New guy, Pittsburgh PA

[moparmonkey]

If you're not looking to spend more than a few thousand dollars you'll have a hard time keeping the poly or even a flathead. The Flathead parts can be had a little cheaper if you keep an eye out for NOS stuff on eBay, I picked up pistons and rings for my flathead for less than half what it would have cost for a poly. Also keep in mind that a lot of the poly parts are hemi parts, so there's more support than you think. But in either case, flathead or poly, the parts are going to cost more than for a 318.

Be careful if you're actually going to sandblast the body parts, its pretty easy to warp sheet metal with a sandblaster. If you're having it done at a shop they *should* know this, but I thought I'd mention it. It will be a lot easier to do it now if you're tearing it down to the frame, especially if you're going to paint the outside. Prepping the outside of the truck will be a lot easier if the inside/backside of everything is clean too. You would think that as long as the outside is clean you'd be fine, but all that dirt finds a way out when you start painting, and of course if it finds a way out it ends up in the paint.

[Plymouthy Adams]

Commercially be cautious with sandblasting as moparmonkey said but sandblasting at home is easy and affordable if you have a reasonable sized air compressor...that is the key to the whole banana. I use a 5hp 60 gal single stage and for the most part it does will with my pressure pot blaster. The pots are inexpensive from Harbor Freight and work very well. There is a slight learning curve as there is with all things in its use. Keeping the air pressure in to the tank regulated a bit lower than the line pressure, control the ouput of the sand through the ball valve on the tank and not the deadman will allow ease of use without backing up sand in the hose that can block or flood when you restart..As most commercial blaster use 175 lbs of air it is very common to warp a panel if they do your work..at home..not so much a concern..I did my entire car for less than 24.00 in sand and two evenings after work and one Saturday morning. The Saturday was the front fenders inside and out, grill shell, hood etc etc..your compressor will rest between refill of the pot and for the most part you are looking for a slight break also..also if you have a lot of work to do over a long period of time and want to do it part at a time..this will probably be your best bang for the buck that is unless you have a friend in the business.

[matthew5olson]

Sorry for the lack of updates.We had an opportunity to buy a house and took it. Then last weekend I had to put a new roof on my in-laws garage. I have been working on the gas tank every couple days. I have a couple pictures I'll post up later. Other than that I have just been cleaning the grease off the frame. Its very tedious work and I will be happy when its done.

I have a pressurized sandblaster from harbor freight. My compressor is a gas powered one so the cfm is way up there. 11cfm at 90psi. The sandblaster said you can run as low a pressure as 50 but the cfm needed was like 9 at 90psi.

I'm going to test it on the metal from the bed first. Its a bit thicker than most of the body panels but it has the same amount of rust on it as the rest of the truck.

[Don Coatney]

Any updates?

[matthew5olson]

UPDATE: We had a rather crazy winter/spring. We bought a house, then my father-in-law was involved in a couple of life-threatening car wrecks, then my wife had our second baby. I just got rid of my flooring business and we are going with our photography business full time now. I have had a little time to steal away now to work on the truck. The bare frame was moved to my yard earlier this week and is now painted with POR-15. The leaf-springs too. I'll post up some pictures in a bit.

I feel like I got over a big hump now. The taking apart process is over and I now get to start building up. We are in the middle of wedding season so I have some extra money to get the stuff I need to finish putting it together.

[matthew5olson]

[HanksB3B]

Sounds like you got off to a very bumpy start. Hope everything is smooth going from now on.

Frame Looks Great!

Hank

[Barry Maxwell]

Matthew:

The photo of your frame prompted me to include the photo of my frame ('51 B3C) that I just painted this morning. I began by scraping and wire brushing grease and crud in preparation for Gunk degreasing followed by 2700 psi power washing. I then sprayed with Eastwood Rust Encapsulator, followed by Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black. As you know, it's a lot of work to get to this point, but it's worth it. Still a long way to go!

Barry

[matthew5olson]

Definitely a lot of work. Someone greased the heck out of every grease fitting and then set in in a barn for 35 years. I had to chisel off most of the hardened grease, then wire wheel it while applying degreaser. hopefully I prepped it good enough. I've heard if you don't do the prep right that the POR-15 will flake off later.

I'm envious of your setup. I have a rather small garage to work in. It was tight with just the bare frame in it. When the whole truck was in there there was almost no room. Thankfully I'm skinny or I wouldn't have fit. I'm itching to be able to hop in this thing and drive down the road.

I did however change what tranny I want to use. I love a manual transmission but my wife can't drive one very well and I want the flexibility of her (or someone else) being able to drive it. So an auto tranny with a floor shifter will be going in. I'll post up a picture of the redone seat sometime soon too.

[matthew5olson]

So my front axle and remaining spindle are off to the machine shop tomorrow. I cannot get the kingpin to come out. The one side came out fine. This one wouldn't come out with a press while being torched. The shop is a local napa so I can buy the parts and have them install/ream the bushings for me.

After I get the spindles off I can get started on the front disc brake conversion.

The frame is all topcoated with POR-15 so its all UV protected too. It's back in the garage. The springs have also been topcoated. I called my welder friend today and told him I was about ready to mount the motor, tranny, and rear end up. I bought a nice 904 the other day for 50 bucks. The guy said it ran great the whole year he had it before switching trannys. It goit very light use, only around his neighborhood. Hopefully I got a great deal and not a hunk of metal.

I took the wheels down to the tire shop today and had them pull off the tires. Unfortunately one of the rims is bent beyond repair. I was planning on painting them but now I only have 3. Plus they all had tubes so I'm not even sure the rims would be airtight. For right now I just want a simple inexpensive steel set while I work on the truck. I don't want to spring for the nice dish rims right now and beat them up while putting the truck back together. Are those old rims worth anything? They are possibly the originals. I'm busy this weekend with a wedding so I won't be working on the truck till monday.

[matthew5olson]

This is just before I put it in a bath of degreaser. I'll see how much it improves overnight.

This is the pain in the but side that is getting sent to the machine shop tomorrow:

[matthew5olson]

If the degreaser bath works these will be the next to go in:

[matthew5olson]

I searched on the forum and it seems the center link is not supposed to be bent? This will need straightened? Anyone with a newer truck have any insight.

[Jerry Roberts]

Just put it in the vise and pull it straight . It helps if your work bench is fastened to the wall .

[matthew5olson]

I started an official build thread to document all of my work. I'll continue this over there.

http://www430.pair.com/p15d24/mopar_forum/showthread.php?p=311306#post311306