58 D400 Part It or Pickup?

[horace]

Do not part it, too solid. My first thought with your $ is to make a dually pu box. Maybe more practically a factory stake. Nice truck to work with.

[sret43]

Mechanically, the truck is pretty sound. I do need to go through the brakes for a check out and rebuild the carb. Other than that she's road worthy. It would be nice to have shock mounts and brackets for the rear but I'm sure the hydraulic action would be next to nothing with those springs.

I will have to fab up fender spacers and cut the inner fender well/box to clear the inside tires. Once I have the inner fender well cleared I'll be able to measure accurately the spacer needed. The spacer won't be as wide as the 1 ton pickup dually.

Has anyone ever converted a larger truck to air suspension in the rear?

[Ron in Indiana]

Well if you get the right tire and wheel combo I think it'll turn out to be cool. The bed sets pretty nice on there. The only other alternative would be to widen the fenders if the wheels don't work out. Iowa is getting closer.....

[sret43]

My first MockUp

A six screw job. I suppose it's not road worthy yet.

[sret43]

Thanks, Kevin. Opened up the manual and yep, there it was. I guess my brain is still in fog mode after driving 21 hours the other day.

[Aaron S]

I had to have the booster on my 58 W300 rebuilt, it wasn't too bad. I'll have to check my service manual, but I believe the setup on your truck is fairly similar to what mine has-a manual single master driving a boosted slave cylinder with a bypass that allows the brakes to function as manual should the booster go out (I really appreciate this feature). If there is no pressure at all the main problem is not likely the booster. I'll try to remember to look it up tonight and see what I can see.

[KevinM]

Steve, If you can find yourself a "L" Series Shop Manual the braking system is covered in detail....they pop up on ebay occasionally.......
glad to see you made it back in one piece....thanks for getting those fenders to Iowa....there halfway home now!.....Kevin

[sret43]

I think for the time being I'll put a flat bed on the truck and get it road worthy. Does anyone know about the mechanics of the power brake system this truck has?

[Ron in Indiana]

Steve, glad to hear you made it home safe and sound. To bad the brakes didn't work on the 58 or you could have switched tow vehicles and maybe gotten the same or better mileage ha ha. Terry's Dad is going in for surgery tomorrow the 26th. Check the Back Room section for my post concerning Verlyn.

[sret43]

Loaded for home

Well, I had to remove the utility box. That thing was so heavy that I was sure it wouldn't be under the 7000 GVWR of the trailer. I blew one tire west of Lincoln, NE so I put four new 8 ply tires on it in York, NE. That just happens to be the place I purchased the D400. The trip went very smooth back to California. The only gripe was gas mileage at 9-10 mpg.

[sret43]

I may be lucky in many ways but not getting my hands on a set of 19.5's. Here's a cut from the e-Bay sale.

(This truck is 16'-6" in overall length and weighs 7,220 pounds. The bed itself is 7'-8" in length and the widest part is 7'-2" to the outside of the rear duals. The tires are 7.50 X 20 and all hold air. The heighest part is 8'-1".)

Steve

[onetonwagon]

Hey Steve, great looking truck! Tell me, did you also score 19.5's on it? Sorta looks like it from the pic's.

[Hobcobble]

As I'm not a huge fan of the utility box, I would give thought to
making it a single rear wheel axle and putting a late '65-'71 Utiline
box on it. I think it would look excellent. The Utiline boxes for a
128" wheelbase truck are still out there.... the conversion should
be easy.
John

[OLD DODGE]

Door Logo

Its first job was dynamite hauling from 1958 to 1963.

Just put your name on the door when you fix it up.

[splummer]

leave it like it is now

nice truck ,would love to have it. i have been looking for a utility box for one of mine but nothing around in semi good shape, i want it for my ff.well anyways my vote is leave it like it is. steve from western maine