Brian Egan's 1958 Chevy Viking 4100 with a 1956 Manley Wrecker

29 January 2007
# 1794

From Brian :

         Hi, I’m 19 and have been around The Stovebolt Page a little while. Here is my 1958 Chevy Viking 4100 with a 1956 Manley Wrecker. I bought this truck as an early Christmas present for, well, myself -- in 2006.

         The truck was originally used at a small garage. Then it was bought by a friend of my Dad's. I paid $2100 for the truck which also came with some extra parts. The truck needed major work but I had hoped to have it done before graduation in June and drive it there. Unfortunately, going to the prom in it wasn't realistic.

         Here is the Viking on the flat bed -- Thanks Johnny and Drew for getting it to my house!

         I’ve made good progress. When I got the truck, it was pretty rough all around. The brakes were shot but we fixed them quite easily and even added a break boost. It's not the easiest thing to stop.

         As for body work, a lot of panels rusted through, and we couldn't track down replacements. Nothing a down-to-the-frame restoration can’t fix though.

         As far as the engine goes, it originally had a 283 ci which was swapped for an early '70’s 307 ci. I was looking for a little more than that, so I bought a 350 ci four bolt off my Dad and put it together with a 383 ci stroker kit. Along with the engine, we added an overdrive that came from a Corvette.

         I somewhat finished at the end of the summer of 2006 (eight months later) and couldn't be happier with how it turned out. We did everything in our garage -- disassembly, sand blasting, painting and reassembling. We made good progress and had good weather. I drove it constantly before I had to go off to college. I drive it every chance I get when I'm home.

         The picture above (and here) are at her first show. (That's me with the Summit racing hat.) And there's more pictures in my Webshots album.

         Thanks so much. I love the site and spend hours looking through the Gallery. It's great to see my truck in there!

Brian Egan
"xiamfr3dastair3"
Bolter # 9353
N. Huntingdon, Pennsylvania