Desotodav

So that's your secret Paul!!! I have been packing another shipping container full of hospital / educational charity equipment at my shed for the past couple of days and I have been using cans of beer at the end of the day/s to cure my old aching body. Ibuprofen you say hey! I only have 4 shipping containers going between now and the end of 2018, so I'm now thinking that I need to visit my local drug store!!!

I bought mine from Egge and had them sent to me here in Oz. I haven't fired the engine yet, but an quite happy with the product and the price.

Should be stamped in the flat section below the fill plug Paul.

I paid about that price for the 218 rebuild in my 53 truck... and then there was an additional $1500 in parts from Egge. Everything seems more expensive here in Oz !!

No it doesn't Tim... can't see any markings on it. I did a search on Oz Ebay and found some like it by searching 'vintage monkey wrench'. Looks like mine is missing a wooden handle! I'm not sure what the other brass syringe-like tool is, but I reckon it will be great for sucking out the excess oil from the canister when I change the oil filter!

I had these old tools turn up at my shed last week. Anybody seen something like these before? The one on top looks like an old antique pipe wrench. The smaller syringe-like tool on the bottom has a leather plunger inside and is well coated in oil.

Its gotta be at least a few months since Brent has bought another truck... so I reckon he's getting a bit twitchy by now!!!

Some things are just better left to the experts in my opinion At least the old Pop truck is almost back to one color all over after a sand and a quick squirt of 2-pack primer this morning.

I remember being at that stage recently on my 53. Keep up the good work Tanda62

I'm hearing you 48Dingo... I might have been a rich man by now if only I had the gift of hammer on dolly and some reasonable paint shooting skills I had actually considered undertaking a course many years ago. My biggest issue now is that I am very time poor these days with all of my work and also charity efforts going on. I am very committed to the project and we will move forward. We are actually shooting a primer coat on the truck this weekend (weather permitting) to prepare it for sitting for a few months. I'm hoping to pack and send another couple of shipping containers full of charity medical/educational items before it comes to pulling the truck out again as my shed is getting more crowded by the day. I am well satisfied that the truck will be finished to the high standard which I expect... it might just not happen now until sometime in 2019.

I guess that I finally reached breaking point as I had the (unfinished) 'Pop' coupe truck brought home today. I’ve had constant ‘chats’ with the Panel Beater over the past year of how I seemed to be receiving ridiculously high bills from them yet very little work seemed to be getting done. It is really sad when you trust someone, who you think has the knowledge and skills to attend to a high quality rebuild in a timely manner, and then you find that they have just been doing what little they need to do in order to drag out time to get as much money from you as possible from their hourly rate. I have already established who will be finishing the project off for me, but the Pop truck can rest in my shed with some of his friends for now.…

That's how they came from the factory. I used a small flat-blade screw driver to pry my old clips out of the door frame. You should still be able to buy the clips if yours are broken (some of mine were). Check inside the door window gap/s and hopefully your clips are still lodged in the holes there ... that's if they didn't come off with your old window sweep strips. I reused some old clips which I had, but I am sure I have seen them for sale at a vendor on your side of the pond... perhaps someone in your part of the world can chime in?

Your truck is coming along nicely Gene. The door window sweeps should each have 3 little slide-on clips which go on the back edge of the sweep and clip them inside the door window slot.

I might be seeing things different to you guys, but then I am in Australia and it is rumoured that our water swirls down the drain in the opposite direction to where you guys are at. .. but when you look at the photos of the horn button and the 'button retainer plate 8-33-65' which I have attached, it appears that the horn button should push down and turn clockwise to remove it...

The chromed hood badge is the original. There eems to be a distinct gap in between the De and the Soto. I must ring my Chromer as that was quite some time ago when I put that emblem post up. Wish that I cpuld make he BBQ this year... but I won't be back until 2020.

It's been some time since I last posted progress on the coupe truck. Not much has changed since then and we are still nearing panel work completion. My bank account has been well and truly drained, and I am fast nearing the point where I have just about had enough. I am told now that there is just some minor messing around required to get the tailgate fitted, and then they are ready to resume blocking and sanding. I may bring the truck home for a few months for a bit of a break yet. I am happy with the work to date, but the amount of hours and dollars that have gone into this project are absolutely ridiculous. We live and learn hey! Here's a few pics of where we're at for now..

I am proud to possess awards for the categories of 'longest distance travelled', 'wish you were here', and 'friend of the BBQ' from 2014 and 2017. I live about 10,000 miles from the BBQ, so I guess that I make that decision easy for Tim when I do travel across the pond to the BBQ . See y'all back there in 2020.

What they said Tom !! Welcome to the forum by the way. Would love to see more photos of that old bus, and hear of your intentions for your vehicles.

I see now Ralph... so you had the eccentric braking system where the pads would revolve with the drum and become active when the shoe came out to meet them I'm glad that you found the issue without incident as my friend had the bonding come loose on the brake shoes of his 29 Dodge delivery van, which locked the brake on when the drum warmed up. I send him the photo I took of his car on the back of a tow truck from time to time just to stir him up. Regards to you and your Dad Ralph.

I really looking forward to being back in 2020 Tim. I would like to spend at least a few of days in your town next trip. I'm hoping to bring the wifey with me on that trip too. We're off to London for a white Christmas this year... and may concentrate on some local trips within Oz in 2019. You guys have strange vacation times over there. It seems that one has to work for the same company for many years to get 4 weeks leave per year - 4 weeks is pretty much the normal here in Oz. I get 6 weeks vacation time each year because of all the night shifts which I am required to do. I reckon that 6 weeks is too long, but I seem to fill in much of my spare time nowadays with charity work! I look forward to seeing many photos from this year's 'Q' and will look on with envy!!!

That surround trim is standard equipment on our trucks... I have the same on my E series suburban truck. I have a stainless trim which goes between the nosecone emblem and the hood emblem and will install that down the track as I reckon it will look better than the old rusty body-colored piece in there at present. It's funny just how different our trucks are in that area... but then you guys didn't get DeSoto trucks over there either!

It is great to see more C series trucks appearing here. I am surprised to see such a difference between our Aussie C series trucks and those across the pond - ours seem to be more based on the B series trucks. I've had a 56 C series DeSoto 1/2 ton sitting in my shed for many years, and it is a very different truck than those others which I see. Maybe one of these days I will get around to fixing that old truck up... but Wifey tells me that I am restoring my last truck (53 Dodge coupe truck) at present!

If your vehicle is travelling at the speed of light... do your headlights still work?

I know that Julie is pretty keen on these old trucks... I reckon its the other way around and she's actually bringing Brent along to the BBQ

I'm not familiar with the replacement gas tanks as I have only used original ones, but it looks to me like you are missing the rear mount which levels the tank - check this thread...