A Bid Farewell

I accomplished all that I had wanted to accomplish with this project.  I took a basket case and made it run.  I taught myself a few things in the process then decided to move on.  I sold it over Memorial day weekend to a guy in Montana.  I hope he has fun.  My next project is a 47 International truck.....or should I say 47 IHC cab and hood and front fenders since that is all that I have of the truck.

Up and running again!! FINALLY!!

About 5 months ago I was driving along thinking to myself how fun it was to drive this old truck and how well it was running......famous last words. Within a day or two it lost power and was running terribly. I limped it back to the shop and parked it worried I had lost a couple of valves. I was disgusted and couldn't get up the guts to rip it apart and figure it out. Well I finally got around to it and found out it was only a head gasket that blew. Last night I finally got it all back together, new oil, topped off the coolant and the old beast started right up with very little difficulty. (Insert very large smile here)

I hopped in, let my dog in the seat with me (she was whining and carrying on to go with me) and we went for a ride around the neighborhood. Came back and checked for leaks. None that I could see. I have to check my newly installed heater to see if it works and if it does I may be back in business as long as I can get a windshield wiper installed on the driver side. (Is this truck sounding as redneck as I think it does).

I am just kicking myself for not doing the work earlier. I think I had just gotten burned out with work and a bunch of ther projects so I was disgusted and worried that it would be a major overhaul so I let the old truck sit.

Fix that door latch mechanism.

For a while I have had some problems with the door latches. (It only flew open once while driving!) These are old school latches much like your common household door latch, not the more modern bearclaw latches. On the driver side it the latch pin would not seem to have enough return spring to hold itself behind the striker and the passenger side outer handle seemed to be lacking a few degrees turning to fully retract the latch pin from the striker. The interior handle worked great but the exterior would not disengage the latch.

I finally took the mechanisms out. What a chore! You have to take out the window rolling mechanism as well to get access to take it out.

Once out it didn't take much to see what was wrong. The square hole in the pics is where the exterior handle slides into the mechanism. It turns the unusual shaped metal piece which pushes against a larger plate and pushes it into the door frame thus retracting the latch pin. Well, although the pics are poor, 60 years of service wore the metal contact point on the rotating mechanism (you can see the lip of metal that is very thin and worn back about 3/16". In conjuction the mating surface which cannot be removed or photographed easily was also worn the same. This created a situation that when the exterior handle was turned to open metal pivot could not push the plate far enough inboard to fully retract the latch.

First I added more metal back on the pivot piece with my welder and cleaned it up with a grinder.

Next I used a small piece of angle iron sheet metal which you can see was welded on the flat plate. It is hard to show but the angle part drops down and covers the old contact point which was badly worn away. Since I could not remove that part of the mechanism I could not simply add metal by welding I had to basically add an overlay patch.

Once back together the degree of latch pin retraction was noticably better. The hardest part of this was to replace the metal cover over the pivot mechanism. It is a bracket with three tabs that pass through the latch assembly which are then bent 90 degrees to hold it in place. It was a bit tricky to do this. I darn near welded them in place.

Not shown is the addition of a couple of return springs for the drivers side door which fixed it's problem. (It was ugly redneck engineering I don't want to see the light of day.)

E-Brake 101

The emergency brake setup took me a while to figure out. This is what I finally came up with. I had a rear axle from a 97’ Jeep Cherokee. I got the left and right e-brake cables but none of the connections to the front. I have my original e-brake handle which previously activated a transmission shaft brake.

I connected the Jeep cables and welded a steel tube under the cross-member for them to run through. I then used some cable clamps and created a loop at the end of each one. They are asymmetric due to the cabling having to run to the passenger side of the transmission where the e-brake handle is set.

I cut a piece of angle iron about 7” wide, drilled a left, right, and forward center hole and rear spring return hole. The Jeep cables were attached as seen in the picture.

The original handle was mounted to the floor of the cab using a bracket made from steel plate. I welded and bolted it to the removable cover over the transmission. Sorry, I forgot to take pictures. I kept the extension rod and used 3/16” cable and cable clamps to create a cable to span the distance from the extension rod to the angle iron cable attachment in the rear. The spring is needed to help return the handle to the normal position. I had to fiddle with the tension but on the street I can lock up the rear wheels. If I ever take it out I would probably add an extension under the e-brake handle to increase the throw of the lever. Currently you have to about bury the handle into the seat for it to activate, but it works and keeps the close to original look of the truck!

He's got a BED!

I have been busting my tail lately to get this project done. I have been having a blast. Jessie continues to be an awesome support. We went to the local Boise Roadster show on our Friday night date and she saw a cool 55 Ford truck she liked and a 66 Fastback Mustang.

I have now mounted the bed. Each of the side had about 20 holes drilled into them that required plug welding each of them. There were areas that had bondo for some unknown reason. I ground it off in some areas to weld and didn't bother to put it back so cosmetically it is a bit ugly but hey, it's my truck, not yours!

A traditional bed is made of the two sides, front cap, tailgate, and multiple solid wood slats separated and bolted together with chrome strips and stainless steel hardware. Although I love woodworking, the cost alone got me thinking about this project. It will never be a perfectly restored truck and for sure will never be a high dollar show truck. I want a daily driver that I don't have to worry much about. So I decided to bolt it together with a piece of plywood. Later I will likely cover the plywood with tongue and groove hardwood flooring and coat it all with epoxy. It will eventually rot but it won't be that hard to replace.

The pictures show how I got it onto the frame. Initially my wife and kids helped me hoist it up so I could mark the main frame support holes that needed drilled. They went to bed, I drilled the holes, then manhandled it up on the frame using my muscle and the engine hoist.

Doors

No pics yet but this weekend I put the doors on. The passenger side is great but the drivers side has some alignment issues. Both however open and shut. This old dodge is interesting. They put a key lock only on the passenger side. To keep the truck locked you park the truck. Pull up on the drivers interior door handle which locks the door, slide out the passenger side and use the key to lock it. I guess they were worried about people opening/locking their doors while standing on the street close to traffic.

Me, I am not worried about a car thief. With the old style push rod floor starter most people would never be able to figure it out. You have to turn on the key, give a couple of taps on the gas with your heel, push the started rod to the floor with your toe, feather the choke and then use your heel to give a little more gas as it starts. You have to be pretty coordinated!

Chrome!!!

This weekend I took the truck for a few more laps again around my circle. My dad came up to visit so I had to prove that it truly runs under it's own power. I worked a little more on the doors. The driver latch mechanism is going to need some work. The passenger side turned out nicely with the patch in the corner. That was a bit of work. I took the chrome down from it's storage and started to work on it. It needed some scrubbing, bending, twisting, welding, and some redneck bodywork (hit it with bigger hammer) to get it to settle in but it seemed to come together quite well.

My son helped me put the hood ornament on which I still think is one of the coolest things about the truck.

If I can get doors and some temporary tail lights in place I may try to get tags before February is over. We'"ll have to see.