1947 Build, progress and general stumbles

[bilfman]

Hey folks. I will state again that I am new to the ffpw world and in September 2013 I had none, I now find myself with 3 vintage Dodge products. A 1946 WDX, 1947 WDX and a 1945 Canadian Military Dodge D3/4 WP/APT.

I am loving the project so far and have taken a few pics to share with you all. As I said I am new to this PW stuff, so I have had several questions. Probably many more to come as time rolls on.

This is my first acquisition, the 1946.

[bilfman]

Some more...

[bilfman]

The other 2

[bilfman]

Removing and fixing the old box. 15 gallons of dust and grime after removing to old boards!!

[bilfman]

The box is on and installed.

[bilfman]

After several hours, and I mean literally seven hours of cutting and grinding all the cr*p off the old 45 I can now access the winch so I can steal it for the civilian.

[bilfman]

Cut, tack, measure, align, hammer, weld and the winch takes form on its new 1947 home. Man that is a heavy beast for a 1 man operation!

[bilfman]

Now the part I was not looking forward to! PTO removal and install. My first kick at the can for something of this nature. I have always been a Chevy man with muscle cars and 60/70's 4x4 trucks. This vintage Dodge stuff is all virgin turf for me. The 47 had a rear 1 direction pto, so that had to come off. And to mt sweet surprise...STUDS, nice not enough room to pull the unit off! So the old double nut trick and backed them out so I could remove the pto. The winch pto on the 45 was covered in 2" of grime, probably just as much time to find the nuts as to remove the thing. Finally, painted and installed. The shaft on the 45 was about 3" too long, so I cut that down and re-key way'd in the shop. Fit fine and the winch works perfect. I later found out that it has a front fork to disengage!! Who knew. Looks like I will have to make one soon.

[bilfman]

The bi-directional tires suck in snow!! Wow. So I went to a local truck boneyard and found some old semi chains. Spent some time modifying them to fit the PW, now it is unstoppable!

[bilfman]

Some earlier shots before the snow flew. Also some stuff that has been done so far..

12v converted
Entire truck rewired and fused
Signals, found some really cool old vintage glass lens taillights that look great on it.
New vinyl seat
2 speed heater with defrost hooked up
Stock rubber floor mats
Front window regulator works beautifully, was seized solid
All new u-joints
Pertronix electronic ignition
Carb rebuilt
New wood bed
Tool box mounted
Gas can mounted
All gauging working except gas gauge
12v wipers installed
All lights work inside and out
230 runs really well, starts like a charm
Starter torn apart and cleaned up
All fluids changed
Wheel cylinders and master cylinder rebuilt
I'm sure I missed some stuff, but I plan to add to this thread for quite a while.

[bilfman]

I have some videos uploading to youtube, just taking a while I'll post those tomorrow.

[wayneh]

Billfman: Looks like you have the bug! Nice work, looks like you are having a blast. What do you think of the Pertronix? I was thinking of putting one in my '56. Funny story though, I was in town last summer and a young lady saw the truck and asked if it had the original ignition...?? I said yes, and she told me that was good. Her family are "prepper"s and when the big Nuclear bomb goes off all the electronic stuff will fail, and she was happy that I would be good to go. I didn't dare remind her we're a scant 30 miles from Washington DC, and if the big one goes off we're all going to be marshmellows...

Wayne

[bilfman]

The pertronix has worked great, can use a 12v coil and it fires right up, even in that minus 30 weather.

[wayneh]

very good. I wonder why you are using a 12 volt coil/system? I stuck with a 5 volt system in my '56 and it seems to work quite well. On my '48 tractor the previous owner put in an 8 volt battery, but when I put in the right sized battery cables it was not needed.

Wayne

[bilfman]

12v coil has a hotter spark