Projects The rebirth of a 1952 pilot house dodge pickup

Hey everyone, its me Nik (the new guy) ha ha, figured I would start my build thread. I'm restoring my 1952 dodge B3B pickup (pilothouse). so far Steve (dirtywoody28) and I have got a ton of work done within the last two weeks since i got the truck, first night we got it we freed up the old 218 Flathead 6 (had a few nasty stuck valves, the engine has 77k actual miles on it I was surprised the old tired L head engine had good crosshatching left in the cylinder walls, we got the starter cleaned up and rebuilt which is working awesome now, I freed up the old dodge's push button starter petal and its working again (on the floor). had to take a couple of days off after that due to rain and work but we were back at it today. We pulled the body/cab off the frame so I could clean up the frame,paint,sandblast and run all the new break line/fuel lines and pull the engine. so the next couple of weeks are going to be dedicated to re gasketing the engine and cleaning it up/painting it and all the parts to it. I think I'm going to paint the frame black and do a undercoat to all the body panels and under the cab to protect from rust and to make it look good. I wanna paint the truck back to original color (navy/dark blue) and keep the truck as original as possible with maybe a few classic performance mods down the road. here's a few picks of the progress!

if anyone has any good advice let me know!
thanks everyone!



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got a lot more done today, cleaned the frame and pulled all the old useless wiring/gas tank and fuel/break lines, pulling the engine and transmission tomorrow so we can re gasket it and make the exhaust header' once the engine and transmissions out I'm gonna clean up the rest of the frame and paint all the chassis parts..stoked!

 

Great project. My grandsons and I are also doing a 52 Dodge Pilothouse. They just got the frame painted last week and now it is time to get the motor detailed and painted and back where it belongs. I enjoyed seeing your pictures - especially the one with the parts in the yard. Brings back fond memories from years gone by though my neighbors at the time wre not impressed! I will be following your progress. Best wishes as you move forward on your project.

 

Cool project, makes me think I need to get back on my '48

 

thanks guys! I'm about to head out to work on it right now, got lots of work ahead of me. hoping to get the engine out today, I'll definitely will post pics of the progress. they say these old flathead 6's are hard to kill so hopefully everything internally is still good...I'll keep you guys posted!

 

Check the water distribution tube in the motor. Have you been over to P15-D24? They have a good Pilothouse section.

http://www40.addr.com/~merc583/mopar/framesets/welcomeframeset.html


How are your front fenders? Have fun!

 

i just checked out the web page and bookmarked it! thank you! my front fenders are really good. no rust no dents, really over all no rust on the truck at all. the fenders and all the body panels were stored for many years. just needs a paint job AND A FEW LIL DINGS FIXED. is there a problum with the water distribution tubes on these old trucks?

::::now for the build update:::
got a lil more cleaned up on the truck. haven't finished wire brushing and painting the frame (will after the engines out) but I cleaned up one side of the break drums/tie rods and got all the hardened nearly 60 year old petrified grease cleaned off and looking good/ready for paint.the 3 inch thick ancient old grease actually preserved the old rubber boot/bushings and looked like new. I really want to try to get the engine out really soonm I wanna hear it run and get this good ol' truck back on the road. Payday is tomorrow so i'm gonna try to order all the engine gaskets,wheel cylinders,break hoses and all the other stuff I need. hopefully I CAN FIND ALL THE STUFF i NEED TO GET IT RUNNING. I'm really stoked to get this truck going. I'll post more pics soon.

 

got the gaskets from NAPA finally. hopefully we'll get the engine out next week so we can re gasket it and make this ol' straight six sing! wire cupped the cab and got a lot of the old house paint and surface rust off, gonna pic up some sand and flapper disks for the grinder to get the rest of. hoping to media blast the cab and the fenders/wheels this upcoming week!


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cab off the frame and the grill sanded and dressed up in some ruddy brown primer =p ha ha
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pulling engine of frame


steve and I being jack asses

great sucsess! were awesome! ha ha (I'm the closest on in the black hoodie)

 

me cleaning the engine getting rady to paint it....

 

engine after 2 tedious days of cleaning! just before paint!

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1st coat of paint (thanks steve!)

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after steve and I carefully painted everything ( a few more parts still need to be put on.. oh and we re gasket-ed it too new head gasket as well!

 

got most of the frmae painted with heavy duty high temp paint


sending the clutch out this weeking for pressure plate and clutch rebuild !

 

me cleaning up all the near 60 year old petrified grease off!

 

I KEEP FORGETTING TO ADD THAT I"M MAKING THIS TRUCK INTO A SALT FLAT PUSH TRUCK!!!!!

but yeah I wanna make a good ol' push truck outta it... anyone got any suggestions?

 

Good to see you using jack stands too

 

Nik---Great progress. It is nice to see that you are so enthusiastic about the truck. Keep up the good work!!! I like the push truck theme - we are going in a similar direction. Our motor is now back in the chassis and next week we hope to set the rear end pinion angle and get a drive shaft made or shortened (I have one about 2" too long). We are running a 318 from a 68 Barracuda along with a 904 automatic and a Ford 9" rear end. I will try to get some pictures soon.

I enjoy following your thread.

 

I am impressed! I'm so happy that you are keeping the flat-6. Also, the fact that you are building a Dodge truck is so cool. So many people look past them. They are just plain ol' stupid.

I will follow this thread.

You know what is the coolest part of all your pics? The other cool cars in the garage and the bikes.


As for a push truck, I think that's a great idea. A friend has a '56 Dodge panel truck and he is doing the same. Try to not lower it too much. If you're are looking to do a real deal look most of them were stock height. We have talked our friend into not lowering his at all and the amount of compliments he gets is amazing.

Food for thought.


Good Luck!





BloodyKnuckles

 

thanks guys.. I'm working my butt off trying to get this thing done! everyday that i'm off work early and all my days off are spent on this old truck! I'm really happy about all the positive feed back. I was worried about what people might think since its not one of the more popular hotrods.

 

Go Nikky
those good old flatty mopar sixes were a solid motor, at least every one I owned just kept going.
Keep us all posted.

 

[QUOTE=BloodyKnuckles;527175


As for a push truck, I think that's a great idea. A friend has a '56 Dodge panel truck and he is doing the same. Try to not lower it too much. If you're are looking to do a real deal look most of them were stock height. We have talked our friend into not lowering his at all and the amount of compliments he gets is amazing."

[QUOTE=BloodyKnuckles;527175

I'm most def keeping stock ride height' I'm trying to keep the truck as original as possible other than a few small paint change ups. (all the body paint will be the original paint color (dark/navy blue) and I wanna do blue stock Steele wheels and a white grill. Not many guys my age wanna keep a old vehical original. its just the way I was raised ha ha my grandpa always said "keep it original' ha ha!

 

awesome ramrod I like the v8 idea! I almost went with a v8 set up but I decided to keep the old L head 6 and were gonna do a custom 2 carb intake and a custom exhaust. (mostly because mine were broken ha ha)

 

Ha ha! yeah all those toys are steve (DIRTYWOODY28's) stuff he's been a good friend for many years been helping me a ton with the truck.!

 

Love it man! Keep up the good work..

 

thanks dude!

 

more pics and update!

wooo wee its been forever. my computer crashed. got a crap ton done on the truck! got the new clutch and pressure plate back from driveline 1 and in. engine and trans are now mounted with new custom mounts and i just got the tubing so we can make the intake . hopefully only a few more weeks and it will be running and driving! also just picked up the wheel cylenders today. gotta get the master cylinder too!


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good work on it so far that coat of blue paint made that engine look great ,

 

thank you! it was a lil different but didn't take too much away from the originality. so i gave it a shot and hoped for the best ha ha

 

Keep plugging away at it. So far everything looks great. What are you planning for the intake? 1,2 or 3 carbs?


Keep the updates coming.



BloodyKnuckles

 

Good looking truck.

Im also glad to see another Dodge truck on here. Those L-heads are great engines. I pulled mine out of a field after 30 years, new plugs/wires/dizzy guts, and it runs like a top, with nice exhaust leaks from rusted out pipes and muffler. lol.

 

Sweet truck. I had a 53 Plymouth with the flathead six. That thing ran like a top and got 30 mpg.