So this will definitely not be a fast build, but I want to keep myself motivated and having a build thread is a huge step. This truck was my Grandfather's. I was given it when I was ~15, and it has so far just hopped from one Uncle's garage to another. I thought when I bought a house 7 years ago I'd have room to work on it finally, but it wasn't until this year when I built a bigger shop that I have finally gotten the truck into a building I own with my tools it in (just happened today in fact)!. If I was picking a truck to start a build from I'd have picked one in better shape, but it's my Grandfather's and it has to be brought back. My Grandfather bought this truck sometime in the late 50's. It had been a parts truck at the Pontiac dealership he worked at for many years (he was there for 34 years when he retired). The truck came to the farm where it was used hard until it quit, then it was parked. My uncle took a shot at restoring it in the late 70's and gave up and parked it in the barn. He rebuilt the engine, but it's seized again, and the bed was already beyond repair when he started so it got s****ped. The end result is in the pictures below. Although I haven't been able to work on the truck I have been collecting parts for a decade and a half. The front fenders are shot, but I've scrounged up some really clean steel replacements. The 216 in the truck is shot (and it's a 216) so I got a '54 235 from a powerglide car; short waterpump, full pressure, hydro lifters. I've also got some motor goodies like an Edmunds 2x2 with Stromberg 97's, custom 235 valve/side cover, Fentons, and a T5 adapter plate. For the truck I've got a '59 front axle to rob of it's better bendix brakes, a '59 rear axle also for the bendix brakes and the open center section, and a cool vintage flatbed for the missing bed. Still missing a decent grille (not sure mine can be saved), and a valence. The cab is fairly solid, but there's some rot at the windshield hinges, the brakes are stuck along with most everything that should move (but the windows in the doors roll up and down!). Also, my uncle said he thought he patched the cab with some fibergl*** somewhere, but I can't find it with a magnet so it's either really small or he's mis-remembering the truck's history. So I've gotta fix the rot, settle for sure on a drivetrain (still torn on 235 vs 283), figure out the replacement bed, source the missing body parts, and then of course paint/wiring/interior/etc. I want the truck to be clean, usable, and fairly period-correct (although I'll lose a couple points for the T5 if anyone actually crawls underneath). I know the flatbed will also be pretty tough to pull off 'right' but I'm gonna go for it. I need to find a new cab trim piece at the top of the windshield (seen below). What's the right name for this panel? P***enger side windshield hinge. Not sure what the deal is with the fibergl*** packing? Both hinges have it coming out above the hinge from inside the cab. Couldn't pull it out from the outside, I guess it's packed in behind that trim panel above that rotted. It seems to have held some moisture and cause the worst of the cab rot I've found (so far). So that's just to get myself motivated. I hope to really get into this project this fall/winter, but I know I won't be having weekly good solid updates. There will be questions, and mistakes I'm sure.
My dad had an early 47 GMC back in 1958 with a 302 GMC 6 cylinder in it with Jahns pistons, cam and 5x2 intake on it. It had a flatbed that looked good. I will try to find some pictures and post them for you. I would love to find a 47 GMC and replicate the truck for him. The packing around the hinge is a mouse house and the mouse pee is what rotted out the header. I just had to fix this on a 39 Plymouth truck. It didn't look bad from the outside but after I drilled out the spot welds and had it stripped at American Metal Cleaning I ended up replacing most of the center section with new metal.
The '41-'46 Chevy/GMC beds are reproduced, not cheap, but that may be your best route. Another option is to look for beds that got made into trailers. A lot of people used to buy a junk pickup with a decent bed, take the cab off, cut the frame about where the A pillar is, weld on a tongue and hitch, and bend the cut off rails in and weld them to the tongue. There's a trailer around here that a guy uses to haul his trash off that was made from a '35-'36 Ford bed. Sometimes you can find an old trailer with a decent bed and/or fenders that will be correct for your truck. How are the rear fenders? My guess is that, since it got used as a farm truck, they are probably pretty beat up. Decent rear fenders for any older pickup are hard to find. I was lucky that my truck had a nice pair of rear fenders on it when I got it, they were not perfect, but not rusted out and not extremely beat up. Somebody probably makes them in fibergl***. If it were mine, I'd build a nice stake bed. I have the cabinet shop equipment and skills to build one, so it would only cost me the time and material.
Have fun with it, I am biased but I think they are about the coolest truck right up there with the '40 Ford. Looks like a lot of work though.
Not a ton to report from this week. Stripped off the roached fenders. The inner fender panels were very nice. All the braces are still there. I have a beautiful set of stock/steel fenders waiting for this truck I picked up a couple years ago (coming in a post soon). Couldn't get the header panel removed, all the screws stripped. I'm going to have to drill them (and there are a lot). In the mean time, can anyone ID the heater in my truck? Supposedly my Grandfather installed it out of some other car he had at the time?
take a torch and heat those screws up til about orange, then try to unscrew em rite away, you'll find they'll come out pretty well, just watch so that mouse nest doesn' catch on fire, try to pull it out of there first if you can, use a coat hanger bent with a hook.
Here are the pics I promised This is how it looked when my dad was running 250 gallons at a time of "spring water" for his cousin. The next three were taken after he moved out to Washington state after he got out of the Navy These were taken in Tennessee after he got caught hauling moonshine and tried to make the truck less noticeable to the local cops who kept har***ing him.
Willys, that's a really cool story and a good looking truck. Looks like a 1-ton? Not a typical 'runners truck, but I guess if you're running in bulk you gotta do what you gotta do! Thanks for the pics, I am going for something very similar, but off a 1/2 ton shortbed. I dig the stacks too BTW. I wasn't considering that, but...
Yes the spring water business was the cover for the moonshine operation and the wrecking yard was the cover for the auto theft where they would steal the cars when they were dropped off from the transport before they opened. It was quite the operation that his cousin had. When he got caught he had dumped the load on a sharp turn but 1 5gallon was still on the back. They gave him a choice of 5 years of prison or 4 years in the Navy. He took the Navy and when he got out went back to Tennessee got his truck and his stuff and moved to the Northwest.
While waiting for my new clutch-head drivers to try and get those headliner screws out I dragged out the '59 truck rear I had picked up for this project. Much like the '59 front axle, the springs on the rear axle are angled much less than the '46. It's also spring-over vs. the spring-under on the '46. I need the open center section for the T5, and I want the better brakes of the '59. So as I see it I have several options: a) Cut the mounts off the '59 axle and weld on the mounts from the '46 axle. b) Swap the center-section and backing plates from the '59 axle onto the '46, and then weld the existing mounts solid on the '46 axle. Personally I think I prefer option b). Has anyone swapped later backing plates onto the earlier '46 axle? They look to be the same bolt pattern, but the '46 has 13" brakes and the '59 has 11" brakes. The '46 also has the backing plates offset inboard farther than the '59. Still looks like it should work, but right now both axle are soaking before I start trying to break loose the various bolts and fasteners. '59 Spring Mount '46 Spring Mount
I would use the 59 axle but not the 46 spring brackets. Cut the 59 brackets off and find some aftermarket new brackets that match your 46 spring width. Shouldn't be about 20 bucks for a new set of brackets and if you're lucky you'll be able to reuse the 46 U-bolts.
I haven't posted for a while. A month ago we had our first child. Shop time has gotten scarce all of a sudden... Nonetheless I have made a little progress. I dis***embled the '59 rear axle I picked up for this project and the '46 rear axle still under the truck to see what my options were for converting the truck to open rear and Bendix brakes. Here's what I learned: 1) The axle spines and bearing sizes are the same. I could use the '59 open diff in the '46 housing with the '46 axles. This would, however, leave me with Huck brakes. 2) The brake backing plates are not the same bolt pattern. They are also not sufficiently different to leave room for an adapter plate, so swapping the '59 brakes onto the '46 housing is not gonna happen. 3) The '59 axle tubes are larger, so I can't put the '59 axle under the truck using the '46 mounts. 4) None of this matters because it turns out the gears in the '59 axle are too pitted to use, and the input bearing is frozen. At least it was cheap... So I'm looking for a different rear axle. I want to keep the 6-lug, and I want it to be narrow enough to be close to stock track width. After scratching my head a bit I realized that my Colorado (my daily driver) is a 6-lug. A bit of measuring confirms that the track width is very close to the '46 (the 4x4 Colorado, the 2wd is 2" narrower). As an added bonus, most of them are 3.73's and they're already spring-under-axle so I think I can rework the existing mounts slightly and run them on the '46 springs. I'm on the hunt for a suitably cheap Colorado axle now. In the mean time, here are a few of the other goodies I've been collecting for the truck: These are the new front fenders. Both are GM steel. One is nearly NOS, the other is very very nice. It has a small rust spot at the rear where the fender meets the running board. I think I can patch it with a piece of one of the old fenders. Edmunds 2x2 manifold with rebuilt Stromberg 97's. This is the flatbed that's going on the truck. I believe it's a factory GM flatbed from a 3/4 ton truck, late 50's or early 60's. It bolts together out of pieces of beaded channel. I need to shorten it about 18" and narrow it about a foot, but that's pretty simple since it bolts together. That's all for now. In another month or two when I'm back to getting some sleep I'll probably have more to report.
Nissan hard tail rear end would also be a good match. 1986-1996 gas or Diesel. IIRC Gas gear could go as "low" as 3.54 to 3.78. Diesel are most likely 4.11 or 4.25 Good brakes, parts are still avalible, it's open drive, can have LSD and is same bolt pattern as the Chevy 6 bolt. Just an thought. Keep up the good work.
I find the inexperienced knock the Huck brakes. I have OVER 100k miles on my '49 Chevy 1/2 ton dd/ONLY vehicle. Drive up on the Interstate almost daily, used a '57 3.90 differential with my '49 housing and axles. If it were mine I would look for a pick-up truck box piece by piece...Art Deco is such a beautiful styling statement, that statement is interrupted with what you have planned for that flat bed.
Did you do anything to the huck brakes on your truck? Modern compound shoes for instance? My Dad remembers driving the '46 all over the place and said the brakes were OK, but his frame of reference was the 50's. Everyone else seems to have nothing good to say about Huck brakes. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
Hopefully I can get this project back on track. Doesn't hardly seem possible, but I haven't touched this project for 9 months again. Who knew a baby would keep you this busy? Here's my little future hot-rodder herself to kick things off: Tonight I finally got the inside header panel off. I ended up cutting slots in the screws and heating them to break them free. One or two snapped off, to be dealt with later. There wasn't just a mouse nest in this thing, there was a mouse mansion... Then I had to grind off the heads of the screws holding the windshield hinges on. The driver's side hinge wasn't too bad (still being replaced) but here's what the mouse pee did to the p***enger side hinge: A quick shot with the wire wheel and it turns out the damage isn't as bad as I'd feared. I will have to replace the p***enger side hinge mount and about 3" of material on either side, but it's (mostly) flat and I think I can fab it without too much trouble. The external cab fared well enough that a little high-build primer and no one will ever notice. And the driver's side is a little thin, but useable without rework I think: Also, I found the patch my Uncle was talking about. Nearly invisible from the outside of the truck, but I pulled the seat out today and there it was. Center of the cab, half way between the rear window and the floor. Seems like an odd place for a hole? That's all the progress. The only other picture is the very very nice grill I picked up for the truck:
Keep at it, life does get in the way of projects. Good job on picking up the fenders and grille when you find them. You'll get there, just work on it when you have time.
The Jalopy Journal
