Spring has sprung here in Minnesota, so in a few weeks I'll be able to haul my '94 to the shed to get working on it.  I posted WAY back when I first found this forum on my build plans.  I'll start here again to bring everyone back up to speed.   

 

First off, is this the right part of the forum to post a "build" thread?  If not please direct me to the correct location.  thanks

 

I restored a '51 Pilothouse B3D truck that was my great grandfathers truck.  I seem to have a disease now, lots of old truck parts in my house, garage and at friend's sheds.  I decided a few years back I was going to take a modern powertrain and graft on a Pilothouse cab/front clip as a daily driver.  This truck will be a stretched 3 door cab flat bed stake side hauler style truck.  I've got all the old Pilothouse cabs and doors to cut apart and re-weld up to the stretched cab.  As well as all the doors I could need to make the 3rd door and fill the space behind the passenger side door.

 

The '94 has a fresh rebuilt tranny and about 150K on the engine.  I've been thinking that since it will all be available to work on, going thru the engine and rear end would be a good idea right now.  Before I start to tear things off, any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

Plans include air ride, saddle fuel tanks, rear duals and a tip up front end like a semi for engine work.  

 

thanks, I look forward to keeping this thread moving over the course of the spring/summer while things start under way.

Edited March 12, 201411 yr by PilotHouse2500

Neighbor runs a car shop and had graciously offered to help for free (beer and food) to help me out over the course of the summer while at the bonfire...well he seems to want to get it done because he's been on my case!  Last night he taught me some BASICS of the English Wheel!  First pass shown here.  A little more crown to add in the middle but close!

 

 

Edited July 19, 20177 yr by PilotHouse2500

Love the old iron. Glad to see people still saving them for use.

more progress...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 19, 20177 yr by PilotHouse2500

Center section all welded in and ground, some dolly work left, but on to the sides next!

 

 

Edited July 19, 20177 yr by PilotHouse2500

Top center secion all done.  Hammer and dolly work and grinding complete.  Sides formed and tack welded on.  Finish welding those up and then onto the firewall and floor replacement!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 19, 20177 yr by PilotHouse2500

Good work.  I am always excited to see the progress.

Amazing work you are doing. I'm learning something. thank you.

It is enjoyable to watch just way over my abilities. Keep up the good work.

sides welded in, ground and dollied!  Next up..FLOOR

 

 

 

 

Edited July 19, 20177 yr by PilotHouse2500

photobucket's new ransom to 3rd party posting will likely mean all my pictures will be going away.  I will see if I can reload them at some point...

Edited July 13, 20177 yr by PilotHouse2500

7 hours ago, PilotHouse2500 said:

photobucket's new ransom to 3rd party posting will likely mean all my pictures will be going away.  I will see if I can reload them at some point...

 

You can post your pictures here... 

Not sure how I never saw this.....

 

Amazing stuff! Looking forward to more updates!!

This project still amazes me. How do you find insurance that will fully cover such super custom work? When all said and done it won't be the price of a ordinary truck  that's for sure.

16 hours ago, Mopar1973Man said:

 

You can post your pictures here... 

 I will find SOMETHING.  Somehow.  I post on 3 different forums on this project and it was super easy to use photobucket.

Simple math with assumptions puts the money grab at $400 MILLION!  It's a LOT of pictures to find and repost/posts to edit!  No worries I'll keep them coming...somehow

2 hours ago, JAG1 said:

This project still amazes me. How do you find insurance that will fully cover such super custom work? When all said and done it won't be the price of a ordinary truck  that's for sure.

 

all about getting it appraised...likely would not truly cover a replacement, but better than nothing I guess.  When I'm done, I'm sure I'll have over 40K into it, not including my time.  Likely appraised to maybe 10K over that.  Lots of custom rods are done this way...but unless you are a Foose or some other big name you don't ever get the REAL value in an appraisal.

That's too bad about a final appraisal. When you watch the fancy car auctions and you see the high prices offered it's because not only the car collectors know the rarity, they also know the amount of time and expense to build something like that. Many times a restoration can go wrong when a shops service crew does less than average work and has to be done again. It happened to me in the past, but fortunately the shop had the resources and agreed redo the work and was done well. Later I heard the employee responsible for the first work was fired after several warnings.

 

Keep up the good work, it's an amazing project.

Edited July 15, 20177 yr by JAG1

Well I THINK I got all the pictures replaced.  Let me know if something looks broken.

still working on the project, but it is on hold.  My position was eliminated at work and I'm on the hunt for work and doing a lot of woodworking to help pay bills right now instead of playing truck.

Sorry to hear about the job. Hope everything works out for you and the truck.

1 hour ago, PilotHouse2500 said:

still working on the project, but it is on hold.  My position was eliminated at work and I'm on the hunt for work and doing a lot of woodworking to help pay bills right now instead of playing truck.

 

Rough out there... I understand your position really well myself.