Hello All, Old Betsy is the name my Grandpa gave his 1954 Dodge truck, she has been in the family since 1956. Back in 1983 he gave her to me, this is my 1st vehicle and was painted in 86' by my Uncle Tom. Did a few things to make her road worthy but never really gave her the attention she deserved. That time has now come, I'm now 43 and looking forward to making this a tribute to my Grandfather. Here's some pictures of back when I was a teenager and where she is at now. Later on I'll find the pictures of her back in the 50's. I have always wanted her to be lower so I sent the front axel to Sid's Nostalgia in OK. He did a awesome job and highly recommend him if your in need of his services. More to come....
i think it may be a male, looks like ol bob. just kidding. looks great. my avitar is ol blue. keep the pics coming
Thanks for the kind words guys. Working on getting her a little lower both front and rear if I can. Working with Sid but welcome advice from forum, there has to be someone thats gone down this road before. The flat head six engine has been completely rebuilt so its new, mom tackled that one(Thanks Mom and Juergen). Thinking stock rims painted gloss black, still have original dog dish caps, small beauty rings and white walls as my next purchase.
I have been debating whether to do a violate clip, something else, or keeping it stock but adding disc brakes and dropping the axle. I found these guys here on HAMB but haven't called cuz I need to budget first Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
Having owned a 54 Dodge truck that I put a Volare clip on, I can tell you it is a lot of work, and you will be cutting a lot of your truck away to do it. There is NO way I would ever use a Volare clip again. When I got done with it, it rode nice, had the disc brakes, and power steering, and the truck was low, but I cut the frame off at the firewall and built all new frame & body mounts forward of that, then had to cut the firewall the entire width of the motor and 6" deep. Then the angle on the steering column is not good. I have used the disc brake conversion from Rusty Hope, more then once, its a decent kit. Pictures of my 54, had the Volare clip, 360, and an auto trans. I drove the truck for 40,000 miles in a little over 4 summers before I found a 39 Plymouth business coupe I thought I had to have. Gene
The Volare clip has fallen out of favor as much due to the labour involved as the age of the donors themselves. If you really want IFS then look at the Jag projects. .
X2! An F100 with the infamous Volare front graft set the front wheel 2" behind center of well! (stock F100 trucks '53-'56 had 1-1/4" setback from the factory, as their turning radius didn't pass the 'U' turn test at the end of the ass'y line. Line supervisors had spring mainleaves changed to give sharper turning radius. F100 aftermarket suppliers now supply leaf springs and longer drag links to center the wheel in the well.) Jag is as if it were designed for medium sized trucks. Affordable, and installs straight forward.
X3 I am sorry i got talked into using one on my 48, big mistake and now i need to find a new frame for it.
Thanks for the input guys (sorry gtopillado) I like the scarebird and rusty hope kits and think ill go that direction. The jag swap seems cool too but donor jags seem scarce Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!
No worries guys, all info is good info. Going to put some more time into Betsy this week, got white walls coming so need to get tires off and reprint the rims. Have original hubcaps so will get them all polished up also. Going to yank leaf springs out, will take 2-3 off the back and might have eyes reversed for the front along with removing 2 of them. This should be it when it comes to lowering my truck as I really don't want to flip rear end and C notch the frame.
Hi guys, So I was in need of 2 stock rims and the forum came though...thanks guys. Since these will be rear rims, I'm going to keep the centers but have 7" outers welding on by Stockton Wheel Co. This should help give the rears a deeper look and better size for the the 235/70/15 tires I ordered. I'm also having them back space the front rims by 1/2"-3/4", this will help clear the tie rods from the drop as well as give them a slight deeper look also. While its on jack stands, brakes are getting replaced and taking a few leaf springs out (front/rear).
Took 2 leaf springs off all corners to lower it 1.5-2" all the way around. This should complete the stance I'm looking for. Got Stockton wheels working on rims and Diamond Back Classics on the tires so will have to wait and see until than. Brake stuff is still on order so I'll start working on getting parts to firing her up. Got a radiator coming but will most likely need more stuff...
Hi Sid, Must say I'm really happy with your work. Finally got wheels back from Stockton Wheel, they took my original 2 stock front wheels and welded new outers (same width 5.5) and back spaced them 1/2". This along with 205/60/15 tires gives me about 1.25" of space between tire and dropped tie rod. The rears are stock Dodge inners with 7" outers, again welded to the edge to make them look as deep as possible, with 235/60/15. Tires are custom made from Diamond Back Classics, 2.5" WW in front and 2.75" WW in rear. Sid's dropped axel along with removing 2 leaf springs from all 4 corners gave me the stance I've been looking for. I started sanding the interior and getting it ready for paint. Going to paint it the same color as my 64 GTO interior (Parchment White), just love the color of a off white interior and it screams old school. Fixed springs/welded frame of bench seat and its being upholstered in parchment/black. Interior of Betsy will be stellar, still thinking about exterior. Might go PPG ESS flat black with a slight twist, had a customer do this on a old Caddy and looked really nice. Got plenty of time before I get to that. Here's a picture of how it looks now, enjoy...
Nice. You're certainly going in the right direction. I like the look of satin black on the old vehicles. I get stopped everywhere I go because people want to look at my truck. Yesterday I had a guy at Lowes Hardware take a bunch of pics of mine with his camera phone...asked a lot of questions also. Keep posting pics of your progress...we like pics.
I like the satin black on my Dodge, but I get tired of being asked "when you gonna paint it?" I wish mine was a neat 50s two-tone color combo like this 54 I would consider my truck done with that look! looking sweet gtopillado!
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