Veemoney

Oh yes, there will be pain. Just grin and bear it, but don't go quietly into the night.

Thanks for responding, that's the place, glad they are still open and diversifying. Took my mother's 98 Yukon with 50K miles in there when her trans started slipping. Hard to believe it needed rebuild with low miles the way she babied it, but it did. As far as getting older goes it's better than the alternative.

May I ask the name of the shop. I used a transmission shop on Sheridan rd near the state line that did excellent work.

Another aspect of these brake fluids is water absorption rates. To achieve the higher boiling points the percentage of Borate Ester in the base Glycol Ether DOT3 fluid is increased in DOT4 and DOT5.1 Glycol brake fluid. The higher the DOT rating the higher the water absorption rate and the increased fluid maintenance. Dot 5 is not a Glycol based fluid so water absorption is not a trait of DOT5. The link provided details of % and boiling points if interested. DOT 3 vs. DOT 4 Brake Fluid: What's the Difference? - AutoZone

I don't recall mine having that to channel the water away, just flat area with drains on each side of the bed in the front to allow the water to flow out. Should help if it stays clean. My truck sits a good bit higher in the rear and anything in the bed would roll to the front and the dirt and leaves plugged it up often. I like the bed wood darker as well and just painted my strips with Chassis black paint. My strips have a combination of square holes for the carriage bolts and flathead screws. The flathead screw locations lined up with my wood cross braces but if installed with the wrong end to the front they did not line up with all the braces.

Welcome Rufus. That is an eye catcher of a car. Big, Bright Shiney and Beautiful

If it had to do with measuring, lenses they were interested in making it or buying the technology/company and putting the Leica brand on it. If it says Leica it is usually pretty good quality from my experience.

By me I used Facebook and Craigs to search for hardwood, sawmilling, oak boards and a few other related searches. I found a few local men using portable sawmills that had both green and aged hardwoods for as low as 2 bucks a sq ft. Some had logs ready to cut to my dimensions. Its rough sawn lumber unless you ask them to finish it but even rough sawn looks pretty good. Most of those mills use a bandsaw type blade.

Looking good Los, My truck had a plywood bed with shovel strips when I got it. I'm not sure how old it was but it was well worn when I received it and I used it that way for many years before changing it out after it started disintegrating at the front of the bed. It was still actually pretty solid with all but about the first foot of the wood toward the front. A suggestion I would offer for the plywood would be to cut notches at the front of the wood where the shovel strips go to allow water and dirt to drain rather than pool up between the bed and front of the plywood. I would think 2" long x 5/8" wide would give a good drain. With the wood planks the gap in-between the boards allows the water to escape. The plywood that was in my truck had nowhere for the water to go and I believe that water pooling at the front was a problem.

That is beautiful piece of automotive history and the story behind with the uncle driving it to high school and saving all the original parts is to cool. Looking forward to seeing more pictures as you move forward with the project.

Cheap and handy tool. thanks for posting it up.

Not sure how your set-up works. My 2010 Ram 1500 has 20" tires and the TPMS idiot light to tell you need air. The batteries in any of the TPMS sensors mounted in each tire go dead sometimes or a sensor malfunctions, if that happens your idiot light will stay on for the system at least it does on my truck. I have been running for a couple years now with that light on with no issues and it doesn't bother the emissions tests when I go through.

This discussion reminds me of the times I would drive to assignments East of Chicago. I'd be going thru the mountain highways at night in my 85 Chevy 1/2 ton with my motorcycle in the back and herds of truckers would assemble in the evening to control the roads. I'd seen truckers use the run-away lanes, the sounds of air brakes, smelled the burned rubber and smoke from the tires as I made my way alongside the giants that ruled the roads many times. Lines of trucks moving from the slow lane to the fast for passing and then back with not much room in between their bumpers. With a truck in front, alongside and behind you can only try to keep up on the downhills. Usually after a few hours of driving with the pack and trying to fit in and stay out of the way someone will compliment someone's driving on the CB with some choice words it was funny and along with the coffee kept me awake. On one such occasion I was the subject as they put the squeeze on me, and I received honorable mention on the squawk box by those that chose to acknowledge me. I normally enjoy driving at night but I always remember the one time I got off at the next available exit when the bumpers and bright lights got to close for comfort in the rear-view mirror.

Welcome to the site. Hope you can show us a picture you may have of the car soon.

Use some shrink tube on it when you do the fix. Helps to keep it clean and reduces the strain on the crimp/wire connection.

I use the search engine on this site and using the search advanced options really helps narrow the search down. The plus to using the search for me is I always learn something from topics other than what I was searching for.

Not sure of your set-up but on my truck there is a valve under the hood to allow water to go through the heater. I usually flip it to on when the weather turns cold.

From the info you provided it seems to be the battery. You could do as Dave72dt described or this quick method which adds a load test and eliminates the waiting periods. Not sure if the folks testing put a load on when they checked the battery. Running you have 7v with lights on shows good charging system. Shut off and check voltage. It normally would drop down slowly to settle at 6.3- 6.6 volts on a good battery. Put a load on it while checking voltage. Example turn lights on or hold the brake for 10 seconds. If voltage drops under 6v into 5v values I would consider it is the battery. Just had similar issue on my 2010 Ram. Had to jump it in the evening when trying to leave my sisters place. Shut it off and it fired back up when I got home. Next morning needed a jump and then ran good and would start again as long as it didn't sit for more than an hr or 2. Running voltage was 14.4v at the battery, off was 13v dropping slowly from there, hit the lights and voltage dropped immediately to 9v otherwise it looked good.

You will like that. When I received my truck it did not have one installed and the pedal would tend to move sideways and come off the ball. I bought 2 and have one on the shelf.

A few things to add to info you have so far. Compression readings are good enough to start as others have said. They normally would improve on an engine that has sat for a while with additional running. Not sure if you had the choke and throttle open when taking them but if not they are likely better than posted. Choke, if it has an automatic choke is it operating correctly and if manual choke are you setting it for starting? If you have a helper that can give a quick spray of starter fluid to the carb as you crank it that will help to get it fired off initially. Just a quick 1 second blast is all I'm talking about so don't go ape shlt with it if it doesn't pop off right away. Once it fires off keep it running with the gas pedal above idle for a bit and gradually ease down on it as it warms up. Remember to check the choke.

Here is a thread talking about the same part number as yours. I couldn't make out the block numbers so second link is to a site with numbers for L6 blocks to confirm your engine. Hope this helps Flathead Engine Numbers: 1958-1968 (t137.com)

Rood, Based on your start-up information after sitting for 22 years it quit smoking after 5 minutes running and ran well. No pieces of piston land, rings or cylinder condition were mentioned so assuming all this is correct you should be good. The over-heating may resolve with the new water distribution tube and flushing you did. Taking .050" off the head should not cause any issues on your motor that are not currently present. That amount according to the chart would give you 7.7 ratio which helps but it is still low compression. Some other things you may look at closely if you have not already: Check the top of the pistons to see if they have any numbers like for example .010" which would identify the pistons are oversized by .010" and possibly the motor was rebuilt at some point. Engines were swapped out often so if you haven't already checked the number on the driver's side of the engine block to confirm it matches up with your title or production year that helps for future reference. Some cars were titled by VIN and some by engine number. Head casting number is good to confirm since compression increases were done so later heads typically had higher compression and many were swapped as a performance upgrade.

If you do choose to mill the head flat, consider taking some additional material off to boost the compression ratio. It really wakes up these low compression motors. I included a link to what I consider a conservative head milling chart located on this site. On my truck I removed .070-.080" with no issues and still runs cool.

You could go look at if a smaller diameter tire and possibly rim would work to give some drop. Those front springs are likely tired, and tires on it now may need replacing anyway. To Snipers point the frame and oil pan will likely limit moving the axle up unless your prepared to notch out some sections to butcher it up. Best to get it cleaned up and running before any major changes if it were me. Keep us posted

Welcome to the site. Solid metal and the painted chassis is a great start. The condition of the wood bed makes for easy removal. I just finished doing the wood bed on my 47WC and I started with a sawsall in the middle where you have a hole now.