Teton Valley Rods and Rides Club Project (No. 1)

It is a 1953 and ½ Dodge Pickup with its Original Paint, Engine and Body. It has a little rust but nothing substantial. The owners have had it in their family since early 80’s and have decided that they probably want get around to restoring it. So they have teamed with our club and Heeter’s Hot Rods as a project vehicle. The plan is too initially restore it to a close a original as possible and make it a “shop truck” with Heeter’s name and logo on the doors and the Club’s name on the talegate. Ownership of the vehicle stays with the owners, but if and when we sell it, the proceeds will be split among the three partners (Club, Owners, and Heeter’s).

Members will do the labor and we will pursue sponsor’s to provide part and materials, etc. A weekly work night will be: to be determined.

Below are some pics of the truck as it looked the day we picked it up in Ashton (August 15, 2010). More pics will be added as the project evolves:

Go to www.youtube.com to see a video of getting the truck in Ashton and loading it on the trailer to move to Heeter’s shop where it will undergo its transformation to the shop truck. On YouTube search tvrrclub1 to find it.

This pic was taken before the ones below were taken (not sure of the date, but was prior to it being dismantled).

So those pics above are what we have to start with.

Project History:

Early August 2010: While sitting in the hot tub indulging in some cold brew, the idea of a club project evolved from a discussion about hot rods and cars in general. Roger mentioned that he has this 1953 ½ Dodge Pickup that belongs to his wife Ginny that he needs to do something with it. Bill suggested maybe he could donate to the club as a project build and if we sell it, we could split the profit among owners, the club, and Heeter’s Hot Rod Shop. Chet suggest we make a reality show of the project and hence; the project was born.

Mid August 2010: Proposed the project to Paul, owner of Heeter’s Hot Rods and club co-founder, he like the idea and suggest we start with making it into a “shop truck.”

August 8, 2010: Bill, Paul, and Dale when to Ashton, Idaho to take a look at the truck then on to West Yellowstone to the car show.

August 14, 2010: Bill and Roger when to Ashton to get the truck using Paul’s trailer. Paul and Dale are at Speed Week in Bonneville Salt Flats planning to meet up with Tex Smith. The met up with Tex. This is like going to the Super Bowl and meeting up with Lumbardi (sp?).

September 1, 2010: The truck is on the wheel dollies in Paul’s shop ready to begin the build. Corky turns the engine by hand. Meaning we have a good chance of getting’er running.

September 9, 2010: Bill, Colin, Paul install the radiator, drain the gas tank, cleaned the fuel bowl, installed new plugs, added some magic oil to the cylinders and manually turn over the engine. Rotates easy. Ken stopped by to check on his panel wagon Paul is building and provided encouragement in out quest to get’er fired up. Hooked up the battery turned on the switch and hit the foot starter plunger, nothing. The foot starter plunger is not engaging with the starter spring loaded switch. Fixed the alignment problem, still nothing. Checked for voltage and it looks good. Paul taps the starter a few times and amazingly the starter engages and the engine cranks. But doesn’t fire. Paul checks for spark on one of the plugs, nothing. Colin gets credit for being the first to crank the engine. After a little research and talking to Roger, we concluded that the last time the engine fired was 6 years ago or so and not since the conversion from 6 to 12 volts was started. Roger had replaced the 6 volt generator, regulator, and coil with 12 volt ones but never got around to actually running the engine with the new parts. A little more research in some of Roger’s documents indicates that a ballast resistor is needed. Couldn’t locate the one Roger bought in 2002(?), so we decided to call it a day.

September 10, 2010: Installed the ballast resistor, still didn’t fire. Paul found an article in a 19?? Issue of “____________.” Decided to read it an see what it says. Got new points and condenser but found out that they didn’t fit and that the one’s installed actually looked brand new. So we left them in and returned the new one’s. Also installed a new Distributor cap.

September 13-14, 2010: Bill, Corkey, Duffy, Paul read Tex Smith’s book on car electrical systems and the article out of a 19?? Issue of “_______”. Found out we needed to reverse the coil wires since we went from a positive to ground to a negative to ground for the 6 to 12 volt conversion. Also noted that the Distributor cap wasn’t seating fully. Discovered that it was on 180 degrees from where it should be. Fixed that, still didn’t fire. That is when Corkey showed up. He bravely held the coil secondary wire with a screw driver next to some bare metal to see if he could see a spark. Tried to fire it, nothing. Corkey saw an old coil laying out that came out of an old 67’ chevy or 68 mustang from one of Bill’s cars. He said let’s try it. And shabamm, she fired and started right up. Lesson learned, we suspected the coil several days ago may be bad, just because it has been installed and not used in several years. So new doesn’t always mean still works.

September 16, 2010: Installed the fenders, running boards, hood, tailgate, headlights, seat custion (donated by Dale). She is ready to load on the trailer (hopefully under her own power) to take to the car show at Teton Springs. Only problem, doesn’t appear to have any working breaks.

September 17, 2010: Make it on the trailer under her own power. Got to the car show and the starter wouldn’t engage. Rolled her off the trailer (with no brakes) and pushed her to her spot in the show venue. Thanks to C.R.A.S.H. for towing her back to the shop in Driggs.

It is now October 14^th: Tried to get the starter rebuilt but it is in to bad a shape. Not able to locate one locally, but did find a shop in Ohio that has one. Will check a place in Rexburg and if they don’t have one we’ll go for the one in Ohio. Started working on the brakes earlier in the week. Found no fluid in the master cylinder. Removed the front brake cylinders and with some brute force got the pistons out. The bleed screws had to be removed with a pipe wrench and vice grips. Bill G. brought over an old brake rebuilt kit he happened to have. Only problem, the parts we needed were empty. Tried to get kits at the auto parts store, they couldn’t find a reference to the vintage of the truck so no parts. The plan is to reuse the old parts and hope for the best. Removed the right rear wheel with the help of a gear puller and a big hammer. The left wheel would not budge. So the plan for the rear for now is leave the brakes alone. If necessary, disconnect the lines and cap it off and just use the front brakes for moving it around the shop and outside storage until we decide what to do with the entire brake system (restore or put in a retrofit). We’ll see what Tex Smith’s book has to say about brakes.

October 23^rd: Rebuilt the front brake cylinders using the same parts. Honed out the cylinders and cleanup up the seals, pistons and reassembled and installed. Found new bleed screws by searching through the Dormans Parts Catalog to find a 7/16 by 20 threads per inch (same as the old ones). Parts store ordered and got them the next day ($2.50 each). Probably going to be the cheapest part we will ever find for this ole girl. Next step is to bleed the brake lines and see what we got. Adjusted all the brakes so now all four wheels spin smoothly. Need to pull the emergency brake cable and clean it up so it works smoothly. On this truck, the emergency brake is on the drive shaft. It is a pretty massive unit.

Here are some more pics of the truck as it appears in late October:

Front Brake rebuilt Rear Brake – note the two cylinders and not rebuilt yet.

Pic below is of Ken’s Panel Wagon almost ready for paint. It just happened to be in the shop so I thought I would include so everyone can see what is going on in parallel with the Truck Project.