48 FFPW Fresh from the field

[Bluto92]

Hello, newbie restorer here. I got the Power Wagon bug about a year ago and have been searching all the usual haunts since to find my own truck. I finally found one on Craigslist about 8 hours away. Turns out it is a pretty decent '48 B-1 with original engine and winch. The pictures look pretty bad but, up close, the rust is all surface, even in the windshield frame and door bottoms. It was in the dry Texas panhandle. There are only about 5 square inches of original black paint remaining on the exterior. The rear fenders and tailgate are AWOL, along with the PW badging, seat back and headlight/cowl bezels. the bumper, winch and running board were in the bed, along with a t-post and barbed wire, presumably from its last job as a working truck. I found some misc. parts in a bucket in the interior that appear to be from a previous restoration "attempt". My ultimate goal is a full frame-off restoration but for now I just want to re-mobilize the beast, replace what is broken/missing, and then ponder all the possible minutia of colors, upgrades, modifications, etc. For now everything is staying stock. As soon as I figure out how to post large pics or shrink them I will add more views.

[Bluto92]

More pics

Ok, here is the truck as it sat in a field next to a house:

The front tire was dry-rot shredded and the driver's door was sitting inside on the seat frame.

[Bluto92]

More Pics

After a little cleanup and inspection I found all the driver's door hardware except the hinge pin so I rehung the door and inserted a spare hex key to wait for VPW parts.

The front is listing to the left because the front leaf spring pack was completely broken in half.

The winch and passenger side running board were in what was left of the bed. Only a shrunken skeleton of toothpicks remained from the original wood.

After sifting through the substantial cab detritus left from unknown years of TX dust storms, and what must have been a sizable rat community, I was rewarded with several miscellaneous fasteners, NOS parts and fence post staples. I vacuumed the dirt/feces from the cab, power washed the engine, chassis, drivetrain and cab floor and coated the cab floor with a little WD-40 for temporary rust protection from my more humid climate. The floor pans were rusted and pitted but no cancer.

Here are a few more pics post-rescue:

[W_A_Watson_II]

Hey, Nice Start. Look forward to the progress.

[JStinson]

Welcome to the sickness.

Looking forward to your project!

[Bluto92]

Sickness

Welcome to the sickness.

Looking forward to your project!

Oh, I got it bad...

[W_A_Watson_II]

At Least you found the right support group to help you through your addiction!

[Matt Wilson]

Way to go! It's gonna be a lot of fun for you to learn about this truck. Part of the fun is the technical, but it's also learning the history associated with it.

[KenaiGary]

48 Refresh

Thanks for saving this one and welcome to our PW family. You really don't know what you've gotten into. This is from a newbie who has only been part of the fraternity since June and I now own two Power Wagons. Yes, some would call it a sickness...

[jsiebert]

KenaiGary, My wife sure thinks its a sickness. I also have 2 and I'm afraid if it wasn't for her there would be at least a couple more in the old corral. John

[KenaiGary]

48 Fresh

Yeah, mine too! And yes, I have my eyes set on another 1950 that I believe I can get a great deal on, but I think I'd have to move into the truck.

[Bluto92]

Wives

I'm still trying to get my wife to see the beauty...

I think it's the coolest truck I've ever seen. She thinks it looks like Mater's ugly cousin. I billed it as a 10-year project truck so now she's wondering why I spend every free minute inside, around and underneath it.

[JStinson]

I'm still trying to get my wife to see the beauty...

I think it's the coolest truck I've ever seen. She thinks it looks like Mater's ugly cousin. I billed it as a 10-year project truck so now she's wondering why I spend every free minute inside, around and underneath it.

10 years?

Short timer...

[Bluto92]

Springs and Shocks Replacement

Well I got around to replacing the springs and shocks over the long weekend. The driver's side spring pack was completely broken in half and the truck obviously leaned heavily to that side. What I thought would be a simple swap turned into 5-hour ordeal, and that was just the driver's side. The u-bolts were fully rust-welded to the bottom plate and the nuts were not very cooperative either. The biggest thing I have learned so far is to have the proper tools for the job. I couldn't find my 7/8" socket so I used a 5-lb Crescent wrench to remove the u-bolt nuts. Being on my back/side while holding that behemoth wrench and turning the bolts 1/4 at a time I quickly understood why socket wrenches were invented. After removing all the nuts I decided to remove the front fender as well for a better vantage point, and was able to pound the plate free with a short 2x4 and sledge hammer. The replacement springs were supposedly from an M-601 and I could tell the leaves were slightly different than the originals. They appeared to be just a little thicker per leaf and the leaves were not tapered at either end like the originals. The truck has definitely leveled back out - if anything, it may be higher now on the driver's side.

Today I replaced the passenger side spring and shock. With a full complement of deep-well sockets, long ratchet handle and impact wrench I was able to cut the replacement time in half. I had to use the manual ratchet well over half the time before my impact wrench would break those nuts free. Even after copious lubing some of the nuts were just as hard to re-install. Do nuts shrink after 60 years? :-)

I noticed a couple things during this process. The driver's side u-bolt plate was free whereas the passenger side plate was welded to the axle. Is this normal? The passenger side spring pack had a u-bolt seat on top whereas the driver's side did not. My parts drawing shows the rear springs having seats and the fronts having bumpers, which look like seats with a rubber pad on top. Should I have bumpers? On both sides?

Here are a before and after pic and one of the broken spring.

[W_A_Watson_II]

Bluto92,

WOW, that's a very busted spring pack! Nice work. The early PW's had different and lighter springs than the later ones, and there were at leats two know different types that I'm aware of. So the leaf thickness and tapers will vary from truck to truck.

Yes the lower spring plates one welded one not are correct. Keep up the great work and keep us posted to it.