mattb73lt

Here was a really cool gift my wife and I received from two of her aunts this Christmas. A gingerbread version of our house and barn!! They're non-edible, but highly detailed and accurate. Even if they were edible, could you eat them? Now I have a gingerbread B73 for the collection! I put in two pics of the real ones.

Excellent work!! Merry Christmas!!

Drive line swaps are usually the easiest way to make an older truck more "roadworthy". A lot of more modern components will bolt right up to an original frame. Switching to a single axle arrangement can be done, but you're not going to split a tandem/bogie arrangement into a single axle. You'll need four spring perches and parallel leaf springs and a different axle. A complete frame swap can be another way to go, like putting an entire 1 1/2 ton GMC dually frame under it. Another benefit of a modern drivetrain is if you are far from home and you happen to breakdown fixing it is a lot easier than something that's vintage. Bringing modern amenities (A/C ,Power steering/brakes, cruise control) can be a lot easier to do. Sheetmetal can be another issue. The cabs usually aren't too bad, as they were all pretty small back then. The front end is usually the hard part. Re-scaling the sheetmetal to look right is a task. Resizing fenders to fit smaller diameter wheels, shortening hoods, shrinking radiator shrouds. As you can see from some of the pictures offered above, some get it right and some don't. It's really up to you and your resources as to what you can do. Talk to people, go to truck shows, internet searches can all help you develop a plan to move forward with to built what you want.

Chuck Roser, kingofsalvage.com. He has them and some other B Model parts, too. Same parts for the cab and engine, $135 a set(4).

That's looking pretty good! Really complete and relatively rust free. The areas I always look at seem solid from the photos. Sills, floor and cab back look real good. If that's all going if the price is right, I don't think you'll go wrong. Is this for the B81 or just to have?

I was just hunting around on Ebay Motors and came across an ad for a NOS 90's DM cab for.........$12,000.00!!!! I mean it's beautiful, but $12K???? It's just the shell. Wasn't like it was fully dressed out and ready for paint.

Depends on a lot-general condition(dents, rot?), complete(doors, glass, seats, glovebox door, instrument panel, ashtray). I would think a good, complete cab needing minimal repair for paint and use might go $2K. Needing work and parts $1k. Pictures of what you're looking at would be a big help. A lot also depends on you and your abilities. If you can do the work yourself, it'll save you a lot. If you're going to send it out to a shop and have someone else do the work that could get really expensive and lead to issues of it not satisfying your expectations when done. If it is nice it could save you a lot of time and money, helping your project along. You also might get a good deal if the owner knows it's going to a good project and is friendly with you and needs to get rid of it?

I believe they’ve found the newer gas doesn’t cause the valve and seat wear they thought it would. I’ve run older engines and haven’t had issues due to it. The engines I have had rebuilt, I did specify new valves with hardened seats. Mostly because they were worn and I wanted them to last. That’s been several Model T’s, flathead V8 and the ‘41 Cadillac I run. I’ve driven all extensively. There have been recommendations about adding Marvel Mystery Oil or 2 stroke oil when you fill up your tank I’ve read about.

That looks fantastic!! Don't forget the little rubber bumpers in the upper corners for the glove box door.

You should be able to get those pretty easily. Mack, NAPA, Fleetpride. Several Mack engines use those, END-673, ENDT-673, ENDT-675. I don't have a part number for you, but they shouldn't be to hard to track down. Mack 573GB257A, 573GB260 maybe?

There you go, progress!!!

Who was that, if you know?

Well, I have a bunch to do and I need to finish the B73 when I get it back in the spring. First, clean up my shop, it looks like it exploded when I was trying to finish the bed. Second, I still have to finish the ‘41 cruiser for the State Police Museum. Then, my cousin called me about doing some work on his M38A1 jeep. Not sure about the Jeep, usually I frown on working on relatives vehicles. I’ve had several people ask me about doing projects for them, but that can turn into a can of worms. If I was closer to you, it might be possible.

First load on it's back. Put them both in storage for the winter this morning. Also, the first time since '98 the B73 hasn't been hiding somewhere in my yard. Rode really nice with the Caddy on it and pulled some pretty big hills better than I thought it would. Lots of looks and thumbs up going down the highway.

You can easily do a single spin on. I did this to my NH220 in my B73 from a canister filter to a spin on filter.

The B Model's are easy, same as 2 1/2 and 5 ton military trucks and plentiful. The L clutch pad is a different shape, being taller in the center. Early 60's-70's Ford and International trucks trucks are kind of similar, but I think they maybe too small. Steele Rubber Products has a large selection, but nothing specific for the L I saw. A temporary solution would be to find one that's too large and trim it to cover the pedal, then glue it to the pedal. Also, just keep asking around, one may surface that's usable.

That’s a really nice touch. Great work!

I just stuck it there for the photo. It’s my wife’s and she had it on the back porch. I stole it while she was at work and hung it there. It would interfere with the shutters anyway.

Decorating the yard this year was easy with Christmas colored trucks!

I’d have to look, I think those might be hard lines. I may be thinking of my original installation on the 673 where I added an oil cooler to it.

Nice work!! That'll look great when painted and assembled!!

If you have an oil cooler, it'll sit just below the left side of your intake manifold and to the left of the oil filter pad. It'll be round, about 3-4" in diameter. It should have two large flex lines running into it and back to the filter pad. If you look at my photo of the spin-ons you'll see it.

237's are transplants. I did some research into converting my END-673 to spin-ons, but had to replace it before that with the 237. It was pretty straight forward with the filter housing bolting directly to the oil filter pad. Port alignment was not an issue and there are several gaskets available to line it up. I was looking to do it because the filter elements were getting harder to find. Another plus is that there are no external oil lines to route or worry about. Filters can also be had that are shorter in length to get you around clearance issues.

My concern with that last photo would be flow volume through it to supply the block/turbo. Additionally, getting replacement filters for that unit. It might be worth it to scrounge around and find a triple filter arrangement off an ENDT-675 with the spin-on filters. It would make servicing the engine a lot easier. This is the arrangement on my 675(237) that’s in my B42.

Interesting valve for the front brakes. I've seen those before, but didn't realize they had settings. I thought it was like the front axle limiting valve you mentioned, just ON/OFF. My B73 had the limiting valve and a trolley valve on the column. I removed all of that and the trailer connections to simplify my system as none of that is needed now that it's a straight truck.