Rethinking My Build Plan
We had a great time visiting with our dear friend from Munich last week. It was actually quite nice to take a break from the Dodge project for a few days and have some down time. While on break I did give some serious thought on how to best move forward with the project. I have been concerned about removing the rust from some of the tighter interior crevices. Sand blasting is clearly the way to go, but I would have to do it outside the shop on my driveway which will create an unacceptable mess. I had several mini sand dunes piled up against the shop when I tired my sand blaster out earlier this year.
My neighbor took his ’38 Chevy to a local powder coating company and had them sand blast it to remove the paint and rust. He was quite pleased with the result and it was quite inexpensive. After talking with the powder coating company I think that I will take the following course of action:
- Complete the installation of the A/C drier on the core support.
- Remove all A/C equipment, radiator, transmission cooler, inner fender panels and core support
- Remove seats and seat tracks
- Remove shift cable, break pedal and gas pedal
- Remove sway bar and cats
- Remove drive shaft
- Remove fuel tank
- Remove dashboard
- Remove engine and transmission
Once everything is removed, use the pneumatic descaler to remove all of the under coating on the bottom of the car.
Load the wagon along with all the sheet metal that has been removed onto the trailer and haul it up to the powder coater and have everything media/sand blasted. While the wagon is out of the shop, expand the paint booth to full size and move the ’39 into the shop.
When the wagon returns, paint all exposed metal with epoxy to prevent further rust. Then repair the floor and smooth the fire wall before begining the body work.
For the rest of this week I will be working on building and installing a network server for my office and updating my computers to Windows 7.
Ich muss eine kurze Pause.
Not much to report today in moving the Dodge forward. I really needed to clean the shop up after all the cleaning, grinding and welding that I have been doing on the Dodge in the past month. I am at the point where most all of the major fabrication work is done. Other than fabricating a new firewall its time to start on the body work and getting everything ready for paint.
Before swamping out the shop, I did fit the the head pipes and cats up to the exhaust manifolds, other than having to repostion the cat on the passenger side to gain some clearance between the O2 sensor and the rear transmission mount, everything should fit well. I also bolted up the Oldsmobile sway bar to check all the clearances on the the new front end. Everything looks good to go!
We are having a very dear friend from Munich visiting us next week so I will not be doing much work on the Dodge or updating this journal for a week or so. As it turns out, November will be a short month as far as work on the Dodge goes. After our friend continues on her journey to Hawaii, we have the Goodguys show and then Thanksgiving.
My goal is that between now and the end of the year that I will be able to get the floor patched and the drive train and front suspension pulled so that I can send the sheet metal and other bits and pieces to the powder coater.
This also would be a good time to have the steering column and box rebuilt along with the third member which needs a major gear change as well. The 2.50:1 Cougar rear gear set isnt going to make it with the 545RFE 5th gear of 0.67:1 With 27 to 28″ rear tires I am thinking that a 3.89 rear gear would work pretty well.
Mounting the Durango Front Seats
The Durango had a nice set of comfortable modern seats which according to my measurements should fit well in the ’56 Dodge wagon and will provide a comfortable environment for long distance cruising. The 1st task was stripping the floor to seat track mounting brackets off of the front seats. The front seat tracks offer a flat mounting surface that will work well with the relatively flat floor in the ’56.
To begin fabricating the new seat track mounting brackets, I cut four mounting tabs from 2″x2″x1/8″ mild steel angle and drilled 7/16″ mounting holes in each tab to locate it to the seat track. I next tied the mounting tabs on each side of the seat together using 1″ sq tubing. Eight 3″x4 1/2″x3/16″ mounting plates were cut from a length of 3″x3/16″ flat stock. I tack welded the tubing to the tabs so that I could do a trial fit of both of the seats.
My initial thought was to reuse the original bench seat mounting points, unfortunately they would place the seat too far forward, that forced me into locating new seat track mounts. My major concern was to get the driver’s seat centered with the steering wheel/column, which required the seat to be moved quite close to the transmission tunnel which was already off set toward the passenger side. After a lot of trial fitting I found a set of locations for both seats.
Once the seat locations were established, I could determine how much I had to space the rear mounts to level the seat track fore and aft and side to side. Proper spacing was achieved by adjusting the where the tabs were attached to the square tubing and by using spacers cut from 1″x2″x1/16″ rectangular tubing.
All that remained was to cap the ends of mounts and add some additional 1 1/2″x3/16″ plate to each of the rear floor mounts to adjust for the uneven floor. I also had to fabricate 28 nut plates to fasten the new seat mounts to the floor, once I complete all of the necessary floor repairs.
Slow Day…
I spent most of the day today, updating the OTHG-Phoenix website. Dreamweaver crashed in the middle of the upload, found out that I had run out of storage on the ISP again. This is after it was bumped to 1024 MB. I am thinking that I need to move this site to an ISP that offers unlimited storage.
I did manage an hour or so out in the shop. I pulled the seat track mounts from the Durango seats and did some test fitting. I think I have a way forward to mount the seats. The driver’s seat is an 8 way power job, while the passenger seat is manual. I will have to use the passenger seat to get the basic position and set up, then put the driver’s seat in the middle of it’s positions and then determine how to mount them both. At present it doesnt look too bad. The floor is flat where each seat needs to be mounted, so the mounts should be pretty straight forward.
It does look like I will have to cut down the seat backs to get the top of the front seats where they need to be. I think I will have to install the rear seats 1st to make sure that every thing ends up at the same height.
Finally Up to Date!
With the last post, I finally have the journal up to date with what is going on with my 1956 Dodge Sierra wagon build! I will try to do a better job of keeping everything updated on a regular basis.
Next steps on the build plan:
- Position and mount passenger seat from the Durango. This seat does not adjust up and down so it will be used to establish the median front seat height.
- Position and mount driver seat. This is an 8 way power seat – I will build the mount with the seat in the middle of it’s travel to set the seat position to match the passenger seat.
- Position and mount the drive by wire throttle pedal.
- Patch holes in the floor and clean up interior.
- Mount second seat and establish back rest height.
- Cut down all seat back rests so that the tops of the seat backs do not extend up over 2″ above window opening.
- Reuse or fabricate a console for between the two front seats.
- Remove all seats and the dash panel
- Remove core support, inner fender panels, engine & transmission, steering column, shift linkage and steering box and front suspension, drive shaft, rear axle and springs.
- Strip and prime frame.
- Strip and prime firewall.
- Strip and prime interior.
- Design and fabricate skin for firewall.
- Reskin firewall and prime.
- Strip and prime all suspension pieces.
More to follow when I get these tasks completed!
Working with the ECU wiring harness reminded me that I needed to install the brake switch that I had removed from the Durango. I also had to adapt the brake pedal to the power brake booster actuating rod. My local Ace Hardware had a 5/16 fine thread heim end to fit the rod. The hole in the brake pedal lever was 3/8” and was located too far away to line up with the rod. I welded up the existing hole and drilled a new one that would line up with the rod.
To further align the heim end with the lever, I made a boss by welding 3 – 5/16” AN washers to the lever to space the heim end out far enough so that it would not bind.
The Durango brake switch has a special mounting tab that I pulled from the Durango. I welded it to a 1 ¼ x .125 steel strap that I slotted on each end to allow adjustment of the switch.
In that I am planning on reskinning the firewall, I needed to eliminate the bolt heads that protruded on the engine side of the master cylinder mounting plate. To do this I countersunk the plate to take a 5/16” fine thread flat head cap screw which I welded into the plate and then ground down so that they would be nearly flat with the rest of the plate. Finally I reinstalled the mount, pedal and switch to make sure everything fit and worked properly. As with everything else in the ECU harness, the brake switch connector and plug fit perfectly!
It’s a Roller!
Posted on – 11-12-2008 03:59 PM 1956 Dodge Sierra
A couple of photos of the Dodge sitting outside of the shop.
Inspecting the Running Gear
Posted on – 08-07-2008 11:56 PM 1956 Dodge Sierra
I finally got all the easy – but really dirty work done! I have to say the old king pin front end is still in pretty good shape considering everything. It did have enough grease everywhere to pretty much protect it from the salt water. . . why is it that some folks don’t ever wipe off the excess grease when the lube a car?
Anyway the driver side inner fender panel was fairly well rusted through under the battery box – the good news was that I was able to locate a good one when I went to Desert Valley.
Posted on – 08-07-2008 11:44 PM 1956 Dodge Sierra
My next task was to remove all of the trim from the exterior of the car. Over the years a few pieces of trim have gone missing. The stainless on the hood on the driver’s side, the chrome tail fin on the driver’s side and the small stainless end cap on the driver’s side trim near the rear bumper.
Between Desert Valley Auto Parts and eBay I have been able to find everything but the damn little end cap. . . Also need a cigar lighter with knob and a set of radio knobs. . .
Posted on – 08-07-2008 11:56 PM 1956 Dodge Sierra
I finally got all the easy – but really dirty work done! I have to say the old king pin front end is still in pretty good shape considering everything. It did have enough grease everywhere to pretty much protect it from the salt water. . . why is it that some folks don’t ever wipe off the excess grease when the lube a car?
Anyway the driver side inner fender panel was fairly well rusted through under the battery box – the good news was that I was able to locate a good one when I went to Desert Valley.
Posted on – 08-07-2008 11:44 PM 1956 Dodge Sierra
My next task was to remove all of the trim from the exterior of the car. Over the years a few pieces of trim have gone missing. The stainless on the hood on the driver’s side, the chrome tail fin on the driver’s side and the small stainless end cap on the driver’s side trim near the rear bumper.
Between Desert Valley Auto Parts and eBay I have been able to find everything but the damn little end cap. . . Also need a cigar lighter with knob and a set of radio knobs. . .
Posted on – 08-07-2008 11:37 PM 1956 Dodge Sierra Wagon
The dash board was the last piece of the interior to be removed. Once the dash was out I removed all the remaining glass. The good news was that only one window was cracked (rear passenger door) and that the rest will clean up and polish nicely.
Posted on – 08-07-2008 – 11:31 PM 1956 Dodge Sierra Wagon
Next to be removed was the headliner – which was badly stained with rust, but all in one piece -
Posted on – 08-07-2008 11:28 PM 1956 Dodge Sierra Wagon
The hinges on the tailgate had seized and broken and the bolts had been throughly rusted in. After a fair amount of penetrating oil and a number 4 phillips impact bit I was able to get the tailgate and rear window off the back of the wagon.
The spare tire cover and 3rd seat support were made from plywood and covered in vinyl. What wasnt rotted away is badly warped – I don’t do wood so I will have to farm part of the project out to a friend of mine who does.
Posted on – 08-07-2008 – 11:19 PM 1956 Dodge Sierra Wagon
No major surprises were found. There is a 4″ x 6″ area on the floor at the B pillar on the passenger side that has been rusted through and the both the driver and passenger floor pans have a fair amount of rust but are still sound. The entire
interior floor of the wagon had been coated with an undercoat like material that really helped preserve the metal underneath. Also the entire underside of the car was undercoated as well. Back in the day I was always pretty skeptical about undercoating – I thought it was a dealer gimick to add to their profits but in this case it seems to have really helped.
After close inspection of the old girl it became pretty clear that the wagon had fallen into the hands of a young surfer dude back in 1969. Her last ride was down to the beach where she got stuck in the sand with the tide coming in. The front bumper on the driver side was bent and tweaked up from a tow hook. From the amount of rust inside the car along the drip rails it looks like it got a pretty good dunking.
When I drained the oil from the engine I got about 6 qts of water and 2 qts of some really nasty oil. The transmission had a good 3 gts of water as well as some goo that might have been ATF.
Posted on – 08-07-2008 – 10:53 PM 1956 Dodge Sierra Wagon
The 1st thing that I had to do was to strip out the interior. The wharf rats had called the bottom cushion of the front seat home for many years and I was somewhat concerned about it being contaminated with Hanta Virus…
My Build Plan for the ’56 Wagon
Posted on – 08-07-2008 – 10:43 PM 1956 Dodge Sierra Wagon
Once I got the car home and in the shop I finalized my build plans for it. The basic idea I had for the car was to create a 1956 Dodge Magnum wagon. The running gear will be from 2006 or later 5.7 MDS hemi and 545RFE overdrive automatic transmission.
After doing a fair amount of research on suspension options I decided upon going with a GM B body front clip and GM 10 bolt rear end with Goodyear RS Eagles mounted on 20 inch TorqThrust wheels. I plan on using a GM tilt steering column and power steering box. The master cylinder will be upgraded to a power assisted dual brake set up as well.
In that the car will be a driver, I am not planning on doing a frame off. I plan on removing and filling all of the badging and emblems and keeping the J.C. Whitney looking chrome tail fins along with the grill bars and bumperettes – my 10 yr old grandson likes them…
The frame and suspension will be painted black and the inner fender panels, core support etc will be powder coated black as well. I am leaving the stainless side and hood trim on the car and plan to paint the area below the stainless and the roof in Dodge Viper Red. The area between the stainless and the roof will be done in Black.
The interior will be redone in red and black ultra leather. Since all of the seat frames and springs are in good condition I will have them powder coated and reupholstered. If I can find a backrest for the 3rd seat, I will have it redone as well. I am also planning on stripping out the stock heating system in favor of an in dash A/C Heater/Defroster setup. I am still trying to figure out how to keep the Powerflite push buttons on the dash – maybe convert them to microswitches and use them to control the cruise control? The stock guages will be replaced with Classic Instrurments white face guages mounted in the stock chrome bezels.
