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Dodge-Yr Aur
Dodge-Yr Aur
The title is a hyphenation of Dodge and "Bron Yr Aur" which is the name of a cottage in England where Led Zeppelin wrote their 3rd album and is the name of the song playing in the video. My grandfather bought this WC-62 from an Alameda/Oakland, area base, the exact one of which, I am not sure. The pink slip my grandmother kept, indicates that he purchased it as surplus in 1957. My brother, sister and I used to spend a lot of time running in and out of my grandmothers apple barn, playing on the "old army truck," the D-4 orchard seat Caterpillar and a 1948 McCormick Farmall tractor. The Farmall and the Dodge are still in the family, but the D-4 fell victim to an ill fated tractor "dealership trade-in" on my Uncle's part, who felt it unnecessary to consult with the rest of the family before doing so. It was a late 1930's vintage with the gas pony motor starter. My grandfather had the original bed removed (heavy sigh) long ago and a flatbed was fabricated and installed in it's place. During my lifetime, the flat bed kept me busy because it offered a lot of surface area for collecting bat guano, which I patiently swept off as my grandmother looked on from her chair. When I was a kid, my father used to tell me that the truck's days were numbered because "you just can't get parts for old things like that anymore." I wish he were alive today to see how many parts I have bought and installed that I purchased from Vintage Power Wagons of Iowa. My friend owned an automotive machine shop so I rebuilt the motor there. My overkill tendencies took over when I assembled it with forged pistons, ARP rod bolts and head studs, port matched the manifolds to the block, installed a more aggressive Iskey ground cam from Vintage Power Wagons and had the bottom end balanced. I purchased and installed an NOS transmission (that arrived in a 1947 military shipping crate) steering box and all new wiring looms. Next on the list is to go through all of the brakes and replace an excessively worn pinion shaft bearing on the second axle. I have collected two steel and one wood bed side and an incomplete set of cross-members for a WC51 and intend on fabricating a new center (wheel well) section to stretch the bed to fit the tandem axles. I had wanted the video to end with the truck starting, but a dried out and cracked fuel line stopped me and being Christmas day, there were no parts stores open. Oh well, at least I got the points, condenser and battery changed and it did fire when primed with the squirt bottle.
YouTube | January 9, 2008
