Design Theory & Finding a Donor Chassis

My father currently lives in Whitney Idaho and his primary heat source is a wood stove. In order to feed the wood stove with enough wood every fall my father and brothers go logging every year.

My last gift to my father was a Stihl Chain Saw model MS-361, which is a high performance chain saw. He has enjoyed the saw and uses it regularly during the fall and winter to cut wood and prepare it for the stove.

Sine the one time a year my Father needs a reliable truck is when he goes logging I decided to turn my restoration truck into an high performance logging truck, and since his favorite brand is Stihl chainsaws I decided to use the Stihl colors as inspiration for the color scheme for the truck project.

My Goal was to have the project finished by Christmas, which was about 9 weeks away.  Dan said it was an aggressive goal but would push his team to get the project moved through quickly.  Normally projects like this take 6 to 12 months and guys often spend years on restoration projects.  Dan took the challenge and ran with it!

Since my goal was to build a reliable truck high performance truck, I could not use the original chassis or engine.  Modern Dodge 1 ton (3500) trucks use the Cummings diesel engine, which is a great engine but it has way too much power for the 1947 Frame and Chassis.   I wanted the look of an old truck with the performance and power of a modern truck.  It would require buying a modern 1 ton truck and using the frame, and power train but fitting the 1947 body onto the modern frame.

The owner of DNA Automotive, Dan White and I discussed many options for the design, he was confident that he could fit the 1947 cab onto the modern frame.

 I spent 3 weeks pouring over Co-part auction looking for a Dodge 3500 with some body damage but an intact frame and engine. I could never find the perfect truck and when I found some that might work and we couild drive to pick up then I lost every auction as the prices quickly climbed over $20,000 and the entire process proved to be a waste of time.

After several weeks of looking locally on KSL and other places, I found a local dealer who had a 1998 Dodge 3500 Flatbed utility truck for a price that fit the budget.  Since we were on the clock I bought the truck and Ashley Wheelright, drove the truck to DNA in Ogden.  It was never to be seen again.

What to do for my Father?

Every September I host a large paintball game in the Logan Utah area called Aliens in the Rockies .  My Father has been kind enough to help me with the event since he retired a few years ago.  As we were preparing to take some trailers from my house up to Logan my Father was climbing into my truck and he noticed the hood of an old car across the street behind my neighbors fence.  His curiosity was piqued and he immediately went to check out what it was.  He is not much of a car guy so I'm not sure why it grabbed his attention, but it sure did.

As he climbed on the fence and looked over he came back to the truck all excited and explained it was a 1947 Dodge truck just like the one he moved to Georgia in, and then of course he regaled me with the entire tale yet again on our hour drive to Logan.

1947 Dodge Truck behind neighbors fence October 2013

...

Exactly 2 years later in September of 2013 I was thinking about my Father and I felt that I wanted to do something nice for him as a Christmas gift, something that he would really enjoy and then I remembered the incident with the 1947 truck that had happened about 2 years earlier.

The two events coalesced in my mind and I realized that I could make my father very happy by restoring this old truck from his youth.  The very truck his own father had driven cross country to Georgia and then back to Utah the following year.  I had the opportunity and ability to restore a lost family heirloom.

The irony is that for 12 years one had been parked across the street from my front door.   That cannot be coincidence, so I started my quest to see if I could afford to restore the Truck and how difficult it would be to accomplish my goal of restoring the Truck by Christmas 2013.

In the 2 years since my Father first noticed the old truck my neighbor had divorced and moved away but left the old truck sitting behind the fence on the side of  his X-wife's garage.  I contacted my neighbor and inquired if he was willing to sell the truck.  He bought the truck when he was 16 years old and had owned it for 27 years. He was unwilling to sell the truck, because he had dreamed for years of restoring it and putting a Chevy Big Block 572 with blower and making it a classic Hot Rod.  (Pictured Right)

I thought my Restoration project was dead before it started.  I am not the type of person that takes no for an answer and after some persistence and continued negotiations he realized he was never going to be able to restore it because of his situation and agreed to sell the me the truck on the condition that I get him pictures when it was restored.

A few days later my neighbor and I dis-assembled his fence and he pulled the old truck out of his drive way and 20' up the street in front of my house.  By that night it was moved to DNA Automotive in Ogden to begin the restoration process.  Here is the picture from October 5th 2013.