Thought I would start a DITY Gallery thread on my 1948 Thriftmaster.
I am in the process of bringing this old truck back to life and she is fighting tooth and nail against my efforts. Probably not the truck, just my inexperience on a project of this scope.
A little back story about the truck. I purchased this truck when I was 17, about 24yrs ago. A couple years after I bought it I got a job about 1.5hr commute from the house and this truck just wasn't up to the task, so I traded it to a guy for something better for commuting. A couple years later I joined the Navy, but never stopped regretting getting rid of that old truck. Fast forward 8yrs, I'm at home on leave while transferring from Pearl Harbor and I get a certified letter in the mail. The letter was from a gentlemen working road construction who found my truck abandoned in a field, he talked to the landowner who told him to take the truck, so he towed it back to his place. When he filed for a lost title the truck came back with my name as the last registered owner, the guy I traded it to had never swapped the title over into his name! The letter stated I had 5 days to contact this guy or he would become the new owner. I contacted him and proceeded to crush his dreams about building this truck, gave him $500 for his trouble and I had my truck back. I couldn't believe it, what are the odds? I didn't have the time or the means to rebuild it as I wasn't making much money and was in between houses transferring to Washington State so I put the truck in storage beginning 2005. Now to the present, after spending $50 a month for over 10yrs in storage, I finally have the truck in my garage. I went a bit crazy and began buying all the parts I could find to get this truck back on the road. I have realized some of my mistakes in pre-purchasing all those parts, but they will all need to be installed before this thing will be driving down the road.
Step 1-Assessment.
The gentlemen that had the truck started the conversion to 12v. He installed an alternator, but hadn't changed much else. All the fuses in the fuse box are blown along with most of the lights in the truck. The truck is full of dust and dirt as even in storage in Nevada the dirt had piled up and the truck was in that field for who knows how long with the windows down and the front and rear broken. There is an inch of dirt in the underside of my dash, and about 3" behind the seat near the gas tank that was added before I initially got the truck. The tires have all dry rotted, but still hold air somehow. Every piece of rubber in this truck is rock hard and crumbling, luckily the dry air in Nevada hasn't added any real rust to worry about. The bed is gone, I can see the axel inside the bed rails. One head light broken, but I'm sure both need to be replaced. The wiring is still original, but the rodents have gotten to it making it unserviceable. The truck rolls thankfully but doesn't stop, it has no brakes at all. The transmission still goes into gear, we had to use that as our brakes when loading it on the U-Haul trailer from Nevada to Washington State. I can turn the fan and feel the truck want to move, so I don't think the engine is seized. I'm still wondering why the truck was abandoned after I traded it, I still haven't discovered why. The carb is missing, so a quick engine assessment is out, my father-in-law owns a carb shop is California, I talked to him and he sent me a fresh rebuilt Rochester carb for it. I know the Rochester isn't the original, but its free.
Step 2-Begin tear down.
My 11yr old son and I get out the shop vac and go to town cleaning everything to see what's underneath. After filling an entire garbage can with dirt, dead rodents, and garbage we can now see very little serious rust, mostly surface. The gauges are pulled out and sent to a guy for rebuilding, this guy totally rebuilds them with new faces, bezels, and 12v gauges for only $200...They look brand new! We strip the dash, we tear out all the switches, cables, wiring, glove box door and speaker grill. Pull the seat and frame, and remove the gas tank that has been sitting for years without a cap. There is a weird stinky yellow liquid substance sloshing around in the tank, we empty it and throw it in the recycle. We remove the seat frame, windlace, trim, and front and rear windows. We pull the windshield wiper motor and Ranco valve and send them out for rebuilding. My guy that rebuilt my gauges also rebuilds heaters, so I take my Fresh Air Heater and $200 to him and he trades me for a freshly rebuilt heater and heater core complete ready for paint. We strip all the mechanisms from the doors, remove the glass and now have a bare cab interior.
Step 3-Paint and rust removal in cab.
I hit up the local Harbor Freight for wire wheels and brushes and we begin the dirty nasty job of removing all the paint and rust in the cab and from the doors. We removed the remaining headliner, firewall cover, and some sticky substance that was probably carpet glue from the floor. This process makes an amazing amount of dust and with the cold weather outside my entire garage is covered top to bottom in a layer of dirt, rust and wire wheel guts. We took all the rust off of every surface even underneath the dash. This process took days to finish, we then coat everything in Rustoleum self etching primer and we have the cab pretty much ready for a painter. We remove the dash brace, wiper brackets and cowl vent mechanisms then strip and paint them black and reinstall under the dash. We removed all the pedals, drivers side vent mechanism and emergency brake, strip those and paint. We paint the floor, backside of dash, and headliner. The interior of the cab has been stripped of all paint and rust top to bottom, what's next?
Step 4-Under the hood.
The engine is covered in dirt and grime, we remove the intake and exhaust, wire wheel, add new gaskets and reinstall. We pull the spark plugs, they look like the truck had been running a bit rich. I spray a bunch of WD40 in the cylinders, install new plugs, wires, points and condenser, and a new 12v coil. During the cab rust removal we removed all of the grommets and seals from under the dash so my firewall is full of holes. We removed the headlights, installed new hardware, gaskets, grommets and wiring then reinstalled. The headlight terminals are broken so add those parts to the list of stuff I failed to purchase. We pull the starter and clean an inch of road grime off it, I disassemble the solenoid clean it, then paint the starter then reinstall. I replace the stop lamp switch, headlight dimmer, and the clutch and brake arms bumpers which were a pain. All the pedal springs are replaced, but my pedal assembly underneath is caked with old grease and road grime, I though about rebuilding it but decided to wait for a bit. The pedal assembly looks like an entire can of worms by itself. I replaced the pedal shaft seals which now causes my accelerator shaft to not reset freely as it did before, maybe it just needs time to stretch out the new seal. I removed the ground strap near the starter and started removing it from the frame, but ran out of time so I'll finish that later. This weekend I began tearing down the rear drums. The shoes were so old the brake spring pliers were tearing up the material on the shoes, but they needed replacing anyway so off to the parts store. I haven't begun reinstalling the brake shoes yet, still waiting on parts. The drivers side E-brake cable was seized, I had previously purchased one so I replaced that, the passenger side is also seized so put that on the parts list. I found a guy on Craigslist with a new paint ready grill, and two new bed sides for $300 so I couldn't pass that up. The back of my truck is full of parts boxes.
So this is my current status as of 5May18. I have a few calls out for painters. One guy offered to paint the inside in his garage (No paint booth) for $1500, another guy wants $3200 but he has a booth and a business restoring cars. I am waiting on another bid that should be somewhere around $2k for inside paint and fix a couple interior dents. I'm unsure of what the cost should be, but I'm guessing around $2k? Any thoughts or tips anyone has would be greatly appreciate on any aspect of my build. I welcome criticism as well, I know I deserve some. I will post pictures soon.
Last edited by Peggy M; 10/13/2023 2:04 AM.
