The WC53 Carryall thread .

[TonyKeffaber]

Not much room in the engine bay

I feel your pain Alex, I have been working on getting everything in there. Power steering pump, alternator, air conditioning compressor, steering column. It all fits, but there isn't much room between anything in there. I'm going to order the radiator tonight. Hopefully I have enough clearance for it was well.

[TonyKeffaber]

Interior Work

I've been working on the floor boards, console, an steering column and seating. The floor and console are just screwed in right now, I haven't mustered the courage to weld the floor in yet. The seats are out of a Trailblazer. I like the integrated shoulder belt, but didn't really want power seats, but these were $100 so I could pass them up. The door panels have confused me a bit. They have screw holes all the way around them, but no holes are drilled in the doors. All the parts were just thrown in the back of the truck when I got it, maybe the panels and the doors were just never together, or maybe there is a clip of something I'm missing.

[TonyKeffaber]

More odds and ends

I've also ran the gas and brake lines, and wrapped up the gas tank and filler hole. I was hoping to keep the filler tube within the space created behind the fender well, but I could get the angles to work, so it extends past the fender well about a inch. The filler door is off a Jeep Wrangler. I plan on painting it to match the body so its a bit less obtrusive. It doesn't look bad, just a bit too modern looking in the brushed aluminium.

[Bruce in BC]

Running brake lines

Years ago I worked on a rail that had the motor mount brackets held in place by, get this, hose clamps. I thought the guy was just crazy but it turned out that quite a few racers had the mounts held in place the same way. The reason they did this was the frame would crack at the motor mount if it was welded in place . So I figured if it works for a motor mount then it will work for a brake line connection .
My front brake line runs down the removable cross member. If I weld the tab in place I have to disconnect the brake line if I want to pull the cross member. By using the hose clamp the brake line does not have to be disconnected. It is not a perfect neat solution but it is a viable one.
Shot one is the brake line tab , it even has ears to keep it from sliding off the hose clamp.
Shot 2 and 3 are of some brake line clips I made up. The store was closed and it would have taken as long to drive there as it did to make them.
Tony you are flying on that thing.

[Bruce in BC]

WC53 Rear window winders, all four

On ebay - price $199.oo to start
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1942-WC-Dodg...7b18dd&vxp=mtr

[Alxj64]

On ebay - price 199.oo to start
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1942-WC-Dodg...7b18dd&vxp=mtr

That's the guy that bought my last Navy Carryall. Hope they aren't out of it. That would make me rather sad to see that get parted out on eBay.

[Bruce in BC]

Dodge carryall for sale $7000 craigslist

and another one comes up for sale . Body looks decent. No clue how complete - the inside and rear pictures seem to be missing.

http://goldcountry.craigslist.org/cto/4276501491.html

man that panel of tony's is looking good.

[Alxj64]

and another one comes up for sale . Body looks decent. No clue how complete - the inside and rear pictures seem to be missing.

http://goldcountry.craigslist.org/cto/4276501491.html

man that panel of tony's is looking good.

If that was ANYWHERE on the East Coast I would buy it tomorrow! Its beautiful! Love it!

And yes, Tony's truck is looking awesome too! Love this thread!

[TonyKeffaber]

Have to agree Alex, this thread is awesome, hats off to Bruce getting this started, its such a great reference guide to see who has already solved a problem you are faced with. Its also great motivation! Can't count the number of days I've slacked on the truck, and then that "Reply to thread 'The WC53 Carryall thread .' email shows up, and pretty soon I'm out in the garage checking, measuring, thinking about what I just read.

The boxes of parts that came with my truck has been surprisingly complete. Although it might have been broken, rusted, mangled at least it was usable either cleaned up or as a pattern. One thing I don't have is headlights. VPW has the headlight bases, but they don't have headlight assemblies. I think you can piece together all the headlight bucket components, but it looks pretty expensive. I see fully functional Dietz headlights out there for probably a third of the price, but I don't know if that is a option. I can't figure out if the original headlight mounts to the fender, and the base just hides that mounting, or if the headlight mounts to the base somehow. I also see a stud repair kit, but I'm not sure how that fits in the equation either.....

[Alxj64]

Check with John at MWM for a set of headlights. I know he had a bunch of stuff in pieces and parts. Thats about the last OEM part that I need to get for my truck. Really want to steal the lamps off this other carryall but I'm not going to. They are really cool with the marker lenses on top but I'll be nice and let karma do its thing by leaving them with the truck.

In all seriousness though, Tony your truck is really coming together and it looks awesome. Lots of really smart fabrication in there and thats the stuff I love looking at. Tell your wife you need her to hold a flashlight while you are taking pictures. My apologies for falling off of the email train regarding the fenders. I have two sets on hand now and just need to dig them out and photograph them so that maybe we can figure out if you can use one or two or I can use one or two or something. I am once again looking at another potential parts truck. Its a Civy FFPW though and the cab is BAD, but a friend wants it for a project. We shall see.

I tinkered with mine some more. Trying to get the frame cleaned up, exhaust and T-case all in place with the correct driveline angles. My engine and transmission is placed off center from the rear axle and thus putting the front output out of center for the Tcase if I keep it in line with the 2wd transmission output. That being the case I am pushing the divorced T-case as far back as possible to minimize my jack-shaft u-joint angles. I am going to run a single joint yoke at each end of the jack-shaft and then run 1350 CVs on the front and rear outputs. The output angle vs where I can set my rear pinion angle should actually keep the vibrations down. The front output looks like its perfect except the driveshaft will be like 6' long.

Also, previous owner torched a great big hole in the rear crossmember for routing exhaust. I like the thought of it to an extent. I cleaned it up with a burr bit and am installing a piece of 4" OD DOM tubing. That stuff is expensive!

[Alxj64]

Also started working on my divorced transfer case mounts. Supporting it from each side of the frame with 4 poly bushings. Not any pictures but you might be able to figure out what I am doing. I ran into a dummy issue with my grease fitting length. Quickly solved that with an endmill in the drill press.

[Alxj64]

And the last thing.. Bruce.. look at my kinda sorta shock mounting location. Will have to sneak the exhaust around it but I have 3.5" of down travel and 4.5" of up travel. The shock is at ride length right now, or maybe a 1/2" extended. Lower shock brackets will hang down some but I am not going to be rock bouncing this truck and I will put them as close to the lower spring clamps as possible to kinda "blend" them in. I had to torch out the old shock mount cross member that lee put in last minute but never ran shocks on as far as I remember him saying.

Thoughts? They are Gabriel Air assist shocks.





and I started to drill extra holes for mounting the T-case and the dog snagged my drill cord and knocked it off of my truck frame and broke my rota-broach.

[Bruce in BC]

rear shocks

My rear shocks are behind the axle. The bracket goes 10 inches above the frame or 8 inches above the frame hump. The cover for the shocks sits in front of the rear seat . You can sit in the seat and the cover is not in the way of your legs. If you place the shocks in front of the axle you get more room for the fuel tank. I think you can go 4 inches above the rear frame at its high point and not interfere with the seat. In fact you can position the seat over the bump in the floor and would not know that the hump was there.

But if you can get the shocks to work in the location shown then go for it . There should be enough room between the floor braces to get what you propose to work and keep the floor flat . I think I have 12 inches of travel, 6 up, 6 down give or take a bit. Air shocks used to make for a harsh ride, not sure if the design has changed or not.

[Alxj64]

My rear shocks are behind the axle. The bracket goes 10 inches above the frame or 8 inches above the frame hump. The cover for the shocks sits in front of the rear seat . You can sit in the seat and the cover is not in the way of your legs. If you place the shocks in front of the axle you get more room for the fuel tank. I think you can go 4 inches above the rear frame at its high point and not interfere with the seat. In fact you can position the seat over the bump in the floor and would not know that the hump was there.

But if you can get the shocks to work in the location shown then go for it . There should be enough room between the floor braces to get what you propose to work and keep the floor flat . I think I have 12 inches of travel, 6 up, 6 down give or take a bit. Air shocks used to make for a harsh ride, not sure if the design has changed or not.

They hopefully will just function as regular shocks and not need much charge at all but just be there for stiffening the ride if its too bouncy or soft or allows bump swap during an on/off ramp. I am going to do everything in my power to keep the shocks under the stock floor height of the truck because I plan on having the seats easily removable and use the inside of the truck to haul my wife's art work and such to street vendor shows and use the truck as the "attention getting" venue point for her to sell her art from and me sell some Plasma/metal art.

In the photos above, the cross brace you see was what was removed and the shock photo is my desired location but subtracting enough height to get the shock line below the top of the frame arch as I "believe" that the body rids pretty much flush with the rear axle frame arch over. Fingers crossed that this weekend the T-case goes in, frame starts to get boxed up and I will start laying out the design for my fuel tank and the anti-wrap bar for the rear suspension. My plan is to keep running stock rear spring locations but have a nice set of rear springs made after I assemble the truck and get actual scale numbers.

[divingrocks]

window parts on ebay

just spotted these from Frank Ungar the dodge chopper...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/1942-WC-Dodg...item4d177b18dd