godenades

Unfortunately life has changed and I will be moving... won't have too much time to work with this girl and haven't done much since i originally posted. I did find that the wires are in need of replacement (started smoking due to fray) and rebuilt the carb. She is for sale if anyone is interested. San Diego, CA area. I have a trailer and a truck to tow it if you are close and interested. Thanks for all of your help guys!

Thanks for the ideas here, I will certainly go the Lam route, no need to get hurt! I could even go Lam all the way around, as i said, there is no difference in cost. I am actually surprised that I was given the option!

Not sure if it is legal, but I do know that I had a Chevy S10 with Tempered glass in it... When I got into an accident the glass shattered into a million and one pieces, all of which were not sharp/shard-like. From what I understand Tempered glass is good because it is actually 5-10 times stronger than regular glass. The other option I have is to go with the laminate glass, which has a layer of laminate within so rather than shatter, it just spiderwebs like crazy. That is what most windshields today are made of. I could go to Laminate at no additional cost... I will have to do more research.

Just got a quote from a guy here in the SoCal area who said he can get me the original "green tint" glass, tempered, all together $406 out the door. That is for two front windshield pieces, two door vent windows, two door windows and the rear window. Not bad!

Wow, very interesting. Well, i can't wait to get her back on the road... haven't had any time to explore her yet, not much time at least. Had the in laws in town since I picked her up. I am hoping this weekend brings some time for me to spend getting down and dirty. I will keep you all posted, thank you for the support!

Ok, thanks guys, I was pretty down as I thought this thing was pretty original. .. though I can certainly understand that 60+ yeasts is a long time for an engine to sit in one truck. I have that book on the way as well as the repair guide. One thing I did notice that seems different after someone pointed it out was the accelerator post on the top of the motor though I don't even know what that is used for.

That sounds great! I would love to be a part of something like that. I did find some bad news last night though, the ID on the engine block looks to start with P18. It's not the original motor. .. it looks like it's from a Plymouth delux, 1949... that hurts.

Great looking truck! Looks like you have a great project ahead of you. I look forward to trading pics as we move along this process!

On the tag inside the door jam, it shows a max HP of 97. I have done some searching on google and I have found that the only straight six with that HP rating is the 217 version. Does that sound right to you? Now of course, that is assuming the engine has never been changed.

Nevermind, a quick google search showed me what you are looking for. I will have to do some exploration tonight or tomorrow AM. It looks like the number you are looking for includes stars in it. I will get back to you asap. Thank you also for the clarification DJ, that helps. My title however is indeed the "Vehicle No." which is located on the door frame tag.

I thought I did, is that picture not the area you were looking for? There is a number right near that blue pin and the number is 13118106 i believe. It is hard to make out the last number "6" but i think that is it. Are you looking for a different number?

Wow, that things is sweet looking... I love the light on the hood! I want one. haha

Very nice, and you custom built those? Or did you purchase them from somewhere?

Great information there Merle, thank you very much! I was having trouble locating that VIN Decoder, great information! I just bought that book it should be here in 4 days or so! Thanks a ton, i look forward to the book!

Thank you Jeff, i really appreciate that! I already ordered the service manual through Rock Auto, but I haven't order the parts book or the original owners manual, though they do have those for sale as well. I will definitely invest in the parts manual as soon as I can. Very cool that you are so close! What all do you do in the shop? As for the truck, i will take very good care of her!

Here are some of the ID numbers i was able to find quickly on my way out of the house today. Wish i could spend all day with that truck... unfortunately I have to work in order to support my habit! Let me know what you think or what these numbers teach you please. In case you can't read it, the Vehicle No. = 85318745, Model = B3B-108. Thanks!

Beautiful truck! How do they mount in there? I Like that look!

Will do wayfarer, looks great! I will certainly have to research more should I decide to go down that path... i fell like I would need to be a much better mechanic to mess with all that, rather than just sticking what is there and mostly original... we will see, but i will keep that thread in mind, thank you for the post!

Thanks 48Dodger! I had no idea the rear bumper was tough to come by. I actually had showed a guy at work some pictures of the truck and of course he said "looks like its not the original bumper, i would put the original pretty looking on back on", i told him i love the way this bumper looked and i thought it was original based on other pictures i had seen and the front bumper. awesome! I am already enjoying it! I did grab some pics of the tags, i will post them in a moment. but it is a B3B, i have confirmed that much. Thanks for your post!

I agree! i will have to keep an eye out on that thread as well as contribute more once I get into the swing of things. I am kind of in the preliminary stages at this point and wanted to start my research. Thanks JBNeal!

Thanks Nikwillig, I think you are right on both accounts! And I too think keeping it original is the way to go... if it was torn up, or missing a ton of parts then maybe I would consider going the hotrod route. No use in doing that when i have a nice specimen of original 1953 already there! Thanks for the comment! I hope your project is going well!

Hey Jeff, you are also in the southern california area huh? I certainly know that I want to work on the exterior paint, and I also want to replace some parts that I know need replacing or are missing. I am sure that will take some time due to budget constraints but i will certainly take your advice and do a lot of studying during that time to ensure I am positive on the direction i will be moving forward with. Thank you!

Hmmm, i had no idea on that cable, though I would imagine I will have to go through and rewire the entire truck. Some of the wiring in there now is a bit messy. I am not familiar with this engine at all so I will definitely be reading through the forum posts for any informaiton I can find. The truck runs great and starts great, but the battery i had in there only had 2.5 amps... it worked for a couple minutes and I don't think the generator had a chance to charge it, and it is now dead. I can't even get the starter to turn over anymore. I have the battery on a charger and will probably throw it back in sometime this weekend if I have a chance. Gas tank must have been bad if they had it hot-tanked, though the condition of it now is perfect! I would assume the same gas that sat in the tank, also sat in the lines... I will opt to go ahead and replace them all along with the brake lines. I have never done either of these jobs but I suppose it is time to learn huh? I assume i can just take the old lines off, mirror them while off and then put the new lines that I created back in... shouldn't be that bad, though I have never done it and it always "sounds" easy. Thanks for the tips though! I will certainly look into 0 gauge wiring!

Thanks for the advice Merle, again, I am sure most of this stuff is covered in previous threads so I will have to get down and dirty into the history when I am less busy. Great idea on the floor though, how is that holding up for you? I love that you can pretty much just do what you feel like doing for things like the floor, i could really get creative. I don't want to get crazy, but a little creativity is never a bad thing, as long as it doesn't affect the integrity of the originality that is! I don't want to jump to conclusions but with the advice i have received thusfar from all of you great people, i see no reason why i shouldn't keep it stock and original, i think that is what I will be doing! Such a cool truck! Thanks for the advice Merle! I will keep this information on hand as I move through this project! Great vendor information you provided!

I couldn't agree more! I feel like it was preserved so well for over 60 years, it would certainly be a shame to chop it all up with new parts. I love the old and original stuff and i really think that is the route I will go. I can't bring myself to build a hotrod out of this truck... heck, if I want a hotrod i will find an old chevy or ford that has already been gutted. 8 tracks are still cool! As for the low side bed, i actually didn't even notice until right now what you all were talking about! Wow, so my truck's bed is around what, 6 inches lower than most others? Is this a rare option to find or pretty common? Thanks for the post!