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I wanted an antique vehicle to tinker with, and to use as a daily driver for the short 2 mi round trip from the house to the shop. I was looking for something unique that would also serve as an eye catcher when people drove by my store. One day a customer of mine mentioned he had an old Dodge sitting in his yard for the last 20 years that he was not going to do anything with, and would sell it to me. One look at this vehicle and I fell in love. I could see the potential. Yep, he was in bad shape but I didn’t see all that. I had a vision. My wife calls the truck TANK, because of the green color, and his size. She names all our vehicles. TANK is a 1950 B2C. My friend offered to store the vehicle at his property until we finished building our new house and my garage. The next day the truck was in his garage, on jacks, with the butterfly hood removed, and when I walked in his shop Al had the engine turned over and running on three cylinders. My suggestion: If you want to restore an old vehicle, get about two or three retired guys involved: One with a machine shop, one with a garage, and one that was a farmer. These guys got nothing to do, and lots of knowledge. Long story short: here is what we’ve done so far. We pulled the head and had it milled. While it was off we then pushed on the valves as we cranked the motor until they quit sticking. Al helped me rebuild the carburetor, and do a full tune up. I purchased a kit from AAJ Brakes and modernized the stopping system: modern disks, calipers, piping, master cyl. Swing pedal, and while we were at it put in a hydraulic slave cyl., and clutch swing petal. Roger, the owner of AAJ lives in Portland, so I was able to drive down to his shop and meet with him. He really hooked me up with his break kit. He was very helpful and fun to talk with about our love for old vehicles. Most of his kits are for cars, and this was a unique application for a ¾ ton. In the end I had to get 5 on 5 lug pattern rims from a 70’s GMC truck so the rotors fit inside the rim. George had to drill the rear rotors to fit the 5 on 5 lug pattern. George also fabricated a new floorboard and battery well too, and patched rust holes in the cab body, replaced the front cab mounts and surrounding rusted floor, and took dents out of the roof, and fixed the frame where the rear cross member was rusted out, and replaced the rear shock mounts, and built me a custom gas tank to replace the Swiss cheese original, and installed a one wire alternator and custom bracket (George can make anything in his shop), and repaired the bottom of the rusted doors, and the back of the cab, and replaced the king pins in the front end, and installed the electric fuel pump he talked me in to buying. Over the summer I got a crash course in body work, and learned how to weld and grind and weld and grind, and grind, and grind. Oh yea, and sand and sand. At the end of the summer, 6 months after first arriving at Al’s place, TANK drove on his own power, up to my new garage from George’s shop in town. I now know a little more about a Bridgeport mills, and hydraulic presses, and all kinds of sheet metal bending, shearing, stamping, snipping, and welding, and the plasma cutter Oh boy, and rebuilding a carb., and flat head motors, etc….. George is a capitalist. At first, I paid him for his time, but after a while, I think he got more value out of me learning and him instructing, and he finally gave me the keys to his shop so I could work on the truck when he was gone. TANK now sits in my new garage. I rewired the alternator harness, amp gauge, ignition switch, and battery charging system for 12v. I have all the gauges working properly too, and a remote filter system installed, and I removed the oil pan and cleaned out the gunk, and painted the pan hot rod orange, and this week I am replacing the leaking water pump. I’m sure I missed things I fixed. Oh yea, repaired the choke and idle cables, and persuaded the emergency brake to work with a little WD-40 on the cable. I’m working my way towards the back. I am going to replace the fluids in the transmission and rear end next. Final stage is to reassemble the bed and paint the truck. I want it to be on the road by the end of this summer. So that is about it. I am infinitely grateful for the Pilothouse forum and after discovering the site, and observing that it looks like a great bunch of people, I decided to join, and maybe add to the knowledge base. Oh yea, Ruderhaus is German for Pilothouse.

I have been studying this conversion these past few weeks, reading other brand forums as well. I know the arguments to stay 6 volts and for the past few years I have had minimal problems but I am going ahead with this conversion. Not that I need to justify this but.....I tow a small Boler camper trailer using the Plymouth or my Mustang and changing my bulbs between 6 and 12 volts is tiresome, I needed a signal light flasher and a headlight once on a road trip.....‘‘twas unavailable in 6 volt. When camping I can’t charge my trailer 12 volt system with the car. We road trip a fair bit with the car and we can’t easily charge the blue tooth speaker or phones while travelling (I know there are electronic items to fix that). Anyway....I want to convert to 12 volts but I haven’t found a good read on what works best when it comes to wiper motors and heater motors. Are they polarity sensitive ? Is the resistor method a cheap time limited path ? I think it would be best to find these motors in a 12 volt version but where do I find these ? I think I have a grasp on the lighting, fuel gauge and horn. I can then buy a 12 volt cooling fan to ditch my belt driven fan. One wire alternator or the 3 wire alternator....any preference ? Who has done this conversion and has pointers for me ?

fuel gauge OK I converted to 12 volt neg ground. Didn’t know the fuel gauge wouldn’t work on 12 so I wired it up. All out of whack of course, runs out at a little les than half a tank. Question now is did I ruin it or if I plug in the Runtz 12 Volt to 6 Volt reducer will it still work?