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Posted

Hello Folks,

 

After a bit of encouragement, I am officially starting my build thread tonight. Assuming I live long enough and stick with it, I suspect this will be the longest-running topic in the Mopar forum.

 

So I bought a '50 B2C (3/4 ton) 2-3 years ago. The body was in somewhat decent shape and the engine actually started, although very rough and smoked like a chimney. There was plenty of rust too: cab corners pretty much rotted out (although the rest of the cab was clean & solid), running boards had holes, etc.

 

It took me over a year to remove every single part, label it, and store it away. I'm slow plus I'm not a mechanic, just a regular DIY guy, and like most here I have a house, wife, job, a kid still at home (in high school), etc. Not complaining that's just how it is. So I plugged away a few hours in the garage on weeknights and an occasional day on a weekend. Took plenty of pictures to remind me what goes where and I updated a log book too. Thankfully I have a building about 45 minutes away with plenty of storage space (I have a free standing 2-car garage but it's amazing how little room that actually is for something like this.) So one piece at a time I took the thing apart, hauled each piece off and stored it, keeping note of the parts that were missing or unusable.

 

After lurking in this forum pretty much daily, I decided to pick up a parts truck. Found a '50 B2B (1/2 ton) about 2 hours from my house and bought it for $1,800. Luckily a lot of the bad/missing things on my 3/4 were in good shape on the 1/2 ton and vice versa. Plus the engine ran smoothly and sounded great with very little smoke.

 

SO - I stripped the B2B down to its frame also. Had to move my B2C rolling chassis to the building to make room in my garage. This time I just went like hell and didn't label a thing - no point in doing it twice - but I still had to haul away each part that came off. Took me about 3 months.

 

I've decided my rebuild "keeper" will be the half ton, which I'm calling Lumpy. I just like the smaller truck better plus the bed and tailgate were in far better shape than the B2C. So I removed everything from Lumpy's chassis that wasn't riveted in place, and even had to drill out a few rivets to remove some other things that needed attention.

 

Cutting to the chase: I have finally starting putting stuff together rather than taking stuff apart! Here's where I am:

* Took the leaf springs apart, replaced a couple, ground the ridges & pits and sandblasted, then painted each leaf with something called EZ-Slide. In part this exercise was to teach myself sandblasting on something that didn't show but would be hard to damage. I decided to use EZ-Slide after a lot of research: for every person that recommends something there's someone else knocking it down, but at some point you just have to make a decision. Got the springs back together and they're laying across the ceiling rafters in my garage.

* Removed front axle, blasted & painted, replaced bushings & kingpins (I have a brother that's a mechanic - he tells me what to do and I do it; kinda like my wife..), put it back together. Then my brother cussed at me, took the pins back out, ground the bushings, and put it back together again. It's currently sitting on my garage floor but he says it's good now.

* Blasted the whole frame. Took me about 3 weekends and worked my poor 60-gal single stage compressor something fierce. Plus there was a fairly large problem as I'll share later.

* Welded a few places on the frame, ground the welds smooth (teaching myself to weld too; I'm not very good but I grind like crazy). Details will follow.

* Painted the frame. After many hours of research, I decided to use a product called MasterCoat after checking out a few others including POR15 and Rust Bullet. I swear the Internet was invented by Satan - it's an incredible time suck.

* Began putting parts back on the frame. Details/pics to follow.

* About to begin on the rear axle/differential.

 

Oh - why 'Lumpy' you ask? Because that what it'll be. I'm trying to do most of the work myself and I don't have nearly the talent/skills of most folks on this forum. But I'd rather have an ugly truck I rebuilt myself than an immaculate one done by someone else.

 

Pics & a few comments to follow..

 

- Fowl Jeff

  • Like 7
Posted

So here was the problem I had with my frame: the L-Brackets riveted in place at the rear motor mounts were terribly rusted. Not only are the motor mounts here (bolted on thankfully), but the rear bracket for the leaf spring shackle as well as the cab mounting post. Quite a lot of stuff going on in this area.

 

Attached is a picture of a bracket I removed and the replacement I fabricated. I bought some 12 gauge hot rolled steel, cut it out (I'm also learning how to use a plasma cutter I got from Eastwood), drilled out the holes, and bent it to shape. Then primed & painted with MasterCoat.

post-6036-0-54667600-1437018579_thumb.jpgpost-6036-0-06660200-1437018590_thumb.jpg

  • Like 1
Posted

Not only were the brackets in bad shape, the frame behind where they were mounted had rusted and pitted badly and had a few pinholes. So I decided to weld patches to it. I cut these from a sheet of 16-gauge cold rolled steel. Drilled out the holes and added 5-6 more allowing me to spot weld the middle as well as welding around the edges. Sprayed both the frame and the back of my patch with a weld-thru primer to discourage rust, then welded my patches in place.

 

Attached are the two patches I made. Then welded in place, ground and smoothed with a bit of body putty.

post-6036-0-98520600-1437019287_thumb.jpgpost-6036-0-42921200-1437019303_thumb.jpg

 

  • Like 1
Posted

So here is the frame after blasting - ready to be painted. Then after the primer, and finally after the finish coat. Yes, that's my incredibly messy garage.. :-)

post-6036-0-59215300-1437019720_thumb.jpg

post-6036-0-31751900-1437019741_thumb.jpg

post-6036-0-73175800-1437019790_thumb.jpg

  • Like 1
Posted

So that's it for now. I'm headed for vacation tomorrow (today actually) - we have a place in the mountains. Back Sunday. I'm waiting on a few bolts I ordered online so I can reassemble the rear motor mounts and bolt them back in place. After that my slave-driving brother tells me to start on the differential. I'll be using the one from the B2C because we opened the B2B and found out the pinion gear had rusted. However he wants me to take the bad one apart first to study it. Hopefully I can get new seals and bearings, etc. from Roberts?

Posted

Looks like  you are doing well so far Jeff. I look forward to following your progress as it appears that I am just a little in front of you with my 53 coupe truck build at present. Keep up the good work!

Posted

Keep up the good work and the pictures.  This will be a great documentary when it's done.  Mike

Posted

Love the name. I still use that name as a term to describe "certain people" I come into regular contact with. When I do use it my wife can look around and know in an instant exactly who I am referring to. :D  Now we just need someone to name their truck Eddie Haskell.

 

Hey have fun with your project. Fwiw The longer wheel base of the 3/4 ton model rides pretty darn nice without a bunch of suspension work.

 

Jeff

Posted

Regarding transmission & brakes, I am not  planning to switch from stock at this time. I'd like stay mostly original if reasonably possible. I realize I won't get much above 50MPH with the existing rear, but honestly I just want to use Lumpy for local trips to the landfill or hardware store. I'll be happy as a pig in s**t the first time I take that drive! Anyway, this said I have read up on the Rusty Hope conversion kit and also the rear end swap. If/when I ever get Lumpy running I may revisit both these decisions.

 

By the way, I want to use the 4-speed tran from the B2C rather than the 3 speed. I just like the floor stick better - reminds me of another lifetime when I used to drive my boss's old Ford truck back in my bricklaying days. To do this I'll need to switch the bell housing (4 speed mates differently as most of you know) and shorten the driveshaft, but I think it'll be OK. Comments and thoughts on this are welcome.

 

Had another setback over the weekend: my old Farmall Cub's clutch broke and now it stays permanently engaged. Plus it's been overheating and may be drinking coolant. Probably gonna need to split the tractor so there's another couple weekends down the drain. Great weather for it too (sarcasm intended) - it's so dang humid in these parts you can practically wring water out of the air!

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