Jeff Balazs

In the ten years I have had my truck.....and paid close attention to old Dodge trucks I have seen one that might have made a nice patina truck. If you care about preserving these trucks there are some not so obvious things that need to be considered. First and foremost is keeping water out of the cab. This is no easy task if they are used frequently and spend most or all their time outdoors. And then there is maintenance and repairs. It is significantly easier to maintain and service something that has carefully cleaned, painted and reassembled than it is to fight with rusty or frozen fas

Have fun with it they are great trucks. I did my resto-mod 52 B-3-C a few years back. My approach was to go for a truck I could drive every day. And I do. These trucks were pretty well thought out and engineered. Tom's list above covers most of the stuff I did. As far as paint and cosmetics.....do what you want. I look forward to seeing your progress. Jeff

If you want to keep it fairly original and still be a decent cruiser the easiest thing to do would be to find a 52 or later 4 speed. Assuming the rear end you have is say a 3.73 or 3.55 you will hardly ever use 1st gear. It needs to be something like this or you won't have a decent cruising speed. I can't remember the last time I had mine in 1st. It has a 230 with a 52 4 speed and 3.55 rear end. It works just fine as my daily driver. Will easily go over 70.......but honestly the sweet spot is a more leisurely 55. Jeff

Have you tried pressure testing the cooling system? Maybe put a tester on it and pump it up to 4# or 5# to see if it holds or drops quickly. Putting a new head gasket on one of these flatheads is generally not too bad a job. There is plenty of info on this here on this site. When I put my 230 together several years ago I used a Felpro gasket set. The head gasket failed about a year into using it. And yes a fair amount of water in the oil. It failed between #4 and #5 cylinders. I put a gasket on by Best and flushed the crankcase carefully and have not had any further problems. Ht

I built a dolly similar to what Merle shows. The underside of the painted cab was up high enough for me to work from underneath. Being a SoCal truck it was not rusty. I gave it 3 brush on coats of Rustoleum and allowed that to cure for about a month. I then applied 3 or 4 coats of brush on Bedliner material. I also did a ton of sound proofing while I was at it. It has all worked out really well. I probably have one of the quietest cabs of any vintage truck. It was totally worth the extra effort. I drive it every day and when I have friends out for a ride they all comment on how qui

I think it really depends on how you want to use the truck and what sort of experience you want out of it. I have been using my slightly modified 52 B -3-C daily for about 5 1/2 years. I put anywhere from 100 to 150 miles a week on it here in Southern California. It gets used in relatively heavy fairly quick moving surface street traffic most of the time. I am very comfortable driving it this way. It isn't the quickest vehicle on the road but it has been rock solid reliable. The only significant mods I made is a 3.55 Grand Cherokee rear end, 4 wheel disc brakes and a 6V positive ground al

Yes you are right about getting acclimated to certain conditions. Out here where I am at it is generally warm. Many years ago I took a 3 week fishing trip down at the East Cape of Baja. It was in July and it was blazing hot. 105 to 108 every day. High 80s or low 90s at night. We drove home after the trip was over and when we got back to Orange County it was overcast and high 70s. I was shivering in a sweat shirt for days. I guess our blood thins out in that case. Have a great Holiday Jeff

FWIW you can pretty much have everything you need with a 6v system. Putting a 6V single wire alternator in makes it very reliable. I am in my 6th year of using my 52 B-3-C daily and it has not let me down yet. I am running a full time electric fuel pump and have a very decent stereo system. It works just fine. Jeff

Yes we are pretty wimpy here by comparison. Temperature drops by 5 degrees and I dig out my sweat shirts. I had the heater on last night on my way home.....and it was probably mid 60s. My hat is off to you. Jeff

Hey Wally; All I can say is eeeeeeeek! Too cold for this boy. 🤪 I can't even imagine. Jeff

Damn Jerry; I feel for you. If that happened to me I would be sick to my stomach. Hopefully the offender will feel bad and come forward. Jeff

Brad; I wouldn't worry too much about that......we are all flawed. 😄 I can tell you that these trucks hold up very well in day to day use. Mine has been very easy to maintain and has never left me stranded. Leaving them sitting around and not using them is probably the worst thing you could do. They thrive when used frequently. Jeff

Brad; That sure is looking nice. 😀 Wish mine looked that good these days. After more than 5 years of daily use it is getting fairly dirty looking under the hood. Maybe I will have to spruce things up a bit this winter? I will have to break down and hook up the PCV system I have instead of the draft tube and breather. That alone should help keep things a bit cleaner....... Jeff

Oh yeah. And with the way this year has been we probably all have a tendency expect the worst....... The adventures of DollyDodge helped get me through the times when my truck was a huge pile of parts. I would watch his videos with Dolly and his trusty dog and think I can do this. And I did.

Hi Tim; Well that is good to hear. Thanks, Jeff