When you say I'm going to have to pull it do you mean drop the entire trans or just disassemble the shift tower and check brushing, etc?

 

Depends on what the floor looks like under whatever is covering it. Some of 'em were just bolted in place... makes it easy, if it isn't, ya gotta drop the trans.

 

Find the horn. It's been so long since I had one of these I'm not sure where it is but it's easy to find. There will be a wire plugged onto it. I think the wire is green but maybe not. The horn will have a male connector so cut about 10 feet of wire and put a female connector on it. Touch the other end of the wire to the positive terminal on the battery. If it works, the wiring needs work. If it doesn't, get another horn.

 

@mason100 PM sent

 

The truck arrived in LA yesterday. Still running smoothly! Plan on diving into repairs right away. Two follow up questions to my original thread. I need to replace the seats. Would be nice to upgrade to some bucket seats or a new bench with 3 way seatbelts. It currently only has lap belts, but looking at the truck and reading forums it also has some pre-fabed holes with a factory plug in them that I believe are compatible with shoulder straps. First, what seats from other models would be compatible with the w100 (haven't had any luck finding originals), and has anyone installed 3 point seatbelts in their truck that came with only lap belts?

 

Look at Ramchargers and Traildusters (Plymouth version but the same truck). They have bucket seats in 99% of them so people can get in the back seat. I had a '54 Coronet that I had a body shop weld some bolt inserts to mount a shoulder harness.

 

Have been scouring the internet trying to find an original tailgate with no luck except for one person on craigslist that wont ship it and its in AZ. Anyone have one or know where I could find one?

 

car-part.com. Don't bother with the 'contact' interface though, get the phone number of the folks ya wanna talk to, and start dialin'.

 

Too bad you don't have the step side bed. That tailgate was used from the 1940's through 1985 or so. I know place around here that can help you and one guy in Ohio that can for sure, but I think you're in L.A. and I'm about 2500 road miles from you. Now, there is a guy in Tiffin Ohio named Murray Park. He has acres of Mopar parts. I'm sure he'll ship although the cost might be high. I know he advertises in Mopar Collectors Guide. Possibly Hemmings. I'm one of the few people he has let visit and he has stuff I've only heard about. I'm sure he can supply you with what you need, I just hope your pockets are deep enough.

 

Thank you for all of the above! Still in search of a tailgate but have done some work on the car and have other updates.

Reupholstered Seats & Swapped Seat Foam:
This past weekend my order from LMC Truck parts arrived:

- 1x Black Vinyl Reupholstrey kit
- 1x Foam Replacement Kit.

Back in Michigan it appeared some mice made home in the foam of the bench seats which left a huge gap in the backrest on the drivers side. So this weekend I pulled out the bench and stripped away the old upholstery and swapped out the foam and put on the new black vinyl. very pleased with the end result (images and video attached).


AMP Gauge Bypass
After the advice on this forum, I started immediately looking for someone in the LA area to come and give a full inspection of the wiring under the hood and perform and AMP gauge bypass. After calling all over LA multiple referred me to a guy named Morey. (Will drop his business contact info here for everyone once I find his business card). He came by my office and took a look under the hood. After talking through my future plans for the dash, electronic ignition starter, 2 6x9's in the door and 2 kickers behind the bench, we settled on doing a full rewiring with a new universal harness to have room for the upgrades. I had him look very carefully at the firewall housing to verify no loose connections could cause a fire. He recommended I send it to get the body work and paint done before doing the full rewire (body shops are notorious for not being too careful where the spray goes).

Body Work and Paint Job
I have been doing a bunch of mockups deciding what I want the final exterior to look like. The buttercream yellow just didn't match the roar and rumble of the V8. I decided to keep the vintage influence from their original sales brochure and keep it 2 toned. But instead of white and yellow, give it a little meaner of a look with some orange (see mockup below). I submitted tons of quote requests in the LA area and got back some pretty high quotes ($15k in Beverly Hills, $10k in Encino, $8k in the Valley). Then while parking at my office I noticed two beautifully restored Toyota Land Cruisers parked in front of the business next to mine. I know the owner so went over to inquire where he got the work done. He informed me he has a guy down in Tijuana who does incredible work at a much lower cost. He introduced me to Hector down in Tijuana who quoted me $3k for full body and paint job. It will take him roughly a month and a half to complete, but Im shipping it to him in August.