Photos of my B2B 4th try

[Iowaboy]

[Dodgeb4ya]

Now were seeing things ... nice truck!

[Iowaboy]

[Charlie Stephenson]

My Dad Owned and Operated a Mobil Station at the corner of 23rd and Forest Ave. near DRAKE University, where he graduated in 1938.  I put up Four of the "Flying Red Horse Flags" (Black and White Checkered)  when I was 15,  they were gone the next morning, haven't seen a real one since.  Charlie Stephenson

[Dodgeb4ya]

The truck even has the original floor mat... diamond pattern!

[Los_Control]

sure is a sweet looking truck, how does it run?

[John Rogers]

Man thats a beauty !

                 John

[B1B Keven]

Beautiful!! Nice find.

[Iowaboy]

The truck runs well. I changed the oil, flushed the gas tank and lines, put in new plugs, and an Optima battery.

The truck started up on the first turn after i poured some gas in the carb. The truck was last licensed in 1981. It has been in my wife's family since being bought new in 1950 by her father. I have the original bill of sale which i will post.

My father in law worked for Mobil Oil, Socony, in Rifle, Colorado. He drove this truck carrying supplies and pipe fittings up into the mountains. They worked in line camps, on the oil and gas wells during the week. My wife's brother (94) passed and the heirs offered me the truck. 

It has 88,000 miles. A sticker on the pillar indicates that in 1965 the oil was changed with 85000 miles. So it has not been driven much since then.  It has always been garaged. 

I am replacing the brakes on the front. I am very anxious to get it on the road. I used to ride in it up in the mountains with my father in law, 53 years ago. It was slow going, but couldn't be in a hurry on those roads. 

I was really happy to find this forum, i will be asking questions. took me forever to figure out how to post pictures.

 

Edited October 23, 2017 by Iowaboy

[wldavis3]

Nice truck.  Thanks for the photos and the story.  I like the yellow wheels, too.

[Worden18]

What an awesome truck!  Thank you for posting this.  I love to hear these kinds of stories, and of course see the pictures, too.  Congrats on bringing it home.  

[48Dodger]

I like it! Welcome to the forum!

48D

[FlashBuddy]

Synchronicity. My 1950 is passing through Rifle on its way from Montrose to Fort Collins (trailered) right now!

Love the mirrors. Are they original? The spare tire mount, original? And about those yellow wheels, was that color a thing or a customization. My truck too has the yellow wheels?! I'll bet that fan on the dash was a winter necessity up there in Rifle, and boy has that town grown.

Keep us posted on every detail.

<thumbs up>

[Iowaboy]

In reply to questions. I don't know if the tire mount is factory but it looks original. I think the rims were yellow from the dealership, I have an old B & W white photo and they appear light colored. The original sale invoice is hand written and says that the truck came with fluid drive and heater and the grille guard was made and added by the dealership. It has electric wipers but it's not mentioned on the invoice. I also wonder about the brake manifold that is mounted to the  steering column; I know it was used in the mountains when coming down the hills. It is installed on the brake line coming out of the MC before it goes to the wheels. I will try to post a pic.

How coincidental that you are going through Rifle; we were just there for my wife's 59th HS reunion.

[Merle Coggins]

Yellow wheels would be correct for your truck and are likely original, if the rest of the truck is. 

Without seeing a better picture of the brake valve, I wonder if it was a line lock of some sort. It would allow someone to press the brake pedal and lock the pressure in the lines to hold the truck without using the parking brake. And speaking of parking brakes, I don't see the parking brake handle under the dash. Is it hiding in the pictures?

[ssnowden]

Great truck! Most of us are trying to build one that good. Thanks for keeping trying to get photos posted. Folks on this forum really appreciate such well kept original trucks. They are very rare and finally being appreciated by a bigger audience than just us Mopar fans.

I recently talked to a guy that was going to rat rod a '50 Dodge truck. He's decided to fix it because he's seeing a growing interest in restored or resto-modded Pilothouse trucks. Just like the one I'm lightly resto-modding (Jeep rear end and disc brakes), it's being saved from being a clone rat rod (chopped top, beer keg for a gas tank).

Keep the updates coming. Thanks for sharing.

[Iowaboy]

More photos. Attached is a photo of the original sales receipt and a picture of the brake manifold. I saw this truck for the first time in 1964. It has not been modified since I first saw it. I think it still has the same tires also. I used a different method for photo download we'll see how they look. 

[Iowaboy]

Here are more photos. Someone was talking about whether dual horns was an add-on. My truck has them  as you can see. The first picture was taken when the truck was removed from my brother-in-laws garage to load it up. It had been stored here since 1981. I've cleaned it up since. You can see that the rear bumper has been modified to a solid cross beam and a support to the rear fender added. The mirrors are original according to my wife, she was 10 when her dad bought it. The parking brake is there, its handle is up under the dash. All the gauges work including the dash lights and the heater. Haven't tried the fog lights. I don't know if they're original, if not,  I'm sure they were added by the dealership. The dealer was a friend of the family, as would be expected in a mountain town of 2000  on the Colorado river. 

There is no rust anywhere, except for the battery storage cover which has some rust on it, on this truck. 

Edited October 27, 2017 by Iowaboy

[53 Truck-O-Matic]

Wow that is a Treasure! You and the truck are very lucky!  That has to be one of the finest ORIGINAL Dodges to appear, and to have it still in the same family. How great!

[ggdad1951]

Cool truck!

Your horns are not original tho...those are car horns as far as I know.

[JaysonK]

 Very nice truck.....love that it is all original! I wish I had the papers on my truck!

[Charlie Stephenson]

Mountain driving. I would have wanted a turn bank indicator, and a way to indicate why I felt like I was going up hill but my coffee was spilling out of my cup indicating I was going down hill lol @ myself.  

p.s.

May we know your zip code, mine is 50310.

 

Edited November 5, 2017 by Charlie Stephenson
p.s.

[Bryan]

On 10/23/2017 at 9:24 AM, Iowaboy said:

The truck runs well. I changed the oil, flushed the gas tank and lines, put in new plugs, and an Optima battery....

It has 88,000 miles. A sticker on the pillar indicates that in 1965 the oil was changed with 85000 miles. So it has not been driven much since then.  It has always been garaged. 

I was really happy to find this forum, i will be asking questions. took me forever to figure out how to post pictures.

 

Nice! Nice! Nice!  Would suggest pulling the oil pan & cleaning out before driving too much. Clean sump screen.  Change the filter. If they were using non-detergent oil in it and you put newer oil you could stir some crud up and circulate it.  Cost of a gasket and time.

[Todd B]

Is the brake lever a Johny bar. Used to brake the trailer??

[Todd B]

Wow 2% sales tax. I guess that’s when most people worked for a living and we didn’t need all the extra to support ones who didn’t.