What would u do with this..1938 Fire truck

I would fix it up and then start a fire. Or make a car haulet or a giant pick-up out of it.

 

All great ideas....
However due to "lack of funds"
This will turn out to be a "low cost" build

 

Shorten the wheelbase and make a cool pickup.

 

The 1930's/1940's Chevrolet trucks are a lot more narrow than a 1955 F600. If you want to leave the original axle, a set of Chevrolet 19.5" wheels off of a HD3500 1-1/2 ton tow truck or P30 bread truck will fit. They use 10 lug wheels on the rear and 5 lugs on the front, just like your 38 Chevrolet. Use a p30 bread truck/HD3500 rear axle with the 10 lug pattern. The front I-beam axle on a HD3500/bread truck is 13" wider than the stock axle, so you can cut the axle down, which is a huge pain, or use your stock axle. A stock axle has six rivets that hold on the brake drum. Remove the drum and six rivets and you can bolt right on a Chevy 1/2 ton 4x4 disc rotor! You make simple bracket to hold the caliper and you have front disc with 19.5" wheels. It is easy and you don't have to change out your entire chassis.

 

Probably the best advise so far, i agree totally!

 

Ooops having second thoughts...
Anybody wanna puchase an old fire truck?

 

More ideas? Thoughts?

Keep the orig 6?

Leaning towards a non firetruck rebuild if I keep it

 

I had my eyes on one years ago, and also an old early seventies chassis mount/ p/u cab motor home.

My thoughts were to replace the 70's cab with the 30's cab.....didn't get so far as to the track width, or measuring, but would make a low buck motor home that way

 

How far can you realistically drive something like this? What would it be like (resto'd) at sustained highway speeds? Check (SEARCH) what the market value of this is. It may be a vehicle to sell, and then carefully look for something drivable ie interstate speeds.