Customs Morticia the 1956 Dodge Pickup

Just realized I never did a build thread on this truck. Do my best to get yall up to speed from over 13 years of wrenching and driving. Here is the most up to date pic so you can see where we are now vs the build process...



She was orig bought as a parts truck for a wrecked one I had given to me a few years prior to buying her. Once I got her home I realized she was too good to take apart and part out as so much was in great shape still. The guy I got her from saved her from the crusher with 15 minutes left on her life clock when he showed up. She was a north texas truck her whole life. Saved in Gainsville Tx.



Here was the trip home in Jan. 2008 I believe...



Here she was in storage till 2008 when I bought my new place and the magic of garage life happens...


She was solid but 80 grit rust finish, so laid some primer on her to slow the pitting process due to living in Houston and it being rainy and moist.

Here are a few other pics of when I bought her to get full feeling of my 500 dollar purchase. Only downside was missing the passenger door, but I took that from the parts truck and here we are with a full body etc.

 

Once getting settled in new house, and moving truck to the garage. The build time was 10 months. It would have been less, but I was working 50 to 60 hr weeks still and single. So I had to find a motor... So I did a craigslist search and found a 318/904 combo out of a 69 coronet, 55k miles runner driver for 350 bucks. SOLD.



On the ride home.



And going in.....



Found 4x4 blocks to be great under the manifolds to get proper height figured out.





Sorry the photos of this part kinda suck... Technology wasnt my friend at that moment.

 

So once front half of the frame was boxed, and motor was mounted on newly made brackets, we moved on to other systems. Trans mount was made using the factory coronet center section, 2x2 1/4 wall tubing and some angle iron.

Knowing what I know now Id remake this, but Its stout as a brick sh&thouse and hasnt given me a lick of trouble so it stays.



Note, bad quality pic, but The jackstands were made by my grandfather many moons ago, and I downright love them for work like this. Stout, and wont fail.



So the motor fit and set up pretty good, I did a big firewall notch to clear good and I also like my weight to be behind the front axle centerline.

 

So now onto brakes,

I made my own disc conversion after alot of trian and error... This is the largest rotor you can fit, and no stupid track width issues that you find in some other companies.

99 dodge avenger rotors, the factory idler hubs removed from the brake drums. Gm metric calipers.

Get rid of the bolt style lugs and press in studs into the idler... Works great.

 

so by this point were taking shape.... Getting closer. Downfall of the front brakes was I needed larger wheels, so I grabbed a pair off a lincoln to just use as rollers.



First pic outdoors since work began....



Turn it around to work on the rear.....





Preparing for the rear end swap... Now when I bought this place, I didnt waste time building any cabinets, I wanted to build this truck... HENCE the sh&tstorm of everything laying everywhere. My garage from this point has never been without storage and org. since...I was focused on getting my truck done....

The old hypoid rear, was probably still good but I had a new 741 8.75" mopar to go in...

 

So it needed some kind of electrical. SO in easy and fast we did a dirt track panel...

B&m shifter on the floor etc... This is how she drove for the first few years till I started making her nice.



First drive... Not pretty.... But went off without a hitch...

Now onto bed and fuel system... Got the keg from another hotrodder here in houston.. bought it for 40 bucks as its what he was sold it for when he got it, as I sold it for 40 bucks when I sold it to the next guy also.

 

So October of 2009 she hit the road...


Very crude but fun as hell and was on the road for under 3000 bucks orig.



So a buddy working at Discount Tire had some wheels that a customer didnt want. Torque thrust 2 wheels, 150 bucks for the set. so here we are with how I ultimately got stuck with these wheels.

So few paint throw arounds and miles later.... Having a blast still with this 318 and 2 barrel...

The oil pressure at idle was fluttering pretty bad, ran great getting over 20 mpg still but time for refresh...As you can see by the firewall in this pic, we had it apart and shaved the firewall and gave it a nice paint job with some leftover HOK flip paint...

 

Before we did the motor, in 2010 around a year after she left the garage. we did alot of screwing with paint etc.



Orange dash didnt last long... haha.

But my buddies and I laid this out in 2 days and drove to a show in north texas the 3rd day...




Sorry for the out of line pic but only one I have that shows the paint decently....
Will outline the drop below.

So upgrades of a purple cam and some late model 302 fast burn heads woke her up a bit for sure with a 4 barrel intake etc.


So here we are with the old 318 with AC now.

 

So Onto the drop,

Sids 3" drop axle, 2 leafs removed out of the front pack. Rear is alot of work that I dont have much documentation on. Step notched, relocated shocks, relocated fuel tank, 17 gallon RCI tank that is a pile of junk that gives you 12 gallons of usable capacity.

Here is her stance for the last 11 years.

 

2016 She did the long haul on the power tour...

Numerous hauls to and from the swap meet.



Had a buddy come make my firewall pop... always dug his work...

 

I'm not a mopar guy but like seeing what others are building. Great Job! Keep up the good work! I have a friend who has a truck about this year with all mopar running gear. Sorry my pictures are unavailble on this computer.

 

So where we are at today...

Motor needs some valve springs and seals, So may pull heads to give it some extra love...

Paint has now been copied 3 times by others... I think its time for a change....So do I keep the simplicity of her, satin and gloss style that makes me not worried about parking lots etc, or do I go full gloss and stress myself out? Its a tough decision when its been this way for a long time now.. .But who says we cant top what we did here?

I want a wheel and tire change, steels or supremes with 1" WW possibly... And suspension, either go up 1" in rear or down another inch up front... to go lower is massive undertaking...But with reverse eye springs would look pretty damn good I think and keep functional still.

So the changes are coming this year for sure...

All those wondering if the racecar switch panel was left in, no it was rewired 2010 when we repainted it. has a rebel wiring harness in it. Works ok. Knowing what I know now. Id throw a american autowire hwy 15 at her.

AC that was installed 2015 and was a vintage air Mini, its too small of cfm for the truck cab of this size. I was assured it would be fine by VA and by the installer, it is not. 100 degree day, you may get 88 degrees inside temp... She puts at 40 degrees out of the vents but cant exchange enough air. I have looked at putting a mark 4 under dash but with the firewall notch it would stick past the dash 5 inches and would look dumb... so Ive been debating what to do with AC still...May do a heritage VA or try to slide a larger evap in. Just alot of money for another evap for a little more cfm...

 

Nice. Mopar in a Mopar just the way it should be. IMO

 

This is a great truck but I may be biased…

 

I have always liked your truck. I like it even more now that I know the story. Thanks for sharing.

 

If anything is right in this world , it’s an old vintage truck. Kudos to you.

 

Awesome build. Start with a parts truck and built it as you go, as you can afford to.
Great job.
r

 

For $500 I would have brought that home too.

Devin

 

So they say, imitation is the best form of flattery. I just dont see how... But I guess someone else who copies your paint scheme, time for a change. So I have to get some body work done and figure out what I am going to do next.... The great debate, shiny or satin, nice or keep it usable? The old paint on her is scratched up and few places flaked off from rock chips etc, almost a badge of honor showing that she does get driven and has logged a ton of miles. But I have had an itch to change things for a while, just havent had clear direction on where I want to go with her. After having a very LOUD paint job, its hard to think of single color base paint jobs... I had thought about inverting the colors.... hmmm.

Here is 1 of the copies I have found. The other was a studebaker....

 

Ok... I decided to fix some loose ends that have bothered me for years. First up was this worn shackle block... It hasnt worn any more in 10 years but still was too loose for comfort. I had sourced another out of a parts truck years ago, but doing this swap has always been low on the totem pole. So How this all started....

I needed to fix some fit up on the front sheet metal, there were some gaps that were huge and needed some body work etc. So in trying to work smarter, the more I have dug down the more little things I have been fixing or changing.

Day 1



Then turned into more body work and this is day 3




Here we are day 4...
And finally this piece of junk is out of the chassis.... Super tight area to work in and painful to work around with cab still on... But you can see the one on the right is egg shaped...


New one installed... Grade 8 bolts are about as strong as rivets in my book...




Axle is set to the side, the springs will be getting reversed eyes soon enough for that extra 1"

Stay tuned.

 

Hmm, I was just thinking, if you have morticia, who’s got Gomez? Lol

 

I still have yet to have Gomez in the fleet.. Maybe someone out there does but not in my circle.

 

So in the quest for a little lower... Did something I have never done... Reversed some springs... Went pretty good... Used a tubing bender that I modified and worked flawlessly... Completed Leaf put back together....



Now to the other part that is going to suck... Making steering angle correct again...1.5" lower by what the drag link is telling me, so looks like once I get this figured out were good to go...

 

Nice work on one of the better mopar body styles. I vote for satin paint.

 

Updates, Waiting on parts right now... I need to re shim the steering box as I have too much drag on the worm and a leak there for the 3rd time... Finally found a pitman shaft seal, so installed that to stop the leaks completely I hope...




Figured Might as well clean up and paint the pitman arm while I am at it....



Then blew a day cleaning up and doing some rewiring up front...
Finally got around to installing the replacement dimmer switch, and HOOKED it up finally... I will now have high and low beams, novel feature for sure. I got tired of the alternator wire going on top of the intake and down to the battery, so decided to run it down and through the frame back to the starter... Its sheathed, and has 2 insulated clamps holding it inside the boxed frame so it should be good to go.

Here is one for you, I was tightening my u bolts to torque, 90 ftlbs... SNAP, broke one... and the other stripped threads... So I have a new set coming...Hopefully the correct length for modified spring packs... Thankfully they went here instead of on the road.



Stay tuned for more updates as things move along...

 

I have a 54 Dodge truck factory service manual here. It covers all sizes of Dodge trucks for that year.

All the torque specs for the front suspension are based on the diameter of the bolt and the thread count:
Drag link ball stud 1/2" - 20 Torque 45 to 75 Ft Lbs
Tie rod end ball stud nut 1/2" -20 Torque 45 to 75 FT lbs
9/16" -18 Torque 45-75 Ft lbs
Tie rod clamp bolt 5/16" -24 Torque 10-15 Ft lbs
Steering knuckle flange
bearing screws 1/2" -13 Torque 25-27.5 Ft lbs
Spring clip bolt nuts 1/2" -20 Torque 62 -69 Ft lbs

No place in the front suspension does it list 90 Ft lbs of torque for anything. I might suggest you want to replace anything you have torqued that tight, it may well be ready to break also.

The local spring shop here insists that new grade 9 U bolts they sell should be torqued at 45 ft lbs, and could be torqued up to 60 ft lbs only if the threads were oiled first. Didn't seem right to me either, but I've never had a problem at that torque (I do oil the threads and torque to 60 ft lbs).

Over torqueing the bolts/nuts only seems to bend the spring plates the bolts pass through. Gene

 

I forgot about the torque per bolt size, busted out my manual and it was 65-75 ftlbs for u bolts, so went 68 and all good with new ubolts. Thanks.

 

Alright, Parts finally arrived... So here we are....

Pulled apart the box to check the worm gear, glad I did, major scorn and in real bad pitted shape on the face of the middle of the worm gear. So I had a F1 box I had bought a while back, figured the Gemmer Box should be the sme worm gears, and yep, match... So after sourcing the gear, I cut the shaft in preparation for shortening the column. Bevel Weld the main shaft, then 4 plug welds with welds all around the ends of the sleeve... Shouldn't go anywhere I think.

Worm gear.. All adjusted and back together, Shortened and all welded.... Ready for paint...



Few Other random shots of progress...



Best part is I found out the splines on the steering shaft are the same as a ford F1 so that opens up my steering wheel search drastically. Thinking maybe a crestline wheel maybe.



So here is the new holes drilled in the frame for steering box raise and slide forward to correct geometry on the drag link etc.

Looking forward to bolting the box in for the last time.



So what started off as motor clean up, turned into tear down and then why not bump things to the next notch, I have new valve springs coming, new intake etc so I can rev this gal past 4200 hopefully without floating valves.
So I was doing preventative valve cover gaskets, they were seeping some. Got one done fine, the other.... Well I always run a tap through bolt holes that have oil or grime in them to get them clean. Well I guess the 50 year old 1/4-10 tap had a crack and snapped off in hole. All efforts failed to break, recover etc. Wont drill etc, but it did grind with the dremmel. Going to let a shop do it when they give the heads a good cleanup and valve job etc.



So the spiral out of control has been full swing for sure.

But she will be lower, and better than ever with steering hopefully better and more free, oil leaks should be gone with this, and the single plane old skool torker intake will look killer I think also.

Side note, this is how clean this motor was inside I can't complain at all....

Stay tuned.....

 

Well, its been a waiting on parts week... Got some stuff in, so Axle is back bolted up... Torqued to 65 ft lbs... The new ubolts are really nice from CPP, they worked with modified leaf packs without issue...

Here it is under its own weight... Running board to show level with the chassis of the truck...


So steering box is installed, shorter drag link installed...So in moving the box up, and forward in to keep things in plane I had to run a shorter drag link, because the box center is now pointed straight down as it should have been, I could go shorter but then I would loose some of my right turn ability in the axle... The steering box center is weird on this box, 3 turns one way, 2.25 the other from the high point where drag is. I pulled the sector in and out thinking spin of worm would change but thats not the case... Its just weird... SO The box will go over 5 turns lock to lock... But the axle will go 3.5 and thats it...Lock to lock. so cant complain... Its within operating range of box. The sector shaft is splined on the bottom and notched up top so putting pitman arm on differently isnt an option as a normal spline goes...

So the fun of design constraints... Box is all sealed up... NO LEAKS>.. Thats a first for this trucks box...

Here the steering is all hooked up and installed, the drag link has a down angle as shown here, with the weight of the heads, body panels etc the drag link will be square and level with ground from my calculations +/- 1 degrees. Will be doing shocks today, these old yellow monroes will get a paint job and re installed... Still good and tight...


So the mail was good to me yesterday... I got my new intake in... As I have hated this polished air gap dual plane since the day I put it on... The pro comp just always felt cheap and it was... It did the job I guess, but I wanted a real cool old skool intake for the LA block... So here we are...May not be 3 deuces or anything cool like that but a Torker intake is always a nice go to. TM5. Now what color to paint it.... Black, cast iron coat, or clear... Hmm decisions decisions. Well I got to figure that out soon... Heads are at the shop being worked over, new valve job, fixing the mess up, seals, springs etc....

 

Weekly update....

So went ahead and started sanding...
Then priming...


Needed to hang the fenders to fix the gap at the header and get things adjusted right... THIS WAS A PAIN... I settled for more gap at the doors vs a inconsistent gap at the header panel... before I was over 1/4" by the radiator support, now minimal back to stock... All my beating and banging paid off finally...



So onto sanding... UGG...Found a way to not get sanding dust everywhere with an orbital sander... Hook your shop vac to it... yeah its loud but there is no dust on anything in this garage...


Then onto primer.... not pleased with the primer, but will sand soon...



So decided to put the critical systems back together since I should get my other set of heads from the shop soon. Decided to see how the new cleaned up wiring looked and put the brake fluid reservoirs back in their place....Not bad at all... .


Onto the heads....The tap was too hard, they threw carbide and grinding stones at it, nothing touched it... So I have the 302 heads stripped down here... They had 4 burnt valves anyways, my 675 heads were gone through 10 years ago, ran for a few weeks and put to the side cause these 302 heads came in, honestly the 302 heads didn't do much of anything for this motor...

So here is my path forward, I am on the fence on colors.... All satin mind you... But still not set... So I remembered my old room mate had a truck he painted with primer sealer that he tinted... Granted its OT here, but the color is close to another I have been looking at. So If I do that, don't like the color and want to change, its not as much of a loss....

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