The Stovebolt Site Forums Project Journals Project Journals 1952 Chevrolet 3100 Project

Now that the brakes are in good working order, I felt comfortable enough to take our truck to her first “Cruise In”, about a thirty minute drive, at an Ice Cream shop, two towns over and the longest drive to date. The last time my wife drove in our truck was about a year ago, before the engine, transmission and rear axles were rebuilt. Also before the new firewall pad, floor mat and pad were added to decrease the heat and noise. After her last ride, she expressed how harsh it rode, how noisy it was and was not looking forward to riding in her again. She was pleasantly surprised at how much more comfortable it is to ride in and added it wasn’t bad at all. It’s still a truck with 4.11 gears, so 45 MPH is it’s comfortable speed.

There was a few of Stovebolts, a 47 1/2 ton, a spotless 66 C10 fleetside and a 47 COE. The 47 was original and in pretty good shape and 66 sported a T5 tranny with a 3.73 rear. The COE was really interesting. He built it to honor his father, the local Ice and coal delivery man. Not originally owned by his father but was similar to what he used. He shortened the original frame by five feet, 2’ in front of the rear end and an addition 3’ behind. It had a 327 and an automatic tranny. The interesting thing was the rear, I believe out of a Ford with 19.5 rims and disc brakes. The fronts were the original Huck brakes. He said it was real fun getting the proportion valves to work right but added it stops real well.

The ride home was interesting too. I have never taken this truck out at night so I had no idea how well the headlights were going to work. I had added headlight relays and I knew that they worked but had no idea if my wiring was going to be good enough to work the entire ride home. They worked flawlessly however the aim was off quite a bit, but still enough to get us home.

We made a few friends, got free ice cream and had a great time talking to the other car/truck enthusiast. Overall a great success and a great evening!