My Project

[MoparFreak69]

Well, just bit the bullet and ordered some of the parts I am going to need to complete the project.

Decided on the Old Tyme White gauges from Autometer. I got a 3 1/8" electronic speedo and tach and 2 1/16 water temp, oil pressure, fuel level and voltmeter gauges.

Ordered a 12 circuit universal wiring harness from Painless, supposed to be extra length for truck usage.

Decided on a non-tilt, column shift, non-keyed universal steering column from Ididit. From the firewall to where the stock column ended measured about 32" in my truck so I got a column that was 35" long. That way I should have plenty of extra for shifter linkage, but not so long to get in the way of engine components.

Found a seat that needs recovered (would do that anyway so no biggie) for $35. Its out of a 98 Ram pickup and has the shoulder harnesses built into the seat back.

Hopefully Matt will get back with me and let me know about the door deal I have pending with him so that I can get the cab sent out to be blasted. I am debating whether to epoxy prime THEN filler work or do filler work before priming. I have heard arguements for either way. I have always known filler over bare metal and then prime it up. Any insites?

Ben

[MoparFreak69]

Thanks for that Ron.

I found a place that will sand blast the cab inside and out and the doors inside and out for $300. I think it will be money well spent and will save me a couple of weeks worth of sanding and grinding to remove paint and surface rust.

A bill of sale is on its way so that I can get the title process started. It will be pretty simple, only thing about it is that it will be a conditional title for 3 years. After that 3 years the title will be a full on legal title.

Anybody ever seen smoothie steel wheels with 8 lugs? I am thinking about going that route with some baby moons, wheels painted body color. Just throwing ideas around in my head about that right now though.

[Ron in Indiana]

Sounds like you have a plan worked up and a budget to work with. Drop me an email if you would at 59redtruck@verizon.net so I can shoot you some pictures that may help Ron

[MoparFreak69]

Thanks for the info and suggestions Matt. Email sent on those trim pieces.


So it looks like I need to get this thing going by winter. It is going to be a plow truck during the winter, and then the restoration finalized next spring.

Some decisions have been made as far as gameplan for the truck.
I am taking the cab and bed off the frame and plunking them down on a 1997 Ram 2500 frame. It will have a Magnum 5.9 and a 4 speed auto. I will keep the Dana 70 rear axle that is under the 97 frame. Front axle will probably get older outer c's and knuckles to convert it from CAD to hubs.
Since I have no seat and want shoulder harness seat belts I will pick up a 40/20/40 split bench out of a 98+.
Found a couple prospects for a drivers door to save me the time of trying to get the beat up one back in shape. I am thinking about making custom glass sliders and removing the vent wing window. I have never been a fan of them and the very old vintage power wagons did not have them. I think they look quite nice without. Other than that small visual cue the body will remain quite stock.

[mattsoldmopars]

I bought a new windshield and rubber last summer for my 1960 W300 I was working on, from a local body shop. It was ordered threw PPG. I can find the part numbers some where for you if you want? But you should be able to go to any body shop or glass shop and tell them what you need, they are still available new.

I went into the local body shop and told them I had a 1960 Dodge W300, he looked it up but didn't not find anything. Knowing that the 1957-1960 Power Giants have the same front window as a 1961-1966 town wagon or town panel, and the 1960-1974 LCF (= low cab forward) trucks, I told him look it up for say a 1972 low cab forward dodge truck, he did and it was available.

I have a 1959 W300 that I plan on restoring and I am still looking for some parts. One of them is the little stainless trim piece for the drivers door, I see your truck still looks to have this piece, I also need a few other pieces of the SS trim. If you would Please email me at mattsoldmopars@yahoo.com I would be interested in buying them, or all the trim you have.

Thanks Matt

[MoparFreak69]

So looks like things have changed for the better today. Got the truck sold, didnt get as much cash out of it as I had hoped but I did get a decent parts hauler rig and a little over $4k to work with.

First order of business, where can I locate a windshield and rubber for this rig? I need all the glass rubber and might as well get the door rubber if the same place sells all of it.

I need wiring harness recommendations. I am going all electronic gauges (tach, speedo, temp, oil pressure, fuel level) and will be running a MPFI setup. I will be installing A/C. I will be going with a modern steering column with intermittant wipers/etc. I know Painless makes some decent harnesses. Any other suggestions? Im all ears.

More info to come.................

[MoparFreak69]

Well, small update. Got the passenger door back into shape and welded up. I started sanding off the many, many, MANY coats of paint from the door since budget isnt allowing soda/plastic blasting at this time. The truck was originally blue, was painted 2 different tones of white, back to original blue, a reddish/brown color, white again and then a gold/white 2 tone deal that you sorta see in the pictures. Poor thing had been in the booth so many times you would think it would have been beat to heck and back but I am not seeing much by way of bondo so far. I managed to get a little side work that got me a quart of primer, some grinding discs and some DA sanding discs. Should keep me busy for a while and get some good progress at least.

Sure wish I could sell that darn Cummins........................... Whoda thunk I cant sell it for the life of me?!

[MoparFreak69]

Ron, Im sure it is going to be easier than it looks, I am just not very experienced in huge dents like that. Like they say, start from where the impact ended and work your way back and you should be good. I think I will start in those 2 gouges with a tack strip like you mentioned and grab ahold of it with the slide hammer and see what I can get it to do. If I can get it to work most of the way out then I can get something inside the door to take care of the rest.

Matt, if I can get my tow rig sold then I will have the funds to jump in and get this project going in a good way. If I cant sell the rig then I will be a bit slow on the process and may be a couple months away from doing anything with the drivetrain. I have a drivers drop Dana 44 but its a CAD axle and I would prefer to find one out of a yard with manual hubs that I can fit under it. Either way I will definately be selling off some stuff I am not using first to make a bit of project money up and second so that it can go to good use and not find itself in the scrap bin.

Thanks for the info and support guys!
Ben

[mattsoldmopars]

Ben

nice truck you have there, cant beat the price!!

I would be interested in the buying the front axle from your W100, if your going to swap it out for a newer one. Also maybe a few other things you might take off.

If you wanted to trade, I am sure I have a better drivers door, without the big dent.

Here is my email, mattsoldmopars@yahoo.com

Talk to you soon,

Matt

[Ron in Indiana]

Ok Ben now I know what you have let's dive into it. First I think the fender looks fine. It may be down a little but that might be from the door damage. If the gap at the top of the fender to the cab is not opened up I'd say it good. Check also at the upper core support to see if any gaps are showing there from side to side.

The door is mashed pretty good no doubt about that. I think once you remove the inner door panel if it's still on you'll be able to push a lot from inside. If you can get out what you can then pulling from the outside is your next step. Grind to bare metal and tack on a pull strip. Leaving the door on the truck closed if you have a come along or something to pull with hook it up. This is beyond studs. Start at the deepest area and pull there first. Pull slowly and tap around the area with a body hammer to release the tension in the metal. This will also bring the lower area out. Release and if needed weld on above that pull. Repeat the process carefully.

The cracked door post is a common thing and just needs cleaned and welded with a mig welder. To bad there are so many miles between us or I could pull that out in an hour or so. Keep me posted I'll try to help as much as I can. Ron

[MoparFreak69]

And last but not least, it may be an optical illusion between the paint and trim lines but it looks like the drivers side fender droops a bit at the far outside edge.
Problem is looking down the side of the truck the line looks fine.



Any thoughts power giant gurus?

Ben (just for you Ron ;) )

[MoparFreak69]

This:

Is where my concern lies. Looks like someone turned into a post or something and crunched it in pretty good. It is about an inch away from touching the inner panel of the door.

A side shot, a bit hard to see without the depth that you get from looking at it in person:


In this one if you look closely you can see that the metal where the lower hinge bolts though has been cut out. Its a pretty flat area so I dont think that repair will be difficult. I will have to make my own pocket for a bolt plate but that should be easy enough. The big ol dent in the door is my major concern right now:

[MoparFreak69]

Ill start off with the little bit of repair needed to the passenger door. This door is going to be a pretty easy repair and doesnt concern me one bit.
Here are a few pics of what needs to be done to it, should be pretty obvious:

[Ron in Indiana]

If you're going to pull the door off anyway is there a bodyshop close by that could weld some pins on for you? They may even rough out the door while you're there for a small fee. Even if they weld on the studs you can get a grip on them with a vice grip. With welding on a strip for pulling with a mig I doubt you'll get that much heat into it. Since it's stretched anyway it wouldn't hurt anything. I've used pull strips just 1 1/2" long and spot welded each side a bit. Any chance you can post a picture of the door in question? Is it just caved in or is it creased? A block of wood or something to pry from the inside may push out to a rough shape. The trick is not ending up with an oil can skin. I had that on one that was stretched. A bit of heat shrinking took care of it. I don't know your body repair skill level so I hope I'm not telling you things you already know. By the way it's ok to use your name on posts to be a little more personal. Thanks Ron

[MoparFreak69]

A stud welder and a slide hammer will do a lot of the work and not make more work. Of course you have to have access to one in order to do that.

I dont have access to a stud welder but may be able to find a workaround.

An alternative is to weld a small piece of sheet metal to the lowest part of the dent and then pull on it. Once pulled cut/grind the strip off.

That may work as well. Gotta be careful to not get any heat into that spot though, dont wanna shrink/expand it anymore than it already has.

DON'T use a screw type slide hammer and swiss cheese the door skin.

Wouldnt dream of it, those things are downright cheezy!

Your idea of drilling holes on the inside of the door will work but try to keep them to a minimum. There is a large hole in the door you can work through first before punching holes. The door handles come off by pushing in the rubber trim piece and pushing out the pin in case you didn't know already.

It is below and forward of the access hole that is behind the door panels so that is why I was thinking about drilling the holes. I could probably get most of it with only 2 or 3 holes which would be fairly easy to patch back over. I will yank it off and do some studying with it on a bench and see what route looks best. I noticed how remarkably similar the handles are to both of my boss' 39 Fords. I think the square head is even the same size. Gives me some ideas when I go back together and if I want to get some custom stuff put on.

If you're going to use filler(bondo) over any places you braze the filler will not stick. It will eventually come off, I learned this years ago from experience. Gas weld with steel rod not brass.

Good info to know. I will skip the brass and go straight to rod if I decide to gas it. Of course if I take it in to work I can just use our 440volt MIG with some .023 wire and dial in the heat to just enough to get the task done.