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This last weekend was pretty exciting for me and moved the project over a major hurdle. Last Friday, with help from my son, we started the rebuilt 235 for the first time. We had an issue with the brand new fuel pump not moving any gas to the carburetor, so I ordered another from NAPA. As it turned out, I had mistakenly installed the pump with the actuating arm behind the cam. Apparently this is not good for the pump. In the meantime, I installed a 12v electric pump in the temporary fuel line to push fuel past the bad pump. That worked well to get the engine running. Then I had to deal with a couple of minor leaks in the old radiator. The engine started with very little prodding and idled very nicely. We then adjusted the carburetor and the timing to get it dialed in nicely. We ran the engine for a good hour and was pleasantly surprised to find only one minor oil leak from the side cover.

Then on Monday, we made my bare chassis "driveable" by temporarily installing the steering gear, and adding a platform and a seat box. We had a good time taking the truck out on its first test drive, albeit at a rather modest pace since the radiator wasn't exactly held firmly in place. All in all it was a great success and I now look forward to moving on to body work and painting!