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Posted by Steve in NJ [68.196.64.155] on Tuesday, September 22, 2009 at 08:37:05 :
This is the Readers Digest version of my weekend.
I would like to thank Chris & Sharon Irick and Jeff Corbitt for their help in my project.
I spent the weekend with Jeff at Chris & Sharon Irick’s house installing a Truckstell Swivel Frame mechanism into the chassis of my ‘56 Power Wagon. This project started on Friday morning and ended Sunday afternoon.
In March of this year, I bought a ’56 Dodge Power Wagon Truckstell Swivel Frame from a junk yard in Florida. It was obvious that the truck was there for many, many years. The only salvageable part of this junk truck was the swivel mechanism since the body and frame were very rusty, bent and definitely not repairable.
I purchased another ’56 Power Wagon from John Smith in Colorado as a truck to accept the swivel frame mechanism. I purchased the Colorado truck knowing that it had a bent frame. I also located a PW frame in New Jersey to accept the swivel mechanism as well as the mechanical and body parts from the Colorado truck.
On Friday morning, the swivel mechanism was installed into the N.J. frame and we disassembled the body parts of the Colorado truck.
On Saturday morning at about 10: AM, I returned to Chris’ house with Jeff. Much to my surprise and amazement, Chris already had the engine, transmission and transfer case out of the Colorado truck and installed them into the swivel frame. The remainder of the day was used to install the mechanical parts in to the swivel frame. By the end of Saturday, we had a complete rolling chassis with the drive train installed.
Sunday was used to install cab, fenders, radiator shell steering column and everything else. By 6 PM on Sunday, we had three very dirty and tired guys and one assembled swivel frame truck.
Thanks again to Chris and Jeff for wrenching and Chris and Sharon for the room and board, all three of them for the conversations, jokes and beer. I’m certain that this swivel frame project would not have been completed in three days without all of us there.
Steve in NJ
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