cost of ownership (the real cost of a deuce)

[92ramaro]

Figured this is a relevant addition to this old thread.
I came out basically at 5 grand so far. And still want to paint it someday.

-I didn't list any necessary fluids that were bought or obtained so I'm probably off by a few hundred bucks or so.

 

[frank8003]

and it will all be worth it.........................

 

[PoppaSmurph]

Well to chime in, last Sept. I found my 1952 studabaker with a running 331 Golden Comet, paid 800 for mine, a clean 1 owner (not) , 250 to transport her home, replaced master cylinder (150) , then find the last owner had blown the final rear end. So a bobber kit, new 265 tires , complete brake rebuild....list goes on but I'm not counting any more. I love her to much.

 

[Dipstick]

I recently spent a small amount of money on two new wiper blades for my Deuce. The shipping and tax alone cost more than the parts. They more than doubled the final price of the wiper blades. I also ordered two new windshields for my truck. I saved $100 on the total cost of the windows by selecting the supplier who uses UPS as a shipper rather than the supplier who uses FedEx. The surprising thing is, that the company I bought the windows from is probably 1,500 miles farther from my home than the company using FedEx. Part of the cost of owning a Deuce is not just what you spent on the parts, but also the taxes and shipping cost those parts incurred.

 

[teletech]

I recently spent a small amount of money on two new wiper blades for my Deuce. The shipping and tax alone cost more than the parts. They more than doubled the final price of the wiper blades. I also ordered two new windshields for my truck. I saved $100 on the total cost of the windows by selecting the supplier who uses UPS as a shipper rather than the supplier who uses FedEx. The surprising thing is, that the company I bought the windows from is probably 1,500 miles farther from my home than the company using FedEx. Part of the cost of owning a Deuce is not just what you spent on the parts, but also the taxes and shipping cost those parts incurred.

This is so true. Of course if you think deuce parts shipping is expensive, I bought a Ferret recently and have been shipping parts in from all over the former British empire! The weird thing is sometimes the shipping is actually a lot less than shipping IN the US would have been!

 

[Dipstick]

This is so true. Of course if you think deuce parts shipping is expensive, I bought a Ferret recently and have been shipping parts in from all over the former British empire! The weird thing is sometimes the shipping is actually a lot less than shipping IN the US would have been!

That is weird, but I can believe it!

 

[teletech]

That is weird, but I can believe it!

I had a hood for my Datsun 1200 shipped from Greece and it only cost me about $100! It cost me more than that to ship a 5lb valence that was 5' long but only 6"x6" from CA to NY. International shipping does often have weird treaty stuff rolled into it, part of why you can buy something shipped from China that even with postage you couldn't mail to to your neighbor for less than what you paid for the thing plus postage. It might be something to look at at the federal level. That said, I *very* much appreciate the work of the Post Office in the US and the other postal services from around the globe for bringing me parts from all over the world to keep my vehicular projects moving forward.

 

[Dipstick]

I had a hood for my Datsun 1200 shipped from Greece and it only cost me about $100! It cost me more than that to ship a 5lb valence that was 5' long but only 6"x6" from CA to NY. International shipping does often have weird treaty stuff rolled into it, part of why you can buy something shipped from China that even with postage you couldn't mail to to your neighbor for less than what you paid for the thing plus postage. It might be something to look at at the federal level. That said, I *very* much appreciate the work of the Post Office in the US and the other postal services from around the globe for bringing me parts from all over the world to keep my vehicular projects moving forward.

Datsun 1200! Cool! A 510 was the rice burner hot rod. I used to own a 1974 Datsun "Little Hustler" pickup. It would easily haul more weight than my 1980 Dodge 1/2 ton. Real bouncy though. That little 4 banger used to rev like an F1 engine. I bought some flap wheels for my angle grinder from China recently. Great price, okay quality, took two months or so to get them! Nobody make wheels for my small spindle Makita angle grinder anymore.

 

[frank8003]

Amazon non-union electric truck aircraft shipping is going to kill the other shippers.

 

[teletech]

Amazon non-union electric truck aircraft shipping is going to kill the other shippers.

Here we get into danger of getting a slap from moderators regarding political discussion, though I think there is a good argument for this being OK in the "politics on MV hobby" category.
I'll say that if you want an alternative to non-union shipping and to keep parts shipping feasible in general, call up your congress critter and insist they fully-fund the post office.

 

[frank8003]

oops, sorry. Didn't even think of politics. I was thinking of 100,000 new electric trucks on the road and what that means to shipping costs to all of us. I priority mail a lot of things USPS all over our place as it is a deal.
The real cost of a Deuce can be zero if one pays ones self a hundred an hour for the fun of owning driving a unique antique.

 

[montaillou]

The real cost of a Deuce can be...

Just me, but I don't think of my deuce in monetary terms. If I did, I wouldn't own one.

 

[Dieselfitter]

1969 m35a2 non turbo no winch. Jatonka Spin ons ,and his shop put a trailer bed dump conversion on it and bobbed it . I have added a custom rear suspension and removed the fender wells in bed , haulin logs is better w/o fenders in bed.
395’s , i have added a few mechanical repairs and full fuild change ,desert tan paint by a friend .
i enjoy a project and use the truck alot around my property and plan on taking it to wy in a few months when we move .
total cost is about 8500 so far ,the truck is the way i want it with no major plans , from here it just keeping it running so im happy to have such a useful truck for under 10K .

 

[Dipstick]

1969 m35a2 non turbo no winch. Jatonka Spin ons ,and his shop put a trailer bed dump conversion on it and bobbed it . I have added a custom rear suspension and removed the fender wells in bed , haulin logs is better w/o fenders in bed.
395’s , i have added a few mechanical repairs and full fuild change ,desert tan paint by a friend .
i enjoy a project and use the truck alot around my property and plan on taking it to wy in a few months when we move .
total cost is about 8500 so far ,the truck is the way i want it with no major plans , from here it just keeping it running so im happy to have such a useful truck for under 10K .

A dump bed is a cool mod Dieselfitter! I wish I had one. What does your custom rear suspension consist of? Could we have a picture or two? Thanks.

 

[Dieselfitter]

Jatonka used springs from the trailer the box came off.
so the springs were the limiting factor for carrying weight .
this bobber weight is 1500 lbs more than the other bobbed trucks he has built ,the extra frame under dump box , scissor lift with ram and hydro tank all add up.
the truck was barely level before loading it, it would squat in the rear with a load . I hated that look , i wanted to add shocks to the rear and figured why not spring over shocks ? A lil extra spring and shock to boot .
the cost of custom spring overs was more than i wanted to spend.
i started to research car and truck struts , came up with a fit and went for it .
welded up towers on the frame and perch foundation on the axle .
my main concern for this experiment was lack of travel on strut 4” plus what the bumpers give you. The truck used to squat about 3” from no load to 4k load, but as you drive and bounce down the road its more than that.
so far this set up has worked fine . I dont feel any “ bottoming out” in either empty truck or loaded. Truck has rake to it now and stays level with a load .
the biggest load so far was 5200 lbs . The sawmill i haul my logs to is just 5 miles away ,so i havent done alot of driving with this set up yet ,but so far so good. Time will tell. the helper pack of leaf springs used to engage at about 1 ton of added weight , now the helper pack starts to engage right at 5k lbs .
that worked out perfect for me to gage how much load im puttin on it .
im lucky to have drive on scales local to me and i have weighed the truck 10 times during this whole 4 wk suspension trial .
axle wrap is a concern for me as well but it really doesnt wrap as much as i thought it would , i have a design in my head for a torsion bar ,but not sure i need it. I dont beat on the truck and i use 4 wheel drive in the woods even when i dont need it. It helps when u have both axles moving a load , sucks to steer it in the woods !
ok “ride quality” its bouncy when empty with 395’s empty ,Loaded is the best ride quality , oh wait it was bouncy empty before i added the struts !
i dont plan on using this truck for heading to town on date night with the wife although she would climb in and truck along with me ! I think ? I hope ? I’ll test that and get back to you !
i have air bags on my 3/4 ton pickup which help level the truck when i tow.
they are a constant adjustment to ride height and ride quality . So this m35 i just wanted a no worry no adjustment mod that works.

 

[Dieselfitter]

Picture with logs on truck - that load weighed 4100lbs

 

[Dieselfitter]

so to stay on topic ,the cost for struts $175.
I also have found that the biggest cost of owning a deuce , im sure most everyone will agree ……..TIME !
i spend more TIME than anything else on this truck

if you buy a MV you will spend TIME and lots of it to fix,modify, improve fit function and appearance .
my buddy that painted this truck has some truely perfect MV
mechanic by trade so he just dives right in !
his trucks are eye catchers .
he has spent more time than anyone i know

 

[Dipstick]

Wow DieselFitter that was some write up! Thanks for going to the effort! I was researching those helper set-ups myself but was unsure how well they would work. Now, I know thanks to you. The Rockwell rear axle is rated at only 11,000 pounds and that is what the DOT will go by if you get pulled over for a weight check. I know my bobber scaled at 5,240 pounds with it's heavy drop side bed empty. That would give me a theoretical payload of 5,760 pounds. More than I would ever carry. I wouldn't worry about axle wrap too much with your setup. The leaf springs should take care of that in all but the most extreme conditions. I'm going to study your excellent photos to learn from them. Thanks once again for going to the time and effort to educate me!

 

[Dipstick]

so to stay on topic ,the cost for struts $175.
I also have found that the biggest cost of owning a deuce , im sure most everyone will agree ……..TIME !
i spend more TIME than anything else on this truck

if you buy a MV you will spend TIME and lots of it to fix,modify, improve fit function and appearance .
my buddy that painted this truck has some truely perfect MV
mechanic by trade so he just dives right in !
his trucks are eye catchers .
he has spent more time than anyone i know

Time certainly, but I've spent enough money fixing Brutus over the years, that it would have paid for two more Deuces. Maybe I bought a poorly maintained Deuce to begin with.

 

[Dieselfitter]

I bought my truck 10 yrs ago and has been at johns shop for 9 yrs of it. ,we are friends and he would build in his off season as i had money to go forward .
Trucks were cheap back then. my truck came from a navy base in RI and had makings on the doors which i didnt paint over , i work at a navy base for a contractor and showed a cheif there the sticker and he research the group that used to run that truck .
its neat to have some history on it and the truck mechanically is in good shape. It has a few holes in the fenders from salt but the frame and important stuff still had paint on it , moving to WY to retire i decided to change the color to fit the terrain there . Repairs so far Water pump in the first 200 miles temp gauge and speedo which im still trouble shooting full belt and hose change when i had rad out to change water pump. A headlight and full fluid change .
so far im lucky to have a solid truck. Figure when i get to WY i ll go over the air system and brakes to catch anything that looks like an issue .
its a bummer that john has built this truck as his last . He is slowing down now , we are all slowing down a bit !
john is a great patriot and a wealth of knowledge on MVs. I would not have tackled this project with out him so i owe him much.
i had a hand in taking the truck appart for the build but he put everything together and built a tough truck. I’m now just adding or changing the small stuff to fit my needs and make the truck last as long as i do ?
john (jatonka). Has build a couple of real nice gun trucks they are parade quality and has drove accross country and put the wheels of a deuce on the pacific beach , i told him he should write a book on that adventure