Los_Control

Ours are the dish shaped 1-5/8" .... Proper name is a Welsh plug. I have heard good and bad about brass. Brass will not rust .... leaving the block as the weak point. Others have claimed that brass will cause the block where the plugs seat to get divots and rust and make it hard for a plug to seal. This could easily be a old wives tale .... I dunno .... but the steel ones have lasted 70 years .... good enough for me. Just remember when you install them to clean the seating surface well, some apply a little silicone, I did not. When you look at your installed plug the dish is inside the block. When you install the new, the dish is outside the block .... then you smack it with a hammer and the dish is now inside the block. This makes the diameter of the plug expand and seals it to the block .... Ask me how I know. Also I have brass plugs, just because thats what the autoparts store had ... I would be fine with steel.

I have gone by what others have done in the past .... I bought I think it was 6 gallons of vinegar from the grocery store .... I filled the cooling system with 2 gallons and maybe topped it off with water if needed. Then I ran the truck through several heat cycles over a period of 2 or 3 weeks ..... while sitting in the driveway ... not roadworthy at that time or yet. Then I drained it and repeated the process again. .... continued it over several months. I also pulled all the soft plugs, dug out a ton of sand and flushed the block good before adding the vinegar soak treatment. My truck I believed was parked because of overheating issues. Today it can idle all day in the driveway in 100 degree Texas heat .... creeps up to about 185 then the T-stat opens up, cools it right down to 175 or so then eventually creeps up to 185 again ... T-stat opens .... rinse & repeat. Others with driving cars have filled the cooling system with straight vinegar then take them on a nice long drive. They repeat this a few times then flush and add regular coolant. A quart may be all you need, straight vinegar will not hurt either.

Seems years ago there was some laws that did not allow red lights on the front of a vehicle .... too much confusion others thinking you are a emergency vehicle. You want amber on the front, red on the rear ..... So if you mounted the amber/red lights on front with the red on the rear they would or should be fine. Same difference if you mounted them in the rear so the red faces the rear. Probably would never get bothered with them. Today I see private vehicles.... construction contractors with red, white, blue lights on them .... from a distance at night look exactly like police vehicles. So maybe the laws have been changed. Somewhere though I remember reading all front turn signals need to be amber. That might even be DMV for taking a driving test? Still makes me think, if I use my clear front parking lights for turn signals, I will have to use amber colored bulbs.

The only thing I can offer. First I'm going to assume they have assembled other cars in the past .... they know or can figure out most things on their own. There will be some things specific to these cars and help may be required. If you have questions about specific parts, what they are where they go and how .... take good photos of them and share the photos and questions here. Very good chance someone knows by looking at it and can quickly answer your questions. As far as specific bolts ..... I can only hope they were bagged and tagged in some fashion when disassembled. No idea how specific you want the restoration to be. Many will probably need to be replaced. 99% will be a standard SAE thread that you can easily get. I'm buying mine by the pound from Tractor supply. If you want to enter 100 point car shows, most likely would get dinged on points for using modern bolts .... What level of restoration are you going for? If you do want a 100 point restoration, then there are some suppliers that offer the correct bolts for many items, not sure about all though. Again post photos and questions about a specific item and you can get help. Today I have been going through bolts for my 1949 truck running taps & dies fixing threads or replacing bolts as needed preparing for assembly. I use ziplock sandwich bags labeled with drivers fender ... drivers inner fender, front grill shell, headlight buckets, floor. I created the labeled bags when I dissembled the truck. Many of the bolts were broken or bad and needed replaced .... So before assembly, I'm going through each fender and bag of bolts and it will be a smooth assembly .... you need some sort of plan & organization when you take a car apart.

When I first bought my truck I picked up some new plugs at a local parts store .... they just happened to be Champions, I used them for a little bit with no issues. Because modern Champions have a tarnished reputation .... I went to a different parts store and they sold me AC Delco R45. I'm satisfied with them and all my other AC Delco parts .... when buying parts and have a decision to make I always choose AC Delco if I can. Autolite, or NGK are a few other plug choices I would be happy with.

Another vote for throw out bearing. My daily driver truck always had a little bearing noise when I pushed in the clutch ... I never gave it much thought all worked fine. Then a few months ago the clutch failed to work, it was the bearing that had fallen apart and no longer pushed on the clutch. The other item that could cause it is the pilot shaft bushing/bearing .... Modern cars have a roller bearing .... these old cars used a bronze bushing. I once chased a noise in a Toyota 4x4 truck, the roller bearing was froze up. One time I changed clutch in a old truck, everything but the bronze bushing .... it looked good, was a pita to change so I left it. The new clutch , throw out bearing , pressure plate worked fine .... always squeaked from the dry bronze bushing ....If only I would have greased it while I had the chance. Either way, at some point you will be going in and usually all these items are replaced together.

There are threads here covering this common issue. Just very common for this area of the block collects crud and leftover casting sand .... you can confirm this by opening the drain petcock located near the oil fill pipe ..... It plugs up the drain hole and you can not drain the water out of the block. Knowing you will basically be putting the car in storage for some time .... I would be concerned to get the water out ... wondering why the block has not already froze & cracked .... maybe it is not much? I would suggest adding antifreeze to it, if the plug is leaking thats no good. I would want to add water to it when you start it, just to let it warm up and give you a better idea about condition of the engine. If the petcock does not drain, you can always remove it from the block then use some stiff wire to snake out some of the crud and get it to drain.

I just wanted to add that @keithb7 has the face and the patience to create informative videos ..... Not everyone does ... I certainly do not. It is a open option for Keith if they choose to go that direction.

I think you are 100% correct @keithb7 I do watch a channel called DD speed shop and they do exactly what you say. They create content by buying different cars and doing different things with them .... I'm still fascinated with them because they take old cars and create content from them. I remember a 4 door 57 chebby he cut the roof off of and made a 2 door convertible out of it. He cut the roof off then tried to install a complete new floor pan under it ... The car literally broke in 1/2 while getting the floor pan installed, but hey ho he got it did. He actually had a convertible frame for the car and the only reason why he took on the project to begin with ..... was good content watching him fumble through it. Same difference when he rebuilt a 57 chebby Nomad, pretty rare and high end car .... he saved it from a scrap yard, rebuilt all the metal on it then drove it from Canada to the Southwest USA on power tour ... That was last year, This year he rebuilt a 62 nova and made a gasser out of it with a straight axle front end and a high performance 327 .... They just got back from California to Canada and it is a toy.... it is his girlfriend car .... Youtube pays for all of these shenanigans, including the house next door. He rents the house out while using the 2nd garage for more space to build more cars .... He works a full time job as a mechanic, youtube videos pays for all of the extra shenanigans. Youtube is not for everyone, but there are some that are really good at creating interesting content .... Good bad or otherwise, that is how the game is played.

In a perfect world your method would be fine. You need to remove the pipe plug on #6 cylinder .... then when you feel the air on #1, you need to insert a long wire and get #6 to tdc. When 6 it is at TDC it will be on exhaust stroke while #1 is on intake and ready to fire. Because 1 was pushing the air out. When you have a vehicle 75 years old, it is not uncommon for the lower pulley to be out of sync .... when you truly get it on TDC .... nobody here will be surprised if the timing marks do not line up. You really need to use the timing plug over #6 cylinder to get #1 on TDC firing position .... Then many have been known to remark the lower pulley to correct position. Often they are just not correct anymore .... same time you will never know unless you use the pipe plug over #6 You can feel the compression coming from #1, you will know #1 is on it's firing stroke ..... you can only tell TDC from the # 6 pipe plug ... or a disassembled engine. The spark plug is over the valves, not the piston .... you can not tell TDC from #1 cylinder. .... You need the pipe plug over #6.

I have no idea without looking at it, good chance these are the wires you want to remove because they feed the rest of the car. You do want the battery, solenoid & starter connected .... but you do not want any extra wires connected .... they will be to feed the switch or the headlights .... you just do not need them to start the engine. Just figure out what you need to activate the starter from the solenoid .... I have done this with many cars with a screwdriver jumping across the post. Then get power to the coil ..... Assuming all is good the points will have power and fire and run ..... removing the wire to the coil will kill the engine.

Just forget it ..... We all know that everything in life is politically connected. We can not talk about the price of gasoline or the price of food. Or employment or housing ...... What we can talk about is old cars. Lets just enjoy the forum and leave those things aside .... a little place to escape while the world falls apart. Sadly I feel it is needed to eat, sleep, breathe politics every day .... am listening to my version of the news right now ..... There is nothing there for this channel to hear. Feel free to pm me if you want to talk about politics, no guarantee my version matches with yours. Just leave your version out of the main channel ..... I myself had to learn that over the years .... so tempting to post a opinion.

I agree with you to fix a couple of wires ....... IIRC, @OUTFXD has original wiring and simply trying to keep it alive. I'm all for replacing one wire at a time .... eventually they all will be replaced. Just because they are 77 years old. So one wire for $12 fixes the immediate issue .... for $40 more you have a selection of wire for future issues. I'm just thinking ahead .... They are still 6V so many of the wires will be to small to use, same time they would get plenty they can use. So by all means just buy a roll of wire and fix the problem ..... If you expect future problems a universal wire harness is not a bad idea.

It has a mug on it you just got to smile when you see it .... That is a beauty.

To hot wire one of these cars and steal it, you only need one wire. A wire with alligator clips going from the battery to the coil. Then a thief would use a screwdriver to jump across the solenoid ..... steal your car and gone in 60 seconds. To be honest you really do not want any other wires connected if you are unsure of their condition ..... My truck I have power going to my ignition switch, then to the coil. You want some sort of switch in case something goes wrong and you need to shut it off in a hurry. Alligator clips you can just yank on them and pull them from the coil .... points will no longer have spark. Then you want someway to activate the solenoid. A mechanic will have a push button of sorts with alligator clips again to activate the starter ..... So you need battery cables from battery to starter, the other to ground .... you need a jumper wire to get power to the coil, then another jumper to activate the solenoid. Any other wires you want to remove from the battery or starter .. They are for things you do not want right now.

I talk a lot before thinking ..... Just not time to start it up and run it on the jack stands. I have the toe boards out because I have a couple small rust holes to take care of yet ... size of a quarter. I just saved them for last and now is the time. I got the rest of the floor painted heavy with a brush. Still soft and sticky so no work in there for a few days while it dries .... I do not want to bolt the seats in either. So no starting it yet. I have taken the time to work on the fenders .... feel like I'm going backwards removing them again, the best way to fix them though and I have some other things I want to take care of while I have easy access. Pretty sure I will start lots of sanding and a coat of primer then paint before putting it back together this time. I just feel like my lazy painter is finally getting something done. Drivers fender is fixed, hope to get the passenger fender done today. I'm still setup for 6V + ground, have everything here to go 12V - ground and points, condenser, rotor, coil, ballast resistor, voltage regulator. ... I can take care of ignition & charging circuits at this point. 2nd time around but much better prepared this time. ...... One of these days, I'm going to drive this thing!

Back in the 1970's they use to wire houses with aluminum wire ... it was cheaper. So it was real common to see in mobile homes and then cheaper contractors used it. Because the wire expands and contracts so much, it would eventually leave all the connections on the ends loose .... many home fires were caused from it ... then it was banned from home use ... I think it is still used in outdoors from power companies on poles and providing power to the outdoor meter. I have never seen "copper clad aluminum wire" I would not want to use it myself. This might seem like over kill if you just need a couple wires. Copper wire is expensive. This is a 12 circuit universal wire harness from Amazon for $43 I bought a 14 circuit for not much more, but I need to completely rewire my truck and am now 12 volt. I have decided I do not want to use the fuse box, while it would work for me it is overkill .... So I'm going to cut all the wire off of it and just build my own wire harness. For $50 I get all the different colored wires & different gauges .... more then enough to wire my simple truck. When you start buying rolls of automotive wire at $8-$10 per roll, then different gauges and different colors .... $$ will quickly add up. I have been collecting rolls of wire since 2018 when I bought the truck, have very poor selection of colors and more then $50 tied up in it. I wish I would have just bought the wire harness in the first place. @Plymouthy Adams is doing the same thing, just getting it cheaper buying it used at the wrecking yards.

I remember you saying you want to try and keep yours as original as possible .... IIRC. I feel the same way but within reason .... I want stock suspension, flathead motor, 4:10 rear end. .... I will get the old truck driving experience. I need to rewire the truck & my generator is not putting out ..... I'm switching to a 12 volt chebby alternator and 12 volt wire harness. Everything about 6 volt systems cost more to replace .... Cheaper , more reliable, easy to find replacement parts on the road ....Does not interfere with old truck driving experience. I can run the slant 6 electronic ignition hack with 12 volts, .... I get a lot of advantages with 12 volts. Same with the seats, A terrible old truck bench seat on a long day of cruising would be more appropriate for the old truck experience ..... I'm fine with having some comfortable bucket seats. My master cylinder was shot, so I installed the Toyota Camry 2 stage master cylinder .... Not original but a improvement in my mind. I'm sure I make some purist cringe on how I'm putting my truck back on the road ... I'm ok with that. I'm totally expecting to drive the truck as a daily driver for all my needs around town. I expect to pick up greasy used engines, lumber, groceries ... go for a long Sunday drive .... I'm building it to drive. .... I kept it out of the scrapyard ..... if someone else wants to restore it after I'm dead .... I wont care .... I just want to drive it while alive. With all that said, I think the chebby seats are a great choice ... my daily driver is a 1991 chebby truck ... I love the seats.

I was only pointing out that they are a thing. Grandpa had a 1953 International 1 ton pickup .... I have never seen another like it, I'm sure they are out there. I just never seen one in person. I'm sure Ford & Chebby also had their version of the 1 ton. Just something you do not see very often. They are a cool truck

oops had to edit that.

Been a long time since I have lived in WA. Watched a video the other day where Waylon who lives in Eastern WA sold a truck and shipped it to Ohio. The old legal title said for the seller to fill in this portion and send it in to Olympia to release interest in vehicle ...... This is how it use to be done. When the new owner took the title to Ohio dmv to change it over, they would not accept the title because it had been altered by removing the sellers report? So Waylon had to go down and file for a replacement title .... He said it was $13 to release his interest in it. ..... New ways to collect tax revenue.

The truck looks pretty solid from the photos you shared. I do not think it is actually a rare truck, but not very many of them left to build. It has the full length running boards so it is a 1 ton with a pickup bed, not a flat bed. @ggdad1951 has a restored one, very nice trucks. I'm only guessing, if there was a pilothouse car show with 30 pilothouse trucks entered .... only 1 or 2 would be 1 ton pickups. If any. Your area is known for rust, maybe it is too far gone .... just looks good in photos. The wheels, running boards, stainless grill & other parts will bring good $$ if you end up selling off parts on it that you do not want. .... Too bad about the engine.

I would spend a few minutes and watch keiths video. He explains things pretty clear usually and shares where he buys parts. I'm afraid if you need gears or shafts replaced, you may have to find good used parts .... possibly a spare transmission. And it has been done to take a column shift transmission and swap it to a floor shift by changing the tops on them. So the tops are different, the transmissions should be the same .... so not limited to just a truck floor shift for parts. While he is working on a 1938 car, I think there were very minor changes between his and yours ..... who knows what year yours really is. As a side note, it could be possible your 1950 came out with a floor shift 3spd ... just using up the inventory they had. Or just as easily it originally had a 4spd with 1rst gear granny ... would be a floor shift from the factory and later on got switched to a 3spd. No big deal either way .... little things make me curious.

Donor? ☹️

The main concern for me would be that whoever picks it up the title is taken out of your name. I know Washington titles did have a portion of the title you would remove and send it in when the vehicle changed owners .... I heard recently there was a change to the Washington title ..... now it will cost someone $13 to send it in ..... I do not know the details, just that there were changes. Nothing worse then 3 years later getting a tow bill for a abandoned car that you are the last known registered owner. You are now liable for the tow & the storage of the stripped out shell of a vehicle abandoned on the side of the road. If a charity outfit picks it up you are probably pretty safe .... If it is a private individual .... it is tough to trust them to do the right thing.