Welcome, Norman! It’s amazing to hear about your journey and your passion for working on cars, especially this fascinating VF-31. I’m sure your engineering background will be a great asset in restoring it. Looking forward to hearing more about your progress and learning from your experiences. Best of luck with the project, and God bless!

 

Cool truck, share photo's ... we all like photo's.
As far as the wheels go, IF they are in good condition, they are fine. They have the same lock ring style that is in use today on newer trucks.
You will need to take them to a actual truck stop that works on truck tires to have them worked on.
My advice would be to set the truck on blocks, then bring the wheels to a shop to be dismounted and inspected. If they are in good condition and can be used, have cleaned or sand blasted and then paint them. Then have new tires, tubes, flaps installed.

Lets be real and times are tight, if you have dual's on the rear you can just remove the outer wheels and do 2 at a time until all 6 are done.

!'m not familiar with all the numbers to describe your truck .... I have a 1949 B1B 1/2 ton truck I have been trying to work on .... life just keeps getting in the way. I keep going though.
I have the same engine as you .... most just call it a 218 CI. These engines are pretty stout and forgiving .... Hopefully it turns over and not locked up.
Even If it does turn over, I would still suggest you soak the cylinders in marvel mystery oil or 50/50 ATF/acetone mixture. The cast iron rings will stick to the magnesium pistons ... soaking them will help release the rings and get them to operate properly.

Another issue they have is valves sticking open. Simply the old oil turns to goo and sticky, the valves no longer slide up and down easily.
Then they have a weak valve spring ... the cam will push the valve up, the sticky goo in the valve guides the spring is just not strong enough to pull the valve closed.
When I ran a compression test on mine the first time, I had 2 cylinders that were 100+ psi. The rest were from 30-60 psi .... there was enough compression for it to start and it just improved with more heat cycles. .... After the first start, I filled the cylinders again with mm oil and let it sit for weeks while I worked on other things.
Do not panic if you have low compression ..... if the engine is locked up, you can try soaking it .... I suggest pulling the head and see what is going on.

You should be able to find everything you need for the truck, you do not mention which direction you want to take it or future plans .... I'm subscribed and looking forward to seeing your progress.

 

thank you for your support. Happy holidays…this week my one coming and the weather so far so good not very cold but sunny I started working on it. I was extremely lucky I went to an old auction place that I visit from time to time and found a listing near the end for 4 tires with wheels (5 logs) 19.5 guess who won it and paid $120? Yes and the first one on the truck now looking at it and very proud. Addition to that I won a bid for military tires 19.5 but wrong logs however they may fit my old wheel. Just an update. I’ll post photos soon

 

Sounds like you are having fun now .... sometimes it is the chase to find all the correct parts that makes the project worthwhile .... keep us posted.

 

greetings again and Happy NewYear I’ll
start with updates on the wheels and tires both fronts are on the truck and fit perfectly however I noticed that the driver side to remove the nuts it turn to the right on the passenger side the nuts to remove them as normal to the left side.
The carb is ready
the starter need to be removed and worked on however tried to look for kit could not find any so far that not trying to change the truck to 12v
any source of suppliers will be appreciated.
I printed the part of the manual for all electrical however I did not see detailed instruction as to specs nor torque as any shop manual
any of the Dodge parts/kits exchangeable with others ie Ford, Chevy etc to increase the likelihood of finding things to use?
thank you again all for your constant encouragement and support god bless

 

Yeah Dodge did that, drivers side is left hand thread on the wheels .... so common we forget to mention it as a heads up.

Not sure what to say about the starter .... you kinda need to fix it or buy another used one and fix that one. Vintage power wagons https://www.vintagepowerwagons.com/
DCM Classics is a good choice https://www.dcmclassics.com/
And the usual places like Ebay, rockauto etc ....
Also there is the https://p15-d24.com/ forum .... you could run a classified add and find someone who has a extra. Or knows where to get parts.
Bushings, bearings, brushes are all off the shelf parts when you get it apart .... windings are different.

IIRC, you have the 218 engine? ... I believe it was 1935 they made some changes on the flywheel and made it larger and that required a larger bell housing and moved the starter out .... I once had a 1938 218ci engine and it used the same starter all the way into the 1970's.

I am not 100% positive, I believe the larger 25" engines used the same starter ..... now the wiring may be different and need a relay and start with a key instead of your stomp starter .... but they will work with your engine. .... the electrical was different, but will work in your 1940 engine if you add in the wiring .... stomp starters are not really that easy to find. .... Just so you know you can use a later starter until you find what you want.

As far as going 12V, thats your choice. The 6v starter does not care .... 6V wiring system needs to be twice as heavy as a 12V system .... The 6V starter lives just fine with 12V.
They do turn over faster and advised to not crank for extended periods without letting them cool down.

It is all about having fun, today I'm working on some fenders prepping for paint .... these were/are junk but I'm saving them because is all I have.
I did switch mine to 12V and then converted my distributor to use a 1979 slant 6 electronic ignition and then converted to GM HEI .... it runs sweet .... The view out my window today.
I'm having fun, hope you are also.

 

Back in the day, most manufacturers used LH threads on the left side of the vehicle. The thinking was they would tighten rather than loosen ike the early single nuts holding demountable wheels in the 1910's and 20's. Chrysler, and
jeep were the last to used LH threads. Chrysler went to RH all around after 1970 with a few early cars still having LH until parts stock was used up. Jeep followed soon after.

 

Did you find out why left side only and not both sides?

 

thank you for sharing your setup looks nice and clean better than mine all my projects around the farm on scraping from new paved streets near us that the county refused and made agreement with the drivers to drop the loads at the farm that is close to the project than driving 30 miles to unload. I did level everything with my old John Deer 4010
I am not going to change it to 12v yet as it did start and the generator charge I only replaced the coil just for the direct test. My thoughts (hope get input) that I take part by part to my shop and clean and update everything needed and paint when I get most out I start working outside and around the motor (compression between 80-92) and no need to touch the motor yet but paint
then work inside then under the truck including the gas tank
I hope all of you had wonderful holidays and new year. God bless

 

On the large single nut attachment, the rolling tire would sometimes work loose on the left side. On the right side, it would tighten just by the flexing of the old wooden wheels. When they went to steel wheels, it wasn't as bad. When lug studs and nuts (or bolts like European cars use) they kept with the RH on the right side and LH on the left. Engineers are a very conservative bunch. If it works, don't fix it. However, once it became apparent that properly torqued lug nuts don't work loose, the maintaining of two separate parts became redundant and an extra cost for no benefit.Just having the one part number for nuts (and studs) just made sense from a business stand point and for a mechanic,, it was easier as just looking at a nut, you can't tell if it's left or right. Studs at least had the L or LH stamped on them.

I had a '64 Chrysler 300K with REALLY expensive wheels on it. I had punched out one stud on each brake drum and swapped it with one from the other side. I came out a couple of times to find someone had tried to steal my wheels but one stud was opposite. I had a little dot of paint on the end of the studs and a matching dot on the nuts. Blue for left, red for right. If you didn't know the dots, you were NOT going to get them off. Not at night when you're trying to be quiet.