After digging through the board for inspiration and looking at a few very rusted out truck's I found a keeper. 95% all there even came with a complete set of replacement gl*** which will go into storage. I am going to do the entire truck myself, inspired by a lot of you guys, no outsourcing like I normally do, everything by myself from upholstery to wiring. I have been building kit cars where everything is fresh and new and numbered so it should be a little different then normal but not impossible. Just light surface rust in a few places, It had been sitting outside for ~18 years last tagged in 93, painted in some sort of marine 2 part epoxy that the owner brought home for the docks after painting a navy carrier. The frame and suspension and interior is painted in the same stuff its hard as a rock. Good thing I like white because you can hit the stuff with a hammer and it just laughs, its not coming off without a major fight. Bed is now pulled off, new oak is drying from staining and coating. Pulling the cab and the front out this weekend, it has a 273 and a 904 in it so it should move pretty good once I get the motor refreshed and put a correctly sized carb on it. Needs suspension, brakes, interior, refresh on motor and transmission, bed wood, and electrical but no rust which always slows me down. Not going to do a front clip but I am going to de-arch the springs a bit to level it out and do a disk brake conversion. This is going to be the local shop/landscaping truck so its staying white I would like to do some flames and get some more practice with my airbrush so I might just flame it to get some time in. i have about 5K in the budget and maybe another 1K from extra parts I got with it so it should go pretty quick. I will post some pictures here when it gets down to the frame.
Very cool truck. Keep us updated on the build. I have a 54 that's in the works right now, pictures coming soon, I wanna finish the grill first, parts a comin'.
Great, Love them non cookie cutter trucks. If you want a more modern rearend, look for a 2wd Jeep Cherokee, they are usually 3.55 and seem to be limited slip in a lot of cases. Also if you think you will clip the front frame, look at early 2wd Dakota.
I know that I can run a volare front clip pretty easy and the rear I can do with a quick bag setup, but I am going to get it back to stock minus say 4 inches then play. I need to blow the whole truck apart before I decide what if anything I am going to do mechanically. The bed is off the front will come off tonight, if I can keep from pulling the cab I will, the brakes are done and it runs pretty good right now, all it needed was fresh gas some plugs and a bit of timing. I will post a excel file of the parts that are going on it and what needs to be done ina few days. I have been going back and forth on paint but I think I am going to do red/black flake flames with alternating pinstripes in a seaweed pattern with a rear flam starting under the truck and going over the rear fenders to the back. Need to see what type of equipment that I need to shoot flake maybe the stuff I have is compatible.
I have a 55 that has blocks up front on top the axle and I flipped the rear. It has an old push bumper s the nose high looks good. Mine has a fairly new poly and a granny 4. I need to put a coil and do the brakes so I can haul some parts. I'm not a Mopar man, but these are some cool trucks. My neighbor is putting his early 60's Town wagon on a 2000 ch***is and it fits amazingly well.
Replaced front and rear shocks, bent the rear leafs and now they match within ~1/4 of a inch total hight. I pulled the fronts out and need to bend them a bit more, I got them within a inch or so comfortably, I might just add a 2 inch block on the p***ange side to lower so that it matchees up really well when I drive or carry load. I found replacement lugs, rebuild the carb and got some gas line I only need to replace about 2 feet worth everythign else is hard lined. I am just going to blow it out with some air and ethonol and put a new filter near the carb. I need to do the plugs and clean the points, and reset the timing. I might drill out the carb depending on how it runs with the one barrel until I can track down a decent flowing two that fill fit and willl work with the intake that I have. The sound deading is here and I need to install it in the cab to keep the WAF factor on the truck up, but she will drive it no mater what. I am going to pull the tires and send them out for powdercoat along with the side steps and a few interior parts, remake the mesh interior grills and buy new gauges. I am thinking of doing a single 5 inch warner gas/temp/speed/bat gauge and machine turning a bit of aluminim for trim using the mill. I need to get some burlap to sew the primarys for the interior and get some seat foam from UFO to rebuild the back and bottom of the seat this weekend if I can get my upulstry machine out of storage. THen decide what to do, I think tan leather with black piping. Homemade stainless kit for the rear bed showed up today from Fastner, will raise the bed with a few pullys wrapped to the ceiling, weld a few supports and mount that tonight or tomorrow. Then line the rear body panels up really well and coat the liners and underside in por-15 or a little spray sound deadner. Shaping up to be a good truck, these are much easier to deal with when there is no rust. Also getting my HOK color wheel today so I can pick a the other colors. After this I am going to collect what I need to do a front clip and bags which I have never done and maybe find a old 142 body because I have the vanes and pretty mych everything else and see if I can get that to fit.
these trucks have narrow front frame rails and it seems like a v8 install would be a *****! just comparing them to my AD trucks.
hey ....nice truck....but it looks more like a '48 thru '51 judging by the attached pic. and I have a '50 that looks like yours. There might be some differences when replacing parts....I just put disc on the front of mine keeping the straight axle....good luck and happy cruzin
hey there...nice ride...but it looks just like my '50...at any rate you're modding it but double check before ordering stock parts.....good luck...jim
Oh the picture in his (and my) avatar IS a 48 - and it just so happens to be mine - I happened across his postings today and since I dont know who the f$$k this guy is I would like for him to take down my pic and replace it with a 56 - maybe even his - though I really dont care what he does as long as he takes down MY truck from HIS avatar
sounds like a nice truck good luck and post some pics I have a 56 and I love it Dare to be different!!
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