knuckleharley

I love the art deco look of these things,and they still work surprisingly well as drivers and haulers in today's traffic. It also draws more attention than anything else I own. Everytime I park it somewhere,when I come back to the truck there is always somebody taking photos of it with their camera. I think the push-out windshield,the fan mounted on the dash,and the art deco grille is what pulls them in more than anything else. Wish I could find an affordable radiator for it so I could put it back on the road. Every new one I find is a grand or more. To ME,that's a lot of money to sink into a beater truck I just use to haul trash and drive around occasionally for fun. It is all original,too. The serial numbers on the block,the chassis,and the cab all match.

Only Boston crows have that problem.

Thanks anyhow. I have always been told that you could mill pretty much any flathead head up to .125 with no trouble,providing it has never been milled before. I had the head off my flat 6 1939 IHC milled .125 because that's how much it had to be milled to keep the oil from leaking out from under the head and running down the block. Old truck started easy and was very slow off the line,but I could drive it all day at 55-60 MPH if I stopped every 20 miles or so to dump a quart of oil in it. I would have never believed it was possible for a head to be that warped and still have each cylinder fire and be easy to start,but there was the proof parked right in my yard. Got tired of that and had it milled,and it was an absolute revelation. Taking off and running up to highway speed was like driving a 60's 6 cylinder OHV truck. The power gain was unbelievable. It was like I had a whole new truck. Unfortunately the radiator blew a seam or 3 on the way home,and it's been parked every since. Radiators for late 30's IHC,are VERY expensive. In fact,everything I have ever bought for that truck has been more expensive than for any GM,Ford,or Mopar I ever owned. IHC parts suppliers were wanting 90+ bucks for a freaking wheel cylinder. I matched up the parts numbers and found out the wheel cylinders were the same as the ones used in 53-54 Corvettes,and bought new ones on sale from Amazon for less than $5 each. In my next life,I want to be a IHC parts vendor.

Don,can you give me the data on that book so I can look it up and buy it?

I have two 37 Dodge big trucks. One is a cab with fenders,hood and grille that was a 2 ton flatbed,but I cut the chassis off behind the cab so it would fit into the back of my pu. I just sold the engine and trans to a member in Texas,and need to finish pulling it and boxing it up as soon as the snow goes away. The other one is a 37 Dodge 1 ton body only. It is now sitting on a 71-72 Ford F-250 4X4 chassis and still has the 390 FE engine and HD truck 4 speed in it. I have it off the road now to redo the brakes and add pb and PS to it. I have another 71 F-250 FE truck to use as a donor that has factory ps and pb. Old computer died and I don't have any photos of it on this one,but it was all a pretty good fit.

One trick old-timers used to use to save a head that had been milled to much was to have a mill a thick copper gasket to use to bring things back down to the normal compression range. It would probably be pretty pricey to have a machinist do this for you these days,but if you are in no hurry you can always get it done by a high school or community college machine shop class that is looking for work experience.

Well,it will remove MOST of the old oil,but none of the grit or shavings. If he can't find a drain plug on the bottom,IMHO he needs to create on by using the suction gun to remove as much old oil as he can,and then drilling a drain hole in the bottom to let the rest drain out. He can then drill it out to the correct size to tap it for a plug,and not have to worry about this stuff again. Once he gets it drained he can use something like kerosene to pour through the top and drain out the bottom to flush out any shavings or grit. He can even pressurize it with air to blow it out. I hate messing with rear ends or old manual trannies. Old gear lube has to be some of the most stinking stuff there is.

No need to wait a long time. Pull all the plugs,close all the valves,and then put some whatever in it and put air pressure from your air compressor on it. Just think about how well 150 psi or so of air pressure will work pushing ATF,Kroil,WD40 Rust Penetrator,etc,etc,etc past the rings. Some will free up immediately. One or two will probably take the most time. Those are the ones that are really stuck. Remember,the rings and pistons are the brittle points in that operation,and the less force you have to use the better off you are and the cheaper your rebuild will be.

There is no plug flush with the bottom of the rear? There should be one that with a flat surface and a recessed area the right side to take the nose of a 3/8th ratchet or breaker bar.

I have no personal experience with that one,but most come off by pushing them all the way down and then twisting. Don't lose the spring that holds it up when you remove it.

About the best you can hope for is to try to use epoxy to glue it back together,and then sand and paint it with "chrome" paint. Not really a fix,but maybe a temporary solution until you can find a nice one? After thinking it over for a few minutes,I decided to suggest you clean the area where the break is very good,maybe even using alcohol. Then consider using a thin cutting wheel like a Dremel cutting tool cutoff wheel to score/cut a line from one side of the break to the other on both sides,and then set something like thin welding rods in the "notches" you just cut for reinforcement. Make sure you cut them deep enough and that you the bent tthe welding rod to fit the angles,and that it has room under it and over it for the epoxy to completely surround it for strength. Let it sit for the recommended length of time and maybe even a little longer to be sure,and then sand down the excess and paint it. BTW,you can add multiple cut-off wheels to the mandrel to make the cut as thin or thick as you need it to be. If you use the steel pins with a good quality epoxy,it should be as strong as new. Maybe even stronger. If you don;t use the pins and embed them with epoxy,it's just a temporary repair.

No mystery when you consider the head of each state DMV is a political appointee who usually doesn't know a Studebaker from a tea pot,or even care. What puzzles me is why they make it so damn hard to get a title to bring a junker or abandoned car back to live on the road. I have never heard of a politician that screams they want LESS money to buy more votes with,and if they ease up on their nonsense they could be pulling in property taxes on them.

On the grille shell of a mid-30's Canadian Dodge truck. The hole in the top is where the fill spout extends up past the grille shell.

Ignirion switches are really simple and easy to take out and replace in all these old cars,so why not take it out of the dash and let it hang so you can see what you are doing,and get really good connections? Look closely at the black plastic on the rear of the switch and all the posts are marked as to what they are. One will read "acc,one will read ign or i,one will read start."

Thanks for the technique tip. You really do nice work.

How did you get the tape to make a circle without kinking? Would it be possible to find thicker tape? I can barely see it,and what I do see looks like one solid line. You sure did do a nice job of installing it!

VERY smart move. If you can,you might even want to just keep it,period. They may change the law next year and void your title if you can't prove you had that engine in that car. Hell,they might even decide to go with the serial numbers inside the door jamb. Or even decide they want to issue their own VIN number,like I have with my 37 Dodge truck. Remember,when dealing with politically appointed or even elected bureaucrats,no level of insanity is too high to be out of reach.

It NEVER hurts to start out nice. You can always go to nasty if you have to,but if you start there going to nice just ain't possible. Yeah,some of these guys are little tinpot dictators with a pin,but others are just normal guys trying to do their job the best they can do it,and it makes no sense at all to insult and irritate one of them if you are lucky enough to have one show up to inspect your car. Once you go nasty,there ain't no going back.

Sounds like NC may be more reasonable than Ca. At least here the DMV inspector comes to your house to inspect the car.

I stand corrected. I even have two Model A engines here at home that have serial numbers on them. As for them being stamped on Ford flathead V-8's,this is news to me. I have several of them laying around in the yard and will have to check on this once the air temperature rises above freezing.

If you have a small ball peen hammer you don't need a punch set. Just lay the gasket on the mounting surface and use tape or something to hold it in place,and then gently tap around where the bolt hole is with the round end of the hammer and it will cut a perfectly matching hole for you. Trim it to size the same way by gently tapping the flat end of the hammer on the inside and outside edges. I've been doing this my whole life,mostly using cardboard from cereal boxes and something like "Indian Head Gasket Sealer" on both sides of the cardboard. BTW,actual gasket material is MUCH easier to "cut to fit" than cardboard is.

Chances are your starter is turning slowly because it is a 6 volt starter being energized by a 6 volt battery. Compared to your newer cars that are 12,it would have sounded slow the same day the car was driven off the dealers lot. Find someone in Winnipeg that has a 6 volt car or truck and listen to how fast his starter turns over and you will see what I mean. As for the generator output,listen to what people have already told you. IF you have someone that knows what they are doing and that understands the system requirements test it and tell you it's not putting out enough amps,you can adjust it to put out more. The first thing you need to do is go to ebay,Amazon,or a used book web site and buy a copy of the Motors Auto Repair Manual that covers 1947. Open it to the section on charging systems and read that thoroughly and take a good look at the photos. It will tell and show you anything and everything you ever need to know about checking,adjusting,repairing/rebuilding,and replacing a generator and/or a voltage regulator. It will even tell you what tools you need and how to use them. While you are spending money on manuals,which is the smartest money you will EVER spend,buy a reprint of the 1947 owners manual,parts manual,and the factory service manual. There is nothing that can go wrong with your car that one or more of these books can't tell you how to fix,including telling you the parts numbers and the tools you will need.

Looks like you did a nice job. When are you going to start on the body?

Rock Auto http://www.rockauto.com/ is always reliable,but nobody ever accused them of being quick. Go to the top of the page and click on the Links Directory for dedicated Mopar sources. That would probably get the quickest results.

That's pretty impressive work,I don't care who you are. Many,many people would have just given up on a car like that and parted it out.