1953 R110 Old Blue

Der she blows!

Been working on her for some time now (yes I know, how terrible for me to keep everyone out of the loop) and I figured it was time to share the fun! I'll be posting quite a bit as I can't seem to keep myself away from working on it. Now i'm no master mechanic and I don't have an impressive shop by any means but I always seem to get by, some of you might cringe at my jerry-rigs and others might burst out laughing, but they always get the job done!

Lookin forward to posting more
Bricker

nice to meet you jerry-rig, good lookin truck, baling wire is my middle name

Here is another picture of the truck, better highlighting the patina.

Also, a few weeks ago I was driving home from work and saw what looked like a broken down 1950 circa IH on the side of the road. I could barely believe it so of course I pulled over a block away and walked up to the truck. Sure as day, a 1952 L series! I talked to the guy who said he just bought it from Wisconsin (dang cheese heads) and planned on converting it into a major rat rod, dropping a 429 in there and of course switching the chassis.

I asked him what he was going to do with the chassis and SD and he told me he was up for ideas. I expressed interest in buying it from him, figured it'd be worth every penny. I talked to him again a few days ago over the phone and he told me he was willing to sell it to me and that I had first picking.

What do you guys think? I don't see a reason not to buy it, any donors are always nice to have. Maybe i'll even get the old IH hub caps if I sweet talk him What is a reasonable price for the both of us? Motor was sound enough to be running, told me it had some fuel issues.

Sorry to hear that it is being turned into a Rat Rod, but, it is his vehicle. As for the engine/trans and anything else you can get from him for a reasonable price would probably be worth it. That is my opinion.

Well, chances are not many other people are going to be jumping the gun and trying to buy it from him before I do, but hey ya never know. Should be able to get a good deal that way.

Plus I'll have spare parts to go around and barter with *cough cough* my radiator isn't original *cough cough*

Seen an L110 frame with running powertrain for sale a few months ago in my area for $500, that is the most I would want to pay.

Took the old girl out for a drive today in this beautiful Minnesota weather and lemme tell ya, after a winter in the garage most of my hard work has paid off! Well... except for one small issue(more like a major issue).

Problem #1)
While driving I heard a little bit of grinding. Only went around the block since the noise was pretty noticeable. Turns out the offset on the front rims doesn't provide enough clearance from the ends of the tie rods which leaves me with a few options to fix it.
a) Spacers. Problem with that is the lugs on the truck aren't long enough as is to still be able to put the spacer, lug nut, and tire on the lug. Could put different lugs on.
b) New rims. Probably my best bet but for some reason I can't find rims with the correct amount of offset to fit correctly, any input on what rims are most identical to stock dimensions and where to buy them?

Problem #2)
Changed oil again after cleaning out the oil pan, always so much sludge in those things, and I noticed a slight green discoloration at one point and sure enough there was coolant in the oil. Not a ridiculous amount but enough to be noticeable. Could be a cracked engine block or a blown head gasket and there could be all sorts of internal damage i'm not even aware of I suppose.
Where do I start eliminating to find the culprit? Haven't ever ran a compression test on the engine either.

I'll throw a few pictures up in a in a couple minutes after I run out to the garage.

you have Ferd car or something rims on your truck, original IHC rims would be 16" and hubcap mounting bumps face Inward, instead of outward like on your rim,
a set of correct rims will fix your problem.

As Jon says, correct rims will fix the problem. Another option if you are not going to put IH hub caps on, look for 16" rims with the 5 on 4 1/2 bolt spacing and no more than a 2.5 inch back spacing. I measure this from the face of the wheel that mates to the hub and the rim of the wheel. You might get away with a 3" back spacing, but, that is speculation on my part.

Pressure test the cooling system first. Compression test won't tell you a darn thing about where the coolant is coming from...it's good for other diagnostics, but not for that.