Jeff Balazs

I am looking at methods to adjust the ride quality of my B-3-C. Now that I have had some time to begin road testing it the front suspension feels pretty good but the rear seems a bit on the stiff side. It is not super bad but I feel like I should be able to smooth it out some. The truck has the stock 3/4 ton springs on it and inexpensive ($90/set) gas shocks from Napa. I did not disassemble the spring packs as they were not rusty and appeared to be in good overall working condition. I am not exactly sure where to start with this process. I don't think I need or want to do anything too radical. One thought I had was to put about 300# or 400# of sand bags in the rear section of the bed to see how that affected the ride. If this has the desired effect it would be easy enough to rig some bolt in weights in the area behind the rear axle as I have a side mount spare. Do you think this is a good starting point? Or should I start somewhere else? I have heard people say they have gotten good results by having the spring packs reworked and teflon pads installed between the springs. And I am sure a better quality shock would make some difference. Thanks in advance for sharing your ideas. Jeff

Exactly. I am not sure what the frozen four is....some game perhaps?....could it be two guys standing around in Minnesota playing pocket pool? Jeff

Yes.....happily! Make sure you bring some old trousers......'cause they were called Allen screws and bolts long before they were renamed. :P Should be an interesting BBQ. Jeff Hi Ed; Yes I have heard both those names used. And the cheap ones are not worth owning either......Hank.....Harbor Freight really ? Might as well use a monkey wrench! Pozidrive has been around for quite a while. I think it may have come from the aerospace community. And then of course there are others which are named after the inventors .....that is until Mark and his buddies decide to rename them. I just bet that if he were to invent a revolutionary fastener like the Allen bolt was when it came out ...... he would want his name plastered all over it. Of course that is just speculation on my part. You know him better than I do. Jeff

Mark; I am just calling it by the name it was originally known by. When I first started working at 15 it was in a full service filling station and garage. I pumped gas and when I wasn't busy doing that I was helping my mentor Huck in the garage. Huck was well into his 70's at that time and had been working on cars his entire life. In those days you had to learn the correct names for tools and fasteners quickly or suffer a foot in the ass. And believe me I don't ever recall Huck asking me to get him a 3'8" hex key........it was always a 3/8" Allen wrench. After that job I worked in another garage and then a Ford dealership. No one called them hex keys or hex wrench's ..... it was always an Allen wrench and the fasteners were referred to as Allen type. Today we use all sorts of terms for things that already had a perfectly good name. For the most part it is a bunch of BS perpetrated by lawyers and spin doctors. I know a lot of folks buy into this so called new world language and politically correct stuff. But I will tell you right now that you would have gotten a whole lot of grief using the term "hex key" when I was a youngster working in a garage. You might not have gotten a kick in the butt..... more likely it would have been something more subtle....like a shot of grease down your trousers when you were otherwise occupied......and you would have certainly never heard the end of it. So you call it whatever you want......but for me it will always be an Allen wrench. Jeff

Seems to me I read somewhere that it wasn't an option until later in the series....52 or 53?. As a boy my family had friends that had a late 50's Dodge sedan with the green tint. They spent their weekends in the desert and really liked that color tint. My memory of it was that it was very .....unique. He was head of maintenance for Pacific Bell.....and everything he owned was always in pristine condition. Anyone who got one of his old cars got a real cherry. I have a vivid memory of a trip fro LA to Tucson circa 1963 in his pride and joy..... an emerald green Studebaker Hawk. Not certain of how it was equipped but it was blazing fast for it's day. I know It had green tinted windows and plaid seat covers.........boy would it make a great barn find. Jeff

Hank; tsk...tsk...tsk. Those are all fittings not nuts. And I hope you have the appropriate fitting wrench's or you may just wind up with another mess on your hands. Jeff

Well you couldn't be farther off actually. W.G. Allen is the inventor of this type of fastener. You whipper-snappers can call them by a generic term if you like.......but I think they really ought to called by their proper name. A big part of what we are all doing here has to do with preserving history after all. Jeff

I am pretty certain they started off with the name Allen attached......sort of like Phillips head screws. Call them what you want but the wrench used is an Allen wrench? Jeff

Try Allen bolts and they come right up. Jeff

So Tim.......does this mean you own a hodge podge Dodge? Jeff

I remember. It has been replaced by aisles of cell phone chargers and a lot of nonsense... Absolutely pitiful. Jeff

Oh ya.......junk made in some third world country and it will probably start leaking soon. Pep Boys is at the bottom of bad heap these days. Used to be ok 20 years ago......now they sell a little bit of cheap generic auto parts as a side line to the aisles of useless electric scooters and car "decorating" junk that they really make their living at. They are so off the mark that I have no problem telling right now that they won't be around in another couple of years. I am absolutely certain 'cause they are absolutely useless. I will agree with you that Napa is on a slide in our local.......but they are many light years closer to being a true auto parts store than Pep Boys is. I am not sure that is even proper or appropriate to compare them in the same conversation ? Jeff

I like the re-purposing. No shop is ever perfect......but with a bit of imagination you can achieve quite a bit. I am using a cabinet that was built to store china as a tool box......and one of those plastic garden organizers for the rest of my auto tools at the shop. Works just fine and they were both rescued from the dumpster. It doesn't matter what it looks like......just the results you get. Jeff

Davin Btw : That ebay vendor was one of the ones I contacted with no luck. As it is with so many of the things we need for our trucks.....these vendors have everything.......but the stuff we need. As a sidenote my son in law and I spent about 3 hours carefully browsing the Long Beach Swap meet today. The sum total of our Pilothouse specific finds was one hubcap. I could have easily built several similar vintage chevy trucks from the parts and reproductions I saw laying about. Oh yes I did get a reprint of a 51-52 B-3-C Drivers manual for my glovebox........but that doesn't really count as they are easy to find. Jeff

Davin; That is a bargain compared to the effort I put in without getting a solution. I tried several vendors and while some had springs that looked as if they would work......none were correct. Most just said sorry charlie. I am sure others will agree with me and applaud your efforts at getting these made. The mechanism I took out just needs these springs to be useful to someone else for a long time to come. Jeff

Yes finding replacement springs for one of these is sort of like the quest for the Holy Grail. And not the funny one either! Fortunately the Aussie version was a perfect fit. The only difference was the size of the mounting screws at the inside handle. No big deal. Thanks again Davin. I tried quite a few sources and all I drew was a blank. Even tried making springs from ones that looked close with only moderate results. This is just not an easy fix. Jeff

Got to test it today prior to install. It's a keeper! Yeah! Jeff

Absolutely spot on. Trying to do business with these shops is an exercise in frustration. We got literally tens of thousands of retailers here of every description ........ mostly BS foo foo stuff ......and not one decent auto parts store. I just got through getting a Optima battery from the only independant around. According to my friends who own repair shops they are hands down the best in south county. It took several calls and almost 10 days to get it. When it finally came one of the owners delivered it and acted like he had parted the red sea. I just laughed and took him in to my warehouse to show him the truck. He was totally blown away. When we were done looking it over I told him " I am going to get this truck done in spite of all you clowns". I think he finally understood where I was coming from. If someone was really sharp and wanted to make a genuine fortune they would open a real auto parts store here. It is wall to wall people and cars and not one decent parts source to be found. Absolutely ridiculous. Jeff

Doug; Well said my friend.......and Amen. I didn't put this truck together to just follow suite with the masses. I can't wait to get it out on the road and let it take me wherever. Jeff

Wow! That was quick. I like my electric fuel pump more and more. Jeff

yer badddd! I like it! Jeff

Dave; Ok....so there is still a few that are hanging with me on this. We will see how long that lasts? I'd bet I don't have to wait for that long....... and I am real good at going my own way on things like this. I have been accused of being the Indian in "Little Big Man" ....... the one they called a contrary. Said goodbye when he meant hello......road his horse backwards and so on....and that is fine with me. I just never got the hang of doing something just 'cause everyone else did. Heck if I did what everyone else did I would have built an old Chevy instead of a Dodge. Jeff

Tod; That would work.......but I don't have (or want) a cell phone. Besides I know how to read a map and I have never been lost for long. 2-3 days tops! I am actually shooting for the distinction of being the last person on earth without an electronic dog leash......and I am so close. The other day I saw a transient / homeless person using one. When I saw that I figure I am almost to my goal. Jeff I insulated the living daylights out of my truck. And no electronics either. When the rest of you get knocked off the road by one of those "pulse" devices I will be rambling on...... totally oblivious ....as usual.

Yes I figured I would rather have the more accurate view of the range I would be running in most of the time. With the 4 speed and the 3.55 rear end in my truck it should not ever see anything like 4000 rpm in regular day to day use. So far it seems to have plenty of grunt without winding it up too high. And I think that is a good thing. I wouldn't be too surprised if the Tach becomes a far more accurate tool for judging my actual speed than the speedo. Jeff

Welcome BigDog; That is going to be one sweet rig. You got a good eye. If I lived in a place where keeping one of these big ones wasn't an issue I sure would have gone for it. Have fun and keep us all posted. Jeff