Finally, a complete truck

[frippe123]

Hi,

Finally, after more than 4 years of search and dreaming I am the proud owner of a complete mostly original flat fendered Power Wagon from 1949 in NM. I found it on ebay of all places. The truck has begun its voyage and is currently in Phoenix, AZ at my agents place where some (hopefully) minor sheet metal work will be done to the cab.
When the sheet metal work is finished it will be loaded into a container together with additional parts I buy and trucked to the port of LA. From there It will be shipped over the atlantic and into my warm, gentle and loving arms after customs, fees and VAT har been paid.

The truck is complete for the most part but it will need a few parts to replace broken or in place of missing ones. Pictures coming soon.

I have managed to find most parts that I know I need at vintagepowerwagons and will place an order in a few days when I have browsed through the catalogue a couple of times more.
Some parts I know I need but have not found and some part I may need but don't know. I primarily two questions:

1. Is there any aftermarket availability of the 1st gen series bed rear pockets? What price would be expected? I could probably make someone local with a metal brake fabricate two for me but it would most likely be more expensive.

2. What seals, bearings and gaskets etc would you replace if you aquired a new old truck?

[W_A_Watson_II]

Congratulations!

The bed pockets are available from Matt Tisdale:
Matt Tisdale, Salem Kentucky 42078, Phone 812-453-7625, Email santanstone@mediacombb.net Matt's Parts on eBay

The transfercase, differentials and transmission seals always seem to be leaking on these trucks. They would likely need to be replaced but find the newer (non-leather) seals if you can and the double lip style as well. You may find that yokes wore and need redi-sleves to prevent from destroying the new seals.

Keep us posted on the truck and the progress.

[gmharris]

I wouldn't replace anything that doesn't leak or have excessive play. Having said that, you will have plenty to do.

[frippe123]

Thank you guys,

I usually do not replace things just because but due to the distances which equals high shipping fees it is cheaper to buy in bulk and have it sent with the truck than to buy bit by bit. I will email matt about the pockets and vintage regarding seals etc.

[Clint Dixon]

Congratulations!

The bed pockets are available from Matt Tisdale:
Matt Tisdale, Salem Kentucky 42078, Phone 812-453-7625, Email santanstone@mediacombb.net Matt's Parts on eBay.

Will, the latest mailing address I have for Matt is:

1290 South County Road, 650 East
Winslow, IN 47598

I also tried the email address and it gets kicked back. The following works though:

powerwagon555@gmail.com

[W_A_Watson_II]

Thanks Clint.

[Matthew Welcher PWA]

Congratulations, You have a great truck, and these guys are a wealth of knowledge!

[frippe123]

Hi,

Still waiting for my truck which was loaded onto a ship the 25th of January at the port of LA. After what has felt like an eternity it is finally getting closer to the final destination. It is currently in Bremen, Germany being transferred over to another ship. I attached some pictures that my shipping agent took when it arrived at his place. I'm really looking forward to getting this baby home.

[frippe123]

I was at a swap meet two weeks ago and managed to find a seller that had two tail light glass lenses with the word dodge inscribed into them. I don't know whether they are genuine or not. The seller was firm on the price and wanted $45 for them together. I bought them just before I was about to leave the swap meet thinking I would regret it otherwise. I am glad I did.

This Sunday I was at much smaller swap meet but managed to find a complete tail light with number plate lens. It is actually tail light for a 1930-32 desoto (says so on the sticker) but the Dodge lenses seems to fit well. It might need some modifications to fit the braket on the truck. The seller wanted around $70, I paid $45. I'm happy with the deal but not as happy as with the lenses.

[Andydodgegeek]

Looks like you found a real nice truck. Have fun with it. I can only hope to someday be in your part of the world and see it in person. Oh and that seems to be a good deal on the Dodge lenses, I would have bought them as well.

A fellow Swede from Minnesota

[Chewie]

Looks like a nice truck.. good deal on the lenses, too.

[frippe123]

Christmas came early this year or late last year depending how you look at it. Overseas shipping took five months instead of 28 Days due to lockouts and strikes. It finally arrived at my doorstep yesterday.

The cab does not have much rust but quite a few bad repairs, ugly welds where lights, mirrors etc has been mounted. The bed needs quite some work and the tailgate is beyond repair. Good thing is that a new tailgate was ordered.

I haven't got it started yet, it has a "New" weber carburator and electronic ignition. It gets fuel and has spark but not sure how the quality of the fuel is and if timing etc is set correctly. I have not checked the compression yet or let it have new fuel. How do you check if the Engine gets too much fuel?

Lastly, I found that the bottom/lower rubber hose from the oil-filter canister has collapsed beacuse it was bent to hard. Anybody know what fitting it has?

[wayneh]

Can you post a picture of the oil filter? On my 56 it is plumbed with metal tubing.

Wayne

[CSCameron]

Here is a shot of my 55 oil filter before I did a spin on filter upgrade. My lines are metal too.

[frippe123]

Wow, what a beautiful engine CSCameron.

Not the best images but I only have my camera phone and it is on a downward spiral towards break down. Hopefully you can see the piping. The canister is not for a sock type filter, it seems to be some kind of cartridge in it. The canister seems to have a larger diameter than the sock type canisters.

I managed to get it started today but didn't want to run it for long due to the squashed oil filter hose. Compression is between 95 and 100. At first it ran like crap but after a change of spark plugs it started right up and ran better. The old spark plugs had a gap of .064. I used a gap of .036.

What I did notice is that the distributor is only tucked into the engine and not fastened in any way. You can just pull it out and turn it anyway you want. I have to look into that. The distributor also uses some type of vacuum connection. How is the distributor supposed to be fastened into the block?