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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.

hey guys i decided to start a new subject my old one is kinda dead now. so as you all know i have a 1950 b2c with the 218 l 6. i finally got it to run rebuilt the carb today and it wont stay running for more than 5 minutes but still ik it will run once its really hooked up. but now that i have an exhaust system installed on it somewhat. its more quiet at the engine and i have noticed two things. crankshaft pully wobbles a lot. and theres a ticking coming from inside the valve train. so i started the engine and ran it and the weird thing is none of the lifters are stuck they all move freely with the engine running i was actually able to spin the lifters with my fingers they seemed to spin pretty freely is that what the should do and i dont know if the engine is supposed to do that i mean its a 1950 im sure the lifters werent dead silent but any help would be greatly appreciated. all valves open and close i dont have the tools to adjust them and not exactly able to run it long enough to get the engine to temperature. so if they are supposed to spin freely like that when the engine is running what could be making the ticking? i used an oil gun and sprayed thick oil on the lifters and it didnt silence the ticking at all they look like they are getting lubricated. ive been having oil passage problems so im scared to run the engine to long i dont want to break it. basically my oil gauge reads 40-50 and when i unplug that line it spurts oil but when i unhook the line to my oil filter the return and the supply nthing comes out of those two lines so i dont know if just that passage is clogged or something else is. you see if this was an earlier engine the info would be available but like my dad said it being a 1950 and a chrysler we just dont know too much about it. so if you could give me info and tips on how to chase the tick and adjust my valves and just any info you can really. i need every ounce of knowledge i can get!!! thank you all so much ill try and get a video of it maybe and post it or post it on my youtube so you can watch and listen also my enghine has some pretty bad sludge whats a good additive to remove all that??

Hello, when I got my truck, I also got an assortment of wheels. the first picture attached is the 5 wheels that came with the truck. The one on the far left is a 14 inch tire and I guess was just thrown in the back of the truck when I got it. Not counting the 14" tire, I have what looks like three different wheel styles. I have not seen enough of these wheels to know which are which. Are any of these wheels correct for a 1950 Dodge B2C? Thanks, Jerry