Project Diamond T

I am starting this blog to document the build of our 1936 Diamond T 221D project.

The plan:
1936 Diamond T 221D body on a 1991 Dodge 3/4 ton pickup chassis.

Hopefully with as little modifications to the DT body as possible.  We'll probably have to modify the Dodge frame a bit where the DT cab will sit (and maybe shorten the front end of the Dodge where the radiator originally sat, but we'll cross that mountain when we get there).

For now, some pics:

These pics are all 'how we found it'.  This truck has been in NW Washington it's entire life.  It was originally owned by Harold Moyer of Everson - who was the Diamond T dealer in Bellingham the time this truck was new and for years afterwards.  Interesting story about Harold here.    Anyhow, we got this truck from the person who originally got it from Harold.  So, we are only the 3rd owners of this 75 year old truck!  It had 80-some-thousand miles on it in it's life.  Which is quite a bit for an old truck like this!  Our 'donor' truck (which I'll talk about in a bit) has 97K miles on it.


Here is the truck the day we brought it home:

I love how the cab already looks like it's 'chopped'.  We have the doors for it too, but they are in SAD shape.  We (meaning Brian on this one!) will have to rebuild the entire bottoms of them (or find donors in better shape).  The original floor on this was oak.  The doors hinges were originally held on by oak too!  Needless to say, most of it is rotted away now, so there was nothing holding the doors on anymore.

I am keeping all of the pics of the rebuild on Flickr, so you can see more pics here.  You can also bookmark that page if you just want to look at the pics.  There is a lot more pics on there than I have shared so far here.

So, onto the donor vehicle. 

A 1991 Dodge 3/4 ton pickup.  It has a cummins diesel 6BT engine and a 5speed transmission.
Ugly as all get-out.

I won't feel bad tearing this baby apart at ALL.  It runs fantastic, that's all we care about!
The beginning of the tear-down process started 9-10-11.  We have 2 good days into tearing down  and we are SO close to getting the cab off.  One more day I think!

That's me inside tearing apart the dash........
Deconstruction is FUN!

We have 19.5''x6.75'' front wheels on order for the front so we can do mock-up with the DT cab when we get the Dodge cab off.  we just have to find some used 19.5 tires now (new ones are TOO expensive!)  The 19.5 wheels are the dually-type (that look like 'big truck' wheels).  We are hoping to keep this truck as a dually (so we will need to find a dually rear axle eventually).