well i bought a 48 chevy fleetmaster. but i cant figure out what to do with her paint wise. i saw one with brown fenders and tan on top, but i cant find much more..anyone have pics for reference of a fleetmaster with a cool paint scheme? thanks
Well, you start with your favorite colors or your significant other's favorite colors or color. Unless you are building it strictly to sell than you paint it the hot lick color of the year and sell it. You can google 48 Chevrolet, 48 Chevy, 1948 Chevrolet Fleetmaster or some other variation and find pages of 48 Chevys in all different colors and color combinations. Please yourself with the color choice. The quality of work you do on it will determine if it pleases others. My problem is that every time I choose a color for my truck someone else in the area shows up with a truck of the same body style painted that same color. I've give up worrying about that though and at least I don't have a flat black Model A Ford.
i really like earthy colors that remind of fall. browns and dark greens etc. im pretty excited about getting this baby home. sure it needs a little work, but it runs and drives so what the heck. might as well. it will be a slow process. past couple years ive sold off a few good cars and one or two REALLY good ones. so im going to be very patient with this one and make it my driver/long term project. meanwhile i can get the vette and the nomad done.
Check out this site there's a lot more pics of 48 Chevy chevybombs.com http://www.cbforum.net/forum/index.php?topic=3038.0
by the way, stock 216 straight six....is it supposed to have an oil filter canister or anything like that? i cant seem to find one lol. and it looks like there is supposed to be a plug covering the flywheel access hole? looks like it should, but doesnt.
Just about everything was a dealer installed option on those cars in 1948 and the dealers often loaded them up with add on's to run up the price. If the paint that is on the car now is really good I'd be tempted to just paint the fenders a different color to two tone it. The beige on the new Toyota FJ's would look great on an older rig along with beer bottle brown fenders though. I think that model has a brown that would look good too.
quite a hybrid lol. its going to need a front end rebuild and lots of other stuff of course, but its a driver. so im gonna drive and enjoy while i fix her up.
oh by the way, the 48 has a sway bar up front. of course the bushing are shot and all that jazz, but i didnt think it was a stock option. am i right on this? looks like it should be stock though. due to how its mounted to the lower control arms.
driving the fleetmaster today was fun, but its going to need some brake work. i know drums arent the best, but its gotta do better than it is. so im going to tear into that today and see what can be done. thats about it for now.
so after inspecting all the brakes front and back, i surmised that they were all in working order. the wheels cylinders all worked and the shoes were pretty meaty too. i adjusted them out as far as they would go and its still pretty bad. anyone have any old secrets to getting drum brake technology working better? right now i need to stay with drums due to cash flow. but eventually ill go disc. in the meantime, any ideas would be great. thanks
Your shoes may be glazed. I never had any problems with the drum brakes on my 46 and drove a lot of highway with it.
yeah that could be. i am going to go ahead and replace wheel cylinders and shoes and all the hardware just to be safe.
well after some pricing i determined the wheel cylinders for the 48 are very costly! but of course, i know how this goes. but--------before i break down and spend a bunch on new ones....are there any swappable wheel cylinders that you guys have used? just asking. dont think so, but gotta check for my wallets sake.
Yep, cheap and all you'll need is some brake cleaner, brake fluid & a wheel cylinder hone. Take them off the car & disassemble and clean them. Throw the hone on your drill and lube it with brake fluid and work it out. Throw in the new rubber parts and bleed the system. You're all set. If your originals have really bad pitting inside, they aren't rebuildable without spending a tons of money, so you may have to replace them. But you won't know until you get them apart. Good luck and let us know if you tear into them.
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