Southern AZ B2B Build Thread

[johnsartain]

I know this is a little late in getting started as I'm getting pretty close to finished with the project. Still, I know you guys like photos so here they are.
I bought this truck around May 14, 2016. It was pure Arizona Patina, deep and thick. I know alot of guys like em that way, I aould have been go with it had it been a lot more old paint and a little less rust. Given that I decided to strip and restore as a driver. I never got into the show/museum quality stuff you have to haul in a trailer and never drive. It never appealed to me. I like to look at them, but I like to drive them more.

[johnsartain]

You can see in the previous picture that the bed was full of stuff. 2 218 engines, a T172 that came out of the truck, no head, no oil pan, no flywheel. There were two buckets in the front wi an assortment of parts from god know what. Some were engine parts for the truck and the rest were junk. The other engine was a Plymouth engine that had seen better days. Bother were locked up tight, pistons frozen in the cylinders.

[johnsartain]

This is the other engine.

[johnsartain]

I bought another engine just to expand the parts assortment in case the engine rebuilder needed found parts too damaged to work with.

[johnsartain]

I totally stripped the truck down to the frame, bagged all the bolts, nuts, washers according to size and made noted of where different types of bolts came from. This is the frame after a total scrub down and stripping with a wire wheel, or should I say wheels. It took several of them. The frame was then treated with Phosphoric acid, primed and painted. The American Racing Outlaw wheels are a set I had around. I put them on just to have something to roll it around with until I got the original wheels ready. Everyone seems to like them but I do plan to get beauty rings and a set of reproduction Dodge dog dish hub caps. The cab is in the background on the motorcycle lift being stripped to bare metal.

Edited September 5, 2017 by johnsartain

[johnsartain]

I know a lot of guys sand blast their parts, others do electrolysis, both work good. I did a little of each but I did a whole lot of molasses. I don't know how many have heard of it but if you have plenty of time and are in no hurry, have plent of room for a livestock watering trough or an old hot tub, molasses can save you a lot of money. I bought 6 5gal buckets of molasses. I mixed it 10 to 1 to fill a 250 gallon trough, and 1 55 gallon drum for other  parts I had to hang long ways. Don't sell it short because it works well. I filled the drum and the trough with all the parts they would hold, submerged them in the molasses bath and waited 2 weeks. I took them out, pressure washed them and rinsed the rust away. To prevent flash rusting I wiped them down with phosphoric acid. I primed them with epoxy primer as soon as I could after they were dry and clean. This is what the metal looks like after the molasses, phosphoric acid, prior to priming.

[johnsartain]

That running board was pretty bad prior to stripping. Both sides of the truck had been hit and the running boards were crumpled and creased. Both rear fenders had ripped sheet metal  and were in pretty dad shape. The Running boards were beat out as close as we could get the flat parts to original. A bead roller was used to re roll the tread beads and sides.  I cut special rollers the shape of the sides to re roll the side wall beads.

Edited September 5, 2017 by johnsartain

[johnsartain]

One of the doors was pretty bad, I thought about trying to replace it. I decided to give repairing it a try so I unfolded the edge seams chiseling the spot welds loose, and hammered it out best I could. The bottom edge and the side had creased as well but once apart it was a lot easier to work with. We then skimmed the door with filler. there may be an eighth if an inch about middle ways and over the weld  near the fender line. This is my youngest son working the filler. 

Edited September 5, 2017 by johnsartain

[johnsartain]

Christmas time came a couple of weeks early this year. I ran into a great deal on a car lift for $900. It is absolutely the best money I have ever spent. If your hobby is cars and trucks, they are worth every dime if you have the space to put one. 

[johnsartain]

I had given up on finding the brightwork for my truck but I finally called a guy on ebay who had some in the past. He had a set that was not first quality but agreed to sell them at a discount. They may not be show quality but I am hard pressed to find an issue with them.

[B1B Keven]

Wow. Thanks for posting John!  Love the molasses trick.

[johnsartain]

I picked the engine up from the machine shop friday afternoon May 26, 2017. Finally after 4 months. Never tell a shop you are not in a hurry, you keep getting bumped to the bottom of the list. The original block checked out good, decked, Original cam was good, new valve train and guides. I used the crank and rods from the plymouth, crank all 20 under. new Edgee pistons 40 over, sealed power rings to match. The head came from the plymouth as well, it was milled. I set in Saturday and assembled the motor. I had my youngest and oldest son with me that day as I was showing them how to get it done. It's a good thing we all went through the measurements and torque specs and checked each other. Except for it taking a little extra time it was really the easiest I have ever built an engine. It was my first flathead. I had downloaded an Auto Restorer article by Curt McConnell fro 2001 that was on the Pilot House forum, that had a lot of really good tips on reassembling the engine. It was quite detailed with a lot of the gotcha's and other things to pay attention to. The guys here on the forum also had some really good pointers over the years as well, Thank you all for posting your knowledge.

[Young Ed]

don't you need a front sump oil pan?

[johnsartain]

So here it is all painted and back in the chassis, bellhousing and transmission mounted. New rubber mounts all the way around. I used an NP 435 transmission from an 89 Dodge D100 for my transmission. except for plugging and redrilling the bellhousing all I had to do was shorten the driveshaft about 6 inches.

[johnsartain]

4 minutes ago, Young Ed said:

don't you need a front sump oil pan?

Yes, I found that out after installing the engine when the draglink hit the pan. I bought the pan out of the store here. It had a little hole in it but it welded up really nice. I put the front sump pan on a couple of weeks ago. I got scared that I had forgot to check the direction of the oil holes in the connecting rods so it was a good time to double check that. They were right and pointed toward the camshaft.

 

Edited September 5, 2017 by johnsartain

[johnsartain]

So June 25 I start blacking in the paint. I liked a Dark Metallic Red so here we go. I painted the back sides and in sides of everything I had paint at the time to do with 2 quarts of single stage polyurethane. Inner panels for the engine compartment were painted Black.

[johnsartain]

So here we are today. Paint is on. It is what it is for being home painted but we did it ourselves. I am waiting on my middle son to get the rest of my glass cut. I need rubber all around to seal the cab. I need the upholstery work. I am ready to send B1B Keven my gauges to get them restored. I have aluminum at a friends shop to build another gas tank.  We are working on stubbing out the wiring this weekend.

Edited September 5, 2017 by johnsartain

[WarriorDog]

Very nice job!!!  I've used molasses on motorcycle tanks with excellent results.  

[johnsartain]

7 minutes ago, WarriorDog said:

Very nice job!!!  I've used molasses on motorcycle tanks with excellent results.  

I wouldn't trade a thing for it. Put it in, leave it a couple of weeks. and wash it off. I think I paid about 16 dollars for a 5 gallon bucket of molasses. For 90 bucks, some water, and my waiting time, I saved about $1700 what I was quoted to sand blast and had no holes to repair from blasting.

Edited September 5, 2017 by johnsartain

[WarriorDog]

Just now, johnsartain said:

I wouldn't trade a thing for it. Put it in, leave it a couple of weeks. and wash it off. I think I paid about 16 dollars for a 5 gallon bucket of molasses. For 90 bucks, some water, and my waiting time, I saved about @1700 what I was quoted to sand blast and had no holes to repair from blasting.

I use the feed grade stuff from Tractor Supply.  NOT the table variety.  

[johnsartain]

3 minutes ago, WarriorDog said:

I use the feed grade stuff from Tractor Supply.  NOT the table variety.  

It smells the same till about a couple of weeks later when it begins fermenting. Im letting mine dehydrate now so I have less to haul off. I can't imagine trying to transport 300 gal of stanky stuff.

 

[John Rogers]

Wow John, You have been really busy and it looks fantastic!  Is your truck the same one that was in the Sierra Vista Craigslist a while back?

 

                           John 

[pflaming]

The molasses cleaning method is priceless for me. I'm getting to the end of my car rebuilding and have a number of parts others might want. So they will get a good  molassesbath. TKS, oh how I envy that lift. This was a great report!  

[johnsartain]

8 hours ago, John Rogers said:

Wow John, You have been really busy and it looks fantastic!  Is your truck the same one that was in the Sierra Vista Craigslist a while back?

 

                           John 

I think it was, john. My youngest son found it and we decided to give it a go. 

[johnsartain]

 

On 9/4/2017 at 11:51 PM, John Rogers said:

Wow John, You have been really busy and it looks fantastic!  Is your truck the same one that was in the Sierra Vista Craigslist a while back?

 

                           John 

My wife calls it "The Other Woman". I spend a lot of the weekend working on it, there's always something to do. Actually I told my cousin the other day who asked whether it's a boy or a girl, I haven't made my mind up yet, but I think "Boy". I might call it Dewey, it my my Grandpa's middle name. It sort of fits. He used to trade cars, trucks, and livestock a lot. He had trucks similar to this growing up.