Jeff Balazs

Paul; It is my opinion that the system we have is not working. It does next to nothing to "dissuade" people from getting started in a life of crime. This is evident by the sheer numbers of persons in the system. If murder, rape, molestation, arson and terrorism etc. all carried an automatic death penalty I think we would see a dramatic decline in these activities. Might not eliminate the crimes of passion.....but it certainly would have to put a dampener on the "calculated" crimes. Bean bags? Cornhole? What about horse shoes fellas? That is an old school contest if there ever was one. Jeff

Mark; I will try it. But honestly we shouldn't have to. This sort of criminal activity is really on the rise. It is because the punishment if caught is not in line with the crime ....and not enough resources are allocated to stop it. The solution is really quite straightforward. All malicious behavior is a form of coldly calculated terrorism. It should in my opinion, like all acts of terrorism, carry an automatic death penalty. I think a regulated bounty system is probably the best way to get some rapid control over the problem. Jeff

Well if you catch em ......... I will gladly deal with them. And I promise you they will never bother anyone again. I just got through spending untold hours dealing with the results of a malicious email. And a rope is too good for these people. Jeff

Ok Thank you.......it just did not look right. Does anyone know what size stamp was used to letter these? Jeff

Hmmm? that is what they sent me.....but it doesn't look like it will work. There is a recessed area in the pillar that it should sit flat in and it is only about an inch wide. Not sure what to make of this. Jeff

Does anyone have any size information on the data plate that is supposed to be affixed to the door pillar? Mine is missing and the one I ordered from VPW is too wide. A photo would be great. Thanks, Jeff

That Loctite #271 does not require heat to remove. It is decent stuff......and there are other products out there that will do a good job too. There are some very fine marine products that I believe are even better in this sort of service......Quicksilver Marine Perfect Seal would be my first choice. I have seen it seal and hold some very heavily corroded boat engines together. Jeff

Glad it is moving along. I bet you can hardly wait! Jeff

Ah come on Tim....talk about taking the easy way over. I thought our friends from down under were a bit tougher than that? Jeff

Seems to me I read somewhere that some of the early trucks did not even have this brace. I believe it was added in late 48 to counteract frame twist at the steering box mount. Surely there is more than one way to address this if necessary. Jeff

How about fitting a really long schnorkel? Jeff

Barry; Yes that is true. I used permatex on mine. I used the same treatment on the bolts that hold the water pump in place.Better safe than sorry. Hope this helps, Jeff

I watched the first two episodes. Caught a brief view of the brake and clutch pedals......and they sure looked similar to the ones in my Pilothouse. I will be interested to see how they progress...wonder what corners they will cut? They sure tore into it. Jeff

Hank; That is good news. I think if you take your time sourcing the parts it should be fairly economical. Of course you will have to make some new 3/16" brake lines but you have all the skills now. Jeff

Tim; Nicely put. I too look forward to the daily goings on of this forum. I never actually drove my truck with the original rear axle. The axle I have in mine now has a ratio of 3.55 and if anything it still feels a bit low to be optimum for the driving conditions my truck will be used in. I think that my 230 could easily handle a ratio of 3.23 or perhaps even a bit higher. 1st gear on my 4 speed with the 3.55 final ratio is still a granny gear and won't be used very often at all. I can only imagine what a 4.10 rear would feel like in this truck.....but I am very glad I did not leave it in place. I am certain however that it would have made driving in the traffic I have to contend with extremely unpleasant. I hope Hank understands that I am not being completely disrespectful.......but rather underlining a vital aspect of living and driving in the region we are both located. Anyone who has spent any time driving the freeways in this area understands the absolute necessity of going with the flow of traffic. It is a given and you cannot expect the drivers around you to give a hoot that you are driving a vintage vehicle. And this condition does not end when you are off the freeway. Many of the surface streets are actually far more dangerous than the freeway and have similar traffic flow rates. I feel fairly certain Hank would agree with this statement. So can we have our cake and eat it too? I think so ..... but to do it without any mods or updates ? I believe is a real stretch. At the very least you are hoping (or forcing) the strangers around you to tolerate or indulge your whim to cruise around in a vintage truck. And maybe most will. But my gut feel is the moment you start taking that tolerant behavior for granted you could get a very rude awakening. I know I certainly don't want to be the guy that finds out. In the end what we choose to do with our trucks is up to us. As are the consequences of our decisions. Leave it as is or modify and update. I suppose this decision is determined by how and where we intend to use it and what limitations we are prepared to accept. And of course.... ....our respective budgets. Jeff

Well there is a lot to be said for a taller ratio. Makes the truck a whole lot more usable. Maybe if I lived out in the country somewhere then I wouldn't worry about it much. But if you can't get up to say around 75 mph and hold it for a while .....you are really asking for it on our freeways. It is just the way it is. Can you drive at 50 to 55 ? sure..... but it really increases the chance of causing an accident or at least triggering road rage. The Cherokee swap is probably the easiest and most cost effective way to do this. Finding the parts to swap the pumpkin is another option....but if you consider parts availability etc I feel like the newer axle is a great way to go. Brake mods are a more subjective thing. If you get the stock ones set up correctly I feel certain they would be at least adequate. The mods I made to mine make it feel much more like a modern vehicle when stopping. It is actually the first truck I have had with 4 wheel discs and I love the way it feels. There is no pull or any tendency to lock up when applied hard. If I did one thing right it was this. It is as close to perfect as I could ever hope for. You don't even have to give stopping a thought. Jeff

Hank; You do know you may be opening up a can of worms here? If it saw hard service before you got it...... and all it has seen is a top up since then more than likely things are not up to snuff inside. If you are set on keeping it as is without a overhaul then I suggest you just refill and keep your fingers crossed. If there is a problem then using a synthetic oil is not going to fix it. Our philosophies may be very different when it comes to things like this. In the past you have used terms like "it's all about the paint". I understand where you are coming from but I would rather have the drive train in tip-top shape and not worry quite as much about what it looks like. To have a truck be that is able to function as I need it to in today's driving conditions is I believe far more respectful to it's true origin than building another rolling museum piece. Job - Rated to me means that these trucks were intended to be up to the task. With all that has transpired in the last 60 plus years they need a bit of re-engineering to do that job. You can put the full effort into rebuilding the stock rear axle but after spending good money you will still end up being limited by the lower than optimum final ratio for our driving conditions. A rear axle swap is the easiest way to address this. Of course the choice is yours. Jeff

Boy are you cranky before you get your coffee. You need to remember this moment......some people may ( ) give you grief for building a stretch cab. Might even be considered a shameful waste of two cabs. Jeff

It is a push pull type switch. They can be carefully disassembled and repaired possibly......or sometimes there are new ones on ebay. Jeff

Hi Mike; I think you hit it on the head.....it is a lot of iron to heat up! Adjusting the timing seems to have done the trick as far as a quick start goes. I am in coastal southern California so real cold is just not a factor. Clear and mid 70s today. If I leave the electric fan off for the first few minutes it does seem to warm up slightly faster. It is on a manual switch for now. I will have to look a bit closer at perhaps adding in a thermostatic control of some sort. So far I have not added any electronics to mechanical system of this truck.... and I really don't want to....but this cooling fan control may be one item I have to. On the plus side the electric fan even if left on the whole time the engine is running is much quieter than the stock fan.....isn't in the way when setting the timing .....and can't bite any fingers. I did have a PCV system connected earlier on but I could not get it to behave to my satisfaction. It is off now and I am just running the road tube. I will probably revisit this PCV system installation once I have gotten some other stuff sorted out. As with so many items on my not quite original truck it did have a cobbled together PCV arrangement but I have no idea if it worked correctly or if any jetting mods were made. I have components I got from VPW and when I tried it I think the valve itself was not working correctly. Jeff

Yes those are not as bad as I imagined. The annealed copper fix would work extremely well on something much worse though. Jeff

Hmm.....I wonder if all these types of products behave that way?......doesn't seem like they would have any real value if they did. I guess if we are talking about the mating surfaces then some annealed copper sheet gaskets ought be a pretty solid fix. Jeff

I have seen on recent automotive shows a product they refer to as exhaust sealer. A blue colored paste that is applied to joints in pipes etc..Not sure what it is exactly...but it seems that something like this might work well. Or maybe a coppercoat product like what is used on cylinder heads? Just a couple of ideas. Jeff

Interesting.I reset the timing back to spec yesterday and tried starting it as I was a while back......and low and behold it fired and caught right away. I doubt it I cranked it more than a revolution. So starting procedure has a lot to do with how the timing is set. Starting drill is ignition and fuel pump on....set choke and pump pedal once....then a brief tap on the stomp starter. Choke can be pushed back in after start. Reading on vacuum gauge is a shade under the 20" mark now at idle. These are fairly cold blooded though......it is a good 5 minutes before the temp needle starts to move up. And that is if I leave the electric fan off. I ditched the standard fan 6 months ago. It still takes a couple of minutes of running time to stabilize idle and have decent throttle response......but I think I can probably learn to live with that. I remember now that I adjusted the timing a little while back when I installed the permanent vacuum gauge. I set it based on highest reading which once warm seemed to have very good throttle response. But it definitely made starting fussier. Oh well....live and learn. Based on this result I think I will just leave the accelerator pump rod where it is at .......unless there is really evidence that some benefit could be made by messing with this? I would still like to get the truck on an exhaust gas analyzer to help determine if it is indeed jetted correctly. It smells rich to me and there have been enough changes made on it that it could be a ways off. Jeff

Value is a very subjective item. I think it really depends on the condition of specific truck. What is there and what is missing enters into the equation as well. Another way to look at it is where you want to go with it? In other words do you want a rat rod? or a show quality truck? Or something in between? Since I got mine a couple of years ago I have seen some decent non running B series trucks that I would consider good candidates for restoration sell between $1200 to $2000. It would have to be really nice to get me to pay more than that for one. Especially now that I know what is involved with doing one of these trucks. I paid $1000 two years ago for a completely rust free non runner here in SoCal. I think that was a fair price for what I got.....and I have put a ton of work into it. My point is even with a good starting point you will need to be very committed if you want to build a nice example. I would say somewhere in the range of $8k to $15K plus a whole lot of labor. They are a really fun project.......but I don't think they are as easy as say a chevy from the same time period. Jeff