JBNeal

I have not tried to install the bushings yet for that modification, so I don't know how tight a fit they are in the tailgate. I was thinking that if the bushings were a loose fit, that the tailgate pivot should be flattened a little bit so the bushing has to be driven into place. This way the tailgate clamps down on the bushing to keep it from rattlin' off the shaft. (rattlin' off the shaft...sounds like the name of a Lynyrd Skynard album)

Were there any structural requirements that accompanied those seat belts? One of the problems my '49 had was that the cab floor had split apart at the rear mounts, about the same location as the seat belt retractors you've shown. As I recall, the cab has a sub-frame of sorts that stops just shy of those rear mounts, which is where the sheet metal had torn. I fabricated some plates of slightly thicker sheet metal to scab onto this area, which squared the cab up with the frame, and allowed the doors to open & close without scraping the door jambs. My concern with seat belts in the Pilot House cabs is that the seat belts are anchored to sheet metal rather than structure, so that if the unthinkable happens, the seat belt anchors will pull through the sheet metal and have no safety effect. I have wondered that a subframe would be easy enough to fabricate between the rear cab mounts for lap belts, but the shoulder belt anchor would be a challenge as the only structure in the are is the door jambs. I have been planning on looking into this further when I get around to that stage of fixin' up the '48. I had also thought about the 3-point harness installation similar to what the Dodge Quad Cabs came out with back in '98, where the seat belts were built into the seats. Of course the bench seats in the Pilot House cab don't have the head restraint as the Quad Cab seats did, so some sort of pillar would have to be fabricated to locate the shoulder anchor in an adequate location. This would probably look odd, and definitely be a skull-bopper if it weren't padded properly. Anyhow, it's a thinker I'm gonna stew on for awhile...

I went to a local auto parts/hardware store and found everything I needed. They had the 2/0 cable, sold by the foot; solder battery lugs & terminals; and lead-core solder. I had some leftover shrink tubing, and put all those parts together to make a fine set of battery cables that were sealed up on both ends. Those new cables fixed my hard-starting problem and look just like the originals, but with the soldered ends covered with shrink tube, they are much less likely to corrode.

Patience & perserverance...although using the formed 4x4 would best be used with the 10# sledge, but not like driving in a railroad spike. I've used the 10# Persuader to "tap" stuff loose by having the head about a foot above the striking surface. The head will deliver the blow through the entire 4x4 as long as it is squared up. I try to have the end of the handle balanced on my hip with one hand and my other hand directing the force. This way, the head is being dropped rather than driven. This also has the benefit of applying a consistent jarring force rather than intermittent power spikes. As I understand it, penetrating oil works best when there are vibrations present between the metals. A low level but strong frequency (dropping 10# hammer) would generate a steady vibration as opposed to a high level but low frequency (striking 3# hammer) that would generate an intermittent vibration.

That looks good...with a door panel behind it, that arm rest will look like it fits right in.

It takes a "starter wrench" as my dad called it...it's like a box-end wrench, except it's kinda horseshoe shaped. If ya have some stubby box end wrenches, that'd work too, but you'll need to improvise a cheater bar to get that bolt started. I recall having to place a small anvil on the brake pedal to keep it depressed and out of the way. It doesn't open up a lot of real estate, but every li'l bit helps. Both the '48 & the '49 I revived had some like-minded individuals work on them in their past lives, cuz that particular bolt had a slot cut in it with a band saw so that a lonnng handled screwdriver could be used to withdraw or run-up that bolt, then use the correct wrench for final torque. Be prepared to use a lot of colorful metaphors while working that li'l bolt in & out, cuz as you know by now there ain't no room for a socket and very little room to manuever back in there. Grandpa joked that Dodge did that to discourage starter thievery.

I read somewhar that final torque should be applied to a warm engine. I've also heard that some guys will put more material on the spark plug threads by wrapping them with a layer or two of aluminum foil.

When I first started working on my '48 after it sat by the barn for 20 yrs, I filled the cylinders with diesel and let it sit for a week or so. By then, the diesel had seeped past the rings and into the oil pan. I repeated this a couple more times, and by the end of the month the motor would turn over, but with some difficulty. After pullling the head off, I found that there was some surface rust on the cylinder walls. So I took the motor apart, sanded the surface rust off by hand, and cleaned the engine innards thoroughly before putting it all back together with new rings & bearings. New battery cables on the starter & battery were put on, and that motor spun fairly quick with the 6V battery. Even with the engine compartment left intact when the truck was first parked, moisture still got into the cylinders past the valves that were open. Humid days over several decades caused enough oxidation to make the clearances inside the motor super tight, so getting the engine back within clearances made things go better.

If that truck is all original, it is a 6V positive ground electrical system. Using a 12V battery means that the charging circuit should be disconnected before the innards are fried. Pull the plugs out of the head and pour some diesel or thin oil in the cylinders to provide some lubrication. Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but ya might want to disassemble the motor to get an inventory of what has been done & what needs to be done. Since you've got the front clip off already, going through the motor & adjacent parts would be advantageous to getting the truck up & running reliably. Cleaning out the sludge & varmint poo & spider webs would be another reason to disassemble everything so that the engine runs smoothly in the future. And take plenty of pictures, before & after. Ya never know when the noggin might slip and ya cain't recall why you have a coffee can of 'leftover' parts.

The shop manual refers to getting the door straightened out with a strategically placed block of wood and manual force...I straightened the doors on the '49 by lowerin' my shoulder and tee'n off, with a toobafor placed strategically between the door & cab...my shoulder was sore for a few days, but those doors are nice & true now.

The pan can be removed; I recommend jacking up the frame & pulling off the front wheels so the front axle will drop to give ya more room to work. You can pull the pan out otherwise, but it requires a great deal of jockeyin', finaglin' & cussin' to get it removed. The '49 had enough sludge in it to form a softball-sized glob, so cleaning out the pan (and the valve spring area) is worth the effort.

whut did ya do on the battery cover area? does that have a separate piece?

When in doubt, pull it out...the dist.tube is fed directly from the water pump, so inspection requires removing the pump. Removing the freeze plugs is a good idea because they can corrode from the inside out and form pin holes. Removing the freeze plugs in the '49 revealed total blockage on the bottom row of plugs with sediment that creeped up to the upper row. With the head & pump off and the plugs removed, I jammed a water hose in the dist.tube and poked at the sludge with a screwdriver while flushing...WOW there was a lot of crud up in thar. The trick in installing the new freeze plugs is to put sealant in the engine block seats first, then driving the new plugs into place. This oughta keep them plugs from weeping.

I had the same problem and was just as wary about tearing up my guage. But looking at the materials involved, I figgered I'd try cutting the line out completely and making a new one. Now you can put a wrench all the way around the ornery flare nut. But first, the setup: the pickups have the gauge cluster that can be removed from the dash. Removing the other guages from the cluster, you now have a 'box' to clamp in a vise with wood blocks to keep from tearing up the cluster housing. Park the cluster in the vertical position so that you can see the gauge face & the flare nut. Using a small propane torch, heat the nut by passing the flame across the nut slowly, like once a second. Eventually, whatever crud is up in the gauge will start to ooze out. Keep an eye on the threads, crud might start bubbling out of them too. When that happens, put down the torch, pick up the wrench and see if that nut will budge CLOCKWISE...yep, try to tighten it first, this usually breaks any corrosion on the threads on the inside of the gauge. Then back the nut off slowly. If it hangs up, remove the wrench & apply more heat. The trick is taking it slow.

I hear ya, that first ride is a vindication run more than a shake down cruise. All the busted knuckles, dealing with the salvage yard crowd, parts desk jockeys & whutnot, that first ride makes all the work seem worth it. In a way I reckon we all like to see others' work progress cuz it's either a trip down memory lane or a road map of where we want to go. People who don't understand this will never understand the journey, they only want to admire the destination or sumthin'ruther.

Itellyawhut, that is one slick buggy...the checkerboard firewall, white wall bias plys, dual carbs & headers, and boy howdy don't it sound purty too...I like the clean look on this here Plymouth--well done!

my '48 1/2 ton has the 218 (Plymouth)+3spd, my '49 1 ton has the 230(Dodge)+4spd...the 230 has more lower end grunt, coupled with bull gears in the tranny & 4.89 rear end, and it just seems to run smoother at highway speeds. Changing a 218 over to a 230 is relatively painless.

The original truck radiator upper tank sits higher than the factory heater installation to keep coolant pressure (due to gravity) to force air out of the system. Essentially, the radiator drains towards the engine & heater. If the rad.upper tank is lower than the heater core, then coolant will want to drain from the heater to the radiator all of the time. So if an overflow tank is installed, it needs to be higher than the heater core & rad.upper tank. My concern is that with the heater higher than your rad.upper tank, then coolant will want to drain out of the overflow and the non-pressurized cap.

I'm leaning towards fabricating a 'tank' out of a piece of 3" pipe (possibly PVC) capped on both ends, with one end tapped with two fittings. One fitting would be a barbed NPT nipple for a rubber hose coming off of the overflow tube. The other fitting would be a vent of some sort...it's a work in progress

my '48 had the foam rubber, or at least a very degraded spongy rubber-like substance that I have stashed in my archive (aka paper box in the garage). My '49 had a bicycle innertube shoved down in there, I reckon to keep the rats out. My guess is that since the frame of these trucks is riveted rather than welded, there is a fair amount flex shown when taken off road. So they put some soft rubber around the fill neck to keep the cab from sawing into the tank when fording creeks or crossin' ditches or whutnot.

That looks sharp...one of my thoughts was to use that bed-liner-in-a-can stuff applied to the cab floor under a floor mat I picked up from Roberts. As I understand it, this applied material has a rubberized texture to it, which could absorb noise & provide an insulation layer (albeit a thin one). But I'm thinking this would be a more expensive approach rather than what you've done with this setup, and the benefits would be negligible.

Catch can, that's the ticket...I knew there was a term for whut I was thinkin'. Yep, pressurized systems use the overflow when pressure builds & whutnot. Putting the reservoir above the main reservoir would prevent siphoning and allow excess coolant to exit the radiator without makin' a mess like an excited dalmation.

Has anyone tried to install a radiator overflow tank for their flathead? I've seen a small cube tank at JC Whitney and O'Reilly's and wondered if anyone had tried to keep the pavement clean with a similar contraption. I stopped for gas with the 1 ton during the summer and it watered the pavement purty good...an old timer nearby quipped "yep, I got that problem too"...didn't know if he was talkin'bout himself or his buggy. Anyhow, yeah I know this cube tank is plastic and would hardly look original. I was thinking that I could fab up a bracket to put in front of the radiator area or above the radiator under the hood. Maybe feeding a hose from the bottom of the radiator overflow tube to above the coolant level line...my concern would be that once the overflow began that it would siphon out the radiator eventually. My aim is to keep this truck as close to stock as possible, but with small improvements to keep it clean, such as the PVC system and possibly this overflow tank. I've seen several of the paper air filter conversions and I'm leaning towards trying this...back in July 2008, I got in a hurry & forgot to tighten the clamp on the oil bath, and the first right turn I made at speed I realized whut I had done... Constructive input is much appreciated

I reckon I spy an Airflow, a WD, some Willys Jeeps, a PH Deluxe cab, a 300F, a '68 Charger, a Wagoneer or Grand Cherokee, a Voyager, and then a loaded 300C...maybe the Omni, the Viper GTS & the Quad Cab Cummins were on the cuttin' room floor

Pulling the head might have jarred some gunk loose and there might have been some condensation with it. Just yesterday I pulled the water faucet out of the vacant rent house cuz it was practically new & the one in my house is leaking. The water has been shut off for 2 years, yet when I disconnected the supply hoses from the faucet, water comes out...and we had many a hunnert degree day here in the summer, so that water should have been long gone but instead it ran down my shirt sleeve on a 40 degree day.