Desotodav

A dual-steer dual-cab PH?... now there's an idea!

I'm glad that I could be of help Ron. It is odd that the pin you speak of doesn't have a clip and washer on the back of it - that's how the truck mechanism works. Drop me a PM if you need anything else from the parts manual. I didn't realize that you were in Sydney. So you survived the 'super storm' last night? The place sure is a mess down your way! I'll be travelling through there on Saturday en-route to Kiama - I believe they are feeling the brunt of the storm down that way tonight. Hope that all is well with you fellow Aussie.

I may have stumbled onto a cost effective solution today Mike. I spoke with another tire supplier who managed to track down a radial tire called a Maxis UE168 - it's a radial 6-ply 'Light truck' tire which is 175/75/16 with a '104' load rating (900 kg - 1984 lbs per tire). They suggest that it is fitted to a 5 inch minimum rim, but they will fit a tire to one of my 4 inch rims to see how it works as they find that it is also suggested that the 6.50 x 16 tire is also fitted to a 5 inch rim. The overall diameter (OD) may be of concern though as the 175 tire is 26.93 inches OD and my 6.50 x 16 Firestone whitewalls on the 52 truck are about 28.34 inches OD, which I reckon would almost undo all of the good I did in the 53 truck by switching my 4.1 ratio diff center for a 3.54 ratio. You may be more fortunate with your 5 inch rims though if you were to go to a 205 width tire as that would increase the OD to around where it should be in comparison to a 6.50 x 16 tire. I'm hoping that the OD figures are altered in my favor by fitting the tires to a 4 inch rim (rather than the 5 inch rim as recommended), and I suppose that I will know the answer in the next couple of days. These tires here in Oz cost $190 each. Although they are a 'light truck' tire, they reckon that the combination of a radial tire with a low load rating and only 6-ply would make it a great suited and well-handling tire for my application. I looked at a number of other tires today but all came in at around the $400 each mark. EDIT... I checked out the Maxis tires today and they have an overall diameter of almost 2 inches less than my Firestone tires fitted to the 52 truck - so I find that they are NOT suitable for what I was looking for in a tire. The search continues!!!

Now come on Fred, we both know the answer to that one..... I wear the pants, but she tells me which ones to put on !

Not me this time Brent. I sold my only V8 vehicle about 5 years back!

I just ordered a copy of this book here in Oz. The old version of the book looks better (than the later edition) as it has the old blue Dodge truck on the cover. I suspect that I have some fun reading ahead!

Pics above from 46-53 car manual. Following pic from 46 parts manual... As I said I'm more a truck fella, but see that your model was around 46-48. Hope the info helps.

I'm more into trucks Ron, but hope these pages from one of my car manuals helps you out...

I perused this thread before attempting to chase up tires here in Oz today. I find that my options are very limited here as I have factory (1954) 4 inch x 16 inch 5 stud pattern rims, and I'm trying to avoid fitting 'light truck' tires as I want a more comfortable ride, and it is highly unlikely that I will be carrying any heavy load in the truck! I found that my best option appears to be the Excelsior bias-ply 6.50/16 tire at $209 each + $25 per tube. My narrow rims proved an issue as most radial tires would decrease the overall diameter too much. I compared the overall diameter of the Firestone ply whitewalls which I have on the 52 truck (28 11/32 inches) with the Excelsior tire (28 1/2 inches) - I suppose that will account slightly on the speedometer for my diff ratio change from 4.1 to 3.54. My other options were either Federal or Linlong brand light truck tires at $200 and $250 each, or a Falken brand 175/85/16 radial tire for around $300 each. I will place an order with Antique Tyres tomorrow and hope to have the tires within a few days. I'll sneak in a set of stainless steel 'ribbed' trim rings (at $50 each) and hopefully the wife won't notice! How's that old saying go... It's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission!

I collected the wheels and all of the parts from the Sandblaster/Powdercoater this morning, and then I dropped most of the parts off to my Painter. I expect to have all of those parts back (all painted shiny black) mid next week. I am yet to arrange tires for the rims, but I am searching for radial (non 'light truck') tires here in Oz and finding that my options are quite limited. I collected some hubcaps from my shed today, and it turns out that the Desoto hubcap is the only one that I have enough of to complete a full set. Our Oz trucks (from about 1954) came out with the ‘nibs’ on the rims for the push-over (rather than clip-on) hubcaps, and those hubcaps were plain with no embossed wording on them. The embossed hubcaps were fitted to the cars: Diplomat/Kingsway/Royal. I will fit Desoto hubcaps to the Pop truck for now. I know there are some here with a dislike for red wheels. The choice for red wheels for this truck was an easy one for me, when one considers that I am building this truck as a tribute to my late Dad. Dad (Pop) was a bit of a rebel in his day, and I recall him telling me stories of ‘bodgies & widgies’ (greasers in USA) running around in their souped up old cars with red wheels. Pop had to tread somewhat carefully in his rebellious years though as his Father was the local Police Sergeant, and word traveled fast in the small town as well - which did not work in Pop's favor! I was also messing around with truck fuel tanks today. I found the two best fuel tanks in my shed and cleaned them up. The red one cleaned up alright but has some nasty previous repairs to the front of the tank which will need a lot of attention. The black one (scratched back mostly to bare metal with the wire brush) is also alright, but it has some really nasty dents on one end. ... I am hoping to chat with a fuel tank repair shop next week to see if there’s anything they can do with either of the tanks. I also played with the sump cover today as we initially thought that it had a small crack under the dipstick mount, but it appears that the leak may be coming from the spot-welded plate for the dipstick on the side of the sump cover. I will use some metal weld paste and smooth the area over prior to painting and hopefully this will fix the oil weep from that area.

GK - heatriser is documented really well in the 'resources - tech - heat riser' section from the Forum toolbar above. Thanks for the compliment Wayfarer. I've been making the most of my vacation time with many small victories. I only hope that others are able to learn from me documenting my experiences. I struggled with my 52 truck rebuild as I was not aware of this great forum way back then.

I am most happy with how the manifold turned out. I will have to look at a temperature comparison between the truck engines when I get the 'Pop' truck running. They tell me that the ceramic coating will drop temperature output by something like 30 percent - maybe this ceramic coating will decrease fuel vaporizing issues? I painted the inlet manifold in 'VHT' (very high temperature) silver (they call the color 'aluminium') paint, so there will be no issues with paint melting there! The engine is still spending time in the acid bath as they have been very busy working on other engines. There is much happening on the 'Pop' truck project at present and things are moving along nicely. I will pick up all of the primer-painted parts today, along with the powder-coated rims. More photos soon.

You've got it covered in the 'specialty tools' department Paul - from matchboxes to tweezers to planks of wood!

I hope the panel truck works out for you WS. I wish I could find a good one at the right price here in Oz! I look forward to seeing photos. Might be better is a facilitator moved this thread to the truck side?

Mark needed urgent funds to repay his gambling debt during his recent beer darts losing streak ?

Geeez Paul, it appears that you caught me out. I've grown accustomed to seeing the jokes aimed towards you rather than from you! So you think it is a saggy leaf spring?

Barry, I have all of those (3) door latch springs available if you want to PM me. I had a small supply of them made in stainless steel a while back. They were not the cheapest to have made, but I suspected that there was little else out there.

I made my own Paul. I was fortunate enough to know a guy who had all of the required components, but he has since sold out of the business. The cost per complete set of wires (from memory) was around $40... and then there was the cost of the crimping tool.

So that's why the mythical 610-T model radio is rare as rocking horse poo... it's because you own them all Hank !!! Good job on finding and restoring them my friend.

There are three springs in the door latch mechanism Barry (see photo): The small 'L' shaped spring (top of photo) activates the lock, the smaller and thin coiled spring (below left) prevents what we here call 'handle droop' , and the thickerer large coiled spring (below right) creates back pressure on the latch tongue. The 'L' shaped spring which activates the locking mechanism is located in the remote part of the mechanism (behind the door handle) - see attached photo with red circled area for spring location. I suspect that you will find this small spring either missing or broken if flipping up your handle will not lock your door.

I was thinking the same as Mike. Given that the fire was hotter on your driver's side of the truck, it is highly likely that the heat caused your leaf spring to lose tension on that side. I have a slight lean to that side on my blue truck that I have to fix one day.

Nice job Joe. Really looking forward to seeing it buffed up and on the truck.

I wondered what small project I would tackle on the Pop truck this morning, so I spotted the manifold among the parts pile and decided that was it! It all pulled apart easy enough, although extra care was required to remove the heat riser spring and make sure that it remained intact. I was pleased to not find any cracks or other areas of concern after I had cleaned all of the parts up. I'm now thinking that I might try ceramic coating the manifold to see if I can drop the heat release down and maybe eliminate fuel vaporizing concerns. My sandblaster/powdercoater closes at lunchtime on Friday so I'll have to wait until Monday to go and see him. I plan on tackling many small jobs on the Pop truck whilst on vacation time, and hopefully I see those small jobs amount to large achievements by the time I return to work!

Thanks for that information Ed. I'll have to look into it further. I saw some of the woven brake lining/s listed on Ebay in USA for around $20 per foot. I do know a fella here in Oz who still has a roll of the original material (the asbestos type).

Loosening up those shackles should make a difference to the ride. I've seen a few trucks here in Oz where a shackle has seized up over time and the shackle has snapped - possibly as a result of the extra strain put on the part from lack of movement? I was told years ago that the trick with the shackles is to keep them both adjusted and lubricated. Mark did a great template for that heat deflection plate for the carb/manifold and copied it to the resources section... http://p15-d24.com/files/file/42-fuel-pump-heat-shield-template/