Los_Control

I was not thinking the radiator leaking, more the gasket on the radiator cap. Possibly steam leaking past the cap ..... Since it is a non pressurized system, hard to imagine a actual leak in the radiator at the neck. So I picture steam or vapor leaking from the cap when it should go out the overflow tube ..... just a guess on my part.

I always think the green corrosion is caused from leaking coolant ..... Is your radiator cap ready to be replaced? Nice if you have a radiator shop local you can deal with .... they seem to be harder & harder to find. Draining your coolant and filling it with straight vinegar is a possible solution. Grocery stores sell it by the gallon labeled for cleaning purposes. Is a higher acidic then cooking or salad vinegar. Run your engine through a few heat cycles, take it for a drive .... the mild acid will clean out your complete cooling system ... to a certain point. Will not hurt it, in some cases may just not be strong enough .... while professional flushes may be too strong. .... Should clean the green off also while you are at it. Then pull it & paint it. The leaking petcock may just need to replace it or possible it has crud in it, soak & clean it & it may work fine again.

I wonder if you have a grounding issue. .... Is there some sort of fiber washer missing to keep the stud away from the case? The stud needs to be tight, you may have to go back in & see whats up. Hopefully someone comes along with a better answer. .... either way the stud needs to be snugged up tight, not left loose. I wonder if you reversed polarity & ran it negative ground, if the problem goes away? Would confirm a ground issue.

I do not know the real answer to your question .... Looking at the photo, seems they are made from different manufacturer's .... Trying to picture the cam lobe turning in the engine operating the pump. Seems the top one the lever pushes up. The bottom one pushes down. Is one design better then another? I can only think about installing a pump holding it with your left hand with no bolts installed, while rotating the engine by hand with your right hand. I would slowly rotate the engine looking for the spot with the least resistance on the lever. Where the high point of cam lobe is away from pump lever. Probably still be some resistance on the lever holding the pump away from block. Then I would do the same with the other pump & compare the least resistance between the two pumps. The cam lobe does not change so they both will get pushed just as far .... so long as they are both starting at the same low point. I only see a problem if you find the low point on 1 pump, & the pump is held 1" away from the block .... the other pump is 1/4" away ... I would think that the 1rst pump would never release enough to get full stroke. In real life, I would just grab the pump I wanted .... bench test it just to make sure I hear sucking sounds .... & install it. Chances are if they have not been rebuilt with modern rubber for modern fuels, you will be visiting this area again soon. With a new pump with a different design.

Not sure what starter you are working with ... I assume it has a solenoid on the firewall? My truck has a stomp starter on the floor with solenoid attached to the starter .... the solenoids need to be cleaned for good connections. Possibly your loose "pole" on starter needs cleaning also? ...... Clean electrical connections can be a headache on a vehicle that has sat for a long time. FWIW, your car originally would be positive ground, so your connections are correct. Just so you know, the starter does not care & will work positive or negative ground. .... So long as it is not connected to the cars wiring

I think @LeRoy is correct. ..... I also think you may be slightly overdue for brake maintenance Possible all you need is a good adjustment to get them back into good working condition. If your drums are worn beyond safety specs, then I might start considering disk brakes or other avenues.

I wonder if you have the original bulbs? Thats my plan is to take them down to Charlie at the parts store and match them up with 12v bulbs.

I'm not big on "new hype" .... What caught my attention was it is not affected by heat, humidity or time. A standard fire extinguisher can be carried around for years & hopefully never used. But they do need to be checked & re-filled from time to time. I like the idea of my truck having a traditional fire extinguisher on display & ready to use .... I also like the element extinguisher as a backup. It did not seem to last long, if caught early enough it could be all you need ..... If your out of date conventional fire extinguisher fails, is better then nothing.

I have a personal issue with napa .... 6-7 years ago while visiting my Uncle in WA state, I went to napa to buy a tire inflater. Just a cheap photo from Lowes hardware to show what I was looking at ..... Napa listed it on the shelf for over $80 .... I felt it was worth $45 tops, it was high quality. When you pick it up & take it to the counter to pay for it .... then they decide what discount to give you. I got it for my price only because my Uncle was a friend of theirs. Not saying they ripped me off, just saying they keep the door open for it ..... I try to avoid them if I can. Thats a good tip, I have some more lines to make up & will remember that while making them. Buying the superior nicop online is no problem. I just find it odd the local stores are discontinuing steel lines without introducing the new replacement nicop lines. I wonder if it is because they are new & stores do not want liability for them???? I dunno, seems they would offer them as a replacement if removing the old product.

Looks like a great project to me ..... I would love to have it myself, since I live in town I sadly would find little use for it Looking at your photos, I have a feeling you will keep that old girl hopping with getting the chores done Welcome aboard!

Rule #1 ..... WE LIKE PICTURES!!! Your plan sounds great ..... I would not count on using the original tapered axle rear end. ..... You can, I doubt the small hemi would break it. Working with the tapered axle is a pia, finding stock replacement brake drums is a pia .... there is a guy who sells re-pops for $400 each on ebay. That is the curse of building a older Mopar .... parts availability. A Ford Explorer 8.8 or a Jeep cherokee Dana rear end is readily available in a wrecking yard, they have a wide selection of gear ratios .... they are cheap, easy to get parts for, they share the same wheel bolt pattern as your car ..... they are the correct width, or close enough. IMHO, if you are going to swap in newer motor/trans, I suspect you will need to build/modify a drive line to fit, build your braking system ...... I would change the rear end while at it. ..... There are front disk brake conversions available & advice from others on getting top performance from existing front end. As far as your motor selection ..... I say choose whatever floats your boat.

DCM classics has the gas pedal https://dcmclassics.com/46-1948-1953-b-series Fuel pump I bought from Napa .... I did buy a water pump & carburetor, other parts from rockauto. Availability of parts change over time though .... RA no longer have the carbs available ... rebuild kits are available from several suppliers. Tanks is one solution for a new fuel tank. No idea what condition your existing tank is in .... if it is original 70 years old, might be easier to replace it for $300? I bought my tank & sending unit a few years ago for $250 for my 1949 .... Inflation. They do not have a exact fit for your year. They sell a tank for a 1947 Dodge ..... The difference is the rear mounting location. Up to 1947 the 1/2 ton trucks the fuel tank mounts to the rear cross member. 1948-1950 1/2 ton trucks also mount to rear cross member. The difference is 1948 they moved the rear cross member back a few inches. So 1948 has a longer tank. The front mount & fuel neck stays the same ...... is only the rear mount that is different. This is only for the 1/2 ton trucks!!!! 3/4 ton trucks & larger have a longer wheel base and the cross member is moved further back ..... The factory made a rear mounting bracket for the fuel tank. You only need to grind off the 2 rivets holding the bracket to the frame, relocate it to where it works with the 1947 tank. The modification needed is so minor, "Tanks" was not going to spend the $$$ to stamp out a new tank for 48-50 trucks .... the 1947 tank will work fine for you. https://www.tanksinc.com/index.cfm/page/ptype=product/product_id=349/category_id=68/mode=prod/prd349.htm There is a tank on ebay for your year for $640 .... I would rather save $300 & grind 2 rivets.

Looks like TP23 could be a 1960 230 CI. https://www.t137.com/registry/help/otherengines/19581968engines.html

Just went out to look at a utility trailer I have ... (48-50 year) It had 10 hooks on it ... 4 down each side & 2 on tailgate. My 49 truck had 4 eye bolts on it. 1 in each corner of the bed. .... Hooks are better. Also both beds had 2 reflectors on the tail gates. I just think adding the hooks & reflectors was common at the time. I plan to weld up the big eye bolt holes in my bed, add hooks and replace the reflectors with new. Not factory, just a common upgrade people did back in the day.

Good neighbor to have

Can be many things .... My first thoughts is fuel delivery. Closing the choke is shutting off air which enriches the fuel. Possible a failing fuel pump can deliver enough fuel to run fine at idle, fill the float bowl .... But going down the road it just cant keep up. Might take a couple miles to drain the float bowl. Then with the small amount of fuel being delivered ..... closing off the air/choke it runs but without enough fuel to give normal power.... Another possibility would be a plugged pickup tube in the tank .... some obstruction in the fuel line .... plugged filter? Could be electrical also .... does the coil get hot when this happens? .... Should be warm, too hot to touch I would replace it. <--- first thing I would check Just a couple ideas to get you going.

That is good advice .... I was just looking at my rear line on the shelf saw the part # was different then the rear line for @elane352 1957. Then I remembered I ordered 3 front lines & what I'm using on my rear. ..... Probably for this very reason.

For my 1949 I bought my hoses from rockauto .... sure there are many other places also ... mine fit fine and do what they are advertised to do. https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/dodge,1957,d100+pickup,3.8l+230cid+l6,1488512,brake+&+wheel+hub,brake+hose,1792 Just a thought, maybe you can get the part # from RA & then have your local autoparts store translate it to something they have in stock ... NAPA is pretty good about being able to go back to the early years for part #

What I have read & been told, it kills the rust & stops it from getting worse while creating a paintable primer .... is this really true? What gives me hope is this one truck here. If you look at my avatar & see my truck as it was pulled out of a field .... We call it a Texas suntan .... paint is just burned off from the sun. I tried everything I could to mechanically remove the rust .... including 32 grit paper on a 4.5" grinder ... all it does is polish the rust. Acids while disgusting, was the only way for me to remove the rust at home. This truck is also a Texas truck that had some good suntan going on. This paint was 7 or 8 years old .... He went to a car show & saw someone copied his paint scheme, so he re-painted it & has different wheels now. ...... He just used ospho on the surface rust 10 years ago. I took this photo 2 years ago This photo a few weeks ago ... It is dirty & needs a bath, there is no rust coming back These are not "that kind of build" I would not suggest it for something being restored. After 2 years on my truck .... 10 years on the other truck .... I'm fairly confident with it.

I would be interested in looking at some of that .... My thought with the inner tube, they are already formed in a circle & easy to cut with a pair of scissors. You would want to use some sort of contact glue or sealer to glue one side of it to the fender .... easier to install. Tire shops will install new tubes with new tires .... The used ones are often sold cheap as "swim tubes" The ones that will not hold air are thrown away. I personally would like to have some of that rubber material around for many different uses ... just have it available. .... I would use it as a fender gasket. I have never used seam sealer before ... I bought some to seal up the floor in my cab after I weld it in, I have other ideas of where I might use it. @ggdad1951 mentioned using body caulk, I just assumed they were the same product. Maybe seam sealer is not a good idea to use as a gasket?

There was nothing proud of the seam on mine either, but there was some form of gasket material "welting" I used a heat gun to soften it up & a scraper to remove it. .... It was pretty uniform in width & thickness, making me believe it was a gasket of sorts & not caulk. I imagine its purpose was to prevent squeaks & rattles. I have been thinking about going to a local truck tire repair shop in search of old inner tubes to be thrown away. Make a gasket from that. Seam sealer does sound like a good idea also.

I have never needed to use wheel spacers. .... I would feel fine using them as long as they are quality made. I watched this guy build this truck on youtube, I know he has been driving it for over a year pulling a large trailer .... it is a solid work truck. It is a 8 lug Dodge 3/4 or 1 ton axles with semi truck super singles 22.5 wheels mounted using the magic of wheel spacers. Not sure if this would be considered severe Duty use .... they certainly do work if built right ..... these were built by his buddy who has a machine shop.

I have watched 1 or 2 of their videos .. I liked this one showing installing glass without rubber. I think the main issue is what is available for them & what we have available . I love what he does with what he has to work with ..... I'm just not certain I would do the same things he does.

I think no matter what you do, when you put it back together .... then you drive it .... there will be some clearance that magicaly appears. The books I read, they always said to lock them down then back them off. .... I claim to be a young man born in 1962 .... this method has never failed me. It is not a certain torque .... it is spin the wheel til it stops .... then imho I give it just another 1/4 turn to lock it down. I read this method in a book somewhere .... been using it for 50 years ...It does work & just used it a few months ago on my daily driver. Any play in your wheel bearings will show wear on your tires, also possibly in the steering wheel ... The bearings will run hot & wear out early. Why we need to check them & grease them every couple years ....