We visited the Old Car Centre in Langley, BC yesterday and I just gotta tell you this: They have EVERYTHING!! Okay, maybe not everything, but they can get it, and they sold me a '48 - '52 shop manual for - get this - about 25% of what you'd pay for a comparable Harley manual. So I had to buy a new hood emblem, too.
The rough running 216 has mostly smoothed out, now, and the truck drives very nicely indeed if you can accept a 45mph "fast cruise", which I can, without difficulty. But I think I'll be putting up one of those reflective triangles on the tailgate so that when the rat racer piles into my back bumper because he (or she) is too busy on the cellphone to pay attention to their driving, I'll be able to say that I did everything I could to warn the idiots, except to abuse this venerable old grandfather.
There are still a couple of things to do. I'll use the lessons learned from the book to make the driver's door close like the other one, tighten up the steering box and fine tune the brake adjustment. Then there'll only be tires to replace before I get to put on a big load and see how she likes working. I may have found a set of slightly used 7.50 x 17 tires at the right price, but they're in someplace called Texas, which is way out there past Seattle, I think.
Today my friend John is going to install the carpet in the cab, and maybe we'll try fitting the headliner, too.
