'34 Dodge Brothers, double build.

[MercuryMac]

The '36 Ford is put away in the machine shed and the '34 Dodge Brothers truck is now in the shop on the hoist, to start the second part of this build. The first part was 'fulfilling it's actor dreams', but now it is time to get down to work making it a 'rat rod'.
Last week-end I was at a swap-meet in Lethbridge, down by the US border and I got some old, hard-to-find Dodge, brake parts, so I excitedly took off a front wheel and found that my new purchases don't fit. So there I stalled out, grumbling.

 

[Torchie]

Project Interuptus. I hate when that happens.[ddd
A bummer for sure Mac. But knowing you, you will bounce back. Or......
Maybe it's the universe's way of saying. SUPER BEE[ddd
[P [P [P
Torchie

 

[DozerII]

The '36 Ford is put away in the machine shed and the '34 Dodge Brothers truck is now in the shop on the hoist, to start the second part of this build. The first part was 'fulfilling it's actor dreams', but now it is time to get down to work making it a 'rat rod'.
Last week-end I was at a swap-meet in Lethbridge, down by the US border and I got some old, hard-to-find Dodge, brake parts, so I excitedly took off a front wheel and found that my new purchases don't fit. So there I stalled out, grumbling.

Well that sucks, I guess we should have conversed, I was at the Lethbridge swap meet as well looking for Mopar parts as well.

 

[Dr Crankenstein]

Maybe it's the universe's way of saying. SUPER BEE

[cl [ddd [cl​

.

 

[05snopro440]

The '36 Ford is put away in the machine shed and the '34 Dodge Brothers truck is now in the shop on the hoist, to start the second part of this build. The first part was 'fulfilling it's actor dreams', but now it is time to get down to work making it a 'rat rod'.
Last week-end I was at a swap-meet in Lethbridge, down by the US border and I got some old, hard-to-find Dodge, brake parts, so I excitedly took off a front wheel and found that my new purchases don't fit. So there I stalled out, grumbling.

Are you going to the March swap meet in Red Deer, Mac? Or just the big one in May?

There are a couple in the Edmonton area in April but honestly they're not worth the drive.

 

[joedoh]

great stuff! I cant wait to see the vision of the dodge! [cl[cl

 

[MercuryMac]

Joe, here's the vision of the truck right now. Hopefully it won't change much.
Snopro, the May swapmeet in Red Deer is to die for, so that's the one we'll go to.
The brakes that I got last week-end were 2" instead of 1 1/2" wide so I whined a little, but today I mounted the backing plate and the 2" shoes. I think the 2" drum will work and the hub will still fit. The brake line will need a different fitting. The shoes and drums look like they're new for 1934 Dodge, [maybe cars instead of trucks].

 

[MercuryMac]

Well I've got the new bearings and the best part is I've got a plan that seems to be working. The 1/2" difference in shoe width was harder to overcome than I first thought. The new brakes were for the back wheels so the hubs were different and the so were the backing plates. I can swap the hubs and I found some new rivets. When I found out that the shoes were too wide, I guessed that the original backing plate wouldn't be deep enough, sure enough it wasn't. When I tried the new backing plate on it was molded differently to fit on the rear axle, but the bolt holes lined up. I re-molded that rear backing plate. Just before suppertime I took the wheel cylinders apart and they are wiped clean and put back together now. I also got a pair of '34 Dodge Brothers tie-rod ends at the Lethbridge swap-meet, and one of them is installed.

 

[Old Iron]

I like the way go at stuff [cl

 

[Torchie]

[P [P [P [P
Torchie

 

[Dr Crankenstein]

"Improvise, adapt and overcome." [cl

.

 

[MercuryMac]

The first picture is the 'more-molded' backing plate bolted on there sitting square. The shoes are replaced and seem to work. You can see the new right hand tie-rod end peeking out with numbers on it. There was some creative work done here and there and some plan changing, but I will gloss over it because I have to get this truck passed inspection so the less said, the better. The second picture is the riveting punch and anvil that I made to re-rivet the drum to the hub. Here is the first rivet done. I was unhappy with the nice head of the rivet as it danced half out of the anvil while I was hammering the other end domed, and the nice round end is chewed up a wee bit. The hammered end looks good though.

 

[Torchie]

[P [P [P [P
Torchie

 

[MercuryMac]

Well, the rest of the riveting went well, so I pressed in the races, greased everything in sight, and added the new bearings and seal. When I put the hub assembly on the spindle and tightened up the big nut, I had some trouble getting the cotter pin in so I had to clean out two of the indents in the castellated nut, aggressively, with a skinny file.
The first picture is the end of a long row to hoe, but the wheel seems to roll freely and a partsman, that I will thank loudly, found me some brakelines that fit right on at both ends. You can see the far end of the new brakeline in the picture. The second picture is just me showing off, as I mounted the wheel and hubcap to see what it looked like. I will have to take everything all apart again for the umpteenth time so I can fix the kingpins and the steering.

 

[Torchie]

[cl
[P [P [P
Torchie

 

[MercuryMac]

Torchie, you fell for my showing off the finished product ----- that isn't really finished. Well,---- I fell for one of your last pictures. When I saw those two cars peeking out of the snow at your place I thought spring was coming for you, so it must be coming for me too. WRONG. This morning we got 8-10 inches of snow again, and it was 7*F.
But thank you for watching my snail-like progress.

 

[05snopro440]

Torchie, you fell for my showing off the finished product ----- that isn't really finished. Well,---- I fell for one of your last pictures. When I saw those two cars peeking out of the snow at your place I thought spring was coming for you, so it must be coming for me too. WRONG. This morning we got 8-10 inches of snow again, and it was 7*F.
But thank you for watching my snail-like progress.

Snow overnight and 7°F here this morning Mac. Felt like spring was coming 2 days ago.

 

[MercuryMac]

Ya, Snopro, we had warmth and less snow a couple of days ago too. I was fooled partly by Mother Nature, BUT, partly by Torchie's picture, and I'm stickin' with that story. Somebody's got to take the blame.

 

[Torchie]

Ya, Snopro, we had warmth and less snow a couple of days ago too. I was fooled partly by Mother Nature, BUT, partly by Torchie's picture, and I'm stickin' with that story. Somebody's got to take the blame.

Sure... Blame Torchie.[ddd

44 F and sunny here right now. 53 and sunny tomorrow.
Went down to 7 degrees last night.
I blame it all on the fact that where I live we are having a time change. Full moon and Friday the 13th all in one week.[ddd
Carry on.....
[P [P [P
Torchie

 

[MercuryMac]

The 4-H kids were here the other night and helped me take the heads off the Poly 318. I was disappointed that I found either coolant or water aftermath in two cylinders. We broke four manifold studs off so I got to show the kids some stud removal tricks; heating, cooling, welding nuts on, welding washers on and then nuts, and drilling holes in the studs for easy-outs.
The heads are at a friends place getting valves done.