Merle Coggins

I also tried clicking on his user ID (which shows 0 feedback) and it goes to the space at the bottom to send your info. Tried "View seller's other items" and get the same thing. Something fishy here.

Seems pretty cheap for a car that is supposedly that nice.

Dave, It looks to me that Dennis' bed boards are just splitting, not individual boards. I agree that new bed wood would (that's a strange word combination) really complete his beautiful looking truck, but If I were him I'd be driving it as is for now too. Enjoy it while you can, Dennis. You can always round up all the necessary pieces to redo your bed during the off season. By the way... I found my emails from Mar-K. First is my questions to them, followed by their response. _________________________________________________________________ Hello, On your web site you list a bed front panel for Dodge trucks ’53-’85. What’s different about this panel that it wouldn’t fit my ’50 ¾ ton Dodge truck? I believe my bed is also 54” wide. Was the bed changed that much in ’53? I know that they changed the fenders, but I wasn’t aware of any other change. Merle Coggins Email mcoggins@aring.com http://www.firstgiving.com/Merle07 _________________________________________________________________ The difference is in the holes in the bottom of the front bed panel where the bed strips bolt. The 48-52 series has 5 bed strips and the 53-85 series has 7 bed strips. However, we are working on a front bed panel for your year series. I just do not have an exact date when they will be ready for sale. I will keep your information and check with our engineer. As soon as I know something definite, I will notify you. Thank you, Vickie _________________________________________________________________ I have since been contacted by them to let me know that the new panels are done and ready for sale, but I haven't ordered one yet. I don't know if this will clear any of this up, or make it more confussing. I just wanted to share what I was told by Mar-K. However, it would appear that the holes in our panels don't match up with the bed strips as mentioned. Merle

OK, now I'm completely confussed. I went back through my emails looking for the correspondance I had with Mar-K regarding the front bed panels, but it must be on my 'puter at work. I know they said that the '53 and up panel wouldn't work on my truck because the bolt spacing would be wrong, and now they have one that is punched for the '48-'52 bolt spacing. And yet everyone here says that no bolts go there. And yet mine had bolts there when I dissassembled it. I'm not saying mine was a perfect original, but I had no reason to believe it had been modified. Merle

I went out and had another look at my front bed panel this morning. It still has the bolts in it. When I dissassembled the bed the wood and bed strips was so rotten that I just pulled it all off in pieces and left all the bolts where they were. And I can see from the marks, and remnents of rust and wood, that the wood did indeed sit on top of the flange. Are the bed strips bolted through these holes? That would tend to make more sense. It would help hold the boards down in the front. Merle

Should be close enough. The bell housing will be different, if you get that with it. Also, my B2C has the newer style, internal bypass, water pump. Is your B2 the same? I suspect that the P15 engine will be the external bypass setup. It's not a big deal, just pointing out some possible differences. I would make a difference when ordering head gaskets, thermostats, and water pumps. Merle

That's interesting. I've recently been in contact with Mar-K regarding their reproduction front panel for '53 and up beds. They told me that it wouldn't fit my '50 because of the hole spacing where the boards attach. Seems that in '53 they went with 7 boards instead of 5. They have recently added a '48-52 front bed panel, but I haven't ordered one yet. That lower flange on mine was rusted quite a bit. I don't remember fully, but I thought that that front bed panel rested on top of the boards, as does the side panel flanges. Merle

I agree. They were warning us all day yesterday, and even the night before that we were going to get hammered with SEVERE weather. It was windy all day, and when I watched the weather before I went to bed at around 9:30 they finally admitted that the storms had fizzled out by the time they got to us. I woke up sometime in the night to a small thunder boomer. I don't know what time it was as it didn't alarm me enough to roll over to see the clock. I just went back to sleep. I heard that they did get hammered farther north of here. Sounds like a few tornatos ripped through the center of the state. There were even reports of softball size hail.

Dave, If you're using my body work as a shootin' point, you're aiming pretty low. I am by no means an expert body man. It's been a "learn as you go" process for me. Merle

You are correct. Remove the clutch and flywheel and the bell housing will then come off.

This is about all I could find on the can. But is also says it "restores life to "O"rings and rubber seals." It also shows their "proof" that it is the best penetrating catalyst. They have you spray some into a Styrofoam cup and watch how fast it'll eat through it. If I ever have a bolt stuck tight in Styrofoam this will be the first stuff I'll use. Actually, the stuff works pretty well. We have cans of it all over the shop. In fact I grabbed this one from our supply shelf. Merle

I use the ratchet type stands all the time and have never had a problem with them. Sounds like you didn't have them locked in properly.

I remembered it this morning, so I threw one of the rims in the back of my pickup this morning. Here's 3 on this one. I'll work on getting 'em off today. Send me a PM with your shipping address. Merle

The truck trannies don't have any syncros. At least not until the mid 50's, as I understand it. I haven't driven my truck around much yet, at least not enough to test my shift quality, but it's usually just a matter of learning the correct technique. It may be a double clutch, or just learning to better match the engine speed to the tail shaft speed. I know I've shown this pic before... it is from one of my "test drive" sessions around the yard. But like I said, I didn't really take it through the gears.

I'll try to remember to look when I get home. (won't be 'til late tonight) I think that a couple of the wheels on my parts truck have a couple of clips each. One has all the clips, so I don't want to disturb that one. And the 4th one, as I recall, looks like a Ford passenger car rim. Merle

Do you have gas flow out of the line at the fuel pump? If the line is full of air the pump may not be able get primed. Or the line may be plugged. Try to put air into the tank (low pressure) to bleed the fuel line up to the pump, then try it again. Or if the line is plugged, try blowing air from the pump end back into the tank. You may have some rust plugging the end inside the tank. Merle

It's a possibility. How do they come off? Are they riveted on? Merle

That's worse than mine were. By the way, where's that truck? The lower grill bar looks to be in MUCH better condition than mine. Merle

Lookin' good Dave.

I jealous that you can even do a test like that. I can't wait to be able to drive mine around. Got a bit of work to do yet. Keep it up, Merle

Yup, same thing here. I ground off the rivets from the inside and drove them out. Then you have to find all the spot welds that hold the inner plate to the fender and drill them out. I then made up new support plates, but before reassembly I cleaned up the metal on the inside of the fender and coated it with POR15. I then used liberal amounts of POR15 seam sealer paste between the fender and support plate and reassembled that area with carriage bolts. Once the seam sealer set up, and the plate was bonded fairly well to the fender, I removed the bolts and smoothed up the outer surface with body filler, then reinstalled the bolts. So far no cracks. I'm curious as to what is the correct hardware for the lower rear bolt? My front clip was held on with bailing wire and misc. mismatched hardware when I got the truck. Someone got a photo of this area on a complete truck? Merle

We're pullin' for ya Pete.

You didn't post it on the wrong board. After all, we're all truck guys over there.

Sure could use some of that Dihydrogen Monoxide around here. My lawn is drying up. Just not this weekend while I'm out teaching motorcycle courses. I'd rather not have that nasty Dihydrogen Monoxide dumped on me while I stand out in a parking lot with a bunch of rookie motorcyclist wannabees.