JBNeal

The previous owner hired a flatbed tow truck to extract this SpringSpecial from its hillside perch, but it looks like he snagged the 260Z that was partially buried next to it and dinged up the driveshaft in the process.

An interesting detail popped up while doing the initial inspection. Shown is the paint detail on the cab that denotes a SpringSpecial. But also shown is a plug in the bed fender for the hole that accesses a grease fitting for the rear leaf springs. It looks factory installed on both sides, but haven't ever seen these before, so I don't know if it was a SpringSpecial detail or a model year detail. I'm not sure why this truck has the center bumper guard in place of a license plate. The bumper guard is a B-1 / B-2 era detail, but this is on a B-4, complete with oval head bolt. From the stories I've been told and from what I've seen of the truck, this SpringSpecial was used for work.

1953 DODGE Spring Special Lone Star Edition... Since hauling this Spring Special home, I've received congratulations from friends & co-workers for the find, as well as derision from neighbors & relatives for dragging more junk to the house. My plan is to restore this rarity to like new condition with a frame-off tear-down and rebuild+repaint. I've started by carting off three trash cans full of garbage out of the bed & cab, which revealed the original pine flooring and original maroon seat cover. A quick inspection has located a pin hole in the passenger hood between the handle and the emblem, as well as bondo on almost every fender. The only cancerous rust appears to be the rivet area on the front fenders. The drive shaft has a peculiar flat spot mid-section and is bent. This flat section corresponds to dents in both runningboards. The left front wheel cylinder, brake shoes & hardware were in the floorboard, as was the choke button. Missing is the throttle cable, ignition key and hubcaps. A little lubricant on the hinges & mechanisms, and the doors opened & closed almost effortlessly. The bed boards still had the original black paint underneath, with two boards split and no apparent rot. The original spare tire carrier is present, but it was bent when retrieving the truck from its hillside perch. Practically all of the wiring is present, though its insulation is broken in a few places, so the harness would only be good for a replacement pattern. From the gripe-fest I endured and the subsequent diplomatic tap-dance I performed a few days ago, I will be postponing the heavy work on this SpringSpecial until I have completed my great-grandfather's '48. It needs some frame work, a new wiring harness & tires, motor tweaking & detailing, and lots of sheet metal TLC + paint. Once we get the barn addition finished, it's next up on the queue for work. In the meantime, I reckon I can do the Spring Special little stuff quietly (refurbishing lights with shiny relfectors & bull's eye lenses, wiring harnesses, battery tray, etc.) while having the '48 in teardown. I have camera and notepad, so each will be getting fully documented...yeah, that's the ticket

truck picture B-1-B-108: the '48 still has work to do, watering trees at daybreak until 8 when it's 90:

VINTAGEPIC: found this on eBay awhile back, looks like a super-rare B- Spring Special:

VINTAGEPIC: found this in my Grandma's box of pictures, Dad says that it was one of Grandpa's cousin's '49:

I had the '48 done by a guy in Arkansas back in '99, and tweren't cheap back then. He explained his process of photographing the gauge face and painting the bare face by hand, using the photo with gridlines imposed as reference..tedious work for a steady hand. The speedo was replaced with one he had sitting on the shelf that was in mint condition because the dished surface was hard to duplicate. I lucked out on the '49 as I found a near mint gauge set on eBay...the temp & fuel gauges were inoperative, but swapping them out was a snap. The tach in the speaker location is an interesting approach...looking forward to seeing how that works out.

truck picture B-4-B-116: ...spotted this a couple of months ago, picked it up yesterday while it was 104 in the shade...it needs a little work:

I'd rank a broken crank right up there with a thrown rod as a catastrophic engine failure. The bottom end of the motor has tighter tolerances for a reason, and the previous rebuild might not have addressed that. The motor may be salvaged, but it might be cost-prohibitive. VPW sells blocks for rebuilding, it might be worth the peace of mind to start an engine build with something in a li'l better condition than one that has corrosion present.

The wheels usually were Dodge Truck Cream, but from looking at your vintage color photo in the gallery, it is obvious that the wheels are the same pale green as the hood & top of cab. The dark green was probably Dodge Truck Dark Green. The light green shade is a stumper, as even Bunn's books have trouble getting a handle on the color as he could not locate any literature with those specs, and most photos of these Spring Specials were made in black&white. Maybe taking a trip to the local auto body shop supply store could get their opinion if they can match the color with some sort of machine.

have the title ready and clear for transfer, that helps boost the sale price. The truck is nearly 60 years old, so the brake system may need a complete overhaul as the brake fluid absorbs moisture, leading to component corrosion and failure. If somebody wants to spend $5k on a restoration, they'd probably wanna spend 1/4 of their budget on the truck if it's intact; probably 1/2 their budget if all it needs is work that doesn't require removing the powertrain; and probably 3/4 of their budget on a truck that just needs a new set of tires & a paint job.

FYI the perimeter seam weld on my '49 fuel tank was full of pinholes from rust. I had a guy at the junkyard the next county over patch the whole in the top, cleaned it up & painted it real nice Rustoleum black, bolted it in and topped it off. Two days later, opened the barn door to the stench of 86 octane and saw the puddle. I ended up spending the $$$ to get the gas tank Renu'd, where they boil out the tank, patch the big holes, then dip it rubberized polyurethane sumthin'ruther. It wasn't cheap, but they did a top notch job and I haven't worried about it since.

there's a pic in Bunn's Bible of B-3 2-ton on the assembly line, and the cab is being lowered onto the chassis by the tops of its door jambs; the steering shaft is in place but the steering wheel is off. It's easier to work with the cab with as much removed as possible, if not for the decreased weight but also for less interference with chassis components. I've lost the polaroids, but my '49 had a serious problem with the rear cab mounts as the cab floor had cracked out to the door jamb, causing the doors to drag the front sheet metal. I fabbed up some bolt-on fish plates, but needed to get my clearance for installation. So I removed the sill plates under the cab, got some wood blocking, and placed a floor jack on the running boards to lift the cab at the sill. I've seen where cabs have been unbolted and jacked up enough to slide 4x4s under the cab. The 4x4s were jacked up with a high-lift and blocked with tall saw horses. The chassis was then rolled out from underneath. It seemed like a lot of work, but the guy did it all by himself with stuff lying around. I reckon if ya can pull the steering shaft, top of transmission, fuel tank, and bed + fenders, then ya can ease the cab rearward without having to pick it up sky high.

Longer shocks go in the front...front & rear have almost the same travel. Ya want the shocks to be a tad longer than the free axle travel so that in extreme cases where frame torsion allows the spring to increase in deflection that the shocks aren't torn apart in the process.

the oil in rope or leather seals eventually wicks out if not replenished within a certain amount of time, probably within a season change. Once they are dry, the sealing surface can be torn apart, removing enough material to cause seal failure. In some cases, the seal can become hard and wear a groove in the machined surface that it is supposed to be sealing against, amplifying the problem.

the 1/2 ton wheel cylinders on the rear axle can be done by getting the flare nuts on first, flaring the tubing, and bending the tubing by hand. I recall using a large phillips screwdriver to get the radius right. I also recall having to make several attempts before I figgered out how to do it without kinking the tubing. Instead of making one bend with one radius centerpoint, I massaged the tubing so that it had a bunch of radius centerpoints to eventually approximate one radius bend. I've also used a long coupler on the flare nut to get a better grip on the tubing. It's tedious, but it is metal forming, and sharp turns always take multiple passes in order to stress the material without creasing or tearing it.

SURVIVOR: current owner says this is a '55, ran when parked, last tagged in '89, previous owner died and widow couldn't find title:

that jives with what I've heard over the years: when the engine wore out, ya swapped in another and kept going...when they switched to unleaded gasoline, it didn't matter cuz the motor internals were plenty stout...and loose bumper guards are better than mashed or bent-over guards. It took a bit of work, but my '49 had bumper guards that had been used as hitching points for chain pullin'. The polaroids of their original condition have been lost, but believe me they looked like they'd been runn'd over by a freight train.

I finally got some time to look at the dipsticks on the '48 & '49 and took a few pics of what I found. The '51 has the dipstick with the round loop handle, with the tube cap brazed on but no gasket. The '48 has a '53 Plymouth motor in it, and its tube cap is brazed on as well. It appears to have a cork gasket shoved up in there that is gummed up. But the '49 has some interesting details, including a gasket made of the same material as the strip that catches oil on the flywheel cover. The tube cap is not brazed, and it is loose, allowed to float around when the loop handle is squeezed together. When the loop handle is released, there is a clear gab between the spring steel legs that you could drop a paper clip through. I reckon I'm gonna try my hand at getting that dipstick brazed like the others, and make a small gasket for all of them. It's a small detail I can do anytime, and will help keep trash out of the crankcase.

carbon build-up will practically weld these parts together. A good succession of raps with a heavy hammer should break the carbon loose.

Fix'm up whatever way makes ya happy, but drive'm for fun when ya can.

If you are running a stock electrical system, the starter motor would be untouched until the starter switch is closed. Voltage passes from the battery to the starter switch stud up to the voltage regulator, then to the ignition switch and gauges. With a different 6V battery installed and no starter motor engagement when the switch is closed, I suspect the battery cables are at fault. Either the terminals aren't tight, or there is enough copper corrosion inside the cable sheath that the cables' internal resistance is too high for the 6V battery to turn the starter motor. An easy test is to disconnect the voltage regulator charging circuit and jump start with a 12V battery, then remove the jumper cables and see what happens to the 6V battery after the engine gets to operating temperature. Once the engine is hot, turn the ignition off, wait a couple of minutes, and see if the engine can be re-started with the 6V battery. If not, time for new 2/0 cables with soldered lugs. Another option is to connect jumper cables from the 6V battery to the starter switch and ground one of the starter mounting bolts. If this setup allows the battery to start the engine, the battery cables have too much internal resistance and should be replaced.

look again, the casting date is partially in the lower right corner of the pic...the '48 had a '53 Plymouth engine in it, painted dark green, with an OKC engine rebuild tag on the block under the starter. From what I've read, engine swaps were common back in the day as it was feasible to pull a worn engine and replace with a refurbished unit.

I ran the 8 volt battery in the '48 until it pooped out, which took several years. In that time, gauges & lights operated adequately, but I would have to charge the battery (on the 6 volt setting) after the coldest day of the year. Once I shook out all of the electrical gremlins on that truck, I went back to the 6 volt battery, which needed charging after the coldest day of the year.