knuckleharley

Is that one of the factory 2x1 intake setups,you lucky,lucky boy?

No kidding. He has me envious,and that almost never happens.

I suspect it is pretty hard to find original Fargo body parts in good condition anywhere. I suspect your best bet on the tailgate would be to get some master metal mechanic to make a panel for you with the "Fargo" stamped in that you can weld into the tailgate you have now. Or mo betta,into a rough and rusty tailgate you don't mind cutting up so you can sell your pristine tailgate to someone needing one. That way you get to save a good one while gaining a good one AND reducing your cost at the same time. Win-win for everybody.

Thanks for the explanation! Ya had me wondering....

That sure is a nice one! BTW,what is "pei"?

Do any of you guys know what model my truck is? I am trying to find and buy a glove box for it because it doesn't have one,and the only supplier I have found so far sells glove boxes for 1937 Dodge MC & RC trucks. Does anyone know which my truck is,or what it is if it isn't one of them?

Me,too! Haven't driven it in a couple of years,and want to drive it for a month or so before putting it up for sale. I only live a few miles from Dennis Anderson's/The Grave Digger mud race track,and when I get ready to sell it I plan on driving up there early when he having a race,and park it close to the driveway with a "For Sale" sign in the windshield. His races pull in thousands of spectators who are into that sort of thing,so I don't expect it will last long before getting sold. If you are a mud racing fan and have a chance to buy a 30's street ready version to drive around and impress all your friends,it will be a rare chance to do that.

To: Plymouthy Adams: Oh,man! If it had still had the pumper in the bed when I bought it,you can believe I would have spent the bucks to buy a 37 Dodge chassis and drive train,and restored it. I did think about bright red for a moment,but was then told how much more expensive bright red was than the color I will end up using,and that make the difference. After all,I am rebuilding it to sell it as well as I am to save it. Can't afford to spend more to fix it than I can sell it for.

Not good with colors,but am going to have it painted a greenish yellow,or a yellowish green. Sometimes it looks more green to me than yellow,and other times it looks more yellow than green. No,you do NOT want me painting your car. I like the color because it doesn't show dirt and is not seen often. I also like it because the guy that is going to do the paint bought it to paint another car with,and the guy backed out,so he sold it to me at half-price. Half-price AND I like the color is a hard combo to beat. You can count on my posting some photos once it's painted

Took some new photos today. Work has slowed since the shop owner came down with Covid-19. I do have to admit they are doing first class work. I made it plain to the owner before I brought it to him that "Fixing rust" with body plastic was a BIG time Bozo-No-No for me,and he wouldn't get paid if I caught him cutting any corners unless they needed to be cut out and replaced. He must have taken me seriously because he went ahead and bought the English Wheel he has been talking about buying the last few years. Besides,his shop is less than 5 miles from my house,so until I got the flu,I was stopping by every day and busting his balls about "when are you going to be done with it?" I think he's working so hard on it now because I have irritated him to death with it. Seems like every shop in the country is anxious to get hot rod/restoration work like this,but once they get it in and take it apart,the crap just sits there for years being untouched. The shop owner also understood this was unacceptable to me before I ever took it to him. I know he is serious now about getting it done because when he came down with Covid he hired a retired old school body and fender man to come in and just work on my truck. Of course,he is also doing minor body work or welding on regular cars and trucks when needed,but this is a guy that knows what he is doing and is making the patch panels from scratch and enjoying himself while doing it. You can see him welding in a new cowl patch panel in photo #5,and see the hole he is filling in photo #4. I have no idea who is going to buy the truck once it's done and I start driving it around with a For Sale sign on it,but I don't want them tracking me down this time next year and being accused of lying about "rust being fixed". I think the best part may be that I really don't care if anyone wants to buy it or not because it was an absolute blast to drive when it didn't have PS,PB and AOD,so I can only imagine how much fun it will be to drive when it is done.

I was shocked that the cab was so bad. The bed is almost pristine,and it is always the beds that are the first things to go in trucks. Still,we are cutting away all the rust and replacing them with new panels using an English Wheel and welding. When it goes back together,it may be better than new., Kinda stupid on my part since I have a parts truck with a better cab,but my plan with it was to use what I had to use from it,and then sell it to someone wanting to make a rat rod. How cool would it be with no front fenders,dropped front axle,turbo Cummings,2 stacks running up the back of the cab,and a 6 food wooden stake body over a Z'd chassis? I even have a clear title for the parts truck. Figured I could probably get 500 for it,which also pays me back what it cost to go get it and bring it home. If I were 30 years younger,I'd give it a shot myself. BTW,I will be posting some progress photos in a day or two. The ones I already posted are old ones.

In my opinion,and worth every dollar you paid for it,it makes no difference at all when it comes to the performance of the brake system. Brake boosters and master cylinders mounted on the chassis don't take up so much room under the hood and make for a "cleaner" look. If you decide to go that way,try to buy a complete package of booster,master cylinder,brake pedal,and chassis mount from the same supplier to simplify things for you. The downside is they are harder to service. You will have to cut an access hole in your floor so you can service it. The firewall system is easy-peasy most of the time,depending on the car and what sort of engine you have stuffed into the engine bay,but it does not make for what most people would consider to be a "clean look" and really be a pain in the Clinton to work on or made adjustments to your engine because it limits the amount of room you have to work. Remember,these cars were engineered and designed to accept inline 6 cylinder engines,and you are already having to work with less room if you put a V-8 in it. I am assuming you are doing a drive train swap also,or you wouldn't be so worried about power disc brakes.

Ok,guys,I am starting a thread in the truck section to show the work being done to my 37 Dodge 1 ton pu. The photos I am putting up there tonight are from before the teardown,and after the tear down. The after the teardown photos are a little scary. I had no idea the cab was so rough and rusty,but I am happy we were able to save it. Take a look if you are interested in non-stock rebuilds. It was sitting on a 72 Ford F-250 4X4 chassis when I bought it,complete with a modified 390 and 4 speed truck transmission. When we pulled the body and bed off the chassis we discovered there were sections of the chassis too thin from rust to be able to reuse it,so I bought a 79 Dodge half-ton 4x4 chassis to use instead. It came with a crate 318 that had never even been fired,a rebuilt auto trans,rebuild brakes,new brake lines,power brake booster,brake hoses,new master cylinder,radiator,starter,and alternator. I decided to use the differentials from the Ford to get the 8 lug wheels and bigger brakes,but MIGHT stay with the stock brakes. If you are going to do it,do it once and get it right while you are messing with it. These are tear down and repair photos. I hope to be able to start posting assembly photos soon. The photos in bronze are of the truck before we tore it down to give you some sort of idea what it will look like when done. If you look,you can see the "Champion" fire truck tag above the running board in the next two shots. The bed and fenders were pretty good,but the cab was borderline. Since I already owned it,had driven and enjoyed it for 3 or 4 years,I decided to bite the bullet and see if we could save the cab. Ended up having to replace a whole section of the rear of the cab,as well as make a new floor and new cab mounts. Hope to have photos of them soon.

Ok,guys,I am starting a thread in the truck section to show the work being done to my 37 Dodge 1 ton pu. The photos I am putting up there tonight are from before the teardown,and after the tear down. The after the teardown photos are a little scary. I had no idea the cab was so rough and rusty,but I am happy to be able to save it. Go on over there and take a look if you are interested in non-stock rebuilds. It was sitting on a 72 Ford F-250 4X4 chassis when I bought it,complete with a modified 390 and 4 speed truck transmission. When we pulled the body and bed off the chassis we discovered there were sections of the chassis too thin from rust to be able to reuse it,so I bought a 79 Dodge half-ton 4x4 chassis to use instead. It came with a crate 318 that had never even been fired,a rebuilt auto trans,rebuild brakes,new brake lines,power brake booster,brake hoses,new master cylinder,radiator,starter,and alternator. If you are going to do it,do it once and get it right while you are messing with it. I decided to use the front and rear differentials from the 72 F-250 to get the bigger brakes and heavier axles. If this interests you,go on over and take a look,

This may just be a personal bais of mine,but if the plugs are Champion,throw them at someone you don't like,and replace them with practically any other brand. I mostly use AC ,but that is primarily for convenience. I am not saying they are better than any plug except for Champion. I will hurt anyone that ever puts a Champion plug in any of my cars. I am serious about this. BTW,I want to congradulate you on having the courage to get rid of the Chevy and enter the world of Mopar. Not only that,but you jumped in with both feet by buying a very rare Mopar on top of it. I like hot rods more than restored cars,but cars like your 39 convertible are too rare to modify and I hope you try to keep it reasonably stock. Do what you have to do to make it safe and reliable,and then just enjoy the damn thing.

I do not want to contradict someone as knowlegable as you,but MY thoughts are that with all the military and industrial contracts that Chrysler had they were already having a hard time filling all the orders,so why spend time and money to fix something that wasn't "broken"? True,most of these flat 6's were not going to pin you back against the seat as you accelerated,but they WERE insanely reliable,and provided plenty of power for the driving most people did in cars back then. It wasn't until the interstate highways started being poured that people felt the need for a higher cruising speed and more "passing power" on 2 lane roads. And.......,when they did trash the flat 6,they replaced it with one of the most magnificent designs ever developed,the slant 6. Good luck finding a more reliable and durable gasoline engine! It breaks my heart that you have to buy a V-6 instead if you buy a new car or truck with a 6. BTW,a final note is we all need to keep in mind that it is NOT the engineers that make these determinations. It's the bean counters. In the final anaylsis,it is ALWAYS the accountants that make the final decisions in the corporate world. If it costs more money and doesn't seem likely to increase profits,it just doesn't happen.

Seeing one of those things "in the flesh" has to be a real experience these days. Can't be many of them left.

DAYUM! That is some historic stuff!

Flying commercial didn't work well for SF troops. The silenced sub guns and all the explosives tend to freak civilians out. Plus,people really weren't supposed to be aware of our movements. I did go to visit friends on Okinawa and to ride the Triumph Bonneville I had left there while on 5 day standdown in VN,though. I told the camp commander what I was up to and gave him a contact number if he needed to reach me in a hurry,and had the clerk type me up orders saying I was a "classified courier". This allowed me to get on a commercial flight out of Saigon without having to buy a ticket,and I I didn't have to go through customs. I was also able to fly armed,and at that time I really wasn't comfortable going anywhere unarmed. Flew to Okie,found out my friends had held a Shinto Funeral Service for me because they had heard I had been reported MIA in Laos,and had my friends wife flat scare the hell out of me when she came to answer her doorbell,saw me standing there and screamed like the hounds of hell were after her. Took a while to calm her down. What happened was one of the teams TDY from Okie were roating back there at the same time my team was underfire and running from the NVA,and out of contact because the radio had been shot up. They got back to Okie before we got back to the base camp,so for all they knew,we were still MIA. I had no idea any of this had happened when I rang that doorbell. BTW,if any of you are interested about what life was like in the Special Operations Group recon section in VN,one of my best friends was Awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions there,and wrote a book about his experiences. Truth to tell,there isn't a whole lot of combat mentioned in the book. It's mostly about what life was like on recon teams,what the people where like,and what life was like in general in SF during that period. He spent 5-1/2 years running recon non-stop,and the Camp Commander literally had him sedated and put on an airplane back to Ft.Bragg to get him to leave after getting shot up so badly on his last mission. He ended up dying in the early 80's from a blood infection that came with the transfusions he got at no extra cost. From the time of the diagnoisis to the time he died awas about 3 weeks. His name was Franklin D.Miller,and the title of the book is "Reflections of a Warrior". The profits from all sales go to his children. You can read reviews and buy it from Amazon,

Well,if you are going to be in the Airborne infantry,you need a sense of humor. We in SF actually had it pretty easy,as you can tell by the attitude of the scuba jumpers. No mass jumps like the 82nd. Seems like every time the 82nd would have big jumps,multiple people would get seriously injured. There was a time or two,back in the C-119 days,when one of the damn things would just start dropping like a rock from hitting an air pocket,and there were a couple of times that mean it would run though a stick of jumpers. I remember going to jump school and since I had never even been close to an airplane before,never mind jumping out of one,was afraid I would punk out. All such fears vanished after climbing about a C-119. Damn thing would hit an air pocket and drop like a rock for what seemed like 500 feet but was more likely 50 feet,then slowly begin to climb back up to altitude. I lost ALL fear of not jumping instantly. I didn't give a damn if they were flying over downtown Columbus,if they opened the door,I was OUT of that SOB as fast as I could move. IIRC,they retired the C-119 shortly after that,a move for which I was profoundly grateful.. On the other hand,my "cherry jump" at Bragg after jump school was a night equipment jump over Nighmaegen Drop Zone,and we were jumping C-47's,just like the guys did in Normandy during WW-2. I thought that was the absolutely coolest thing I would ever do. I had known since the 3rd grade that I wanted to be a paratrooper,and enlisted on my 17th birthday with the guarantee that I would go to jump school. I could close my eyes and imagine the AAA fire,the searchlights,etc,etc,etc. One of my all-time favorite army moments. The army got rid of the C-46/C-47's right after that. For all I know that jump was the last one they were used on.

After being medievaced from VN I was no longer on jump status,so I couldn't remain in SF. So they sent me to the 18th ABN Corps to serve out the rest of my enlistment. Since I had a bunch of jumps and not everybody,including the NCO's in my new unit were ABN qualified,I ended up being the safety NCO on jumps,and as I am sure you remember,the army LOVED jumps on Saturday night because it didn't interfer with normal training hours. Since I was no longer on jump status myself, I didn't get even an extra nickel out of this despite losing more hours than the jumpers because I had to fly around with the C-130 crew while they got in enough flight hours to get flight pay that month. I was what could be safely called "less than amused" by this situation,so looked around for ways to amuse myself. One was was to look at the sticks and search out what seemed to be like the most terrified young jumper,and as I did the safety check on his equipment right before the jump,I would look them straight in the eye and say "Man,your bleep is ALL bleeped up! You are going to die for sure! Airborne! For some reason,they failed to see the humor in this. The end result was I got pulled off of safety NCO duty. Wadda shame. Who could have seen THAT coming? Where I really screwed up is not re-enlisting when they offered me a promotion if I would do so. I did NOT like the regular army any better than they liked me,and I just couldn't see me making it for another 13 years with these uptight "wear red and march in a straight line" bleeps. Then I got out of the army and found out about Agent Orange a year or two later,and was stuck with a montly income of $67 that even cut me out of unemployment. Not to mention having no civilian job skills and a weird sense of humor.

Ok,being a former career SF soldier in the army,I ran across these photos and found the comparison amusing. The first photo is of soldiers from a conventional Army airborne division making a standard military parachute jump. The second photo is of a SF Scuba Committe team making what is,for them,a typical parachute jump. Who do YOU think is having the most fun?

Do NOT replace just one rusted out brake line. If it was that rusty,so are the others. In fact,if you used traditional steel brake line to replace the broken one,remove that also. What you want is the modern copper/nickel brake lines. They don't kink when you bend them,they don't rust inside where you can't tell they are rusting,OR outside where you could if you were looking,and they don't get brittle from vibration. You can buy them by the foot at any auto parts store in the country,and they are stupid cheap when you consider how trustyworthy they are and how much safer your car will be with them. You can literally bend them with your hand without them kinking. While you are at it,replace all your wheel cylinders and your wheel cylinder hoses. Do NOT try to buy this stuff as "Part # xxxx for a 1934 Plymouth". Get the parts numbers off of the wheel cylinder and so a web search for those parts numbers. I once needed new wheel cylinders for my 39 IHC pu,and the only ones I could find were NOS (how "new" can they be if sitting on a shelf of 50+ years?) and the guy wanted $99.95 EACH for them,plus shipping. So I got the parts number off the wheel cylinders and ran a web search using those values only,and came up with brand new manufactur Warner wheel cylinders for $4.95 ea including shipping from Amazon. Come to find out the 53-54 Corvette used the same wheel cylinders. IMNSHO,anytime you go to repair a part on a antique car or truck that you drive,repair the whole damn unit,not just one part of it. This goes double for brakes and suspension,but with what it costs for a rollback ride home these days,cheap insurance. Plus all the emarrassment it saves you from seeing your jealous neighbors snicker about "the jackleg mechanic didn't make it home. Told ya this would happen!"

Is there some reason you aren't letting him paint it for you,too? After all,it will be squeaky clean and ready for paint,and all you have to do is buy the factory paint and drop it off for him to spray.

True,but with the engine being so hard to turn over,there is no guarantee the pistons are the same size as the bores. I learned a long time ago that you really can't assume anything when you are trying to put old stuff back together again.