Jeff Balazs

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 quiet it is in the cab. A lot of little details result in good things..... Jeff

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 alternator. I didn't do any suspension or spring mods and it rides pretty darn nice. It works for me but I have never taken a trip over 2 hours in it. If that works for you then at least you know it is achievable. If you want a lot more than that out of one of these trucks then you really need to make some serious modifications. Not just an engine swap. For me taking it just so far has worked out. It runs and drives better than I expected for an almost 70 year old truck. If I ever need more I will drive something more modern. But probably not. ? Jeff

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

I was just thinking about him earlier today. Anybody ever hear from him? He was one of my main hero's when I first started building my truck. His videos keep me going when the going got tough! Sure hope he and Dolly are still on the road. Jeff

Geez.........guess I have been lucky so far. The only pests I have had in my 52 has been the occaisional bee that have made it into the cab when I am driving down the road. Dodge should have made a screen for the cab vent scoop...... Jeff

?Yes but nothing like what you are doing with yours. Tomorrow mine will haul me and my fishing gear down to Dana Point harbor to go fishing for the day. Not quite as rigorous a use as yours sees. Jeff

Very cool Wally! I love to see these old trucks getting used like they were meant to be. Jeff

About 8 or 9 years ago when I was working on my truck a core like that was about $1000 plus labor. I am not surprised they have gone up. I had mine recored at the time with a modern 2 row. I used it for a couple of years that way. But it is so hot here that I ended up getting a new Desert cooler 4 row radiator just to be safe. That cost $600 If you need a good used one Pm me. Jeff

Brad; I hope I didn't come across as being critical. Just making suggestions based on my experiences. You are really rolling along now. Keep up the good work. It won't be too long now..... Jeff

I have the same pump but use a sealed canister type filter ahead of it. I have over 5 years of daily use with mine.....so I know it works well. I chose to do some of the plumbing with fuel injection type hose to make it easier to service. I don't really like too much hard piping on stuff like this. At least at the business ends. I feel like this sort of stuff needs to allow for frame flex and vibration. My main run is hard pipe but both ends have hose and hose clamps. It is easy to work on and gets replaced every couple of years. I know it isn't as pretty as the tubing but it works well for me. Also while I like the look of the glass bowl type filters I prefer to use sealed element canisters when it comes to something in this location. Just my opinions and observations Fwiw. Jeff

Just because a carb has been rebuilt and is getting fuel does not mean it is not the problem. I worked and worked on my original carb and my truck ran. But it was never quite right no matter what I tried or did. I ended up finding a NOS replacement and put a fresh kit in it and no more problems. The point I am trying to make is that on going issues like this generally have a "part" that we assume is OK. Jeff

The head gasket in the Felpro set is IMO the weak point. I had problems with mine after about a year and went to the Best Brand per advice from some of my Mechanic buddies. It has been fine in daily use. My mechanic buddies won't use Felpro head gaskets anymore after having several fail. Jeff

My two cents worth. I would advise you to use a gasket set made by Best. Anything else seems to fall short these days. Especially when it comes to the head gasket. Hth, Jeff

As I said there are a lot of different ways to approach the fuel delivery system. And certainly no one way is perfect. My way is perhaps shaded by knowing of and hearing about mechanical pump diaphragm failures that allowed raw fuel to enter the crankcase and do serious damage. I for one don't ever want to be the guy that happens to.? Jeff

There is definitely more than one approach to fuel delivery. The solution I chose was to install a full time electric fuel pump back at the tank and ditch the mechanical pump altogether. This was a change I decided upon as I read various posting regarding pump failures. I feel that it has been 100% effective in preventing 3 fairly common problems. I have not had my truck stall in traffic due to a simple pump failure. Even more critical there is no path for raw fuel to enter the crankcase during a major pump failure. And It has helped eliminate hard starting problems when the engine is hot. The pump I installed is a large rotary vane pump and it has a sealed canister type fuel filter ahead of it and one just before the carb. This has worked flawlessly for more than 5 years of regular use. After reading some of the horror stories here and elsewhere I wouldn't do it any other way. Jeff

Brad you are welcome. And for the record I would encourage anyone with one of these trucks to use it often. In general the more you run it the better it will run. IMO the worst thing you can do is let it set. When I started building my truck I had a lot of people tell me that it was never going to work out as a daily driver. Too slow....too tempermental .......too uncomfortable.....etc. And for the most part that might have been true if I had not made a few mods during the build. Certainly the stock 4.10 rear end would not have cut it. And I think the stock brakes would have held me back in the kind of traffic I have to deal with here. But those were really the only significant things I felt I needed to change. The rest of my tweaks were made to make maintenance easier or to provide a better level of comfort. And I will tell you that with very few minor niggles it has all worked out. If you end up retiring to the SW you should be able to get regular use from your truck. I would definitely encourage it. They were and still are good old work trucks. Jeff

Brad; Using one of these trucks as a daily driver has actually been a great experience. I will tell you that while it wont do everything a modern truck will do....... it does what it was intended to do better than most newer trucks do.......and reliably. It has given me a whole new perspective on quality of design and construction. You will probably find that you develop a bit of play in the steering fairly early on. My suggestion is to make very small adjustments until you get it where you want it. Adjust and then drive for a while. Once you have it where you want it ....it should stay there for several thousand miles. Mine has. One thing I can tell you about using one of these trucks on a regular basis is that they tend to get sweeter with use. Mine runs and drives better the more that I use it. In more than 5 years of daily use it has never left me stranded. I don't even have an AAA membership. Jeff