The time has come. We're about to get serious about getting the truck on the road. I want to warn you right out of the gates, this truck will be built in fits and starts. It's nowhere near my only project and it's not pivotal to operations around here so it won't be the first thing to get wrenched on, but it will get wrenched on. I don't think there will be a ton of work required to get it road worthy, but a fair amount of work nonetheless. My wife hasn't named the truck. The folks we got it from called it Old Blue. We already have an Old Blue Chevrolet, so that won't work. Hence my name Older Blue. I don't like Older Blue as a name for the truck, so we'll call it Half Back for obvious reasons until the truck gets an official name. I'm not even sure I like Half Back, but whatever.
So lets get started. I have what I believe to be a '55 3600. This truck has been in my wife's family for quite sometime, but I'm unsure just exactly how long. It made its way to us and we are going to try to get it back to use.
After sitting since 2004, at the very least, we were able to get it running last night. I use the term "running" loosely as we had to bypass the ignition switch and pour gas in the carb to keep it going. There is no key and the floats don't seem to be stopping the gas flow. There also no fuel tank. You get the picture.
The cab of the truck seems to be almost completely solid. There's nothing rusted through that I've seen, although there's a piece of sheet metal in the drivers floor pan that might be a replacement for a rusted out original.
The hood, fenders and doors are all good, I believe. There is one pretty big problem. Earlier in it's life the truck was converted to a camper. The entire rear of the cab and most of the roof were cut out for access to the camper.
Y'all will know better than anyone, is it worth saving? The truck was free so total investment is $0. I really hate to see the truck sit there unused and since we ripped the camper off, I need to get it drivable fairly soon. Any and all suggestions and advice are appreciated.
That pretty well gets you up to speed to today. The first issue that has to be dealt with is the frame rust. I have a friend that is a good welder and fabricator, he's also extremely picky about his work, so he's the guy I have doing it.
I also started a thread
that's in Paint & Body Shop looking for some input: "Can it be saved?"
Pictures below. There is also some pretty serious rust on some of the frame cross supports and the last 14 inches of the frame rails. That is getting fixed as well, but I didn't take pictures for some reason. I'm hoping I can rob the cross supports off the '51 frame but I haven't checked it out close enough to be sure.
