46 FFPW Restoration

[Desoto61]

The project begins!

Went and picked up the title for the PW and got the wheels off so I can get some decent tires on it.

Three of them are bad, including some sidewall cracking. One will hold air, I may leave it alone. I really only need something stable enough to let me move the truck around while I restore it for now. Hopefully I can get some used tires put on for cheap. Now I just need to find a shop that can work on these things.

The owner had the original 1946 title from the dealership that purchased it and owned it up until he bought it. Ohio apparently used to require the title to be stamped every year it was licensed, so it has stamps up to 1989. I will have to see if the VA DMV will let me keep it when I transfer the title.

So given a lot of time, effort, and even more money I hope to have one as pretty as some of you guys. I'll try to keep this thread updated as I go along.

[Charles Talbert]

I'll have 5 very good condition 9.00X16 tires coming off a project truck in just a few weeks. These will be for sale & will include tubes & flaps. Since you are in Southern VA, you may be close enough to make a pick up here saving shipping cost. We have a local tire shop here in town who would be happy to mount them for you. If interested, just give me a call or e-mail.

[Doc Dave]

Charles,
Are those non directional tires?
Have you decided on an asking price?

[Charles Talbert]

Charles,
Are those non directional tires?
Have you decided on an asking price?

Yes they are non-directional. Owner said they only have around 500 miles, maybe less since new. The appearance matches his mileage suggestion. We will be selling for him as they actually are not ours. I believe $75 a piece is a good price, this includes tubes & flaps as well.

[Desoto61]

"New" tires

Dropped the rims off at "Hamton Roads Tire Service" last night. They were recommended by another local shop for split ring work. Picked out four "used" radials (265/75R16s). They're not the right diameter but since these will never be driven on it shouldn't matter. I just need something to make the truck movable while I restore it. I'll look into a more appropriate replacement when it's time to get it back on the road again.

They seemed to know what they were doing. They had the spoons and bead hammers out before I left and had one tore down in about 10 minutes. They had the big tire cage beside the shop for inflating them safely too. I'll go back and get them today.

Update: Got there just before they closed. They installed new tubes and flaps all around and everything is mounted and aired up. They did a good job, no major damage to the rings. I'll hopefully get them mounted back up next week since the big Mopar show is this weekend.

[Desoto61]

Almost here, and other amusing tales.

Took the tires back out and got them put back on the truck. Hold fine and look decent enough. Kind of weird getting them mounted on the hub. Since the lug nuts are so large compared to the studs they don't auto-center like modern vehicle tires, so it takes a little more care to get them bolted down, once you remember the whole left-hand thread thing on the one side.

On the plus side all the hubs spun real easy, which is a good sign, though it make it harder to center the tires.

Also found out that a re-man engine was installed a while back and apparently they went with the larger I-6 at that time.

As an amusing side note, we were talking about how tough these trucks are and Bob told me about a story the previous owner (at the Dodge dealership it came from) had shared. He said they had used it to pull an 18-wheeler loaded with new cars across town to the dealership one time. Naturally they didn't go fast, but they got there!


Should get the truck towed up here before the end of the holiday weekend. I'll post more pics when I get it here. Then the real fun begins.

[Desoto61]

It's Here!

Truck got delivered today. Poor flatbed was hard pressed with the Power Wagon on it!



He had to offload it there because he was riding too low to get up the driveway. It worked OK though. Only problem was even though it rolls OK it's still a 3 1/2 ton truck so it takes a lot of grunt to move it. Got it under the carport. Won't fit in the garage with the boom up. Now I just have to figure out the game plan for getting it apart.




As cool as the wrecker assembly is I think I'm going to sell it. It's just not practical for me and I already have one toy, this one will need to earn it's keep. I'd like to do the Cummins conversion too so I'll have quite a few parts to put up in the magazine and in the forum.

I took a ton of pictures. More are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/Desoto61/PowerWagon#

The cab looks very solid as does the frame and a lot of the cowl assembly. The running boards are rough and their supports are long gone. They welded some supports to the frame at some point to brace them. Naturally the drivers side door and sill is in worse shape then the passenger side but nothing horrible. In any event I've got my work cut out for me.

But first I've got to get ready for Hanna.

[HWooldridge]

It's your truck so do as you please - but I think it is worth much more as a restoration with the associated provenance rather than gutting it. It's not too tough to find a nice working truck but a winch truck like yours would fetch a premium. A real frame off resto and I bet it would fetch at least $25K at the right auction - maybe much more. Heck, I can see one of the big Dodge truck dealers buying it for his showroom; or maybe Jay Leno if he doesn't already have one.

In any case, let us know how it goes and good luck with Hanna. We just dodged Gustav but Ike may drop down and thump us.

[Desoto61]

Don't get me wrong, the desire is there, it's undeniably cool as it is. But even at $25K I'd probably have that kind of money in it, not including my time (which I don't, it's a hobby after all), when it was all said and done. Then I'd have to sell it and try and find another truck to restore and start all over again. Besides, I've never seen antique cars as a good investment, you can make money off them sometimes, but usually it's at best a wash and usually a money pit. They may be better than a new car but that's about it. Like any hobby you do it because you love it, the rest is secondary.

My convoluted thinking was that my old Dakota died a few months ago, and while I can get by without it I prefer having a truck around for certain jobs. I had always wanted one of these so why not kill a few birds with one stone? I get a project, a truck, something more likely to retain it's value than a modern pickup, and ultimatly one really cool and unique vehicle. As a wrecker this isn't very practical for normal truck duties and I can't think of too many times I've wanted or needed a wrecker.

My goal was to find a decent truck, the wrecker body wasn't actually a plus in my book. It's cool, no doubt, but I bought it because ultimatly I'd be hard pressed to find something similar for anywhere near the same money, especially once you throw in transportation costs.

[dad2nick]

Wrecker Body

I may have some interest if the price is right. You are not too far from me in WV. Any chance you can join us for the Mid-Atlantic Power Wagon Rally in Morgantown, WV October 24-26? Shoot me an email at: dad2nick1@yahoo.com
Thanks.

[Desoto61]

Round 1

I've been working at disassembly most of the week as I get time. I may need to buy stock in PB Blaster before I'm done but it's been hit and miss so far.

I have all the fasteners out of the two fenders except for the front support brackets. The driver's side is basically gone under the fender and there's just enough rust to prevent me from removing the bolts to the radiator shroud. Passenger side is better but not by much. Fasteners on the fender-to-brace are too rusted to get with a socket and the lower one on the cowl is rounded over. So there's not much holding the fenders on but it's enough to keep them from coming off without some more significant work. I'm thinking I'll pull the shroud and fender assembly which will let me work without the frame and wheels in the way.

That said, a lot of the fasteners aren't putting up too much of a fight. The ones that don't yeld to my meager strength usually give up under the impact gun or cheater bar. Only one has actually snapped so far (knock on wood).

The inner fender pannels look solid, as does the radiator cowl, though I wouldn't trust the radiator itself. The cab is solid behind the fenders. As for the fender's themselves, as I said, the driver's side is, I think, a lost cause. I'm not sure about the passenger side fender as there's lots of undercoating but it may be salvagable, though the headlight bucket on that side is not.

Is that U-shaped support brace on the front of the fender replacable? It looks like there are rivets or something holding it to the fender but I can't tell due to the undercoating and rust. Do people even bother or just replace the fender as one piece?

Goal is to get the front end torn down, then move on to getting the bed disconnected from the frame and try and remove it as one piece. Then I should be able to wrestle it into the garage where I can use the lift to help get the engine and tranny removed, and then pull the cab.

[Desoto61]

Well it was 95 degrees out the truck is in the shade so I still made good progress.

That new impact gun is great! The winch fasteners put up one good fight but the air tool won. That thing weighs a ton!



Also got the front clip removed. The radiator cowl seems very solid but I'm finding a lot of rust in the front fenders and headlight assemblies. With the clip off I should be able to get at the rusted support bolts better. I picked up a set of flat wrenches at Sears that should help for the rounded fasteners.

[Desoto61]

With the cooler weather I've been getting a couple of hours each evening before it gets dark.

Lots of work with the air tools, including the cut-off wheel and air chisel got the fenders off the radiator cowl. Radiator came out easy other than being heavy. Fenders are pretty rough but the cowl seems very solid.

The frame extensions and bumper bolts were the real bear. Impact gun, a lot of PB Blaster and a cheater bar got most of them loose. I've got them bagged and labeled but I'll replace just about all of them due to the corrosion on most.

Got the frame extensions out. The frame on that side is a little distorted (the C is open a little more than it should be) but the majority of the damage was to the frame extension. I don't know how they did it but considering the damage it must have taken a lot of force.



That's most of the front. I'll move to the bed and work on disconnecting the winch and wrecker assembly so I can figure out how to get it removed from the frame, which so far looks to be very solid.

[Desoto61]

Been making some progress on the truck. The running boards are off. The factory brackets had rusted out so someone had welded some angle to the frame to support them. The rear was brazed to the rear fender so they had to be cut loose.

There was a battery box on the driver's side fender which trapped water and debris so there was some bad rust behind it. Shouldn't be hard to patch since it's all nice straight heavy metal.

Also got the linkages removed that allow you to operate the boom winch from the rear of the truck removed. One engaged the PTO assembly on the transmission and the other operates the clutch.

Had to do some hunting on-line to find an impact socket for the 1 1/2" bolt on the tire carrier. Unfortunately I didn't know it was a bolt until the tire fell off at me! Luckily it didn't have far to fall.

The next part is to figure out how to remove either the whole bed assembly with the boom or pull the boom and then the bed.

[Desoto61]

Wow, hard to beleive it's been almost a month. Too many things going on, and the shorter daylight doesn't help. I've been lucky to have an hour a night to play with it. Need to get this in the garage so I can really tear into it (and stay warm).

I've gotten the boom removed, the frame it bolts to has been putting up a better fight. The bolts do not usually come out intact. Getting my upper body excercise though.

Gas tank came out last night. Looks to be in OK condition, but whatever is in it doesn't smell like gas any more. That should let me get at the last of the bolts for the bed and boom frame. With the boom support off I can put it in the garage and use my lift to get the bed off the frame.

On the plus side it gave me a good excuse to buy an engine lift. Next will probably be a welder so I can put some bracing in the cab before I lift it off the frame. The only advantage of working extra is the money it leaves for projects. Now I just need to find the time to spend it (no I don't need any help).

More pictures as I can.