1953 Dodge 'coupe' truck project

[Geekay]

Awsome build, I haven't been on for a while, good read. So my two cents worth on a couple of items, keep the visor, way more comfortable than having 30+ degree sun comming in the windscreen. Original brakes are OK, the old addage drive to conditions is just more true, consider the old 6.5" rag tyres and slippery gravel.

Over the Australia day weekend I took the old girl out camping, near Boonoo Boonoo NP, traveling 45 to 50 miles per hour on gravel roads, all good while it was straight, noisy, tyring and exciting -> but add corrogations and cornering + braking.

Keep up the good work.

 

That would have been an interesting drive..i can only imagine how the Fargo will handle corrogations...I am thinking of a lot of bouncing around and shaking.

 

Boonoo...sorry, but had to go to Whereis to find it.

 

I see not far inland from Brunswick Heads where my sister-in-law lives at Ocean Shores. Must check it out next time I am up there.

[Desotodav]

Good to see you back here IanT. It has been a while! Sorry I wasn't able to meet up with you in Toowoomba today. I'll be heading home from Kiama in the morning & hope to get back on to working on the Pop motor soon. Progress on the Pop truck has been good to date, but I need to chase up the Panel Beater again to see if I can get him to make a start!

[IanT_Qld]

Toowoomba swap meet was big, not much dodge, there were two rims there from an earlier dodge, with the smaller slots. Not the same as mine. I still regret not buying them. Oh well live and learn.

[Desotodav]

I spent a couple of hours messing around with the WDT today, and it is now obvious that this thing is going to fight me all the way! I made a tool to assist with the removal (see photo), but even that has been unsuccessful so far. I will drop the block into the parts soaking bin tomorrow and see if that loosens it up at all. I've tried soaking the tube with Wurth penetrating fluid - both down the tube hole and though the manifold stud holes. These things are set to try us! Here's hoping that I will be more successful tomorrow.

 

I've had rims and external sun visor sandblasted and primer painted recently. I'm trying to keep things moving on the project, but a couple of health issues of late have not helped. Hopefully the project will keep moving forward now.

[Jeff Balazs]

Davin;

WDT strikes again! In my opinion the tool our friend in South Africa made is the kind for this job. He posted some photos a few months ago.

Good luck and may the force be with you.

Jeff

[Mrbrylcreem]

Des. Hello. Please see the pics of the tool that I had made to pull the WDT. It worked a dream. I used the replacement WDT as a template. I took it to the local laser cutting shop. Where they kindly cut out the profile for me. The trick is not to make to notches to high. As they will catch onto the block. You will have to put something underneath to lift the profile snug into place. Fortunately I managed to get the whole thing out in one go. I used the slide hammer. I knocked it backwards and forwards to break the rust grip. Then it came out.   

[Desotodav]

I am yet to chase up the engine builder to see how my engine is going. I am hoping that the WDT will be easier to remove after spending some time in the acid bath. I hope to have one of our Mechanic's put the engine back together within the next month.

 

Yesterday marked the first day of (about a month long) vacation time for me, so I thought what better way to start leave than to clean up a few transmissions from the shed. I will be changing the 'Pop' truck back to a column shift as someone had previously changed it from column shift to floor shift.I will look to find my best transmission and have a workmate lined up to rebuild it.

 

I didn't realize that I had an older floor shift transmission in among the transmissions (which are out of trucks) at the shed. It is stamped 'C36502' and 'A22'. I did an internet search and it appears to be from an earlier truck. It has a different stick location and a larger handbrake drum.

 

I have numerous parts out being worked on at present so expect that I will be able to provide further updates shortly. I look forward to spending a lot of time on the project over the next few weeks!

Edited April 8, 2015 by Desotodav

[TrampSteer]

... It has a different stick location and a larger handbrake drum. ...

These seem to be rather specific to the transmission they were on. I had one handbrake drum that came with my truck in a parts box, one from a donor transmission and one I got off a "saved from the trash" tranny. All three were different in some way - anchor bolt location, offset, the reach of the opening for mounting it up. Only one would work.

[Desotodav]

These seem to be rather specific to the transmission they were on. I had one handbrake drum that came with my truck in a parts box, one from a donor transmission and one I got off a "saved from the trash" tranny. All three were different in some way - anchor bolt location, offset, the reach of the opening for mounting it up. Only one would work.

 

That's good to know that TS. I was thinking that I might use the larger e-brake drum on the later model transmission as I figured bigger surface area would equal better holding, but you have changed my mind now. My brake man tells me that it is costly to reline that e-brake drum - I guess that I'll find out how costly soon.

[Young Ed]

That's good to know that TS. I was thinking that I might use the larger e-brake drum on the later model transmission as I figured bigger surface area would equal better holding, but you have changed my mind now. My brake man tells me that it is costly to reline that e-brake drum - I guess that I'll find out how costly soon.

 

Really? I can get the supplies here for about $10. shipping would cost ya but check www.brakeplace.com either to have them do it or for supplies

[Desotodav]

Really? I can get the supplies here for about $10. shipping would cost ya but check www.brakeplace.com either to have them do it or for supplies

 

Thanks for that information Ed. I'll have to look into it further. I saw some of the woven brake lining/s listed on Ebay in USA for around $20 per foot. I do know a fella here in Oz who still has a roll of the original material (the asbestos type).

[Desotodav]

I wondered what small project I would tackle on the Pop truck this morning, so I spotted the manifold among the parts pile and decided that was it!

 

It all pulled apart easy enough, although extra care was required to remove the heat riser spring and make sure that it remained intact. I was pleased to not find any cracks or other areas of concern after I had cleaned all of the parts up. I'm now thinking that I might try ceramic coating the manifold to see if I can drop the heat release down and maybe eliminate fuel vaporizing concerns. My sandblaster/powdercoater closes at lunchtime on Friday so I'll have to wait until Monday to go and see him. I plan on tackling many small jobs on the Pop truck whilst on vacation time, and hopefully I see those small jobs amount to large achievements by the time I return to work!

[HanksB3B]

I made the mistake of grouping a massive pile of parts to be sandblasted and powder coated. Both the intake and exhaust manifold were among them. I choked on paint fumes for a few weeks before the paint finally burnt off the exhaust manifold. I'm thinking about refreshing my engine paint job. Before I knew anything or ever heard of Don Bunn I chose to paint my engine Ford Blue. I liked it better than Silver because the silver showed every bit of dirt oil and grease imaginable. I'm considering using Eastwood Cast Iron paint  for the block. I think it'll look good and if I ever want to paint it silver the cast iron color will serve as a better base coat to silver than blue ever could. I think Ceramic is the way to go on your exhaust manifold.

 

Hank 

Edited April 11, 2015 by HanksB3B

[Desotodav]

I am most happy with how the manifold turned out. I will have to look at a temperature comparison between the truck engines when I get the 'Pop' truck running. They tell me that the ceramic coating will drop temperature output by something like 30 percent - maybe this ceramic coating will decrease fuel vaporizing issues? I painted the inlet manifold in 'VHT' (very high temperature) silver (they call the color 'aluminium') paint, so there will be no issues with paint melting there!

The engine is still spending time in the acid bath as they have been very busy working on other engines. There is much happening on the 'Pop' truck project at present and things are moving along nicely. I will pick up all of the primer-painted parts today, along with the powder-coated rims. More photos soon.

Edited April 16, 2015 by Desotodav

[Jeff Balazs]

Nice. I used some high temp aerosol paint on my manifolds last time I had them off.. It supposedly had a ceramic base. Looked amazing going on.....like it had been powder coated. But it wasn't all that great once I fired the engine up. The intake stayed looking great but the exhaust blistered up something fierce. Stood by with a fire extinguisher until it cooked off. Guess I shouldn't have expected that much from an aerosol.

 

Jeff

[Geekay]

Okay, time to declare my ignorance again...what is a "heat riser spring"?

 

Amazing restoration by Davin...he sets the bar high!

 

And thanks for the info about different painst for the manifolds.

[wayfarer]

I have following along on this 'truck' project and just have to say how good it all looks from here.

Remember that all of the small victories ad up.

[Desotodav]

Okay, time to declare my ignorance again...what is a "heat riser spring"?...

 

GK - heatriser is documented really well in the 'resources - tech - heat riser' section from the Forum toolbar above.

 

I have following along on this 'truck' project and just have to say how good it all looks from here.

Remember that all of the small victories ad up.

 

Thanks for the compliment Wayfarer. I've been making the most of my vacation time with many small victories. I only hope that others are able to learn from me documenting my experiences. I struggled with my 52 truck rebuild as I was not aware of this great forum way back then.

Edited April 17, 2015 by Desotodav

[Desotodav]

I collected the wheels and all of the parts from the Sandblaster/Powdercoater this morning, and then I dropped most of the parts off to my Painter. I expect to have all of those parts back (all painted shiny black) mid next week.

 

I am yet to arrange tires for the rims, but I am searching for radial (non 'light truck') tires here in Oz and finding that my options are quite limited.

 

I collected some hubcaps from my shed today, and it turns out that the Desoto hubcap is the only one that I have enough of to complete a full set. Our Oz trucks (from about 1954) came out with the ‘nibs’ on the rims for the push-over (rather than clip-on) hubcaps, and those hubcaps were plain with no embossed wording on them. The embossed hubcaps were fitted to the cars: Diplomat/Kingsway/Royal. I will fit Desoto hubcaps to the Pop truck for now.

 

I know there are some here with a dislike for red wheels. The choice for red wheels for this truck was an easy one for me, when one considers that I am building this truck as a tribute to my late Dad. Dad (Pop) was a bit of a rebel in his day, and I recall him telling me stories of ‘bodgies & widgies’ (greasers in USA) running around in their souped up old cars with red wheels. Pop had to tread somewhat carefully in his rebellious years though as his Father was the local Police Sergeant, and word traveled fast in the small town as well - which did not work in Pop's favor!

 

I was also messing around with truck fuel tanks today. I found the two best fuel tanks in my shed and cleaned them up. The red one cleaned up alright but has some nasty previous repairs to the front of the tank which will need a lot of attention. The black one (scratched back mostly to bare metal with the wire brush) is also alright, but it has some really nasty dents on one end. ... I am hoping to chat with a fuel tank repair shop next week to see if there’s anything they can do with either of the tanks.

 

I also played with the sump cover today as we initially thought that it had a small crack under the dipstick mount, but it appears that the leak may be coming from the spot-welded plate for the dipstick on the side of the sump cover. I will use some metal weld paste and smooth the area over prior to painting and hopefully this will fix the oil weep from that area.

[Jeff Balazs]

Davin;

I like the red wheels.   No surprise there though.

Doing this as a tribute to your Pop is what makes it special. I sure wish you a lot of great memories with all of this too.

 

When you get it done crank up some Daddy Cool on the stereo and rock on. If Pop was a bit of a rebel it seems likely he would like that.

 

Jeff

[Desotodav]

The hunt for tires for those red wheels has been a real problem - I have mentioned it in another thread. It is very hard to find a well-priced radial 16 inch tire for a 4 inch rim. I've decided to fit the other Firestone 6.50/16 whitewalls which I have in the shed for now, and I may well continue my search for radial tires in the future.

 

I had the tailshaft balanced and collected it yesterday, although it has gone off for painting now and will be ready at the end of next week (along with heaps of other painted parts). They added small weights (at the rear end of the shaft and at the front yoke) during balancing and reckon that it will be better than new now. They were surprised at how good condition the tailshaft was in given its age - I was pleased with that comment as I delivered them 4 tailshaft's to chose from initially and it would appear that they picked a good one!

 

I visited the gas tank repair fella yesterday with 3 of my better truck gas tanks. He looked at them all and told me that 2 of them were repairable. I will repair the red one and leave the other tanks in the shed for now - one of them may be used when I restore the 55 truck. The red tank has a little bit of rust removal work to be done at the back end and on top, but I suspect that it will come up well. Greg drilled the spot welds from the mounting bracket while I was there and found that the tank was in good condition under there. He will clean up and repair the tank for me and I should have it back towards the end of next week.

[Desotodav]

I have come to the end of my 3 weeks vacation time and find that I have to return to work tomorrow. I am quite pleased with what I have achieved on the Pop truck rebuild over the past few weeks, and find that I am now at around the stage I had hoped to be by this time.

 

The painted parts all came back from the painter - all previously sandblasted and now painted in semi-gloss black. I have been waiting for the suspension mounts to come back from painting so that I could install them along with the refurbished springs and the axles. It sure is good to have a rolling chassis again!

[Desotodav]

The gas tank came back a couple of days ago. The back end had a section which needed to be cut out and replaced, but that proved no problem for the repair fella. I am told that the tank was in very good condition inside. The tank was repaired, dipped (not sure what in but looks like a galvanized mix), and pressure tested. I will drop it down to be painted black during the week, and will then install it in the chassis as soon as it returns.

 

I have installed the brake lines in the chassis but I'm yet to mount it to the holding tabs. I have also installed the rebuilt brake master cylinder, but will leave bolting up the lines for now as other assembly needs to take place first. I will chase up the engine during the following week to see how the re-builder's are going with it.

Edited May 3, 2015 by Desotodav

[Phil363]

That is some well spent vacation time!!!  

 

I hope my chassis looks as great as yours does when I get to this stage.

[Mrbrylcreem]

Well done thus fare. I know the feeling now that you have turned the corner. It's all the way home now.