Projects 53 3100 build. I have a few questions...

Backstory:
I browsed for a 47-53 truck for 2 years. Most I found in my area were already restores, and upwards of 15k and up, and other “projects” were waaaay too far gone to spend the money I had for this.

I didn’t want to replace every single square inch of sheet metal but that’s what I was finding… I am set up with most tooling for projects, but I wanted to find a project that someone had started or something solid enough to drive and use now.

I see this 53 for sale at a dealership in Oregon last week.

From the pics in the ad, it looked decent.
No price listed.

I called ahead and asked for their bottom line before I made the trip out. They told me… way too high, but I felt there was “wiggle room”.

So, I ventured south and took a look.



I immediately noticed that the thing was solid. No rust on most panels, no dents, no cracked gl***.

I got in and started it and it just puuurred… I saw it had a 12V alternator on it already so that was a bonus. Has new dual exhaust with new turbo mufflers on it…

I drove it around the lot, all gears worked great. Saw no leaks…

I saw the driver’s side cab corner is cancerous (typical) and the p***enger was barely starting to bubble through.

At $30/ea. and a Saturday of work this won’t be a problem, so I didn’t count that as any kind of deal breaker.
The roof looks like it was cut out at one point and someone just laid fibergl*** over the hole. POORLY.. However, the areas above the gl***, doors and corners were all solid metal so a roof cap won’t be any problem to weld in a new one. Again, not a deal breaker.

The floor, fire wall, kick panels, and pillars, and cowl are all solid. No rust in bottom of doors at all. 1 off colored fender that was changed out, and all 4 on it were solid. This was appearing to be right up my alley… Maybe someone replaced the typical rusted areas already, as inner/outer parts were all surprisingly solid, minus the outer cab corners.

No gas tank in the cab, but straps are there.
There is a fuel cell in the bed (Which I will remove and run stock for bed space).

The young kid salesman knew nothing about it, or cars in general ironically.. He told me that an exec there at the dealership was into rods and bikes and actually bought this for a personal project, swapped out bed parts (no dents in bed at all) to new, and then threw it on the lot to see if there were any bites. He said he was actually on site, and asked if I would like to speak with him on its history a bit.
Hell yes!

He walks me into an exec office where I meet the guy. I immediately notice shelves lined with models of choppers, rods, etc... Perfect and right up my alley.

So, we “hit it off” and visited an hour on common interested, past and current projects, etc., speaking nothing of the 53…. At one point, we eventually negotiated price. I think that may have taken exactly 27 seconds.

He eagerly accepted my offer of nearly 3k less than the list price. Not only that, but said he’d even trailer the truck out to me at no cost. It gets even better…

He said “It comes with parts”. He walks me out to a shed, and shows me a pile. Chrome bumpers, brackets, the oil bath air cleaner, chrome grill bars in really decent shape, an extra heater, etc.
Huge score!

So, I make the deal. I anxiously wait for it to arrive that same evening.

When it gets to my pad, I was so giddy I failed to notice that the visor was missing, until a few hours later. While at the lot, I was texting back and forth with some chopper buddies and we had a very specific conversation thread about the visor.. So, this was kind of a huge deal. Also, no spare parts came with it. The delivery guy was not the exec. I was upset at the missing visor, called in. He was upset too. They delivered the parts the next day, but no visor…


There was no explanation given as to where the visor went, but he said he’s “make good”.

I get a call from the dealer yesterday, and was told they found a visor for me and to come get it. I picked it up. They apologized for the h***les, but I was very happy as they came through.

Visor mocked up:



I don’t quite get the brackets. This one was very straight and clean, but channel brackets were rusty, and hardware was also. No worries there, I got it hope and cleaned up the channel brackets in the blast cab, and have a good stock of stainless with acorns in my bins. I swapped everything out and went to mount it.

BEFORE:



AFTER:


Can anyone tell me what brackets will work better here? It does have the center brackets for the splits, but I am not liking the channel mounts, and don’t know what to look for. I want it solid.



I go to mount the oil bath air cleaner. The carb was open and I don’t want to run it that way. Clearly not the stock carb as the throat is larger. It runs too good to mess with swapping anything out, but I have no idea what this carb is.

Can anyone ID this carb?



Has a split header on it as well:



Here are some interior shots as it is right now:




So, I have already ordered matching key/lock sets for doors, ignition, and glove box, and the cab corners to start.

I plan to do the front clip, doors, and entire bed to finish first, as I have to weld on a roof cap once I save for one ($400)… as I am painting it in hot rod flatz, the color match will be forgiving enough to hit the cab and roof later on.

I want to get stock steelies for it, lower it a mere 2”, and eventual IFS but that will be down the road.

Meantime, I plan to drive the **** out of it throughout the rebuild.

I can do all primer/paint etc. a section at a time over a weekend and put things back together to minimize any “downtime”.

At any rate, I’m pretty stoked on this whole deal.

Thanks for looking

 

lots o patched in wiring, burnt sections etc...
So I yarded every bit of it out and am starting over.
Here it all is.


I ordered up this diddy..
Already been converted to 12V so this should keep things simple..



So, I figured Id make things a clean before the harness gets here.
I stripped the firewall of all paint to metal, prepped cleaned and etched it for some POR15.


Spent 2 days just stripping and cleaning.








And new POR15..

 

Very nice truck to start with!! Seeing as it runs well you'll be on the road soon---best advice I can give is DO THE BRAKES before you drive it. Don't cut any corners either. It might be a while before you redo the suspension and what ever drive train you have in mind, so enjoy the truck---just make it safe. BILL RINADI

 

That's not the original carb, or the original engine.
Looks like a 60's 250

 

Thanks Bill,
I will look into the brakes. Also the Kingpins while I'm in that far.

 

Good eye. You nailed it. Up the thread I originally asked what carb that was.
Since then I realized the valve cover, location of the distributor, etc was all wrong, too and then found the block numbers chart online and yes it is in fact a late 60's early 70's 230/250. Carb is Rochester Monojet. As I plan to have a build as you go driver, this is not a bad thing at all for me..

 

That should be a good little driver when you get it done. I drove my 48 for close to 100K with a mid 70's 250 in it. Not fast but very reliable and it will run with traffic pretty easily with the right rear end gears.

 

Very nice find...and one cool truck...you are lucky that the guy you bought it from was honest..as in getting the "Missing Parts".. Good Luck...

 

Thanks guys. I just found a 47 cab for sale for less than 1/2 as much as a new roof cap, that has already been blasted and primed with good floors. It too needs cab corners, but this might be a better option for me. If I get the wiring harness in this week, and no one else grabs that cab, I'll venture out and haul it home. I'll do all metal work to paint on it separate, rather than this one, then mount it later. Even if I stay the course, front clip to finish, then bed, cab last, this way might give me zero "downtime" if I can pull this off. Seems like everything's lining up on this one for me.. I got the new handles and locks in so I will soon have room for a cab in the garage once this is up & running.

 

ROWDY, IF IT'S A TRUE 47/48 CAB, you'll find some differences. It may very well not have a gas filler neck on the cab, 47/48 ran the gas tank under the bed, p***enger side. It will have one piece door gl*** (with a steel surround on the gl***) ---no vent window. It will also have a vent along the cowl on the p***enger side (operates with a vent handle, similar to your top cowl vent). The out side door handles are the pull down type, not push ****on. Most were 3 windows, a 5 window 47/48 is pretty rare. The bodys are the same, so the top you want to fit in will fit the same. The doors are the same if you want to swap window stuff that will work. As for the gas tank, no matter what cab you use, consider using an under the bed gas tank. Perfect fit behind the axle. It gets the smell out of the cab and your not 6 inches away from10+ gallons of gas. I run an18 gallon tank, from TANKS (after market supplier) under $250 and filler neck to the side. Lots of suppliers and lots of options on the gas tank. I'm REALLY liking that later motor you've got, just can't tell from the pictures if you have a 3 speed column shift or the granny gear 4 speed, either one is fine, just the granny is so low it's only good for pulling tree stumps. BILL RINALDI

 

Wow, heck of a deal for that price. Have fun!! The best part is repairing her.

 

Here's some updates..
Got the new EZ wiring fuse block installed this weekend. Found a suitable location on the left kick panel, w/o interfering with the E brake.

Routed main front harness through same hole. Grommet is on the way.

For tail section, I went through the cab floor just in front of the ebrake pedal.

Loomed it all up before I mounted the tail section

In the frame channel.. All down 1 side the cross the rear for the right side stuff. There is an electric fuel guage sender wire in this loom I will use later once I get a rear tank.

Looks way more intimidating than it is. This is my second full harness and it goes easy.

separating coil, starter, solenoid stuff here...

Found a spot for a new ballast resistor, and mounted the motor harness across the top
This 60's 250 didn't even have a ballast on it when i got it. Done right..

outta loom, and ran out of weekend. Got the tail, engine and front lights all 100% finished. Just have cab stuff left.
So, I attempted to try and tackle a speedometer rebuild on the dining room table... it came out decent, and with a "drill test" looks like it will work just fine. I got a new speedo cable installed already too.

Just look what I started with


Actually wasn't as hard as I thought..

Sanded rust bumps off face...


New Decal on

The odometer labels were randomly sticking in various places through the housing.. All but the black one had come off over the years

And.. here it is. Did a drill test and it appears to work. I did lube the gears up before ***emble of the gl*** and new bezel. $400 for a new/rebuilt be damned...

So, in the evenings this week I intend to finish the cab wiring. Then I can drive it while I tackle the rest as I go...

 

Cool truck! I'll be following this one

 

Oh I remember rebuilding those gauges on my 50. Wiring looks nice and clean great work.
I'd suggest rustproofing the frame and undercarriage before permanently attaching the wires down there.

 

Well, I've now got 100% of new wiring all done.
I went a diff route on guages, bought new aftermarket (Dolphin) which is gonna be cheaper than rebuilding/converting my quad guage to 12 Volt. my speedometer project hasn't worked out, as i put a new needle on it, and it rubs the gl*** (with new O ring/Seal in it too). Not sure what to do there.. any how, it makes sense for me to just get a set of aftermarkets and go...
So far, I've got done with:
Wiring
Engine bay cleaned/ painted (POR 15 base)


So, I hated these mounts on the visor... SO I made my own.

Made a template

MUCH better.. IMO..



So, its up and on the road for now. I plan to tackle the front sheet metal paint first, then the bed. I alread have rounded up new hood to cowl seals, cowl rubber, hood bumpers, etc. As I go, I am swapping out ALL clutcheads with stainless hardware... Little at a time..

 

Like what your doing. Keep posting. Seems like lot of folks start these threads then just stop.

 

It's been a slow go, Have a few more things done.
Got it up and running.... ran awesome a day....then carb leaked from every singly layer from sitting (PO).
So, I intended to buy a rebuild kit (monojet) but found the carb was missing 2 linkages all together. I got a new reman instead.
Primed and dialed in, its running very nice now. Then, valve cover gasket and side covers started leaking...
So got new gaskets. Having a blast cab makes things like simple gasket swaps even better. I blasted the crusty valve cover down to metal, painted, and put new gasket in. Replaced all bolts with stainless.

Went to take it out again, and the throttle linkage broke from the firewall. Looked up OEM and what the PO had on it was not stock.. so I bought a lokar cable pedal. Went 3 layers deep on bedliner in firewall and floor to soundproof and seal things up a bit.



Cleaning up dash next, took everything off to begin to weld up all holes including the radio hole. PO had a bunch of toggles drilled in. Just keeping the 3 original..


I removed very cancerous windlace channel...

Nice OEM windlace channel avail if anyone want it heh.



More soon.

 

that's weird, my cab was rusty, but those channels were fine....

 

Sweet, sorry I missed this earlier. I cant see pics at work so I am posting so I can subscribe and check them out later...

 

Forgot I could look at it on my phone. Man what a score. Looks like a nice truck....I have been wanting to get a visor but my wife doesnt dig it, maybe she'll come around. Anyway keep the pics comin, need any help lemme know...

 

You gonna put a bullhorn on it? They sound awsome with 12v, just the coolest thing ever to have on a 3100.

 

Actually thought about just that!!!

 

Thanks! Will take ya up on it Im sure

 

Looks great. Keep up the good work.

 

patching dash holes.
PO had a bunch of toggles all over and various holes in dash. Getting rid of them all, and the radio hole too. Couldnt find a delete plate locally so figured id make one then tack it in.

Made a pine "buck" that stuck through the hole a bit, then hit it with a belt sander to radius it using the metal dash as a guide..

Radius came out decent.

Then I cut slightly oversize sheet-metal and hammered (tapped) the edges over while clamped to the buck. Got the rolled edges and radius dialed in for a clean welding seam and some "meat" to work with.
A bit of a corner hole in my plate as you see, but I can fill that with mig wire. Plate is radiused better than the pic looks.. This week I plan to have the dash all done. I had a heck of a time getting window trim screws all out (rusted in there) but I have all new stainless hardware I'll be using going back together.

Pretty tame stuff here in comparison to others so far, but it's *something*... towards progress

 

Well I got everything plugged, and am primer filling .... Hopefully I'll get color on the dash and everything ****oned up this weekend.

 

Dash going back together today..

 

Well Dash is back together. Pretty happy with result.






now gonna hit the steering wheel and column.

 

This is the way to do it when you can. You got something that was already running and you are working on it as you drive it a play.
Nice truck. looks like someone did some gl*** fixing on the toe/floor boards.
r

 

Good eye. Yes, the PO had the entire floor coated with fibergl***. Underneath, the cab floor looks solid, and even likely replaced withn the last 20 years. I ground a lot of that up and bed linered it for now. The only part I need to patch in on the floor is a strip right below where the OEM tank area. The pics above the thread of the toeboards in the engine compartment shows they are in real decent shape no cancer at all.. I POR 15'd them up front and in the cab under my bedliner. I have no idea why someone gl***ed it at all, as it wasn't needed. unless they didn't want to redo floors again and tried to seal things up. It was a mess I tell ya.