1939 Diamond T Project

Working on this project. Sitting on a 2000 Freightliner chassis with a 5.9 diesel cummins engine. Lots more work to do....Driving me crazy

 

Truck has leaf spring suspension up front. I am looking to change it to independent suspension. Does anyone know of A-arms that i could adapt or independent suspension kit? Has 19.5" rims and looking to stay with that. Thanks

 

Looks good to me.

 

Looks like a 38 only grille. Looks like a large series truck like a model 509?

There are several DT threads on here with IFS swaps. Do a search for Diamont T and you will find them. One is swapping in what you need for the larger series truck

 

this thread has the front swap near the last page

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=427398&highlight=diamond

 

looks like a good kind of crazy to be driven to , nice job so far ,

 

Great project! Diamond T's are beginning to be "trational" here! Make sure your's looks like the green one when you're done. It belongs to a friend of ours here in Michigan, used to transport her antique orchard tractors. We're building a '48 201, the last two photo's are of it.

How about a 3/4 ton Chev pickup or van crossmember with adaptors for 10 lug wheels and a set of polished Budd's?

 

The museum I work with has two "T's" they are sweet, good luck with this one!

 

Nice, That Cummins will make it a nice vehicle to drive. What gearbox are you using ?
I have a Cummins in my 1948 F4.

 

I wanted this 37 for a car hauler but it was too far away..DAMN those fenders are cool!! you have a great project!

 

Looks like your off to a good start.

 

The 36's and 37's are my personal favs. If it's too far for you maybe it's closer to me? I need a few things for mine.

 

Cab is sitting on a Freightliner 2 ton chassis with the 5.9 cummins and allison automatic tranny. Going to run the stock rear. In search of control arms and cross member for front end. @F&J - it is a model 509.

 

Have you hung the fenders on it yet? I think if it were me, and the late model stuff was all there, huge brakes, power steering, geometry all figured out, etc., I'd just pull a couple leaves out of the front and call it good. If the track isn't WAY too wide, that is...

It's gonna ride like a 2 ton truck anyway, why reinvent the wheel?

 

on my '47 614 that i converted to a pickup, i used a complete front crossmember from an '87 chevy pickup. it was one that unbolted from the frame, as not all of them do. i narrowed it about 1.5" to get the tires in a bit. 3" dropped spindles and cut one coil to get the tire situated properly in the opening.

 

Diamond Ts are by far the coolest truck ever made IMO. I sold my 48 404 last year. Good luck with your project my friend.

 

hey flynbrian48 i wish it was that easy,trust me i would be doing just that.the track is to wide on the solid axle and also with the fenders hung i cant get the axle far enough ahead on the frame to center the wheels. And if i center the wheels on what i have now it pushes the engine out thru the grille shell.Thats why i am thinking a arms with a crossmember

 

how did you adapt the allison to the cumming??

 

hey captmullette,i didnt adapt it, the chassis was a complete truck when i started,it was a 2000 dhl truck,like the ups trucks.it came thru with the cummins and allison tranny.its just the front axle is to wide and i need to slide it up the frame a bit

 

I thought that axle looked pretty wide. Like John's very nice job, I used a narrowed Chev (in my case, a '93 G20 van) crossmember. I used 3/4 ton ball joints, spindles for 8 lug wheels to match the Dana 70 rear. My crossmember is narrowed 3", and the fenders are widened 3". The 201's front fenders are quite a bit narrower and shorter than the big truck fenders.

The Chev crossmembers are found under mid 70's thru late 80's pickups and vans, they just unbolt.

Brian

 

thanks brian,that gives me a good direction to go with.I am going to hit a junk yard and see what i can find,thanks for the help rich

 

thanks i'd like to put an allison behind my cummins, guess ill look for one out of these trucks... looking forward to your build, my buddy just put a cummins in his 68 dodge truck for a tow vehicle for his 49 hudson dragcar...... sorry about the ot

 

Nice Cabover project! I'm guessing a hauler with all the big hardware underneath. Right?

 

Saw this old thread re-surfaced and thought I'd mention I started a Diamond T truck group at "Yahoo Groups". There was website devoted to Diamond T's, called "Diamond T, the Cadillac of trucks",which had been fairly active but is now dead.

Brian

 

Yeah, "Diamond T Classics, The Cadillac of Trucks" is the corrrect name, I goofed. It's there, but I have tried numerous times to contact the sites owner and register, to no avail, and it hasn't changed, so I thought it was defunct.

Brian

 

Thats going to be one sweeeet ride. Good luck with it .

 

I haven't had any luck registering on there either.