Merle Coggins

She may have started with a picture of it, or she just drew it up. Either way she does up the art work on her 'puter then prints it out, with a special printer, onto the vinyl material. Then it's applied and smoothed out. She does some awesome work. She does a lot of design work from scratch for many of her customers. Merle

I've seen deer behind my house, here in town. I also know that there are coyotes back in that area too, I can hear them from time to time. It's a buffer zone around a limestone quarry, so it's not exactly ultra urban. I grew up in northern Wisconsin where black bear were common. Maybe this one is migrating out to my neighborhood to thin out the coyotes. He don't scare me Norm... Maybe I'll hit him with my truck and make you a new Bear skin cap. Merle

I suggest that you print out a copy of the color chips on the DEPTCA site. They are listed in the "Pilot's Knowledge" section. Here's the link http://dodgepilothouseclub.org/know/color/imgcol/index.htm I took a copy of that to my local DuPont paint dealer. They had to call someone to have that old Dulux number converted, but then they had the modern color code and it's a perfect match. I even took in my glove box door for a match and it matched perfectly to the chip of the new number. So, bottom line... they should be able to match the original color. It may take a phone call or two to get the conversions from the old numbers, but it can be done. Merle

There you go Reg. Supplemental income for your "early" retirement. Just think of all the "patterns" you have to work with in your yard.

Just to update you all regarding my gauge referbisment. I was out at my friend's sign shop the other day and I was telling her about the rave reviews that she got from you guys. I then asked her what it would cost to do more. She though about it for a moment and then figured that it would probably be around $40-$50. But, she also said that she wasn't interested in doing a bunch of them. These little things aren't cost effective for her business and she will only do them for friends and family. She mostly does larger car, truck, and trailer wraps, or other vehicle signage. She also does banners and other signs for business. Here's her web site http://www.blastgraphicsllc.com/index.html If you have a similar vinyl sign/vehicle graphics business in your area it might be worth a trip in there with your gauges to see if they can do a similar thing to yours. I'm sorry I can't help you guys out more. I would have loved to be able to tell you to send my your gauges and I'd have her fix you up. But I'd rather keep our friendship in tact. On a similar note, I also found this site for a source of the eyelets that hold the front bezels to the gauge housings. http://www.eleathersupply.com/fasteners.shtml I used the 1/4" Nickel Finish eyelets. A package of 100 eyelets with the setting tools was about $12 plus shipping. I had to drill out the holes about 1/32" bigger (with a step drill bit) for the eyelets to fit, but it looks like the original when done. Good luck with your gauge restorations. Merle

Good luck with that stud. Now that you've welded on it, it's gonna be awefully hard for drilling. Keep at it. You'll get it eventually.

Here's Byron's pic. Nice job, Byron

Byron, Where'd you mount it? Any pics? (you can email them to me and I'll post them for you) Merle

Jim, You've read my mind. I was tinkering with that this weekend too. I found the following pictures that I had taken of one of my replacement doors. But I don't have any of the weather stripping on the cab side. I was going to start a thread asking for pics of that, but you beat me to it. Does anyone have pics of the cab side weather stripping that shows where it starts at the top, and a close up of the profile. The replacement weather stripping that I have has a sealing lip, but I want to be sure which way the lip is supposed to face.

Phil, Do you have any pictures of the sun visors? That sounds interesting. Merle

Fred, I'd put sealant, such as pipe thread sealer, on the threads. Some of these studs go into the water jacket. Then screw two nuts together tight onto the outer end and screw them into the block good-n-tite by turning on the outer nut. You can then loosen the nuts and remove them. Merle

That's Mitchell Motor Parts. That's where I got mine. I had to stretch it a little bit, but it seemed to fit quite well. Merle

Fireball, you'll love it. Nothing like having your eyeballs vibrating and your chest pounding when a pair of nitro burning, 8,000 HP, fire breathing, race cars launch. I've been to a few NHRA national events. Loved every minute if them. Merle

I believe the wires were 16 ga. But they are also only about 6" long. If the full run of wire was that size I'd be worried, but having only 6" of smaller ga. wire I wasn't too concerned. Merle

Yes, the numbers refer to the wire gauge. That diagram looks exactly like the one in my service manual. Probably because it is. If you look at the bottom you'll see it is for B-2 series Dodge trucks. (1950 B-Series Pilot-House trucks) Between that diagram and what was left of my original harness I was able to make up a replacement harness for my truck Merle

I was concerned about that when I put the new 1154 bulbs in. They are much bigger than the original bulbs. But the lenses fit over the bulbs. It doesn't look like there is much clearance, but they fit. I'm thinking now about going with amber LED bulbs. Hopefully they'll fit too. Merle

I thought about adding legnth to the shaft like has been mentioned, and someday maybe I will. But for now it's installed as is. If I get fed up with inaccurate gauge readings I know what I have to do. The Roberts part number should be T364, and is shown for '48-'56 trucks. Lists for $85. Merle

I agree with Ed. The one part way up from the bottom would be a drain to be used when replaceing the filter. Which two lines are connected to the oil pressure galley? The "Inlet" line should be pressure from the oil pressure galley. The "Outlet" should go in by the pressure regulator. The drain should have a plug in it. On my filter the bottom in the "Inlet" and the upper connection is the "Outlet". You can also see the drain plug near the bottom.

I mounted up the front nose piece first. Then the fenders. Set the inner fenders in first, before you bolt up the outer fender pieces. You can slip the inners in later, but it's harder that way. I took a longer bolt and cut the head off and used it as an allignment stud at the front. That way I could slide the fender onto the stud at the front, which would hold it up, then focused on getting the rear bolts started. Then you can return to the front bolts and get them all started. The fun part is getting everything alligned as you tighten everything up. Merle

Most engines that I deal with on a daily basis (mid size to large diesels in construction equipment) have both full flow and bypass filters. Many of Volvo's diesels have a filter head that holds 3 filters, 2 full flows and 1 bypass. There are spin-on bypass filter kits out there too. If you were to connect a full flow filter into a bypass filter system I'd be concerned that it wouldn't have enough restriction and may lower your oil pressure. Bypass filters are designed to have a fair amount of restriction so that the oil pressure pushes the oil through the filter media under pressure. Full flow filters are designed to have low resistance to allow for high volumes of oil to pass through. If used as a bypass filter they may act like a major oil leak and lower the pressure in the system. (that's my opionion anyway) Merle

Dale, Thanks a million. The lens arrives yesterday. I'm back in business. This forum is fabulous. :cool: Merle

The best way to know if you have a 230 CID motor is to measure the stroke. There is a 1/8" plug over #6 cylinder. Remove the plug and slip a heavy wire or rod down to the top of the piston. Crank the engine over by hand and measure the stroke. The 230 has a stroke of 4 5/8". If it were, by chance, a 218 it would have a stroke of 4 3/8". Both engines have a 3 1/4" bore. Merle

Byron, I remembered a post about one a while back, so I did a search and came up with this thread. http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?t=861&highlight=hydrovac Sounds like he was happy with it. Merle

I don't know, Jim. It's still a goal that I keep out there so that I keep working on it, but it's lookin' kind of bleek at this point. Only a couple months to go until the WPC meet on July 13-17 and a lot of work to do. I haven't even started on the bed yet and I'm about out of weekends to work on it. All I have left is an evening or two per week to work in the shop. Maybe if I can get the front end done enough, and get some new rubber on it, I can hang enough of the bed back on, with a "Work in Progress" sign, so that it's drivable through the summer.