My Dodge K39x4

[M880cummins]

Hi Everyone,

 

I wanted to share my 1934(?) K39x4 Dodge  that I drug out of the Arizona desert this past June. I stumbled on this truck in June of 2017 and knew nothing about the early Dodge trucks so I snapped a picture at this older gentleman’s amazing car collection he let me tour and went on my way. 2-3 months later I started to Google search terms such as “1930s Dodge 4x4” and “Dodge Suicide Door truck” and what little information I found made me realize I had found a rare truck. I saved my money for another western trip and this May I went out to Arizona to buy some old Dodge truck parts (mainly 40s-80s) and made my first attempt to purchase this beast. Two days of sitting with the 90 yr old gentleman rewarded me with some amazing stories but, still no truck. We parted ways and I went to San Diego to see some friends for a few days. On my way back, I put a bug in his ear again and he invited me over. Everybody was telling me the gentleman hasn’t sold a thing in decades (I like a challenge) so I was heavy on pursuading him to sell the truck to me because I would not sell and I had the skills it would take to rebuild it the way it deserves to be restored?. These Iphones are great, its like walking around with a portfolio to show people of the work you do!

 

Anyway, I bought it! We moved the truck to my friend’s house in Phoenix and 6 weeks later, I made ANOTHER trip to AZ to get this truck. My travels from PA to AZ are getting to be somewhat rythmic. The body is very solid, retaining most unique pieces to the K39 (except grille guard and bed) engine is not original and it is missing its body ID tag. It still has an oval tag next to the now missing body ID tag. The oval tag says “B-2-2LR” The chassis is missing the front driveshaft. I already serviced the brakes and have found a local 34 1.5t tow truck to buy the era correct engine from to rebuild. Current plan is to rebuild the powertrain and get it running and mobile. Once some other projects are finished up, I will fully strip, bring all of the metal back to my satisfaction (tig welding, shaping, patching, re-wire edging and filing everything smooth) so only a slight amount of body filler will be needed on the finished body.

 

Looking for more K39 examples for reference photos. I plan to fabricate an exact match bed.

 

Charlie Pitcher

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 22, 2018 by M880cummins (see edit history)

[countrytravler]

We have a customer with the same truck. It is a 35 1st series.

Edited October 22, 2018 by countrytravler (see edit history)

[M880cummins]

That truck pictured is what gave me most of the info last year! Do you have more information on these?