Desotodav

Good to hear from you Ian. Bit of snow down on your old farm in the last couple of days hey. Bet you're glad you're not down that way at present! I'm not sure why this truck has seat slides. I have a mate with a coupe truck of similar year and it appears to have a seat like mine also. Maybe that's just how they were built here? I did a bit of panel-beating on the seat frame today and pieced together the final set of seat slides. All was going well til wifey wanted me to look at her BMW seats also!... lucky my old truck doesn't have fancy things like 2 gas struts in each seat to help them go up and down!

Great information Rich. I see that they are listed for $43.66 with free postage to USA on Amazon. Wish I had of looked there before paying $115 for the one for my truck (USMW brand made in China) here in Oz. I reckon I could have saved money even paying the postage. I'll have to start my searching at Amazon first in future!

Congratulations to you and g/f Mark. What a great house, and even better shed! Is the 40 x 60 workshop going to be big enough for all of your project/s? The only way to improve on that workshop is to fill it with old MOPAR's !!

The cab needs plenty of repair work that doesn't show up in the photos, but it is better than I expected it to be. I'm hoping to get some photos off to my Panel-beater soon and we can work out a plan of attack. I am fortunate to have located this 53 coupe truck around 4 hours inland from the east coast as there is much less moisture out that way. I've been playing around with the 'Pop' truck seat over the past couple of days. The seat frame itself is in good condition, but the slide rails (for seat adjustment) under the seat needed some work. I managed to strip the required parts out of one of my other coupe trucks, so I should have a well-operating set of seat slides soon. I just keep chipping away at the project and expect that one day the overall goal will be achieved!

Thanks for that video link Fernando. I recently supplied Hardie Spicer with 4 original tailshafts and asked them to balance the best 1 of them for me and add new U-joints so that I could install it in my 53 Dodge 1/2 ton coupe truck. It came back looking good and they added counter-weights at either end. Your video showed me the process they used and I found it most interesting. I have had my tailshaft painted since then and it is ready to install on the truck now. Photo of tailshaft of how I got it back before painting (attached). Maybe someone in your country with the know-how can balance the vibration out of your tailshaft?

Looks like you are doing well so far Jeff. I look forward to following your progress as it appears that I am just a little in front of you with my 53 coupe truck build at present. Keep up the good work!

A job well done Bob! Be sure not to over-tighten that nut on the 'T' piece when you get them back together. I'll be going through the whole process again down the track with my 53 coupe truck. I'm sure this rebuild will be much easier though as I had not found all of the helpful people here when I built the 52 truck.

Well done Jeff. It really is good to finally see your old truck on the road. May there be many hours of driving pleasure ahead of you!

I picked up the truck body from the sandblaster last week and found no surprises. There is rust in all of the usual places, but no more than I expected. I have all of the panels blasted and primer-painted now, so I can start moving forward inch by inch towards my completion goal! There's been plenty other small achievements going on behind the scenes - more on them soon...

4 speed 'new process' gearbox?

That's funny Jeff. I can just imagine you and your mates roaring up the alley way there between the buildings seeing who can stop the quickest. Well done to you though.

Check to see if the needle moves when you spin the small wheel on the back of the speedo (I have power to my speedo in the photo attached for the indicator light - so yours may look different to mine) ... if that spins you may need to check the gear drive on the transmission...... if that is good then you need to send a PM to B1B Keven as he is our resident speedo/gauge repair man.

Are you talking about the stops on the 'T' piece at the bottom of the vent window Bob (marked 23-64-244 on your manual diagram)?... or the few small screws which hold the entire vent window into the door frame? I had to drill the heads from the screws mounting the vent window, but I have found that that those small spacer's ('stops'?) on the 'T' piece come loose with a bit of soaking. The small seal at the back of the vent window which seals the vent window against the 'division bar can be bought at Bernbaum's and is called 'L-shapped fuzzy A-381'... http://www.oldmoparts.com/parts-weatherstripping-dodge-and-plymouth-trucks-1948-1953.aspx .

Looks like you both scored well. Well done. I think that the secret is to be patient and not impulse buy, but that all depends on how desperate you are for the part/s at the time!

I must say Paul that I am thoroughly enjoying following your (and Darlene's) journey, and have really appreciated the photos posted as you go. But there has been this niggling question that has been in the back of my mind the whole time... .... did you finally ditch that crappy camera of yours that always took blurred photos as your recent photos appear much clearer?

That worked for me. I had 9 trucks a while back, but then I chopped up a few that were 'too far gone' and kept all the good parts that I could salvage.... so wifey doesn't seem to mind that I have only 5 trucks at present !!

Mike, I can't offer you a supply source but I may be able to provide you with some information. The parts manual calls them 'remote control gearshift rod return spring'. There appears to be a difference in the two diagrams (P12-D25) and (D24, S11, C38, C39) in the manual which I viewed, but I am not sure which part number is for which vehicle - part number's listed for L.H.D vehicles are 1121651 and 1121652. I had some of those springs made up a while back for my truck/s and found that they were different to the car gear shift springs. I did (at the same time) have a couple of those springs made up for my mate's 48 Desoto sedan (R.H.D) though and he tells me that the one which he installed is working well. I suspect that it may well be the case that you might need to find a Spring Maker as those are a particular design spring, and if you do... perhaps consider having the spring made from stainless steel as the main cause of breakage which I have witnessed is rust.

That's great news Tim. Congratulations to both you and your lovely fiancee my friend.

Thanks for the compliment. I received quite a few encouraging comments at the show. My mate with the 29 delivery took out the 'Presidents Choice' award. The 53 coupe truck which I am presently building will be of similar quality to my 52.

Looks like you got off better than I did as well...

It is. I was at the show at Caboolture on Saturday with my mate in his gold colored 29 dodge delivery. Quite a good turn out there with many quality vehicles. My poor old blue truck might be off the road for a week or so until I get another radiator in it.

I had the task today of going through the radiators which I have at my shed readying one for the 'Pop' coupe truck build. The chore would have been all the more exciting had I not have also had to search for one for the 52 truck as well after its fan went into the radiator yesterday! Seems that the fella who rebuild the waterpump for me did not fit the pin through the pulley/impeller shaft but decided that a tack-weld would suffice. Unfortunately the end result of his work a few years back will now cost me plenty! It would appear that fan verses radiator battles are quite the common thing judging by the radiators which I had at my shed...

Shame about losing the storage for your small truck Marty. I'll have to coordinate a trip with GK if he's coming up to raid your spare parts pile! I don't expect to be down your way again til after September.

Well done GK. I might have to look at changing over from the Penrite brand oil which I use. I looked up MIAME for you mate: A condensed description of MIAME (Minimum Information about a Microarray Experiment) principles designed to help authors, reviewers and editors of scientific journals to meet MIAME requirements and to make microarray data available to the science community in a useful way. ... so that makes it all the more clearer now hey! So he could be either an author or just a useful (helpful) sales assistant?

There has been plenty going on since my last post, but I find that I have now run into trouble. I have been searching for engine components for my 3 & 3/8 bore 218 T143 engine but am finding it particularly difficult to find 20 thou big end bearings. It looks like I may be going with EGGE pistons, but it appears that even they are struggling to find 20 thou big end bearings for me. I don't feel that posting this information in the classifieds section would get me anywhere, so I am asking here that if you have any leads to a supplier who might be able to assist would you please message me their details.