New Project - 1957 PW

[RicherRacing]

These trucks have been my favorite vehicle for many years. I finally took the plunge. I found this 1957 on craigslist in Southern CA. I intend to do a full frame off restore to stock. It did not seem to have any major rust and it started right up (smokey and loud). I was able to drive it but the brakes did not work. I suspected a good bleeding and renewal of fluid would do the trick. I am excited to talk to you experts to learn all I can about the rebuild.

I have a question about the rear fenders. I have read that the originals are crowned which these are, but the workmanship makes me question if these are original or very early replacements. Note the width of the outside edge does not seem to be uniform. I will add some close up pics. Does anyone have any information about this?

[RicherRacing]

Original Fenders?

Here are some pics of the fenders. They seem to be in good shape but I am not sure they are original. They do have a crown but......

[RicherRacing]

Bedside Condition

The tailgate is beat up badly and it does not have DODGE stamped so I suspect this is a replacement. Bedsides seem OK on the sides but the tops are badly dented. I plan to buy new bedsides, and headboard eventually so am not too concerned. Any thoughts on the condition of these?
Note the new tailgate in the garage. I ordered one (with the DODGE stamped) from Classic Enterprises www.classicent.com and it is truly a WORK OF ART.

[RicherRacing]

Brakes are bled and work fine.

I bled the brakes and have decent (for no power brakes) pedal and stopping power. Check out the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MdU2...ature=youtu.be
There is not much legroom for a 6'2" old man.

[RicherRacing]

Decent interior except seat

This PW original color is RED, which is my favorite color scheme for these.
The interior is in decent shape except for the seat. I plan to make a new lower frame with springs to replace the original. More on this later. Does anyone recognize the heater? I assume aftermarket. This power wagon came from the mountains where it was cold, so I assume it was added in 1957.
One issue I need to address is that the passenger door is original and has the vent window, but the driver door is a replacement and has one piece window. I need to decide which one to replace. I am leaning to replacing the passenger to go with the one piece. Anyone want to trade a single window regulator for a wing vent with regulator?

[RicherRacing]

Seat Frame

The lower seat was disintegrated on the drivers side. It has made a good home for rats/mice for many years. I removed the naugahyde, padding, and all of the chewed up padding filling the springs to reveal the frame. There are 40 springs mounted to the frame. Note the 4 holes on the outside bottom rail and the rectangular opening on the back of the next rail in. The seatback hinges at the top and connects to these two rectangular openings. There are protruding pins on the floor frame under the seat and the seat has 4 positions to move closer to the pedals. When moved into these positions, the seat back is pulled forward to slightly recline. Very cool. I have purchased 40 new springs from an upholstery supply and intend to make a new frame as this one is beyond salvage.

[RicherRacing]

Radiator

I filled radiator and it started leaking quite a bit. I started disassembly and noticed the top tank was dented, and there was a hole about half way down. I removed the radiator to get recored. I wanted to keep the original tanks so I took to a local shop (S&S in Oceanside CA). WOW, this is expensive. $850. I remember when I had this done on my CJ-2A 20 years ago it was less than $200. They did a great job though and I reinstalled, filled with water, and it works like a charm.
Note the left turn signal (and a similar right rear on previous photo). I am not sure if I will keep these. I might if I could find original replacement but that is doubtful. Since turn signals were dealer installed options I don't think it would be bad to leave them off. I kinda prefer the look without turn signals anyway.

[RicherRacing]

Leaking PTO

I filled up the transmission with 90W and it must have been empty as it took a gallon. Unfortunately, the front output shaft of the PTO started to leak. I put a bucket under the leak and the whole gallon drained out overnight. The PTO had to be removed.
I tried removing the winch drive shaft but it would not slide back far enough to be removed. I removed the winch which took a bit of doing. Heat really helped free up the bolts. Removal was another story, it is HEAVY. Once removed, the shaft came out and I was able to attack the PTO.
I removed the PTO shift lever and proceeded to remove the 6 bolts holding the PTO to the side of the transmission. All but the top one was accessible from underneath but I had to use a box end wrench for these as there is not enough room for a socket or even a ratchet wrench.
I had to remove the center floor panel and to do this I had to remove the two side floor panels first. Many of the bolts came out fine, a few sheared off, but four spun without coming out. I was able to have someone underneath hold the broken nutplate with vice grips but one bolt had to be ground away using a dremel and cutoff wheel.
Once the three panels were removed, the upper bolt was removed as was the PTO.
I had my son make a cover plate from 3/16" steel on his CNC plasma cutter. I bolted the cover in place with a new gasket (aviation form-a-gasket on both sides) and refilled the transmission. No leaks. I didn't want to rebuild the PTO at this point of the project but I did want to drive it to see what else needed attention before the total teardown.
First gear is really low which is nice. It upshifts fine through all gears, downshift into 3 was good, but the syncro for 2 is shot (I assume there is a 2nd gear syncro).

[W_A_Watson_II]

WOW, Nice Truck, and dang, a lot of work already in progress.

[RicherRacing]

Thanks Will. I have had the truck 2 months but have only spent about a dozen hours on it so far. I like the pics of your White PW. Here is a pic of my other Flat Fender.

I was looking closer at my rear fenders and the outside edges are rolled. I hope someone can verify these are original. They just look like they were hand made as they are a bit irregular.
John

[JReed]

Yeah, nice pickup. Not sure about the rear fenders... they don't look right to me either. Looks like they turn down too sharply at the edge. I think others have a more gradual round-over. And I see what you mean about the inconsistency in the exposed edge. Otherwise they look pretty original. Looks like they might be originals that were worked on a bit but just not taken back to stock. Not sure...others on here might know better.

[JReed]

By the way, if you decide to go with the wing vents I've got a few extras setting around.

[RicherRacing]

By the way, if you decide to go with the wing vents I've got a few extras setting around.

My driver door cannot accept the wing vent so I think I will replace my wing vent with solid. Does anyone have a Passenger side window regulator for sale or trade?
John

[RicherRacing]

Here are the door handles I removed today.
The one on the right was from the passenger original 57 door (window crank was missing). It has a rubber escutcheon which also acts as a spring..
The ones on the left were from the drivers door. They have a metal escutcheons with a regular spring behind. The door handle also has a clear plastic trim ring over the escutcheon. Any ideas for what year these are from?
I am looking for another door handle like the one on the right and two window cranks with the correct style for 57.
The passenger door has a lock for a key below the outside handle but the drivers door does not. Odd.

[Desoto61]

My driver door cannot accept the wing vent so I think I will replace my wing vent with solid. Does anyone have a Passenger side window regulator for sale or trade?
John

Just went through this, it seems to be the more popular route so I had to break down and just buy a set from VPW. Someone posted a pic on my thread about using the vent regulator with the single piece window. You'd need to buy or build a new lower window channel to work with the longer window though.

You will also need the front window run to convert, they're not the same, it looks and attaches differently to the door.

Good luck, seems like a great starting point!