Scruffy49

I thought you meant you were going to make a BBQ out of an old minivan... I think I've been back in the South too long...

Updraft carburetor like a tractor? Top mount dizzy... Never seen that particular style of L6 before. Rather interesting looking.

That's actually kinda neat. Someone down here did that years ago with a 49-51 Mercury sedan, bed innards were from an early import mini truck. I need to go see if the Merc is still in a family friend's junkyard, because I've got a runs perfect late model wreck I could swap it onto and finish the conversion... Once done they tend to draw a lot of attention, most of it positive. My brother in law did that to a 62 Dart 4 door, I had a 68 Catalina somebody did that to...

And that passenger front wheel looks 60s or newer to me... looks like the 1978 4x4 Ramcharger 15 inchers on my 49 right now... If it really is running and driving that isn't bad. Whole parts junkers usually cost about that around west TN.

Looks pretty good as is. Welcome to the forum.

And all the good stuff is long gone, they got bought out around 2008 by a California mega-yard outfit that crushed everything more than 10 years old... Dozens of Studebakers, Desotos, a couple early Rancheros that had been show cars, several fluid drive equipped cars, a couple wedge motor 2 doors from the mid 60s... couple dozen Sweptlines, couple dozen 47-85 Chevy/GM trucks, close to 50 48-90s F series... Bonneville convertible with a 3x2 389/4spd... All the "junk" here is fairly well stashed to keep it out of the weather, except the trucks live outside. The old barn has settled so much that I'm not sure I can get my Super Beetle out without using the front end loader to lift the barn roof... Dirt here is like the Snohomish Valley, it gets wet and stuff sinks.

Whatever I end up not using will be made available, eventually. Just don't be in a hurry, truck hasn't run since 94, hasn't been licensed since 74... Throw aways? Got a set of AA Ford doors in the hayloft, model A or T seat parts, A and T tire pumps, couple dozen misc sediment bowls. Old John Deere oil cans, Coleman coolers, 1930s outboard motor, Henderson and Indian motorcycle parts... My father in law is the ancient white Fred Sanford... Somewhere in all the mess is a set of 19teens Buick wire wheels that were on welding carts... Lots of "junk" around here...

Connections. Father in law had 5 1/2-1 ton versions in his plumbing business, all the spare parts ended up out here. Meridian Auto Wrecking in Graham WA had dozens of 40s and 50s Mopars when I was in high school (class of 91), I got bits and pieces for next to nothing back then. My dad has the build sheet and original bill of sale for it in his safe. I'll have to get him to send them to me sometime. But since it is not staying stock I guess they aren't all that relevant... Rare? Never seen a junker PH with plain bar, never seen a parts junker that didn't have the "air ride" seat, all the ones I've picked stuff off of had the jack and related junk under the seat. Junk shop a couple towns over had 3 PH jacks the last time I was in there, whopping $10 each. And the junk shop is where they belong, very wobbly screw jacks. Base is too small, jack head is beyond too small. For a resto they'd be alright, just have a real jack hidden somewhere, like in an old metal Coleman cooler in the bed...

Doesn't mean they haven't been switched at some point. Catalog (parts store) shows my 230 having a 56 block, 57 head, 55 intake, 58 exhaust and a year indeterminable hot air choke 1bbl Carter carburetor... The 218 in the truck has a 48 car block, 49 truck head and a mid-50s dizzy... If it fit, it got used...

I figured the electrode and the piston made contact, I've never pulled the lid off one of my L6s. Valve, piston, doesn't matter, contact is contact, odds are something got hosed. Still common around here, lots of farm mechanics that will overhaul them for the price of parts and a gallon of cheap whiskey. Most just do an in frame unless it has severe cylinder taper.

No rust, floor was patched and encapsulated years ago and I left the toe board out so the leaky cowl vent and windshield gasket drain right out. Truck has been wet since the day it left the lot. It is from Puyallup WA... rotten doors (check), rotten around the front fender rivets (check), rotten floor fixed. Bed floor--- you should see what cows do to white oak... Had a tire changed out a couple weeks ago, outside of the rim was repainted with a 1969 vintage blackwall in place. Co-op tire shop pulled the tire off, installed my "new" (11 years older than I am) white wall, inside of the rim was flawless. I'm not too concerned about the always kept in the cab mirror and division bar. Or the factory jack, which also lives on the floor, the jack handle, the hand crank (keep finding them in the barn and garage)...

Jump start the 4 door and see how that engine runs. If it isn't too bad, clean it up and swap them over. If that engine is also a pile, get it done up right and swap them over. If the cars are the same year, nobody will know you swapped mills. I picked up a spare engine to redo for my truck when I was moving from Washington to Tennessee. 230 out of a 56 or 57 Savoy. $125 for a running engine, that I've never bothered to start since the #4 plug electrode very obviously smacked the piston... Complete gasket set from NAPA lists for $88 and change. If it is white smoke, odds are that the head gasket failed between a pair of cylinders. Pretty common and a relatively easy fix. Just don't be too surprised if you wring the heads off a couple cylinder head bolts... If the bolts all come out cleanly you can reuse them, then swing by the truck stop and get some chrome covers for them... very traditional flathead dress up item... Full rebuild here was quoted $1500-2500, can do it in my driveway for about a quarter of that. It's just 6 Briggs and Stratton mower engines stuck together in a line...

Wide belt or narrow belt? My 48 P15 sourced 218 takes the wide belt, my 56 or 57 Savoy sourced 230 takes the narrow belt. I think the difference is 6v vs 12v...

Real latex gum based rubber is fairly stable in the presence of alcohol. Synthetic rubber not so much. All the fuel when I lived out west was at least E10, and I had to change gas lines on my motorcycle yearly, before I did two things different... Transmission line seems to be alcohol resistant, and a bit of 2 stroke oil mixed into the fuel seems to negate the drying effect of alcohol on rubber/plastic carburetor parts. ATF in the fuel worked just as well, my 1998 motorcycle still runs original issue stock soft parts in the carburetor. Experiment, hose is cheap. Just for fun I've been soaking an old fuel pump in modern gas to see what happens... nothing, nada, zero zip zilch. It still pumps, unlike the cheapy versions for my 318 that fail within 3 months, and they are supposedly built for modern ethanol blends. The pump I'm soaking is from no later than 1974...

Haven't looked, it's been raining for the better part of 2 weeks, or it has been so cold that I stay inside except to feed the horse. And to top it off my wife changed photo hosting sites so now I have to learn that nonsense all over again... She knows I'm technophobic, I think she does it on purpose... Unless I find my outside division bar I can't install the thing anyway. I know where the screws are (floating around on the floor), I know where the inside bars are (have both kinds, mirror and plain), I suppose I could use a strip of wood as a temp outside bar until mine turns up or a I make a replacement...

Factory correct for the era the trucks come out. Header mounted are either dealer installed, aftermarket issue or swapped in from different vehicles. It makes no difference which you have, they all are pretty much useless. Kinda like the short arm exterior mirrors, just because it is factory doesn't necessarily mean it works... If you like the one you have, use it. I don't care for the factory installed mirror in mine, but it was in there when my grandfather bought the truck new so it can stay.

Lisa had SUCUBUS on her car when we lived in Mississippi. Not very many people figured that one out. I've had NOS4A2 on a motorcycle before, again, not many people could figure it out. Our farm vehicles are easy, when I order them it will be our main crop and the model year. So my truck would wear PECAN49.

My 65 GTO was "too far gone" as it had sat in a ravine for decades. Being used for target practice. With a big pine tree laying across the roof... $50 for a title, cut the roof off and added structural supports from a convertible chassis, added the soft top, tuned it up. and sold it for $5K as a fixer upper. My 32 Victoria is too far gone, but it runs and drives. No paint, no glass, no interior. Apple crate bolted to the floor pan to drive it around the pasture. Left it with the uncle who foisted it off on me when I was a kid, I don't feel like patching 700+ bullet holes. My D100 needs floor pans, door repairs and a full rewire. Plus next to impossible to find bed ends... My 49 truck needs rewired, rust repair in the front fenders and doors, bed floor, interior, brakes, tires (have 5 nice ones thanks to a local forum member who wishes to remain nameless), suspension overhaul, engine number 3 to be swapped in (after I get the donor 230 cleaned, painted and back to 100 percent)... Grandpa bought it new and my younger brother has a 2 year old gearhead daughter who will be the 4th generation to drive it. My fairly rare 1963 Honda Scrambler (250 parallel twin with right side chain) is too far gone to restore, but it is shaping up to be quite the entertaining street legal dirt track race bike build. Too far gone? All a matter of perspective. Not everything has to go back to 100% stock...

Any real starter/alternator shop can fix them. Last one I had done (6v truck type with through the floor starter pedal) cost $20 to have overhauled. Needed a spring and a couple brushes. Took him a couple hours to fix it in between money jobs.

You can beat that price pretty handily... Autozone, Pep Boys, Advance Auto Parts, O'Reilly's, Flying J, Pilot... Even Wal-mart still has them around here. Just watch the flyers that are in the newspaper or come in the mail. They normally go out the door for $60-70, on sale runs $40-60.

Go to the Dennis Carpenter website (old Ford stuff). Look up the schematic for a 48-52 F1 door, Pilot Houses used a system that is almost exactly the same. In fact, the little slider in the door and the wedge it catches on ARE a perfect match, so are some handles and trim plates. The linkages in the door are very similar, I've worked with both era 1/2 tons. That will give you a very basic idea of what the door guts look like. My driver door has never latched from the outside, is almost impossible to latch from the inside. I think mine just needs to be adjusted though, it sags.

Small world, my 56 or 57 230 came from Broken Arrow. Picked it up in 2011 enroute to TN from WA.

I just dug out a 1974 TN plate this weekend. Was in the creek bed. Now I just need a 1974 truck to put it on... I used to run a TN Walking Horse plate on my F250. Regular registration plus $55 plate fee + $35 per year extra to keep it. That was in 2000, have no idea what they run now. I'm not going to tag mine for a couple more years at least. At least here I only need a rear plate, the truck has the accessory front plate mount (came from Washington which requires 2 plates, and still has both 1963 series that expired in 1974 on it) but it's some kind of ugly...

There is a fully functioning one at the intersection of Interstate 40 and US Highway 70 in Memphis still. Don't know if it is the traditional hang a speaker on the driver window or a clip a lead to your antenna and run through FM though. So I'm going to install an AM/FM/Cassette head unit in my glovebox just in case. Or maybe the 6/12 dual ground AM/FM/SW headset... Or should I just hang the AM/FM/8-track under the dash? Comfy seat and quadraphonic speaker system is a must for the later style drive in theaters. Older ones with clip on leads broadcasted in mono.

Interior handles and trim plates are Ford, door striker & latch are Ford, window regulators are Ford... Look at your parts and compare them 48-52 F1/F2 parts. Dennis Carpenter has the best diagrams for them. You can also use handles and escutcheons (the funny trim rings under the handles) from OLD R series Mack trucks, I know 1974-91 parts fit. I've tested them on my 49. And I have Ford handles and escutcheons installed right now. Perfect match? Nope. Close enough? Yep... wrong color knobs, truck doesn't know (or care) Try www.memphisequipment.com for some of your lighting parts, they break up and/or overhaul vintage military trucks... A lot of the olive drab is on restorable stainless steel... Long arm stock mirrors are a nice edition, the short arms not so much. I'm replacing mine with a pair of 55-57 Cameo swan necks or I have a set of the ones that clamp to the hood lip (ugly as sin but they work, sort of). Floor shift or column shift? Generic black 4spd floor shift knobs are cheap and easy to find. That should be a fun project. Take lot of pictures as you go. And you might want to buy stock in a penetrating oil manufacturer (so you get some of your money back)...