Hi, welcome to my screen, I have a 1951 M3 in my shed in process of being freshened, My passenger side manifold is broke as well.
Thanks for sharing pictures of your new truck and good luck to you.
Nice to hear from the other side of the pond.
Greg

 

Thank you for the offer, pm replied

 

Not defending a bunch off millionaires kicking round a bag of air, but they are using their feet,so football not soccer. Now American football is just rugby with health and safety

 

From the pictures that's a solid starting point.

Does is run ? That would be a bonus.

If the cab floor is bad and you are not a purist, could you source 18 ga flat sheet metal and build your own floor ? Would save save money on shipping ?



My cab floor was far gone so I had a sheet braked at the right angle, and replaced all the floor from the cab cross member forward.

Good luck with the build and look forward to seeing your progress.

 

I assume you are now good for manifolds. I only ask as someone else has asked me about the set I have.

 

Hi Cougar,


Yeah I'm talking to a guy on here now who is in the UK, so hopefully he has the right ones, I'm just sending him the pictures of what I need now.

 

Yeah it's all running and driving, just need s good service and remove the sand lol... The floor isn't bad at all, but there are some holes that need patching. Doors, cab corners etc all good. Chassis looks good too, so yeah it's taken a while to find, but I believe I have a good starting point.


You have to be so careful buying trucks in the UK, they go for a lot of money when they could be a complete rot box, but then you have to sort parts which are not always easy to get. As they were built to last, most parts are big, heavy and cost a shed load to ship!

 

Did you drop the oil pan?? With all that sand there could be a bit of it in there as well as some sludge. We pulled ours and the sludge was epic in the bottom

 

OK, I'll let mine go to the other FTE guy then. Good luck with your project!

 

I'm looking at everybody's version of lowering the truck. Various options from simple leaf spring removal to flip axles and drop axles on the front. I see all the advice and threads which all look really good. Until now.....


I have the truck on axle stands in my workshop (which I have for a limited time before I get found out I'm using it for this rather than clean analyser repairs lol). I lifted the front on the chassis so I could drop the wheels and axle etc to take a better look. The full extent of my axle stands wasn't enough to get the wheels off the floor!! so I added an extra two stands under the axle.


Even without a drop axle, it is so low to the ground! but the truck really isn't. I'm not convinced I will be able to use a drop axle or I will hit everything in the road here and never get over a speed bump (which our UK towns love!!). So am I seeing this wrong. (I can't afford a new front clip right now as I've just forked out for the truck, so looking for a simple short term fix)

 

No expert here, but your truck already looks lowered? Wonder if the springs are just sagged, or if some leafs have been removed already. And looks like lower profile tires as well? you didn't mention the rears, but dropping that as well can give more of a lowered appearance.

It's hard to get over how high the cabs are on these, compared to modern cars. And the rest of these trucks are quite tall to start with. Plus the fact you do sit upright, and on top of everything else, so that makes it seem even higher.

Great looking start BTW. Mines much worse, and been sitting idle next to my garage for over 4 years now. Away from the prying eyes of county code enforcement, of course.

 

[QUOTE=49rusty2;17574987]No expert here, but your truck already looks lowered? Wonder if the springs are just sagged, or if some leafs have been removed already. And looks like lower profile tires as well? you didn't mention the rears, but dropping that as well can give more of a lowered appearance.
[QUOTE]

Hi Rusty, thanks for your comments. I can't see that this has been lowered, but yes the wheels and tyres don't help being smaller (15") and low profile. But the front springs are quite flat? Plus not much travel until the bump stop?








The rear leaf has slightly more of an arch to it and some room before the bump stop.

 

That's a nice project start. Looking forward to more.


I'm going to agree with 49rusty2 on this one. I think your M3 should be equivalent to my 50 M68 (I'm sure someone will correct me if that is not true). Your truck is sitting lower than mine when I got it. We had, in the rear, 21 leaf springs including a separate set of helpers. We removed all except 8, which have more of a curve than yours currently do. That dropped the rear about 4", and it appears to be about where yours is now. Those small wheels and tires on your add to the lowered look of course, so I'm mostly just guessing.


I've used the following chart that I've found around this site a few times - it shows basic dimensions and road heights that might help you determine if yours is beyond stock at this point.

 

So I've managed to get some time in the workshop! I'm starting to find that everything takes twice as long as you think for each job plus I can agree with comments I've seen on other threads "double up on tins of penetrating oil!"


I'm soaking things before even attempting to move, some things over night, and they are doing quite well. I've removed:
The bonnet

• Rear Fenders
• Bed complete
• Side steps/running boards
• Bench seat
• Fuel tank
• Magic Air
• Battery & Holder bracket
• Manifold (which was cracked and blowing)
• Complete exhaust

I don't think I will be getting out of this workshop for a while, this thing takes up so much room it's unreal! I've stacked all the parts up in the corner as I've removed them:



I've taken off the broken manifold (only snapped two bolts! But removed the threads with a stud extractor so no tears yet!). This was a two man job just to get the damn exhaust free, the way it splits under the engine makes this difficult!


Fitting the new one is the same story, loss of knuckles and lots of swearing later, the manifold and exhaust is back on. I've also removed the original silencer and fitted a s/s cherry bomb type:



The idea being I will fit a turn out to fall just in front of the rear fender.


I can now see the extent of the damage to the floor, the previous owner in the USA had professionally repaired the passenger side using fibreglass over the rot, then a small tin plate screwed over the top, awesome.






The back will need a couple of patches, but the front will need a full floor welding in, I've just got to suck out all the sand first


I've stripped and cleaned the carb out and removed all the old fuel/sand mix. It had all set and you couldn't even see the jets in the carb. Plus the bowl and float were covered in sludge:







I've done a few before and after shots so you can see the colour it should be now.








I'm now working on the chassis, removing the surface rust and cleaning off the flaky underseal. Then I can paint it all to cope with our less then perfect climate.





I'm happy with the chassis as a whole, just cleaning it up with wire brushes and rust removing wheel on my hand grinder. If I can get some money together over the next year, next winter I will look to take the cab off and sand blast/powder coat the chassis.

 

I'm still constantly thinking about the stance I want and how it currently is. I don't like the wheels but it's what I 'm stuck with short term due to budget. They look too small in the big arches and the truck sits too high above them. They are 15" with 195/60/15 tyres. I really think it needs the original 16" wheels with full profile tyres to fill the arches some more, then drop the body a few inches over them. My problem will always be the budget and the height of my garage door at home.


I have a 6'2" clearance on the door height, which might just work as it stands right now. If I add an inch to the wheels then maybe 2 or more inches in total with full profile tyres it will be too high for the door. Need a simple temporary lowering jobbie until I can either replace the front clip and look at bagging this, or replace the springs all round.


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