Scruffy49

If anyone feels particularly ambitious, we're getting ready to drop some 2-4 foot diameter sweet gums and honey locusts. If you'll come haul the logs, you can have them... Both would make good planking stock for 1/2 ton up beds. Or we can drop some giant osage orange, but you have to slab it and drill it while green, otherwise it WILL destroy any metal you try and work it with, dries harder than steel. Per the book, species unspecified oak bed floors through end of model year 1952, 1953 and newer are yellow pine. Closed deliveries like the Canopy and Screenside used mahogany. Pickup and flatbed wood was flat black from the factory.

I've got a complete 4.78 half ton rear axle... I know, not what you wanted to hear.... You might want to step up to some 3.73s or similar in your modern rear axle. 3.55s are good with a small block V8, kind of anemic with a small 6 cylinder.

A lot of guys using Lifestyle (72-93) under Sweptlines (61-71). But the Swepts already have a wider chassis than the Pilot House, Power Giant, etc pre-61s. And it is still a bit of a reverse engineering nightmare. Good place to start would be www.sweptline.org, go to the forum and talk to Beastman, he put a short Utiline Swept era on a Lifestyle chassis. Okay, I'll bite, why doesn't the link form automatically anymore for us low tech guys? Because I don't know how to make it form on my own...

Naw, what you need is the nice crusty white 1978 Ramcharger 15" wheels that I'm pulling from my 49... And some beat to crap 70s hubcaps, cop or taxi type... Clean wheels and stock caps on a patina truck? You should be able to see how my Grandpa added turn signals to his 49 B1B in the pic below. Fender crown set and tabs welded to the rearmost stake pockets. The rears are nearly impossible to see, the buckets are the same faded dark blue as the rest of the truck. Separate harness with aftermarket switch on the column, saves some engineering headaches of running turn signals in conjunction with stock lights.

Having driven vehicles with both displacements, stock 230 will walk a stock 218, but only by a few miles per hour. I'm cheating, picked up a runner 230 a couple years ago for $125, just need to swap it in place of the broken 218. To convert one using the 218 block? Not me, my truck has 4.78 rear gears and a 3 spd, too much machine shop money for too little gain. Would maybe hit 60 mph top end instead of 50-55. Shave the head, put on a better flowing intake and exhaust, have the cam reground and call it good.

I spent 4 years heavy hauling, but nothing even remotely close to that. Better them than me... can you imagine having to chain up all those tires on ice/snow? I'd keel over dead.

We've got around a dozen antique tv sets floating around the farmhouse, greenhouse, barn, garage, and in the rv. One has a 45 rpm record player on it and the abilty to play old reel to reel 8mm movies. I'd kinda like to fit that one to the truck somehow...

Hmmm... how hopped up do you want it to get? These are supposedly "the" tricks on the small blocks (23" engines): Increase main bearing oiling grooves, 3x as wide, 2x as deep. Plug oil squirter holes in rods if mains are modified. New rotor type oil pump, with 1/4" spacer behind the relief valve spring. 1955 or newer crankshaft. Polished combustion chamber. Head milled .060-.125 or swap to a later head or aluminum head.Block intake and exhaust ports cleaned up, port/gasket matched, smooth polish the exhaust ports, leave intake ports kind of rough for fuel atomization. 1957-59 Dodge car 2 bbl intake and carb or run a dual 1bbl intake. Split exhaust manifold or some form of headers. 1957-59 cam specs or have yours performane reground. 1951 or newer distributor with removable plug so you can adjust the vacuum advance. Increase all engine clearances if you hop it up...piston skirt .004, bearings .0015-.002, valve tappets at .002 over factory specs. NOTE: I have done none of the above yet, info swiped from Don Bunn and Tom Brownell Dodge Pickups History and Restoration Guide 1918-1971, 1991 edition.

Side by side comparison of my 49 B1B's 218 and top loader 3 speed versus my 56/57 Savoy 230/3 on the tree donor engine... Different head, thermostat housing and water pump. Different crank pulley (230 has balancer and narrow belt) and accessory pullies. Different flywheels and starters (6v through the floor and 12v with a Ford type solenoid). Different fans, 49 has 4 blade, the other is a 6 blade. If you want to run your factory through the floor starter you need to swap flywheel and bellhousing from the engine currently in your truck to the donor engine. Use the clutch disc and pressure plate from the current set up also. Had a good discussion about this on Monday when a forum member came and got all the column shift 12v stuff off my 230. He's had old Mopar L6s for 49 years, figured I'd open my ears and listen to him.

You can buy a very similar fender mount antenna brand new from LMC Truck. 48-? Ford catalog. Also available from dozens of similar retailers, or brand new from Freightliner. Conventional cab sleeper trucks mount them behind the driver side door, antenna cord is 10 or 12' long over all. Want more of a 1957-60 Power Giant style cab top antenna? Peterbilt 377, 378 and 379 are good donors... and have a windshield header mounted radio box that can be cut down to size... just another option if you can't get the correct upright radio. Big rigs can also be excellent donors for interior door handles, window cranks, trim rings (look in older R series Macks for those 3 items), visors, dash knobs and switches, floor mounted mechanical throttle pedals (early 90s and back Pete/KW), interior mirror (OLD day cabs), shifter boots, pedal seals (Pete and KW)... trim items too. All kinds of interesting chrome and stainless in older semis.

Just read the entire build thread. Picked up a few good tips, your truck looks great with the Hemi in it. That said, you managed o convince me to NOT try and shoe horn my 413/727 into my grandpa's old truck. Think I'll stick with the 230 swap I'd originally planned on. A V8 would be nice but man oh man it sure looks like a migraine in the making.

218 and 230 are the same block and same bellhousing, at least going off the 48 P15 218 in my truck and the D illegible 230 I got from a 56 or 57 Savoy. If you have a 4 speed just change out the rear axle for something modern. Search for the non-T5 swap, it might be on the car side. Uses a trans out of a square nose (pre-93) Ranger. I've got a complete 92 Ranger parts junker that will be donating a bunch of parts to my Pilot House... rear axle, heater/ac unit, fuel tank (maybe), transmission (maybe), wiper motor (maybe), heat/ac and defroster ducting, seats and seat belts (both maybes)... patch panel steel, bulbs and sockets (maybe), wiring sections, climate controls, radio hanger assembly (maybe)... front brakes (maybe), master cylinder and brake booster, proportioning valve and rear mechanical abs (maybe)... Use what is common and readily available. If you are going daily driver, unless you live in a small town in a rural area, stock won't cut it.

You'd have to scale everything down to fit the miniscule frame rails of any pre-1961 Dodge truck. The frames on 1 tons and lighter were tiny compared to 61 and up versions. My 92 and 94 Rangers have taller frame rails than my 49 Pilot House, and the metal is thicker. My 69 D100 is a monster compared to my 49 B1B. I can understand keeping truck parts on truck frames. S10 and Dakota parts are fairly easy, you can modify Ranger/Bronco 2/forst gen Explorer to work fairly easily. Full sized donors? Not so easy except for a couple rear axles. The front end parts on the newer trucks are too big. The closest found OEM parts donor to a direct bolt in is C4 Corvette IFS and IRS. 1/16" difference in chassis width versus a Pilot House B1 or B2 1/2 ton. Full out chassis swaps can be done on standard cab short wheelbase Dakota, Ranger or Toyota platforms. Fullsized donors include K5, Ramcharger, Jeep Scramblers and the like. New mounts, cab floor mods, frame trimming and such are necessary.

That looks pretty good. I've got the same width white walls as you, even have the front plate bracket. But my 3 window came with the bumper guards. I've got one of those antennas off a Freightliner FLD120. $10 at the big rig graveyard.

Someone else who likes real country? Not that whiny sappy top 40 drek by obnoxious twits like Taylor Swift and the like? I'm one of those that with a couple of exceptions thinks country music died with Chris Ledoux... Garth Brooks and most of the later "country singers" are neither country, or singers. I might, key word might, install a stock radio for looks, but it won't be hooked up... I have to many spare modern ones I can hide or install under the dash. Tailgate hinges are easy, get the stainless ones made for F1/F100 48-? I had to add bushings inside the tailgate tube to use my originals, the hinge metal was a bit worn, but the tailgate tube itself was some kind of thin. Copper pipe couplers make great tailgate hinge bushings... What I can't find so far locally is some stainless all thread to replace the snapped in half stock piece in the header panel. Every fastener I possibly (and safely) can replace with stainless or bronze is being replaced. My connector panel under the tailgate will need every stock bolt cut off. It's worth it.

If it all fits, parts is parts. I'd convert my PH, but it makes more sense to convert the 69 D100 into a 69 W200, stronger frame, stronger springs, already has an RV cammed 318 and tow pack equipped 727. Cheap to do around my neck of the woods, nobody wants GM spec'd solid axles and t-case, they drop opposite of the "coveted" Ford/Dodge versions of the same axles and cases. A D44 is a D44, a D60 is a D60... there are some weaker and some stronger versions in all source lines.

Mine has 7 in the front packs and 8 in the rear packs. As far as I know the suspension is 100% as it was the day Grandpa bought the truck brand new. He may have ordered the heavier springs though, his house had a wood fired furnace and wood fired kitchen stove. And he had heavy wooden hulled boats he took to the lakes and to Commencement Bay (Tacoma WA). I plan on running 5 in the front and 6 in the rear.

Coils are supposed to be marked for voltage and whether or not they need an external ballast. Most 12v old type Mopar and GM need a ballast resistor, Ford coils generally do not. The 12v coil on my 230 just says 12v. And has a condensor on the - side of the coil wiring. It will be replaced with a NAPA part number IC64 or Tractor Supply Company equivalent, 12v with internal regulator. Your points and condensor can be left stock, not voltage sensitive. Add a headlight relay, and a Runtz transistorized voltage reducer to your fuel gauge. Rebel Rodz issue 17, April 2010 has a good conversion article. Maybe they have back issue articles archived online...

My plan is to pull the bottom 2 leaves. I'm shooting for it to sit a couple inches closer to the ground than your avatar pic. Mid to late 1950s style static drop low rider. Mostly just an attention getter for our pecan and produce farm on market days, the 69 Sweptline is the haul truck (it has one ton add a leaf springs in the rear, with factory camper special packs on all 4 corners). At most the 49 will be toting my 63 Honda Scrambler track bike and a couple coolers and chairs, maybe my 650 bar hopper... The 49 had a rough life hauling firewood and cattle from 49 until Grandpa retired it to the barn in 1974. Not as much body damage as would be expected, but there is manure IN the spring perches still... Mixed with grease, and when I chip that solidified mess off the metal under it is perfect. I have 14, 15 and 16 inch wheels for it, all have been test fit, only need to swap to modern lug stud and nut combos to run the 14 inch alloys... but since the 16 inchers have a set of wide whites and my original hub caps, adding a leaf back in to run them isn't a big deal.

Mine has a car block, truck pan and truck head. My to be refreshed and swapped in 230 has a car pan and dipstick (in the block). Between the 2 I might be able to make a running engine... if not I know where a good 413/727 combo is sitting (they'll go in the 69, which would donate its 318/727 to the 49). P I've been here a couple years or so, but I've had the truck since 79 or 81, kind of hard for a little kid to do anything with them, I was either 7 or 9 when my grandfather handed me the keys. He died in 84, I got it running in 94, joined the Navy, got it to fire off in 2004 (breaking a bunch of rings). Kind of pushed it aside in favor of other projects. Now redoing it, the Sweptline and 4 motorcycles at the same time. None of them takes precedence over the others. No hurry on any of them.

Have a friend with 2 out in WA. 1950 is heavily modified, big V8, Dana 60s front and rear. Competition mud truck. His other one is running a 251 with matching 4 spd, divorce mount NP205, spring over CJ5 sourced axles, frame is stock with the t-case crossmember added. He did cheat though, he started with a one ton... and it has barely enough wheelbase/frame length to add the transfer case. He also cheated in the fact he has a couple round nose Power Wagons to model stuff from (and rob parts out of if needed).

That's what I needed. Good to tear out and clean up, pull a couple leaves to drop the truck a bit (nothing drastic). Thanks a bunch.

The stock one for 48-50 is a speaker and then the rest. 51 up should be speaker, radio body and power box. Nebraska huh? Hope you have better AM stations than west TN does, when the power is out I can pick up AM from Chicago, Tulsa, NYC, Detroit... anywhere but here.

Anybody have a pic of their front axle handy? Mine doesn't look right... tie rod is straight as can be, drag link has a small curve to it, axle has a bow that looks like it is intentional to clear the oil pan... but since my uncle did crash the thing back in the late 50s... If I need a Speedway Motors tube axle I'd like to start setting money aside now. Surprisingly good shape so far for a 64 year old truck that was used as a truck. Springs are okay (bushings and shackles appear to be shot), frame is straight, cab mounts are nice and solid. Fuel tank stinks but it isn't leaking. Rear axle and driveshaft are fine other than the expected pinion seal leak. Transmission is leak free and it seems to move through the gears alright (3 on the floor). Parking brake is in good shape. Wheels are all safe to reuse (had them checked). If my 230 checks out usable I shouldn't have too much trouble making her a driver again. It's been sitting a couple years, so... with any luck a light in-frame overhaul should get that engine running again. The 218 is just a core.

Got the hood, fenders, inner fenders, core support, and front panel off. First time in 2 years I've done more than drag the truck around with one of the tractors. Had to pry the front drums off, one before I moved 2 years ago, the other one today. Wheel cylinders are plugged solid, couldn't back anything off. I had forgotten that the drums had been turned, new shoes, bearings and seals the last time it was apart. A few broken bolts (no surprise), a few unexpected cracks in the cab corners. The current engine is locked up tight, again. Getting ready to yank it out for the 230. Will keep the 218 as a buildable core. Heading towards ev ening, need to get the front sheetmetal under cover for the night, 90% chance of rain tonight/tomorrow. Feels good to finally take the time to do something with it.