Tony WestOZ

The metal used to make these badges tends to break insteed of bending.

I am not sure what the current rules are in NSW these days. 30 years ago in NSW I did get my jeep regoed with only having an old rego sticker. If its anything like WA now you either need old rego papers or go through and fill out lots of paper work with affidavits basicly stating that the car is not stollen. Check with your RTA

If your after a different style of badge for the front you will need one from a US or Canadian 48,49 or 50 model. They were used in Australia in that time but are hard to find over here.

Hi Rox good to see anothger ozzie on the site. As far as the RTA goes you might be better speaking to someone else. The Chrysler Australia plate details should be enough to prove it was an Australian assembled truck. (The trouble with some of these officials is if its not on computer they don`t want to know about it. To lazy to get up and look in the old books). What sort of "documentation for this model" do they need? The DG series are 1951-52. The engine in yours should have the T307 prefix. It`s a 218 cu" long block. The 251 industrial will bolt straight in. Does your industrial motor have an engine number? The 27.34 hp figure is, Rated HP, Its the figure they used for charging the road tax in the day. 97 is Brake HP.

The badges shown in these posts are from 51 to 53. They suit the different sheet metal on these latter trucks.

Lot of money to spend on something that won`t fit an Australian truck.

Looking good there Desotodav, I`d be interested in some of the springs your having made. I will find the stuff I have for the post 53 trucks and compare them to what you have available. On a side note, you are missing a spring on your carby linkage. The horizontal sharft joining the pedal linkage to the carb should have a spring on it. It stops excesive force being put on the carb butterfly and linkages when you put the pedal to the floor. I might have been wrong there. I just had a second look, is there a spring on the shaft or am I seeing things.

We got these trucks here in Australia. Definetly used the Dodge and Fargo name but not sure they every carried the Desoto name like the Pilothouse trucks did. The flat 6 (251 cu") engines used in Australia from 53 on came from the Kew plant.

I think I paid about $100 when I bought mine in OZ in 2002 or 3. Wish I had bought another when they came up through the forum. Next time. Did they fix the mistakes they made in the first print in the latter re-printing?

The second in 6 months. Not good.

That colour looks very similar to what mine will be done in when its finished(if ever). You dodn`t see to many Oz trucks were the rims are not body colour.

I am not up on these cars but it will be something like that. I am not sure but I think this is one he was working on for someone else. That or he has done an awfull lot of work on his Cuda that was in the shed when I was around there sometime ago.

Twin headlight models were 1960-61 in Oz. Last of the Pilothouse series. This 359 belongs to a fellow West Australian. It was bought by has grandfather brand new. It`s going through a full resto at the moment. Will have a poly 313 fitted instead of the flat 6.

Australia did have its own version of the two-tone. The top half of the cab being painted was only on the Deluxe (coupe) utes. Another version I have seen over the years is to just colour the roof section. Its not shown in any of the advertising stuff I have but I have come across a couple of trucks were it appears to be original paint.

The chrome bumper was optional. The front window division bar was chrome on the deluxe models only. You could also get chrome plated wheel dics`s (rims) as well.

You need to measure your head volume before anything is taken off it. I did three heads awhile ago and got three different results. All heads I assumed were stock but even the factory changed compression over the years so it’s hard to know what is standard. Also, because an engine might be a latter model don`t assume it will have higher compression. The nos engine I have has a 6.2 comp and I believe that is a mid 60`s flat head. results I have, Year, Head thickness, head volume. 53, 1.925", 6.065 cu" 58, 1.885", 5.639 cu" nos, 1.966", 6.896 cu" End result if I use the nos block which has 0.010" of the block (standard) with the head from the 58 (looks to be about 0.080" off from the nos head) I will end up with about 8.124:1 compression. Another area that is sometimes forgotten in doing these calculations is how far down the bore the pistons sit. On the 251`s I have done its 0.017" is normal on a 50`s standard block.

Cannot say I have ever seen valve guides sit that low in a 251 block. How far do the protrude down on the bottom side? I was wandering if they have been pushed to far in.

This is an original photo I picked up a couple of years ago. It shows a Australian 53 Deluxe Utility. The same format is used in a lot of the early advertising in Australia at the time. These couple are some pics of Pilothouse ambulances made in Australia (1958 models) then exported to some asian countries

Gees I am going to have to sit back and take all this in. That Blue one is stunning. If its a 108B its 53 or 54. Radio`s, hmm tricky. I have only ever seen one that I believe was an 802 and that was in a pre 52 Canadian import truck. From 53 on Australia used AWA or Astor brands. Both with horizontal heads and 12 volts. Now I am going to make a cup of tea (or two) and have a look at you build on the truck. Ps If you want to let me know what the tag details are off your trucks I could be able to give you a more accurate info on the year models.

Firstly, I dout anyone could warp Pilothouse sheet metal by sand blasting, its so dame thick. I have never had any problems with what I have done or had done over the years. Secondly, Hi Destodav good to see another Oz truck on the site. I know I am being a nob here but from the look of the grill on yours its a 55 to 57 model truck.

After doing the convertion to US $ (and gallons) today I paid $5.20 a gallon for diesel. (petrol is about the same price here) That`s not bad really. A couple of years ago when our dollar was only worth about 75c to the US$ we where up to about $6.50 +.

I had read sometime ago that Canadian trucks did not have corner windows. I could not believe it as Australia used imported Canadian trucks up to 52 and to my knowlodge all had corner windows.

Gee`s, that shows how sharp I am today. I was most of the way through reading this before I remembered where I had seen it before. Anyway, a Canadian Fargo in Missouri, that would be pretty rare. At least you will not have any problems dropping in a 265. The only real difference between the Canadian and US trucks will be the motor Does yours have the corner windows in the cab?

Thou he is into R/C planes and gliders he`d still be in for a look around.

4 strokes 20 years ago, 2 strokes 30 years ago. And your right 2 strokes are much more fickle.