1928 Chev 1-Ton

Owned by Rick and Tara Lee Higgins "TooOldToPartOut" Bolter # 12997 Alberta, Canada

From Tara :

We've been EVERYWHERE now over this 1928 … yeh, said '28 so I hafta update the update I sent you.

We found out our NEWest OLDest truck is really a 1928 and not a 1927 (front wheel brakes and covers over the engine push rods dates her as a 1928 NOT 1927 as she was auctioned as and even has matching 1927 plates …gees Louise…!!). This is perfectly OK, but unsettling when you dunna even know what year she is. We been learnin’ lots!

Lots of proper info for the update, with cute and interesting nuggets of good old gold info already discovered!!

We’ve only had the truck since Father’s Day 2009 …what fun. Told Rick she’s our “service truck for the 1936 Maple Leafs.” [ Be sure to read the Gallery story on their SIX Maple Leaf trucks! Fantastic info. ~ Editor ] Wanna run to town for parts anyone? Rick took me for a quick burn in her. He came home from work and he said, “Jump in!”

This old old truck goes FAST; scared me half to death (sure glad I wasn’t drivin’) and Rick says he never even put her in FOURTH …hee hee…!!!

I bought some miscellaneous boxes of “junk” at the auction (after two tubes of Co-Op Maple Leaf grease, full ones even!). Rick used up the two cans of engine shampoo and got the brake cleaner on the go that came along with my purchase!

Rick has run the truck for four hours, flushing out the rad and system with some special concoction and surprisingly, not a lot of gunk came out of her. Sure was kewl listening to her run, regular like clockwork, engine purring along.

Been to Stan Reynolds Sales in Wetaskiwin. Man, they have sold a lot of oldy vehicles since we where last there. Rick says they are dispersing the stuff back out to the farms where Stan rounded it all up from! We picked up two head gaskets (we’re going back later with our bumper, a wooden rim, and measurements of the correct front fenders -- there were literally PILES of front fenders stacked up!)

I bought a full tin (my first full oil can!) of UFA Maple Leaf oil — little banged up but still neat, tin of MICA axle grease (was born in Mica Creek, BC so kinda a special name plus we actually found a MICA axle grease 5-gallon pail cover when Rick took me on the one trip to retrieve the green parts truck. That cover is proudly fixed to our fuel stand now to remind me of how much FUN that trip was! We got two banged up, but original, Chev Bowties, and a cute lil’ gasoline can - a red one to go with my little blue one.

I caught Rick playing with a really nicely done up set of tools (jack, wrench and pry) so I bought him that before he wore the paint off it.

We are planning another trip to the Wetaskiwin Reynolds Museum to see if they have any 1928 stuff in the archives we can buy copies of. We have a tire tool, tire nut tool bar wrench, three (yes THREE) headlight buckets, reflectors, sockets and beauty rings coming from the kind, informative and GENEROUS Mr. Dave Pridham of Ladysmith. (Yes, yes, we’ve written to the guys you have featured on the Stovebolt Chev 1-tons -- the 1927 & 1928 gang.) Besides Dave (another Canuck), we've heard from Dean Meltz with Lurch (what a great guy -- fun to talk to him). Dean sent us links about the right oil and such to use in the oldster trucks.

So, we are so learnin’ all sorts of good stuff from your Stovebolt Big Bolt peoples -- no surprise there. Rick says the older the trucks, the nicer the people. That sure is tried and true!

Oh my! We are having such fun. Even bought two more tacky 10x20 canopies (one for my 1936 Maple Leaf, of course -- just so you don’t figure we’ve been ignoring the Maple Leafs …no way on that!). Rick’s put on my tires with some help from red dog Fixins -- note her strategic placement of her rubber ball, all within easy kicking. ”Rick’s not busy, he can PLAY with me while he jacks his guts out!!”, put on all six of my swanky navy blue powder coated rims and new rubber.

My rig, she looks so SWELL and he spent ALL of the morning yesterday blowing out mouse poop. The door insides were filled solid. Next was the headliner -- totally full of poop! Man oh man!

I’ve been putting the canopies together in the swiftest of speed (the June rains were upon us in July …we are one to two months behind in the weather … so very weird last year!). Rick can fire up the service truck and wheel her under cover and we can untarp her and get greasy!

Rick is going to completely re-do the '28 … from the splitting wooden box on the back (nice hardware!! -- he is going to build a beauty of a wooden box to really compliment all that lovely iron she has on her), right down to cleaning, polishing and painting every last durn engine part. Yeh, she ran when we got her, that is fer sure, but he’s going to Rickerize the '28. You’ll be able to eat your dinner off her engine when he says he’s “done.”

Rick's going to be looking for spare parts: transmission, the running gear, body parts as per good condition, an engine for safety and whathaveyou’s.

Yeh, we have one really good truck there, but it is not like you can go to town in an afternoon and come back with a part if she blows one. I just faxed the tire outfit we know of for a complete set of wheels, tubes and liners…OUCH…but you need reliable rubber under you. I ain’t into spending our leisure time stranded on the side of the road kicking flat tires and shaking our heads!

As always, thank you kindly Stovebolters. Your tireless work reaps great benefit to us vintage vehicle advocates. Thanks for all you do! Forever grateful and we ALWAYS know where to go straight off if you find yourself with an oldster vehicle and scratching your head as to what to do next. A great gathering place for kind, knowledgeable, overly generous and my kinda FUN people.

Oh, yah, and Rick, he’s been bouncing around ideas in that head of his about what to put on the old truck mud flaps (gotta have good paint protectors on the old girls -- don’t want to be spraying people passing us with rocks!). He says we are going to use his stovebolt handle: “Too Old to Part Out.” I think it’s hilarious, perfect, wonderbar, and should put a smile upon many a face that get “stuck” behind us headin’ for town for an ice cream or a cold root beer at A&W.

06 July 2009
# 2629

From Tara :

Hiyah! Yeh yeh, Father’s day ... hmmmm … What could happen by taking Rick to an auction?? We were good all day Saturday, not so much on Sunday <wicked laughter>.   I coulda said “NO!” during the bidding and ended it there and then. But noooooo, not me!  VBG

OK, so this is our NEWest truck which now happens to be our OLDest truck. NOPE not another Maple Leaf but still a Chev.

This is a 1927 Chev Truck and I believe it is a big bolt, a one ton! Drawn like a fly into a flame … those big trucks just magnetize us.  

Now I have to go learn a whole new set of rules. Oh well, should be fun.   Before this I could run past all the wooden wheels, the oldie oldie stuff, but now I have to rack my brain and recall, now where do I remember seeing that item or who sold those wooden wheels. We should get us a spare since the wheel carrier bracket is there, but sans a tire. [ View from the rear ]

Neat part is that she is pretty much already restored (yeh yeh, Rick is going to do stuff too … far too picky he is!) and she was used in the movie Bye Bye Blues (1989) .

I contacted the two fellows you have on the site with 1927’s … Steve and Leo … will see if they have any pointers to share … or warnings … man oh man. hee hee. Thought I was SAFE from wooden wheels … not so! LOL

So thought I had better update you or else have you hear it from someone else and that would be WAY bad.

Tara

Well, well. What to say about this. I am not surprised it's a BIG BOLT but blown away it's not another Maple Leaf!!! She's an oldie alright ... but definitely a goodie. Keep us posted on the fun and excitement of it all ~ including life on the farm.

You all ought to read their adventures in the Gallery write-up on their SIX Maple Leaf trucks! Great info and story.

~ Editor

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