Scruffy49

Hate to tell you Paul, but you're painting that one. Trim Brite, Brite Side, Top Sider, etc yacht paint work really well with a brush or roller if you don't want to drop a few bucks on a spray gun. Rustoleum works fine, Majick and other tractor enamels... My trucks are both Rustoleum "foo foo canned". It works, but chalks up after a few years. Ends up looking like well aged 40s-60s single stage enamels. Single stage from somewhere between 1958 and 1963... Rustoleum Dark Hunter Green, "foo foo canned" in 2005, ruddy brown rack primer brush painted in 2001 when the racks were on a different truck...

Read all 11 pages of the thread. I prefer my stuff painted where it is metal, linseed oiled or spar varnished where wooden. Honest wear I have no problems with, my 49 has over 330K miles on it, trust me, it's showing its age. And getting slowly but surely repaired and painted as time/funds/ambition allow. May leave a couple divots that one of Grandpa's cows put in the truck, may pound them out. Any serious damage, like the pushed under nose piece corner, are getting pulled straight. Even going to straighten the bumpers. Deviations from stock? Lowered a couple inches, wide whites (I like the look on lowered vehicles), bucket seats, stereo, 12 volt wiring, maybe electric windows because my regulators are scrap metal, heart poplar bed floor, wooden strip headliner and other cab trim, gauges (factory mini set is ugly)... and a Spring Special style paint job, simply because I find it more visually interesting than a solic color or the factory black running board/fender/bed package. Won't be the prettiest Pilot House in the history of bringing them back from the dead, but it will be finished. Exactly how its original owner and I planned to do it when I was still single digits in age and it was parked in his barn for my brother, my cousins and I to play in every holiday. One family truck, title is still in his name, and he's been gone since 1984...

If you have normal u-joints, you can get a conversion joint. If you have ball and trunnion nightmare u-joints... you may need a custom shaft built or run the yoke from your old axle in the new one. Odds the ancient yoke fits the modern Dana rear end are slim to none though. You may be taking a trip to Hagen's in Puyallup to get it sorted out, take both axle assemblies and your driveshaft with you. If Darrel is still there he'll get your puzzle solved. Worth the trip anyway, if for no other reason than getting bunch of neat period correct trinkets for your truck. Time it right and you can make it a side run during the Puyallup Fair.

Retorque the head bolts, paint the engine, maybe add some dress up bolt covers, snap on style or glue on style acorn nut covers or such. If it isn't broken, don't invite trouble.

This thread sure makes me glad I have a truck... panel light switch, parking light switch and headlight switch, but the floor mounted dimmer. ALL separate. Zero relays, everything is direct wired. Metal bodied USA made relays? Easy... NAPA, Carquest, Federated and National Auto Parts, especially if you have a 12V conversion. 1960s or 70s Mopar and Fomoco products, big rigs through at least the mid 1990s.Awful high number of professional truckers still insist on the old style relays, don't trut the resin cased imported ones.

One of my trucks had swamp water and atf in the cooling system, worked fine. F700 with a 361 or 391 industrial engine. I don;t recommend it, but it worked. My current toys get city water or distilled water, and big rig spec green/blue/orange/pink/whatever is on sale additive. I figure if it is good enough for a 15 liter Cummins or Detroit Diesel, it's most likely good enough for an L6 or dual plug 4 banger.

That's an easy fix. Steve's Auto Restoration in Portland OR, or Buffalo Ships in Summit WA. Both specialized in 100% stock restorations, mainly on ancient Fords. Me, I'd chop it up... they made millions of them after all...

Would the "upside down" column mess with his shifting? Being serious, I can't drive a 3 on the tree anyway, they get tossed in favor of top loaders. And the only English built car I've has was left hand drive (USA market) with transplanted 1974 Datsun 210 engine, top loader 4 speed and rear axle. Only good for driving down the sidewalk... 54ish Ford Squire 2 door wagon. Edited because I can't type tonight...

Fill the steering box with white lithium boat trailer bearing grease, never worry about it again. Works great, doesn't leak. Buy some spring liner from Posies or Speedway Motors, follow the directions. Smooths out the ride considerably. Shackles, bushings and bearings are all replacable, and require greasing, so add new grease fittings. You can NOT over grease a Pilot House (except the water pump and factory rear axle outer bearings). If it moves, grease it.

Looks like my 230, which is so gooey on the outside that my wife renamed the truck it is going into "The Funk and Nastiness Express"...

If you come back via I-40, stop in on the way through. Or I can meet up with you guys at the Canada Road exit east of Memphis. About 30 minutes from the plantation. If you come back via I-10, could likely meet up in Bay Saint Louis MS, we have a home there too. Back on the canals by the hospital. If you guys were going in Oct/Nov instead, you could swing by for harvest season and fill the car up with pecans, black walnuts and persimmons. Oh well, you'll just have to make a return run...

Humidity, the lower the better. Temperature depends on the engine, I have some that run great even in 100+ F, others that stumble and bog down unless it is under 60F. All high humidity seems to help with is keeping carbon soft so it gets blown out with the exhaust pulses instead of sticking to everything in the cylinder, head and exhaust system. Wet air can't hold as much fuel as dry air.

Nice truck, wish my grandfather had bought a 1 ton Express instead of the 1/2 ton version. I even like the ductile iron pipe front bumper with grill guard and tow bar. I'd leave it in place if it isn't already too late, it adds a certain bit of "I'm a truck, not a car in disguise", unlike my lowrider 1/2 ton project. I'm one of the rarer members who does not like the fish bowl cabs. Too many potential leaks, and my wife insists on using the wing windows, I epoxied them shut on my 69 1/2 ton, need to on the 85 C10. If you have a spare fender, definitely swap it out. Do you have a spare front cap, or is that one something you can straighten? Those grill bars are in awfully nice condition too, rare to not see them mangled on a work truck. Value? All in the eye of a potential buyer. I finally put a sign on my 49 that said "$10/lb", if somebody wants it that bad, I'll let it go, otherwise, they can leave. Got tird of saying it wasn't for sale. If I was in the market and your truck was close to my place in west TN, I'g go a couple grand on it, resale value on 1 tons in farm condition isn't all that high. Not much demand for them compared to the easier to drive in town 1/2 and 3/4 tons.

And in the 70s pretty low in detergents. So combustion byproducts like acids mix with the high wax content in the oil, holding water, carbon and other byproducts, turning the whole mess into whatever you chemically would call the reverse of soap. My 218 is so sludged up that a full disassemble, toss the block in the burn pile and let it cook for awhile "might" get the stuff out of it. My 230 has an absolutely spotless cam chest, the oil is dirty but not chunky (yet), but there has been plug tip to valve contact. So I at minimum need to pull the head and check the valves, decoke the piston tops and combustion chambers, feler gauge the top rings and the bearings... and then reassemble with new gaskets. The guy I got the 230 from had the wrong reach sparkplug in one hole. Who knows what else got messed up...

Track down a copy of How to Build Hot Rod Trucks, that's the first story in it, photo documented Mirada into PH. Lot of work.

Ah, your "runner" cheapo is like mine... M80 or 3 in the bellhousing, long fuse, run. Buy a 318/727... Kidding. Just like mine, won't know how bad it actually is until it is torn into further. Good luck. I know mine is going to need gaskets, seals, valve job, probably a rering, wuldn't be surprised if it needs new rod and main bearings... The 218 had 1974 Pennzoil or Quaker state in it, no getting all the wax and sludge out short of a burn pile. The 230 may be beyond hope...

3.73 or 3.55, with a leaning towards 3.73. 218s are rather anemic... Good enough engines (the 1st 2 in my truck saw over 330K combined miles of service) but stone gutless in stock trim.

The bottom 2 shorties will drop it 3 inches if the springs are tired and you stick with the stock rear axle assembly. Change the tubes and it will come down an inch or so. Just did one for a semi-close owner, who is not on the board. Ugly old school bus yellow 51.

Cup brush or wire wheel, rust converter, prime and paint. I've mounted up worse on a 1974 Mack R685 I used to drive. Those same steps fixed the wheels up to working like new. Any mondo pits can be bondoed w/o worry or brazed up.

Those are better suited for racing, rev it up push the button in... Our C60 has a hydraulic line lock, but it is only for use with the pto running and the mechanical brake set. Never trust one for parking, it is so easy to adapt a 48/49 parking brake handle to modern rear end brakes that the line lock isn't worth the leak potential. Same principle for the later T-handle and straight handle with adjuster versions. A couple of steel turnbuckles for slack adjustment and to connect old linkage to new cable. Piece of cake. Or carry wheel chocks, I do in my Ranger, parking brake is broken.

Get the square one with floor mount that has a couple cup holders out of a mid 90s Ranger or Dakota... kidding, but they do work fine. If you wanted fancy, Lokar or Gennie Shifter Company.

Ford and Mack. Once they are installed, only the hardcore can tell the difference. You can also get the handles out of SOME Anglias, Nashes, GM products, other big rigs... You can also run a few years of F100 tailgate hinges, tailgate chains, voltage regulators, generators (easy source of 12v conversion that looks stock)...

Most people just pull a small spring or two instead of a flip. You going for a low low or just a low? Don't know who's it is, but I wouldn't go any lower w/o airbags...

Grease trap? Clogged pipes? Don't you guys own dogs? Our beagle gets a treat every time I cook something greasy, a bit on her food, the rest goes in the garbage can, followed by the paper towels used to remove the excess before washing... I know she'd lick the pan clean, but dog slobber is more difficult to remove than the grease itself.

The one sent is a Purolater housing. The old gasket still worked fine. Not very much pressure gets to it with it sandwiched between the lid and the canister body. At most, tack it to the lid with a swipe of grey gasket goop. The housing and lid that came on my later model 230 (unit sent is off a 49 truck engine, was swapped onto the truck's P15 replacement engine in the late 50s or early 60s) is a completely different style. High lid, hard lines instead of reinforced rubber, mount shape...