1949 Dodge PilotHouse Ute from Australia.

[wendle]

It's the rear end that needs attention and I'm thinking I'll have to replace the rear shackles, mounts and possibly springs with a modern type.

That's not too big of a task. I would just drill out the rivets and take all the existing hangers off and build new ones from scratch.
But I am far from a purist.

 

[earthman]

Great job Wendle. Thanks for all the effort made to document and share with us.

 

[valleyveiw]

nice work , you really do a great job .love the rock crawler .

 

[Shea Laking]

Did a few laps of my driveway to find the best line to get up and down without grinding steel on concrete going over the bump in the middle.

Got my girlfriend to film it, seemed like a good idea at the time?

Man, that's SO funny to see the "DODGE" lettering the right way 'round and the rest of the film flipped. How did you manage to film that way?

Truck has turned out really sharp, Wendle. Thanks for taking the time to share your skills and talents with us.[P

Regards,
Shea

 

[wendle]

Thanks fellas.

I finally got the last big task completed on this car last week. I had been putting off getting windscreen wipers installed as I knew it was going to be a horrible, difficult, hanging-upside-down-under-the-dashboard kind of a job. And I was right!

Anyway, they are done. I used parts from a Suzuki MightyBoy, which looks like this:

And ended up with this (video). They self park and everything



Very happy with them. I also got my heater plumbed in so I could refill the system with anti-freeze, probably only a week or so away from our first frost here.

I have a few little things to finish up, then finish the wiring, then I need to see the automotive engineer to get everything certified properly for registration.

 

[skull]

nice

lookin' nice[cl

hey, your'e drivin' from the wrong side[ddev


Later

 

[Latch]

Nearly there?

Getting closer to being on the road [cl

Hope all goes well with the rego

Latch

 

[bob w]

I've watched the wiper video a half dozen times. Hypnotic.... Nice job on them and the whole truck.

 

[hotrodbill]

Awesome truck, nice build right down to the small details.

 

[wendle]

Dash mostly done other than a few lamps and switches.

I only cut into the old tin for the speedo, everything else lives in fascia panels made to fit the original openings.

Sorry, but I only took the photos on my phone.

That's 2 fuel gauges in the centre for my 2 LPG tanks, I thought it was a nice little detail. Somewhat inspired by this car LOL.

Getting there slowly, running the parking brake cable now, unfortunately it has to zig and zag around a few things on it's way

 

[wendle]

Got my parking brake all hooked up. Ran the cable straight down through the floor out of the lever and into a little mount for a pulley to run it back. It then feeds into one of the adjuster/splitter things they sell for trailer brakes.

After the cable splits I had trouble keeping the left hand run away from the tailshaft, so I made up a safety loop for the shaft with a block of nylon mounted in it to guide the cable and keep it off the shaft.

Another tricky item crossed off the list, not much to go now.

 

[Oldrodder43]

Got to say again Wendle, you are a very talented guy! Loved the build and thanks for sharing. perley

 

[wendle]

Got to say again Wendle, you are a very talented guy! Loved the build and thanks for sharing. perley

Hey, thanks man.
Finally just about got the wiring finished after a big day yesterday. Got a LOT of electric spaghetti under the dash to tidy up nice.

 

[wendle]

I have been working on it, I promise...

 

[wampler234]

hey wendle whats the trick to get the steering column out of the pilothouse... working on taking my cab off the frame and i dont know if i didnt get all the bolts off or what....

 

[wendle]

hey wendle whats the trick to get the steering column out of the pilothouse... working on taking my cab off the frame and i dont know if i didnt get all the bolts off or what....

I couldn't get mine out either. I ended up separating the ball joint on the drag link and unbolting the box and taking the whole lot out together.

 

[wendle]

Finally took this car for it's first real drive last night.

All went well, everything works like it should, nothing fell off, no other nasty surprises.

It sits on the road nice, tracks straight, corners and stops well, heaps of power, couldn't really ask for more I guess?

Gets plenty of looks in our conservative little suburb. I put 100 litres (about 27 US gallons) of LPG (propane) in it, that filled one tank and brought the second tank to about half full. Full of fuel it should have around 500 miles of range, probably a little overkill

 

[Todd]

Looks great Wendle!

 

[bob w]

It's nice when everything works out the way it was planned. Love the truck.

 

[Snake Farm]

Finally took this car for it's first real drive last night...... Gets plenty of looks in our conservative little suburb.

That's got to be the best part [ddd[cl[cl[cl

Truck turned out very nice Wendle!