My 1952 M135 Build

[LMRmopar]

Successfully attended every car show of 2023, no awards/trophies won however seeing the reaction of kids as I let them sit inside was good enough. Nothing is better than making a kid smile. A few dump runs were also done in this unit and seeing the faces in the scale office as I roll onto the residential scale was certainly hilarious , definitely not something they see every day. In September the distributor went out, took it apart to diagnose and decided I would just buy a NOS distributor instead because everything looked so worn out, was probably the original distributor but I could be wrong. Also set the valve lash and set timing, truck was definitely down on at least 20 ish horsepower, I picked up a lot of speed going up hills haha.

 

[Bulldogger]

Been too long since i've posted here, and a lot of progress has happened since the last time. We'll start with the interior overhaul, got rid of the flaky old paint as much as I could and re upholstered the seats myself which didn't turn out too bad i'd say. Overall it's a big improvement from what it was however there is still so much to be done. Had to add the Hula girl as well . I will be uploading as many photos as I can since the last update on this post. This truck will also be 100% Cummins swapped in the spring/next couple months and I will document everything to answer a lot of questions on the process and to make it easier for the next person looking to re power their unit.

Well done! The Cummins swap will be of interest to many. Do you plan a 4BT, 6BT, or something else? New transmission too I assume?
BDGR

 

[LMRmopar]

Well done! The Cummins swap will be of interest to many. Do you plan a 4BT, 6BT, or something else? New transmission too I assume?
BDGR

The plan will be to buy a 1994-1998 Donor 12 valve ram with an NV4500. Turbo will be replaced most likely and fueling upgraded. It will sound beautiful through a 5 inch stack. Both engine and trans will be gone through to rebuild but buying a donor truck is the easiest way because then I know it runs and the trans will go through all 5 gears, or if there is a problem I can fix it while I have it all out before I put it in.

 

[m1010plowboy]

It's so interesting to take these to car shows. You never know what movie scenes a person can re-create. Even just showing the civilians what our youngsters had for military gear back in the 50's surprises a lot of people. Keep the photos coming. We scrounged another pile of take-outs if you need engine parts to keep running while you work on the swap.

 

[LMRmopar]

Bought some new mirrors and fabricated up some brackets with 1/8" steel, doesn't look too bad at all i'd say. Definitely a lot better than what it was before, I feel like I can actually back into a spot now . Also performed another oil change and checked over the driveline to see if any issues presented themselves, luckily no major leaks or cause for concern.