Jack Bennett

I had to check your profile, to better understand if this was a question or a statement. Since you don’t post your birthdate, I can only suppose it is a question. And, that is OK too because one day, when you do see a the wisdom associated with living a long life, and posting it a a proud manner, you will turn it into a statement without my help. Jack

I’m fighting off a nasty cough, and really don’t feel like pressing my luck to get a case of bronchitis, or worse, pneumonia. I’m hoping to show the germs they can’t hold me down, but at the minute it is a toss up as to who will win. The temps dropped down to 0 cold thirty around 4:00, so I only got the pan flushed, new oil added and the oil system pressurized, the spark plugs cleaned and gapped, and ready for the first start tomorrow. Just a side note. I am holding off on starting the engine for the same reason I have a beer and a good, long, and relaxing look at what I have done that day, and plan on doing tomorrow. Working on these old cars is about as rewarding as looking up and realizing that you’re not even half way done in digging a 15 foot deep hole upon which to place an outhouse. Sometime, it requires taking a break, and enjoying the ambiance and aroma of the old one for a while to view the new hole as being half way empty, rather than half way full of dirt I gained about 20 horse power when I replaced the 1929 (25”) engine with the 1951 (23”) engine, but it also changed the distance of the transmission to the bell housing, and I had some serious doubts about the, now 4 speed, transmission fitting. So, prior to getting driven inside by the cold, I dropped the replacement transmission into its intended enclosure, and, by George, I think it will fit OK. OH, more photos………that’s going to have to wait a while until I media blast, and paint the frame and get the new bed secured to it. FEDEX delivered the new vinyl today and the top is getting closer every day to being a weather blocker rather than a work in progress. I used the Cobra long grain on my Willys, and it looks good. So, I opted to use the Landau, Tuxedo Black vinyl which has a much closer grain than the Cobra Long Grain. Thanks for the interest and the neat response. Jack

I have read, and I have reread this post several times, and I still can’t completely understand what it means. I can interpret it to be a confession made by a person, who was given the same responsibility as would be afforded a professional, and competent, machinist, who is not that. The one source of information quoted here is from a single person who cites his own experience as documentation that lifter and camshaft failures are becoming more the norm than the exception. I call fowl, and ask that a small amount of personal responsibility and accountability be reinstated into the “professional” trades, and that if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck and swims like a duck, it probably is a duck. Why on earth would a “professional” machinist continue to use inferior parts, employ previously failed procedures, and blame repeated, but exactly the same sort of failures on the merchandiser’s he chose to use as parts providers. At what time, after a repeated number of failures, apparently all involving the mechanisms, time, funds and delays of his customers, does a true professional close the check book, lay aside the profit margin and realize that personal responsibility for accomplishment of a contracted job extends well beyond buying the ergonomic arm chair, updating the office, or padding the retirement program? I will recognize my 80th year of life this coming July and I have been involved in some sort of mechanics since I was in knee high pants. And I can take a oath of truth on any Bible in existence that throughout this entire time attesting to the fact that I have seen one camshaft, the lifters, and, ultimately the entire engine destroyed, and that single case was because of error on behalf of the rebuilder, and had nothing to do with the materials used in the rebuild. This instance was a fellow, with scant mechanical experience, who decided to build a new engine for his 1986 Ford F-150. After spending several thousand dollars on a the Ford SVO kit needed to change the meek 351 engine, installed in a light duty truck, which was expected to pull a 30’, fully loaded travel trailer, into a asphalt eating machine capable of moving mountains, The specially designed fuel delivery system, the exotic high rise manifold, the Mallory HEI ignition system and the new exhaust manifold, when combined with the porting and relieving of air intake and exhaust completed the job. There was always the question about using the old valve springs, but it seemed logical to use the stronger springs which were included in the kit. I will pause here to mention that I rebuilt several engines, bath gas and diesel during the time I worked for a trucking company in Seattle. And, eve though I is not in the Gospel, without fail, I made it a rule to set the accelerator at 1500 RPM PRIOR to the first start up, and ran the engine at this RPM for nearly a hour PRIOR to shutting it down. This allowed the lifters to “float” and “cook in” to the new camshaft. I never lost one single engine due to camshaft or lifter failure, and when I quit work at the company, most engine I had rebuilt, had logged over 200,000 miles of commercial use in heavy trucks. Anyway, as a 15 year old high school student we learned to use plastigauge, feelers and good sense during every camshaft install. Your machinist most probably has over 40 years of experience, but, when I interviewed a prospective new hire mechanic, who used his many years past experience as a testament of what I could expect for his future contribution to the business, I couldn’t help but think about the bad effect his skills would have on my shop IF these many years experience had been plagued with poor ability as a mechanic and consequential failed procedures. Perhaps your machinist was good, and perhaps he is still good, but, perhaps it is time for him to hang up his tools and admit that Alzheimer’s, dementia and failing physical ability has more affect on what we do “professionally” than what we select to do it with. Oh, and my friend’s beautifully painted, chromed manifold, pretty bright blue ignition wired 351 lasted less than 200 miles before it ate the lifters, smoothed the cam lobes, and digested all the scrap metal as a lubricant meal shared with the crank and pistons.

When I first went down to Oregon to see my 1929 Fargo Express Packet Panel truck for the first time, its sad state of existence burned a hole in my mind. The truck was the perfect example of what a zombie would look like, if zombies really existed. It hurt in so very many ways it was impossible to gather them into a single, neatly bound, bundle to even assess how serious each one was to the amount of pain which must have been felt by the composite total. Evidently, this truck had not only been new once, it was appealing for its appearance as well as its promise of providing a much needed transportation resource. But now it was little more than a rusted and rotted skeleton of what it once was, and it was difficult to understand how proud the owner must have felt when he/she visualized how it would be for years to come. The reconstruction of the truck to even appear, with little consideration of functioning, as it once was seemed both ridiculous, and reeked of impossibility. And then, after taking a long look at myself, I discovered that the only impossibility involved in this endeavor was my own ability to ignore the plight of this truck, and refuse to recognize the need to return it to a state of viability. I copied loads of lengthy articles on the events beginning in 1929, and extending through the next 8 years, and the unimaginable pain and suffering the United States endured during the Great Depression. But, I also understand that there are trillions of tons of printed pages in land fills and shredded into wiping rags which were never even read once. So, I elected to forego the graphics, recognize that such events have little meaning to those who died before, or were born after, and instead rely on those who actually studied history, and may have even lived through the event. Our old cars are little more than bits and pieces of the past, often “MacGyvered” into a odd assortment of rubber, metal, horsehair, glass, wood and paper, by uneducated farm hands who used scant more than hand tools to build these marvelous machines. And the materials used in their construct, the level of technology found in their design and functionality, as well as the opulence of their lines, chrome and appearance was a testament to the health and mental outlook of the times during which the came into existence. My old Fargo is one of the most accurate reflections of the 1929-1930’s era in this country, and ignorance of it’s sad state of existence could be construed to accept that this was the future, and it should be accepted as such. Not really………..The Fargo, as the nation, deserves to live, it deserves to act as a material marker of those dark years, and it will stand as testimony that there are still those among us who refuse to forget the past and implore others to remember it by embellishing the spirit of those who built the truck, and the promise it held into every person who was born after 1929, but shares in the future its archaic mechanics and hand crafted body imparted to them as custodians of the future.

Jeff…..I am extremely egg-on-faceish. I watched Monk on TV regularly, and now I understand. Thanks for the explanation and the time and effort it took to render it. Jack

I just looked at the date on my iPad, noticed it was Wednesday, and the weather outside is a invitation to prolonging whatever this bug I have, so I have decided to spend a few more minutes on line. But, with boredom comes the need to dispel it in totally useless, and usually mundane ways. Along those lines, I am curious what the label “Monk” has to do with carburetors or metal shards in the eyes, as acquired from shop rags? Hell, I am nearly 80 years old, play with 100 year old cars, and recently missed a dentist appointment so I am a well qualified listener wherever there is a fluent talker.

Hi carbdoc. The only words I can add to your statement of “I NEVER wipe my eyes with shop towels…….” is “plan on”. I have had a few “accidents”, which were unscripted and unplanned. Had they been called “on purposes” they would not be worthy of mention because any consequences, good or bad, could have been predicted, and prevented. My posts are made in the same frame of mind that I assume when I look at a rusted, rotted, shredded, bent, or missing part of one of my old cars. I have a number of choices in what to do, and, regardless of what I choose to do, it is equally unimportant to the survival of the nation or declaration of war with China. In fact, I can choose to ignore the car and hope someone who does “do something” does “something” and whatever they do will placate my old cars need to thrive and drive, and I will be excused from blame when IT chooses to simply fade away. This forum is similar in the sense that, as a car with no wheels, really isn’t a car, a forum without contributors really isn’t a forum. So it relies on folks, like me, who can ramble on endlessly, without compensation, no hope of restitution, but most probably retaliation, criticism or ridicule, totally unscripted and using only words understandable by English speaking people who, CHOOSE, I.e., VOLUNTEER, to make posts which afford the other paying forum members the option of continuing to read my run on filled posts, or simply press a virtual toggle and move on to another topic. I too am a Carter, Edelbrock and Holly era guy, and I know that a single piece of dust can ruin the performance of a otherwise expert carburetor repair. My apologies for wandering off topic by not addressing the needs of a professional who specializes in carburetors, chooses a carburetor repair related screen name, but, all the while failing to mention that any answer than one specifically related to carburetors will be unacceptable, but this is a antique car forum which entails grease, acid, paint, grit and crud, and I just responded accordingly.

I have a lot of difficulty when it comes to spending a large sum of money on items I may/or may not need in my old car hobby. The absence of a certain size Nut, bolt, washer, screw, wire, tape, brush, or some other thing of that sort only becomes obvious when you need them. And when you finally do, “Murphy” is the only other entity available to help by holding the two pieces together, or holding a finger on the leak while you go to the hardware store to buy a bolt or some tape. In that sense, I like TSC because I can break my addiction to buying “things” into a fractionalized process, which allows me to buy smaller portions of a otherwise massive need. When I go to Lowe’s, Home Depot, and in a instant of temporary panic, Ace Hardware, and look at the cost of a 5/8X10”X24 bolt, I go into a state of sticker shock which closely resembles a mild, but brain numbing coma. But, there is no apologies required, or expected, when I troop down that aisle at TSC and find that I can buy four or five of the magnificent bolts, as well as some nuts, which will REALLY fit, along with some precious lock washers at a cost cheaper than a single bolt at the big box stores. Do I really need four or five 5/8X10”X24 bolts? Heck no! But the best insurance that I will never need a 5/8X10”X24 bolt, nut and lock washer is to have five available, even on Sunday night or Christmas Eve.

After the first year of managing the maintenance facility/garage of a Pacific Northwest Armored Car. Company, it became obvious, that along with the maintenance of the trucks, I had a lot to learn about effective management of the facility. Collected wiping rags and petroleum product soiled uniforms presents a problem of clutter, slips and falls as well as a problematic fire safety hazard because of spontaneous combustion. The company I worked for had bought out the property and vehicle leases, and customer lists, of a existing Seattle Armored Car company in Seattle, so I inherited a old facility with a cast in stone set of procedures. One of these procedures required the two mechanics provide their own uniforms and bring their own shop towels. The practice of the mechanics showing up for work in nothing more than badly soiled trousers and a baggy shirt had, apparently been done for so long that their lack of uniforms was no longer a topic of discussion. If there was any at all, shop rags had all appearance of being Thrift Store rejects and consisted of old, often soiled and smelly, sheets and bed linen, old skirts and blouses ripped into strips or tons of hole filled socks. While finding a fairly clean rag was impossible, finding a rag saturated with gas, diesel, motor/gear/automatic transmission oil or coated with grease, dirt, and very possibly, eye damaging metal filings, one only had to look in the toilet or hanging on any surface throughout the shop. The idea collecting the rags and putting them into a centralized collection bin proved to create a job in itself because the soiled rags collected in unmanageable numbers, so quickly they became a sight and smell hazard along with a highly explosive assortment of accelerants contained in a 55 gallon drum. Keep in mind that this is a commercially licensed transportation company which operated between 25 and 30 vehicles as a armored car company, and not my personal garage. I have already said that I buy personal use rags from Lowe’s, and these are one time use rags which are thrown away when soiled. But, if you have a shop size which would classify as a commercial facility, or use a large quantity of towels, I have another suggestion. I found that contracting with a commercial uniform supply company for my needed uniforms and shop towels was both a practical, as well as economical solution to my rag conundrum. Most uniform supply companies will deliver a contracted quantity of bundled shop towels, usually of a size, color and material on a regularly scheduled basis. Uniforms, in size, and often with a logo, can be ordered, but may require purchasing, with laundering and replacement included in the contract. Weekly, bi weekly, monthly, or whatever schedule for laundry pick up is arranged when the contract is initiated, and the uniform/shop rag crisis dissolves into remembering what days your freshly laundered shop towels, and professional appearing uniforms are dropped off. And, a benefit which cannot be ignored is avoidance of the .00001% probability that the discarded rag you pick up to wipe debris from your eyes, contains a very unhealthy helping of razor sharp metal tailings, battery acid or someone’s sputum.

Maybe I was thinking “Oliver Green” rather than John Deer Green. I do watch Classic Tractor Fever on RFDTV, and they show tractors as they are dressed out in their signature paint colors, and my ROKU TV does fairly well when it comes to depicting the reproduction of colors. I am leaning toward green, of some sort, since it appears that the truck was painted in some scheme using black and green. I have several gallons of the high gloss black and various colors of acrylic paint which was bought for other projects, and not used. I am trying to stay away from colors which induce subliminal mental reactions such as seeing a “red” fire truck, “yellow school bus”, or even a “purple” VW Beetle, similar to the one belonging to a worthless son-in-law drives. Off subject…….While in TSC did you visit their nut and bolt sales area. I buy my media blasting materials and dog food from TSC. They also have a good assortment of steel strapping and short lengths of angle iron, and I have some real problems with leaving the store without, at least, $100.00 spent for nuts, bolts, washers and some sort of hardware.

“Stalwart” is a noun describing something “dependable”, “reliable”, “trust worthy”, “hardworking”, “supportive” and “participating”. That is a pretty long summation of the meaning of a word which can be capsulated to fit in a single syllable word pronounced as “Ben”. It doesn’t require a degree in human psychology to understand that forums, such as this, are more a place for guys like me, and when looking at the continual number of visitors on-line, to discuss “things”, in a non contentious environment, rather than providing a panacea to solve every issue related to every problem plaguing the world. It takes same amount of effort, and finger wagging ability to make a sloppy, suggestive and essentially pointless post on Craigslist personal ads as it does to make a post related to a 94 year old truck on AACA. The humongous difference is, for those of us who navigate the labyrinth of “sensual” sites to get here, and all the while think “that is someone’s daughter……or Is that what life is about”?, and those who simply drools on their iPad key board and scrolls on, is the fact that I have much more in common with guys like you than mental/moral reprobates, being them. My machine projects are alive only for the amount of time I see them as living. They will stay in one single place, unless gravity dictates otherwise, or the forces of nature reduce them to rust, and washes them away, or dust, and blows them away, or I reanimate them for a short period of time and enjoy the experience. Regardless, I will not inflict some serious brain trauma or neural injury by even attempting to guess the number of 1929 model trucks…….yep, even “Fargo’s”……… have been reduced to a state of nonresistance when they were replaced by a newer model, not unlike your new Lexus as related to your old 1989 Geo Metro, or simply abandoned and left to rot. I consider myself fairly qualified to comment, within well defined borders, on subjects put forth on the forum. And, I also realize it is as important to acknowledge that I am on AACA forum, and not soliciting your son or daughter on Craigslist, as it is to snort into your coffee and ignore me because you don’t care what color I paint my 95 year old truck. Bottom line here is…….thank’s Ben. Without guys like you I’d be limited to watching CNN and MSNBC, and maybe even become a……..well, you know.

I gave serious consideration to doing a major part of the exposed woodwork on the Fargo in stain and varnish/lacquer, rather than paint. And, as I progress along in sealing up the seams and seeing what the assembled pieces look like, I still may do it at sometime in the future. As my energy level drops, and my ability to withstand extended periods outside in the cold diminishes, I now have concerns about starting tasks which will add to the time it will take to just reanimate the truck by adding the time it takes to do unnecessary cosmetic and esthetic tasks. The truck is already in the negative so far as value goes, and since I have only my dog to worry about the amount I leave in my estate, I’d rather drive the truck once and leave the bling to Arnold Schwarzenegger. I am leaving the wheels to last because I intend on replacing the brake shoes, wheel cylinders and brake lines. I have found it much easier and faster to compartmentalize this sort of thing rather than make them a long series of detached projects. That said, I hope I have no need to completely disassemble the wheels, but I will separate the spokes from the hub, and will have to see if I can do the rims without removing the spokes. Regardless, the hubs will be painted dark green, the spokes will be sanded and I will probably finish them up with tung oil and leave them unpainted. https://youtu.be/KqKzUGkiue0

I am as much for convenience now as I am about price. I bleed a lot, and the chance is as great I’ll need to wipe blood from my face as grease from my hands or paint from a brush. So, being retired military, I do a lot of my expendable supplies shopping from Lowe’s because the 10% discount pays sales tax…..which I absolutely hate. While there I stock up on niceties like glue, acetone and tape. But a thing I restock regularly is their cleaning rags which are sold in a couple of bag sizes. These rags are found in the paint department, and appear to be the remnants from a company which makes T-shirts or underwear. What I like is that they are reasonably economical to buy, consistent in size and texture, and appear to be clean enough I can wipe my nose or clean my face without fear of catching a disease.

In the hinge department…….Maybe most Fargo panels have 3 hinges per door but the one I have (badged as a Fargo) has four. It is missing the bottom two, which I may ultimately fabricate, but can buy for $88.00 each, plus S&H on eBay. The truck I have, which I can’t even get a good ID on the engine or transmission, will need a custom coupler made for the rear drive shaft/differential connection, is badged as a Fargo. There was not enough of the wood left from the original roof supports or door stanchions to even tell what they looked like. The door stanchions had rotted long ago, I suppose allowing the doors to drop off, fill full of water, break the glass and rust the regulators and rot the metal. I have since disassembled the doors, have nearly cut and replaced all wood pieces, renewed the regulators and have had plexiglass cut to replace the extraordinarily heavy windows. I will not live long enough to replace every shard of rusted metal with professionally made pieces, and I have neither the time, skill or will to make them myself. So, the truck will be a rolling Pandora’s Box for the purists and perfectionists because I will fabricate what I can, use Bondo and fiberglass in other places, and have used wood pieces throughout the truck which would make a botanist shudder. I hope this isn’t your truck…but it does not have custom wheels or chrome headlights, which caused contention with the blue one, and it is a very nice example of the paint scheme I propose to use if I don’t decide just to have “Got Junk” come and haul the whole mess away. For many years, because the wife loved to travel, fish, gather mushrooms and other nature products, I was not able to work on old machinery. So, I volunteered my time, and adopted the hobby of doing grave stone photographs for the Find a Grave web site. The gravestone can provide invaluable information which may allow a genealogy search to be closed out after several years of fruitless searching and, as a genealogist myself, I thought it made a benign, but essential contribution to other genealogy hobbyists. And then I started receiving notices which threatened to sue me for infringement of copyright laws, applicable to the grave photos I had taken, and provided other genealogy hobbyists, unless I relinquished ownership of the 4000+ photos I already had registered with the site, and surrendered the other few thousand to a “group leader” who would assign me photographic tasks, and take credit for my photos. Then I find out that the photos used on the site are tagged with a tracking number and recorded as a private domaine, and requires payment of a fee each time it is used by anyone other than the registered owner. Essentially what this means is that you can be formally charged with a crime, forced to pay a fine, and are marked a criminal if you copy and share the photo of your mothers gravestone, with your grandkids, on the internet, without first obtaining the permission of the registered owner of the tracking tag, and paying a fee to copy the photo from the find a grave web site. I no longer volunteer my services as a findagrave photographer, and I am seriously considering the wisdom of continuing to share photographs on the internet as a whole. I am a twice retired civil servant, have provided services necessary to keep a free electorate and solvent, self directed, economy for the entirety of my adult life. My brothers/sisters at arms have fleshed out the system , which is commonly called “freedom”, and have supported and defended the rights of others to enjoy the same. Nope…..the trailer is named “Archie” and the yellow wheels are not exclusive to a tractor. His sweetheart is “Veronica”, the 1923 Dodge Roadster who shares his paint scheme, and is his primary reason for existence. Even the wheels of the 1947 Ford 8N tractor, with which Archie spends most of his weekends at the Masonic Historic Cemetery, aren’t painted yellow.

I’m stuck inside right now with something I’ll call bronchitis, but not being a medico, I’ll just say I’m under the weather. The panel has green wheels already, and, it appears, that the fenders and trim, such as the bed hardware were black. The cab is gutted and the doors are a collection of rusty metal and bits of rotted wood. But, the bit of paint remaining on them seems to indicate that the interior of the truck was originally green with black accents. But, it was repainted to be all black, and that has rusted off over the years. I have my old Plymouth, 23 Dodge, 27 Willys and a few other toys in stasis right now while I decide whether or not the Fargo wants to live. I am looking at John Deer Green because TSC has it in a 3 part enamel, and I am not ready to pay $500.00 a gallon for acrylic enamel to shoot during a season when we don’t have two connected nice days, much less the number of consecutively nice days it takes to justify a gamble involving the waste of several hundred dollars in paint.

I looked up the word “contention” to verify it was still in use. It is, but it surely does not fit into my vocabulary, vernacular or, most certainly, any discussion on this forum. I did a serious amount of contemplation regarding the possible amount of flack I’d get by posting a photo of a unidentified truck which possibly belongs to a apparition. Using a photo, showing vivid colors, with a well defined color scheme, is far easier for me to post than a long drawn out technical manual trying to explain a paint job. And, were you to post a photo of a truck, which had absorbed years of my life, gallons of my blood, yards of my flesh and pounds of my money, I would not split hairs over it being a Dodge or a Desoto…….I’d be too busy trying to keep my overinflated shirt from exploding from pride to even consider criticizing you. And, perhaps I need to clarify my intent on posting the photo of the blue, beautifully, and probably professionally restored truck was not to compare it in any way to my junk heap of a reprobate Fargo. And I do, sincerely, apologize if that appeared to be the case. And, there really isn’t enough of the Fargo left, as an assemblage, to even guess its make, model or place of origin. Were I to read Facebook, and I saw this same post, I would feel a pang of remorse about the slimmest possibility I had talked about something that was over their heads either in regards to using acrylic, latex or Rustoleum enamel. But this isn’t Facebook, it is AACA, and the majority of the Dodge Brothers Club use it as a portal to advertise their cars for sale, use this forum for intelligent, technical and historical information on their cars. You have followed my progress with the Fargo, I do appreciate your screen name as it relates to a certain product. but I expect that anyone who has read my posts, has tracked my progress with the truck, and is involved in this undertaking as a hobby, WILL ask a question if I overshoot my evaluation of their intelligence or level of mechanical aptitude. Looking forward to hearing from you in the future, and thanks for the input.

You bring flashbacks of my high school days when I drove a 1938 Dodge, a 1941 Dodge, a 1947 Chevy and a 1951 Chrysler convertible. Earl Schieb would paint any car, any color, for $49.95 plus tax. Of course yo got exactly what you paid for, and, although $49.95 was a whole lot of money then, we had to drive machines which looked good (to us anyway). So, we decided that free was cheaper, and that is what Earl Scheib charged us for the five gallons of paint drippings salvaged at the end of each business day. That meant that we could stop by Earl Sheib’s on the way home from school, swing into the local gas station and drain their hose into our tanks, swipe some of dad’s paint brushes and have a brand new paint job, with gas in the tank, when we showed up for class the next day. Perhaps to some the draw back of this endeavor was that the paint from every car shot at the Earl Sheib store, during that day, was dumped into a common bucket, and there was no way of telling what color the paint would be when it dried. But, we soon discovered that, for extra money, Earl Shieb would shoot a primer coat of charcoal gray prior to shooting the enamel coating. So, we just collected the drippings from the primer area and painted our cars with no gloss charcoal gray primer. This was easily converted to a good thing which suggested that we were, but not necessarily, doing needed body and fender work, and the car would soon be painted a fabulous, sixteen coat process, metal flake candy apple red with green and gold sparkles, and a clear coat so deep the car would look like a x-ray negative.

In rereading your post, I notice that you use the words “natural finish”, and I’m not absolutely sure I understand what you mean. I am doing the Fargo somewhat more flimsier than I have done and past projects. The obstacles which prevent me from doing this truck up as a show car or collectors are obvious, and too numerous to count. I am a combat disabled veteran who was ridden hard, and put away wet, countless times during my career in the Army. I have one arm which is on loan from Madigan AMC, and another which does a limited amount of work, as it sees fit to do. But, this is fodder for another time and another forum. However, this truck does not have a single inch of metal which is thicker than the tin foil in a cigarette pack, and the wood has not only lost its identity as a species, it has lost any semblance to having a purpose. I am neither able to differentiate between “white oak” and “elm” in the windshields stanchion, because there is no wood left in the stanchion to use as a example, nor do I have any intention to even try. And the thought of replacing every sheet of rotten metal is nothing short of a nightmare. Putting that all aside, and returning to what you said about a “natural finish”. I am using a lot of fir and alder in reconstructing this old buggy. And the lower half of the bed lining are boards, about 7’ long, 7” wide and 2” thick. They are little more than a soggy mess of smelly pulp held together by a few rusty nails and some rusty screws. I plan on replacing them with cedar boards of the same length, width and thickness. The front of the bed is a similar wood, but the boards are much thicker and wider. They too will be replaced. My question at this point, regressing to cedar fence construction, I have been told that painting cedar ruins its qualities of water shedding and insect resistance. Thinking about this, how inappropriate will it be if I leave this portion of the wood, in the bed, naked?

There is no indication that the interior of the truck was anything other than the original green, painted over with a healthy swathing of black and then allowed to migrate back to nature as rust and rot. I have another thread in which I ask the hypothetical question “do you talk to your projects? I say “hypothetical” because you’d say “that’s personification, and that touches on beastiality”, and us moral beings don’t practice those weird things. Before escaping our mouths as intelligible words, these words are formed in the brain, and then hooked to another string of waiting thoughts, and uttered as audible utterings. Thus, although the “words” never escape your mouth, a path of communication does take place between you and your old car every time that screwdriver slips and you make an unsolicited/unscheduled blood offering. Or, when that single bolt, of a extinct thread, of a size so unusual you used a abacus, instead if a micrometer to determine its diameter, and doesn’t fit any length measurement known to modern man, and purchased after years of searching, and spending a small fortune to own it, piously, slowly, and with complete deliberation rolls into the seemingly impossible water port exposed when the head was removed for inspection. A bit off the “paint” agenda, but it is a Sunday and this is a “talk” forum, so I’ll get back to the paint in a minute. This, of course, is hyperbole, and offers the opportunity for us to laugh at our misgivings in that we chose old machine animation over computer gaming as a hobby. Anyway, I have never previously suggested that any level of communication, whether audible or mental actually elicits a answer from the object of our obsession. Well, it now seems as though I can no longer make that claim as I have acquired a antique Fargo panel truck which does use at least one intelligible, and unmistakable word to communicate. This truck sat, possibly ignored, and completely alone for at least a half century. And, I am 100% certain, if it is capable of harboring “ill” feelings, of any sort, in any form, it has accumulated a kings ransom of “ill”, albeit not necessarily “bad, “evil” or even “malicious” feelings toward its human tormentors. So, while it was unexpected, it was not a total surprise to find that the Fargo frame was badly warped, both laterally and longitudinally, probably when it readjusted to conform more comfortably with being stored, missing wheels, on a uneven surface for over 50 years. This warp did not become so evident as when I had used the rotted and missing parts of the wood frame to cut new, and now to specification, pieces to replace the bed, frame and cab structures. A few days ago I cut sheets of plywood to use as a top pending completion of the moldings and other trim pieces I need to do a permanent top install. It has been cold, with afternoon rain, here since the day I lost my “Farmers Almanac” years ago. Anyway, the plywood, being perfectly square, was tacked to the top frame, and done a fairly good job of keeping the inside of the truck dry. But yesterday I went out to work on the truck and the plywood was skewed with nearly the rear half of the bed exposed. Apparently the wood top frame, cut to mimic the precise angles of a nearly true frame, had decided to reconfigure themselves to conform more closely to the off kilter angles of the now warped frame. And, as the rain dropped through the now open roof, and splashed methodically on the new tongue and groove wood of the floor, I swear I heard the truck clearly say…….with a slight Canadian accent, and a undeniable giggle……..”BS”…………”BS”……”BS”………..”BS”………..”BS”……… Back to the paint……while the differential, axles, inner frame and brake backing plates are exposed I will use the media blaster to take of most of the accumulated road debris, and years of crud and rust, and then pressure wash the surfaces to remove any trace of oil or old lubricant. And then, I suppose I will give the parts a good coating of red rust primer prior to shooting the whole circus in black enamel. A last mention. The inside top of the cab has a cross beam, which runs lateral to the cab sides, made of oak, broken possibly nearly a century ago, and mended with a couple of screws, bolts and two steel plates. I like the ambiance this on-site, unplanned and extremely personalized, repair lends to the truck. So, I will clean up and repaint the beam, replace the metal strap with new metal, and replace the rusty, and now bent, bolts with new, but the beam itself will be used in lieu of a new one. The truck has no accommodation for a dome light. Not that it does not need one, it just doesn’t have one. So, as I sit in the newly redone interior of the truck, and it is exceeding dark, I find no surprise when I see the little, twinkling light centered on the repaired part of the beam. Nor is it surprising to immediately ascertain that the light emanates from the glowing smile of a stressed, overloaded, behind schedule, poorly paid, delivery truck driver who returns to his truck only to find that the cab roof has collapsed, and the cab is now filled with snow. All hopes of completing the route any time soon, and trecking the several snow slicked miles back home, has suddenly changed from being improbable to impossible. It is Christmas Eve, and it is ironic that he has been frantically delivering parcels intended for presents to adoring kids, while he can’t even make it home to be with his own kids during this most precious evening of the year. As suddenly as it appeared, his sense of despair disappeared when the nearby garage owner showed up with two bolts, two nuts, two pieces of strap steel and an old hand powered drill. In no time the cab was cleared, the beam repaired, and the delivery driver was again on the path which lead directly to his from door. And no amount of new wood or paint will add one iota of value to the truck in regards to how good I takes me feel to be able to share this tiny light with generations to come.

TSC paint it is. Their paint is named after the tractor it is intended. For example, my 1947 Ford 8N uses Ford Red and Ford Gray. I’ll probably go with the Deere Green on the Fargo. I am going to do the inside of the bed in Hunter Green enamel because I’ll be painting mostly wood. I had considered doing it up in stain and spar varnish. But I have decided to not do that. I have not been in the old car culture too long, but I made a few good friends quickly who shared the hobby. Most recently the last of these friends died and left a lesson with me that I will carry with me to my grave. This fellow was a perfectionist so far as his antique cars goes. He had a beautiful Dodge Coupe which would have made the Dodge Brothers jealous. He had driven this car on one road trip, and had more recently made a few local trips. He also had a 1917 Dodge coupe that was the apple of his eye. But, he started on the car a bit late in his life, and life seemed to get in his way a bit too often. I had asked him several times to let me help him finish the 1917 to the point he could, at least, take it for a short drive. But it seemed as though there was always something else to do to it, and one of the things was his unwavering quest for perfection. Now, he will never finish the 1917, and soon, someone else will be driving the 1915. My quest is for “as good as possible”, and now much of the cosmetics will be left for a time after I have totally convinced myself the car is ready to drive, and the amount of cosmetics I put into it will be a direct reflection of the amount of pleasure it offers me to drive it. I think the saying goes “It’s a lot like putting lipstick on a pig”.

Well, the 1951 218 Ci Dodge pickup engine is in the Fargo, and today I went to Harbor Freight to buy a transmission jack to finish the install. With the exception to the cab side door stantions, I have cut and installed most of the new wood work. It will take some time to get the badly rusted metal ready for primer and painting, but I think I have decided in the direction I will go with the paint. The photo is of a Screenside, and I’m not sure if it’s even a Fargo, but I think it is a 1929, and other than mine being a express panel, and this one a Screenside, they both appear to be trucks. Again…….I WISH IT WERE, BUT THIS IS NOT MY TRUCK. But like the paint job, and may borrow its scheme to use on my own Fargo. The black will stay black, but I am leaning to use Hunter Hreen everyplace this on uses blue……….. Any thoughts?

It is with sad heart that I must announce the passing of a true legend in the antique car collection/restoration hobby. Roger was a living encyclopedia of knowledge on antique Dodge cars, and his willingness to share his time and knowledge made him a priceless friend and mentor. To quote Rodger one last time on one of his most memorable remarks to me. When working with these old Dodges, if it seems like everything is going right…….You’re doing something wrong. https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newtacoma.com%2Fobituary%2Frodger-hartley%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR2pV_X87Qk9XlUpVgCVnsmRU4UN-iqSq9DmVnnCAvc6rxBB-6LOFtWP_M8&h=AT3-rgKKvkQye8HeTDaD_aZwq29SMQt5g2inB9OQIcrkCO1d2YzWZ67ffayRhfl9keHwSxI0l7BexnsdBCuq_tYYZhLK5X_2_oEABbDxnGL1cNMDFsQlbBwC-7oXMPK4_Fk6iKKaoRR7WHiwQFbDPf8v7w&__tn__=H-R&c[0]=AT2JNhnrp-PBuP_EEGm5XC87lP6syD5vjOtGPfYYRRtuxNtfAdlfAxT2_R4TKj53G77fWrTxDWg57VHwyBsQabz09Kx7bF-rd-qe2CB-3OCcCqodit0U-0Xi9PA8_nOPw0vndMP2h9FktIsQZ97gNK5p5aB5cq3YFIVeRI3BOJODFjASIq2_xRpqN_aDzfyYQt9Ru7aAQG2gfmV9l4sTsHF4B57N

It may not look like much, but it runs like a scalded dog.

I am working on a 1929 Fargo Express, 1/2 ton, panel delivery. In a short time I will be redoing the entire brake system, including master cylinder, wheel brake lines, cylinders and shoes. Is this something you can provide parts for?

I know nothing about this personally, but I seen a tread on the AACA forum which someone was having problems with one of these. https://wenatchee.craigslist.org/for/d/orondo-eisemann-g4-magneto/7702966311.html