Projects The rebirth of a 1952 pilot house dodge pickup

A buddy of mine works at a local pick and pull here in Ohio and told me they have a old pilot house for sale for $700 and its got tons of parts with it. Looks to be fairly together. He's letting me come to the yard after hours and take some pics of the throttle linkage and shifter linkages on the trans/column. Hoping to get the truck wired up next couple months. Haven't been ablevto get out and workbon itvthe last week or so but its time to start collecting parts! Its driving me nuts that I haven't driving it yet!!!

 

Nice...bring tools too and take the parts you need home with you. Bring some blue tape too. You can label the pieces with numbers...then take pictures with the labels on so you know how it all goes back together.

 

Unfortunately they wont let me pull any parts off of it =( they want to sell it as a whole. I wanted those linkage parts. However I think I found my old linkage for either my throttle or shifter linkage.. buddy of mine has a shop with some extra metal and a tig welder so it shouldn't be to big of a deal to fab up some new parts. But its gonna help a ton snapping a picture of some of the stuff i'm unsure of. I have all the old steel from the bed so I don't need to measure that stuff. Its just to rusty to re-use so i'll get some box steel or tube steels and cut to fit. I just can't quite figure out how the bed went in originally. It was all cut out when I got the truck..lol

 

@ramrod36 i had those same plates on my 98 dodge exept utah and they say ramrod

 

Finally got a couple pictures for you of the linkage (in case you still need these).

Here's a wide angle shot of the linkage


This is the linkage on the carb end of the gas pedal. There's a throttle knob on the dash too. I didn't have it hooked up on my truck, but it would attach to the square fitting you can see a couple inches from the end of the cable.



Here's the choke. The cable covering goes through the loop with the screw that holds it in place. The wire goes in the square fitting.


Here's the stuff that connects to the back of the engine. The other end connects to the rod that comes off the gas pedal.

 

I won't hijack Nikky's thread - but you know what they say about great minds same channels. Nikky - looking good. I am still following your build and often use your pictures as a reference for my 52 project. Keep up the good work. lc

 

Dan Babb!!!! Once again you're a life saver!!!!!! That's exactly the pics I needed!!! You have no idea how much I appreciate that! Helps me a ton!!!!!!!

 

So what's a good one wire alternator? I'm guessing older GM??

 

So a buddy of mine gave me this 3 foot exhaust stack for free a while back and I think it would kinda Add to the "Pushtruck" theme.. I think it will look and sound pretty cool.. it wont stick up too far. Just to the middle of the cab..

 

I been checking your build,I sn jealous of All the cool pals you have,I like your enthusiasm.
I might have the linkage you need,if I do I will def donate. To your cause I will let you know later.

 

I forget which wiring harness you're using. I had the rebel wire harness and the instructions came with diagrams for various alternators.

I'd try to go with the smallest one possible and paint the case the same color you used for hte block so it doesn't stand out too much. You don't need too many amps. I think I remember seeing someone on this site post a tech on hiding a geo metro alternator (or something small like that) in a generator case.

 

I gotta look into that dan! I have two generators just laying around! Can't be to hard!

 

Thanks man! Def keep me posted!! I have a paypal acct if that makes things easier payment wise.

 

HUGE PIC UPDATE took a whole day but it was so much fun! Used a little bit of filler not too much tho tapped out the dents and sanded a ton. But the dash looks like new in the pilothouse! !







Finished!!!

 

Some pics I found from when we dropped the 218 flathead back on the frame.. my buddy Steve helping out in some of the pics..

 

Looks good...
Sorry I didnt have time in the past couple of days will let you know for sure...What exactly do you need.?

 

Before I pulled the engine and cleaned everything.. I look at this and I can't believe how far I've come.. sorry about the bad pic..lol

 

Its all good brother ..no worries! I need pretty much all the stuff in the previous that Dan Babb posted last week in the threat. I need that odd little hinge like contraption that bolts to the back of the engine that controls the choke and I think it controls the throttle too.. trying to figure out how to make all the throttle cable and linkage work. And what to use for a gas pedal.. prolly easier than I think. But its got me sctratcin' my head..ha!

 

Reworking the original grille pieces and light guards.. the were almost completely rotted away. So fiberglass was used to rebuild it. I held them up to the light to show how rotted they we're before rebuilding them..

Still needs more work


here's the parts held up to light so you can see how rotted they were.




Trying to keep everything as original as possible! ! Maybe even taking it too far. But i'm stubborn lol..

 

so it seems that the "Heat riser" spring is worn out/broken on the newer intake (I pulled it off a 47 Plymouth sedan) it moves freely and isn't stuck in any position? Would this present any big issues with the way the truck runs. I can manually adjust it in any position I want. Maybe just hook up a cable to it son I can manually adjust it from the cab?

Also the linkage I need is in the picture above. That was the one I had but it got lost moving the truck so many times.

 

I see this contraption there but it will be kind of hard to get it off I will see if I can get it off today or tomorrow

This is what I have right now.
Its yours just have to pay shipping.
so PM your adress

 

I also need this if anyone has any leads!

Its the part on the left of the shifter linkage in the diagram. The one with the little spring above it.

 

Thinking about using these guys for the wiring harness. They use new 12 volt technology and maintain the original look of the wiring. I sent in a request for a quote on how much it would be for my pilothouse http://www.ynzyesterdaysparts.com/ <----theres the link!!

 

IIRC, there is a premade harness for these trucks, but I think it's quite spendy (like in the 1200 range). There are instructions on the pilothouse site for making up your own. If you saved the old wire harnesses, you can use those for templates.

The bracket on the back of the engine is just for the gas pedal. If you run out of options, I can draw you a diagram with measurements. If you can weld, it looks like a pretty simple piece you can fab up.

The choke just has a pull cable from the dash that runs to the bracket on the carb...no other fancy stuff involved. I'm saving the one I have for when I put in a heater (I can use it for a flow valve), but you can probably get a choke cable at any parts store and make it fit your truck.

The other cable that was in the dash was a throttle cable. I didn't have it on my truck...I think back in the old days, guys would use it as a cruise control or to keep the engine revving to warm it up on cold days.

 

I think "Iwantaflatty" is sending me a few parts such as the cable I need and the piece behind the engine. I still have all the old wiring. I didn't remove it from the truck at all and left it right in place so I could make sure I knew how everything connected together. Its just unhooked from the engine and hanging in the engine bay. Still has the old Tube style fuse box with all the wires connected I just gotta figure out what modern fuse box to use. I need to take A gander in my pilothouse repair manual and see what the wiring diagram looks like. =) thanks for all your help!!

 

Here's a pretty good "how to" on wiring if you want to buy the wire and build your own.
http://dodgepilothouseclub.org/know/wiring_harness/wiring.htm

You could buy a big piece of peg board. Lay in your wire and tie it in...then use it as a template for your new wires. .

Originally, these trucks didn't have a fuse box...so if you have one, I'd think your truck might have been modified at some time.

If you wanted to start over with a ready-to-go kit, I thought the rebel wire harness was pretty simple to use and had plenty of wire...only the horn wire wound up being too short, but that was easy to fix. I think they make a kit for 6v (thicker wire) and you'd probably only need the 9 circuit harness. It's setup for an alternator, but you can use a gennie too...just need to call him up to find out which wires to use (I think you wind up capping off one of the alternator wires (which I wound up using for my electric choke). You'd also have to check how to wire in your amp meter ( I'm not sure if it's different than a volt meter).

 

Hey Nik Sorry bro no can do on the contraption behind the engine.
But I can send you the rest that I Pictured above.The steering column and shifter brackets that you need are gone too.you can have the carb,bracket and throttle cable and knob.

 

Sounds good! Ive got a lead on the thing behind the engine. I'll take all the other stuff (carb /bracket/cable etc) thanks bub helps me a ton!

 

Hey Nik, I meant to throw these two pictures into the box. These should make it a little easier to make sense of the parts I sent yah. I'm not sure if you already have seen them or not but for me, posting them here was easier than attaching them to a an email.




Let me know when you get the parts. They should be showing up any day now. It was great dealing with you and I hope everything works out for you!

 

cool truck I like the front end of these old dodges