blaming the lack of top end speed and the stumble on timing, so I have to check that later this evening or tomorrow. When I timed it with a vacuum gauge, I had to advance the timing A LOT to get the vacuum "in the green." Now, the engine will spin, then slow down as the compression builds, then start. I will try just using the timing light and see how that works. One thing I was really impressed with is the new radiator from US Radiator. I purchased the one that is one step up from the OEM. What a difference. I am currently not running a thermostat and the temp gauge never got above about 105 degree F all the way to Fredericksburg. I couldn't believe it, so I opened the hood and touched the radiator and the block - neither was too hot to touch, only warm. On the way back, the temp never got about 130 degrees F. The radiator impressed me. On the way home, I stopped by the Gillespie County Livestock Auction facility to take a photo. I used the truck to pull a small cattle trailer there when it was time to sell calves.

The Chevy ads were wrong! Apparently Fords are built "Like a rock."

This is the rear brake line routing on my B4B before I replaced them. Brake lines.pdf

About a year ago I posted how I got the really stuck water distribution tube out of my truck's engine. Posted 19 June 2015 - 07:55 AM I went through the same shades of hell when I pulled the water distribution tube from my truck's block. After trying pretty much everything you have, I had 1/4 of the tube out and the rest still installed. I was able to hook a stiff wire way to the back of the tube's remains, but could not pull it like the shop manual says. Finally, I took a piece of flat metal roughly 3/4" wide and 1/8" thick, rounded the end off, then sharpened one side of the end down to the other side - basically made it a long wedge. I was able to slide that between the side of the tube on the cylinder side (flat side to the cylinders). I was able to tap that in and basically crush the tube off of the cylinders. I would tap it in a short distance, try pulling, then tap it in some more. Finally, it broke loose and came out. Very frustrating and I had reached the point that I was either going to fix it or really break it.

I got an 83, but I worked in a full service gas station in a rural area as a kid. The Studebakers and the Hudson trucks were guesses, and to be honest, I never paid that much attention to the Fords.

I'm still in the "debugging" stage on my truck (currently at 63 miles), but my family and I figured a local, unjudged "shine and show" would be a good way to spend a few hours Saturday evening. There were about 60 vehicles, roughly 6 were Mopar Muscle, one 4-door '60 Fury with longhorn horns bolted to the hood , a '57 Power Wagon (that had definitely lived the Power Wagon life...) and my B4B. The rest were all muscle or unique variations of Bow-Ties and Blue-Ovals. As fate would have it, about the only place left to park was next to a First Series 1955 Chevy truck (nice looking truck - and the Power Wagon was on the other side of it). The Chevy was almost the same color blue as my truck and it made them easy for everyone to compare. I wished an early '50's Ford truck had been there with us, but no old Fords, Studes or Internationals were present. For about 3 hrs I got to talk to people of all ages about my B4B, and it had lots of photos taken of it. I also got to describe the differences between First Series and Second Series 1955 Chevy trucks for about 1.5 hrs because the owner was elsewhere enjoying the show with his kids. Overall, my truck and the Power Wagon had a steady stream of admirers, and when they looked at the Chevy, the usual comment I heard was "Nice truck, but when are they going to put a 350 in it?" I know that there are not a lot of old Dodge trucks out there, but I had no idea mine would draw this kind of attention. I was constantly being told about family members, grandparents, and first jobs that had Pilothouse trucks. Several people told me how much they still kick themselves in the butt for selling Pilothouse trucks that family members had given them. Everyone was stunned when I told them that I knew the first owner, because I am the second owner and that I have owned the truck for 41 yrs. One lady took a bunch of photos and told me that they were going to make her sick 88 yr old dad's day - it was like his favorite truck he once had. I also had a steady stream of dads and granddads telling their kids about my truck - and some were fairly accurate. I surprised a lot of folks because I left the windows down, encouraged folks to look inside, and I opened the doors for several "vertically challenged" folks and a couple of kids to see inside. The funniest part was listening to young guys trying to figure out what kind of engine it has (original flathead 6) Shortly before I left, a man told me that when he was young, his grandfather had given him a truck like mine...and he sold it within a month of getting it. He said he regretted that decision to this day. Then he asked if I wanted to sell mine. I told him "No, it's a member of the family. I've had it 41 yrs." He gave me a big grin and said, "That's almost as good as buying it."

I replaced all of the weather stripping, used GTMat (less expensive than other products) with EZ Cool () over it. I put GTMat, then two layers of EZ Cool on the roof. Behind and under the seat, I have the GTMat, one layer of EZ Cool and then I added the 3/8" thick, anti-fatigue mat from Harbor Freight. It is quieter, but I haven't had a chance to see how well it does on a long drive in the heat, and I will need winter weather to really know how well it will do. However, I do now this much - if it rains really hard, the water getting past the new window gaskets will probably drown me...

The local school district used to practically give old tires away to get rid of them. Might want to check with them for hulls just to use while you work on the truck. A farm tractor shop will probably mount them. When I worked at the full service gas station (in my youth) we changed lots of them. We would turn them so the split ring faced the floor and we would lower the lift to block the rest of the rim. Never had one even come close to coming off, but we would check it several times and would pull it apart if it looked sketchy. They were generally as dangerous as you were careless. As far as danger went with rims back in the day, a local man (not at our gas station) was killed by a wheelbarrow rim that bolted together. He took the bolts our to split the rim, then gave it a shot of air to separate the halves - must have done it a hundred times in the past...hundred and one proved fatal.

Found a photo of us installing the cab. BTW, if you install this way, warn everyone about the running board supports. They have a tendency to bite your knees as you go past them

I found trial and error to be the worst teacher - she gave the damn test, then the lesson. Four of us set my cab back on the frame, going from the back, steering column off. It will really start coming together soon!

Beautiful animal. What type of bear is it?

To offset all of our "jerk" family member stories, let me throw in a good one (a friend, not my family). Dad & Mom had an extensive antique collection that consisted of a large number of family heirlooms. To keep fighting to a minimum when it came time to split the estate, every item was listed in a spiral that was kept with their will. Every Christmas, the kids would each draw a number. That number corresponded to an heirloom they would inherit and was listed in the spiral. They were not allowed to take possession, trade or sell their inheritance until their parents were gone. The parents allowed for two exceptions on the possession. When they stopped driving, whoever got Dad's old pick up (very good condition) or Dad's 1967 Shelby (parked in the barn) could take possession of their vehicle. The first sibling had learned to drive in the Shelby, related to it the most and drew the truck. The sibling that really wanted the truck drew some antique furniture, and the sibling that did not care drew the Shelby. The one that wanted the Shelby was crushed, and when the time came, told the sibling that wanted the truck to take it - no strings attached. Unknown to the first sibling at the time, the sibling that drew the Shelby had already contacted the first sibling's spouse, gave them the car and the spouse was having it restored for delivery as a birthday present. The sibling that inherited the furniture then gave it to the one that originally drew the Shelby. Bottom line, the vehicles went where they probably should have gone all along, and the third got to see his folks and siblings smile over how it all came out.

My grandfather's brother and sister conspired and cheated him out of his 1/3 of a substantial inheritance. He was not living in the same town, so he did not even know his father had died until a friend telegrammed him. He arrived by train too late for the funeral. Later, the brother and sister told him he had been cut out of the will. So he left town, having been too late to his father's funeral and full of grief. The reality was he had to file for his share of the will within several months of his father's passing. Since he thought he was cut out, he did not file...so he was cut out and his brother and sister split everything. He told me that story late in his life, and I told him I would have inflicted physical pain on my siblings and never spoken to them again. His reply was, "They may not be much, but they are the only brother and sister I have." Totally forgave them. My mom said he cried like a baby at his brother's funeral years later.. Hope your wife's pain passes swiftly and that you brother-in-law gets shingles all over the groin area.