The 1947 Dodge Power Wagon was first purchased in Valdez (the then Territory of)Alaska when new by Isaac Woodman. Ike was a prospector and miner and used the truck to access his mines and prospects. I remember this truck when I was a kid growing up and after Ike passed away I had the opportunity to buy it from his grandson. That was in 1979. I kept it for ten years and drove it but at that time I didnt have a shop to work on it so it sat out side and suffered the consequences. Snow caved the roof in and our salt air took its tole on the sheet metal. I sold it to Leroy Churches in 1989 with the stipulation that if he sold it I would get first crack. Leroy did quite a bit of work to it--beat out the roof and gave it a coat of much needed primer but when he left town five years later he sold it to Dan McCabe ak Frog. Well Froggie took to the truck as well and fixed the brakes and gave her a good tune up. He was going to take her to Snug Courner Cove in Prince William Sound so he could drive on the logging roads from his property. Frogs plans went asunder and the truck didnt make it. Five years later my wife bought it for my birthday. This time I had the shop an heres the results-----
Date(s): January 17, 2006. Album by John Stelling. 1 - 24 of 34 Total. 1970 Visits.
1 1980 Ike had taken the original bed off and replaced it with a Gallion hydraulic dump bed off of a Model B Ford . He used it to build roads to the "rock pile".
2 Old Dodge The cab before blasting and painting
3 Frame off
4 Frame off rear view
5 The frame after blasting
6 POR 15 Chassis Black
7 Long Way to Go At this point the "punkins" had been replaced with 4:89 ring and pinion gears. New spring pins and front axel driveline bushings and seals. Everything was blasted and painted with POR 15.
8 DODGE LA 318 With RV cam, high compresson pistons, Edelbrock intake etc., etc.
9 engine work
10 Thar she sits
11 Old Dodge The March billitt aluminum alternator bracket for the 318 worked fine. Another story for the power steering pump,I ended up building one.
12 New Process 435 Quite an ordeal getting the right transmission to Alaska. The case needed a drivers side window for the power take off. Originally this PTO drove the winch off of the front shaft. The rear shaft was taken all the way to the center of the rear crossmember through pillow blocks and U joints. There it could be adapted to a belt pully among many other things to drive a sawmill or anything else requiring a turning shaft.
13 Old Dodge HeliTool bracket for the Saginaw power steering pump
14 Old Dodge
15 Old Dodge I couldnt find a serpentine pully system that would work in this application so it was v belts. The PS pump was hell to mount with the HeliTool front engine mount.
16 Old Dodge Back from the paint shop, this sheet metal was used by Dodge in its various trucks from 1939 thru 1968 including some WWII military models
17 Old Dodge Precission Coachworks bedsides. I had to buy a parts truck to get these rear fenders---they are like hens teeth.
18 Old Dodge The "Bling Bling".
19 Old Dodge
20 Old Dodge Note the HydroBoost hydraulic brake booster. Thanks to Paul Myrop in NY who pioneered it on these trucks.
21 Old Dodge HeliTool four wheel disk brakes. He is a helicopter tool maker in Oregon that does this as a sideline. You send him your hubs and he welds a flange on them for the rotor and turns them on a lathe for true. When he returns them there is a bracket to mount the caliper included. Then you go down to NAPA or CARQUEST with a part number supplied and buy the CHEVY one ton rotors and calipers. Standard off the shelf parts.
22 Old Dodge
23 Old Dodge
24 Old Dodge Seven coats of Spar varnish. Probably wont last with the first load of gravel.
