Not really seeing anything I wouldn't expect to find on any 65 year old farm truck. Its purpose was to move stuff around on the farm, and maybe make a trip or two into town a year. Beauty and precision maintenance were not as important as function. It had to function, and that owner used whatever he had to make it work. I suspect the Chevy or GMC truck died and the Dodge flathead 6 died, so the Chevy motor got installed into the Dodge using what ever was needed to get the job done, probably as cheaply as possible. When the floorboard needed patching, at least he put in some effort to stick something fairly solid in there, most just covered the hole with a rug or floor mat. Gene
The sales literature bragged on the "waterproof" intake and ignition. Turns out there wasn't really any choice, as those hoods leaked big time. Thus, open carb throat is an open invitation to bent rods
The owner bought a new carburetor, the throttle plate needed tweaks and a hole to match original. Also, the new carb has an extra vacuum port
IIRC, they also come from the factory with spark plug boots/hoodies to prevent pools of water in the plug pockets.
Fabbed up the first of many sub floor pieces. Hoping to zip this side together tomorrow, I need to jack up the body a little because it has settled
I second the idea of doing the drilling out and converting to studs... Did that when I first built mine... But I also separate the drum from the idler hub to make my own disc brake conversion... Making good headway man... Sorry I had forgotten about the LH thread on the left side...
Fabbed up a piece for the toe board, bent it to meet the floor support. I had to jack up the body about an inch to get it back to normal. Tomorrow hopefully I can weld this up and get the floor jack out.
Hard part done on this side. Toe board had a lot of shape to it. I need to finish the welding and grinding but I can live with this.
Fabbed and welded in drivers side floor supports, tomorrow weld in the floor pan. Then I can put the seat back in and bleed the brakes
Finally got driver's side floor supports and pan in. Last week I got welders flash and that messed me up for Sunday and part of Monday. New welding hood delivered on Wednesday, I must say the new welding helmets with instant on technology and HUGE window are a game changer!!! Instantly I am a better welder!! Just don't tell the prima Donna real welders, they'll still shit on me!!
Not bad. As long as you get good penetration especially the structural parts you are good. Plug welds look ok. Slap some seam sealer down and call it good
Bled the brakes the other day with the help of Mike I. Went around the truck 4 times, how's the pedal now? "Worse" WTF! I really don't want to put another master cylinder in this. A friend has a power bleeder, gonna hafta try that first.
I wired the electric fuel pump, disconnected the line at the carb, put some fuel in annnnndddd nothing. Bypassed the mechanical fuel pump and it pumped out, got some scale and silt out of the line. The plugs got wire wheeled/gapped, the points were verified @ .019, it lit right off. I still can't figure out how to upload a video to here from YouTube so an old picture will have to do
Just curious how you added fuel .... did you put it in the original tank? One big issue most noobies get caught on with these old flathead Dodges. The standard is to think #1 plug goes at 7:00 0'clock position on the distributor. While the oil pump is geared, the distributor runs off the oil pump .... If the oil pump was removed in the past 70 years & not installed correctly ..... The #1 plug wire can be any position on the distributor cap. Just things you think you follow the book on, people behind you may not have .... My #1 is at 6:00 instead of 7:00. .... You need to pull up #1 tdc & check the rotor. Fuel is another story.
A few more items off the checklist. . . And a setback. Fabbed up a shock support, drilled and installed new hardware. Brake line bracket attached, see how I planned for that? I got lucky. I then needed to address the u-joint situation 3 of 4 sides of u-joint were mint. The 4th wouldn't budge, even with the air chisel, so the whole deal went for a ride to a pal's shop for a new set up.
Quite the project. Nice work! I would save on all that patina that falls off frame and old cab floors. Someone may want to buy it to sprinkle on their barnfind.
Got the driveshaft back and installed with u bolts from a spare banjo rear. Started hammering out a floor hump. More to bend and fit but it already fits better than the old one!!