1953 Dodge Pilothouse Build

Hi all, I sold off my 1950 Coronet and recently took on a new build. It's a 53 Dodge Pilothouse 3/4T longbed. It is now set up on a 108" S10 chassis with a 1969 Dodge 383 BB with a 727 trans. I have a Ford 8.8 out of an exploder for it. The bed will be shortened to the 108" wheelbase (same WB as the original shortbeds came in). No bags planned, but I'll set it low and keep the existing patina which I think is killer. A little late starting the build thread, so here are a bunch of pics to backfill the build so far. Body is mounted and I am currently working on the firewall and floor mods.

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Later

idea

my pilot house cab wouldn't clear the bellhousing on the firewall inset so we used a wheelbarrow & it turned out great, heck l couldn't make that nice a bend for the contours at the top inset/bottom of the dash where it butts up.

Later

forgive my ignorance, but what`s a pilothouse...?

dodge truck

Dutch "forgive my ignorance, but what`s a pilothouse...?"

forgiven

it's a tall skinny building by a large body of water with a light that rotates at night so you can see it, but that's not important right now

1948 to 1954 dodge truck.

more info here:

http://www.dodgepilothouseclub.org/

http://p15-d24.com/

Later

skull said:

Dutch "forgive my ignorance, but what`s a pilothouse...?"

forgiven

it's a tall skinny building by a large body of water with a light that rotates at night so you can see it, but that's not important right now

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pfff yer hopeless.... whahaha

thanks for the links. still don`t see the connection [S is there any ,anyways?

cool project btw [cl

pics

you got anymore pics[P

really like the truck and that the patina is staying[cl

Later

Lookin good[cl. Keep up the posting[P

Dutch, the tall glass in the windshield and windows of a 1948-1954 Dodge truck, makes it look like a pilot house beside the water. Some people seem to like them.

Nostalgia. A lot of your pics look a lot like a lot of the pics I took building my Pilothouse 5 or 6 years back.

MercuryMac said:

Dutch, the tall glass in the windshield and windows of a 1948-1954 Dodge truck, makes it look like a pilot house beside the water. Some people seem to like them.

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........ and then we chop `em.....

thanks guys.... starts to make sense to me

skull said:

my pilot house cab wouldn't clear the bellhousing on the firewall inset so we used a wheelbarrow & it turned out great, heck l couldn't make that nice a bend for the contours at the top inset/bottom of the dash where it butts up.

Later

Click to expand...

I found your wheelbarrow idea yesterday and love it!

skull said:

you got anymore pics[P

really like the truck and that the patina is staying[cl

Later

Click to expand...

Some more pics....

Finally got back onto the Pilothouse project. A little more tunnel work in progress.... About ready to sheet over it all and move on.

A little more progress.....

Totally awsome! !![P[cl

peabody said:

Totally awsome! !![P[cl

Click to expand...

yep

Later

[P [P. [cl

More floor/tunnel progress. Just a couple simple factory openings in floor to close before I flip the cab to weld underneath and be done with this part of the project.....

Floor/tunnel/firewall is pretty much done. I only have to attach the toe kick floor area, but am going to wait til I lower it and make sure I don't need to notch the front cab corners. Pulled the cab and pressure washed it and the motor while I had access. I flipped the cab on it's back and finished up my welds and then sealed it and painted the exposed stuff. Now it's time to move on to some drivetrain (8.8 rear, driveshaft fab), steering, brake booster/pedal install, wiring and so on