The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Well, it's in the garage. Now what???

Ron/Ryan:

Congrats on your purchase, I too have a 1952 that I am nearing the completion on a 3+ year restoration. My advice (FWIW):

1. attempt to charge the battery. If it takes a charge, clean up the corrosion and use it. Most likely you will need a new battery.
2. Crawl under the truck and you will see that the fuel line enters the fuel tank from the bottom. The fitting at the bottom of the tank has a shut off valve and drain plug. Attempt to drain any remaining fuel via this plug. My guess is that the tank is going to have rust. Pour some new fuel in the tank and see what comes out of the drain hole (if not plugged solid). Go from there. New tanks are readily available, but ensure you purchase a tank that has the proper SAE pipe fitting. Foreign sourced tanks have a metric fitting (not good). I kept the original fuel tank. Believe it or not, inside the cab makes good protection of the fuel tank in case of collision. Not many stories of people burning up in these trucks from back in the day.
3. Some basics before attempt to start. Drain oil and replace. Pull valve cover. Remove distributor and cut handle off large straight blade screw driver. Chuck the screwdriver shank in a drill motor insert in distributor hole ensuring the screwdriver engages the oil pump shaft. Spin the oil pump clockwise until you see oil at the rocker arms/shaft. Remove plugs and oil the cylinders (I use fogging oil). Let it soak a day or two. Ensure the engine is not seize by turning the engine manually (either at damper or with screwdriver on ring gear teeth). With plugs still out, ensure the starter motor will spin the engine. If so, button everything back up. If not, repair the starter motor/bendix. Pull carb and rebuild it. Attempt to start the engine. Hopefully you got base timing close and it fires right up. If it spits but wont catch, adjust timing. My engine sat unused for 20 years and fired right up after I did all of the above. I rebuilt it any. Don't worry about coolant and just run for a few minutes to ensure it works. The engine wont have time to overheat.

Good luck and keep us informed.