The Stovebolt Site Forums Welcome! Welcome Centre 1956 NAPCO rebuild (OR)

I bought my 56 Napco just over a year ago from my school shop teacher at the end of my senior year of high school. In that time I have rebuilt the Trans and transfer case, have begun rebuilding the engine, now that I have all tore down.

I'm 19 now and have lived in Oregon most my life. I've seen a lot of cool old trucks on the west coast here, including a few rare old 4x4 conversions.

I never had any intentions of buying an old napco, but when I found out my shop teacher had a '56 that he'd sell to me for $500, I couldn't resist as I love old trucks, especially ones with 4wd.

I restored my grandpa's 1941 Allis-Chalmers WF tractor a couple years back, so I have some know how on rebuilding and restoring and mechanical components. But trucks aren't the same as tractors, so this was going to be a new one for me.

Part of what brought me to this forum is I accidentally broke a napco part the day I loaded the truck up to take it home.

I've continued to work on the truck ever since I got it, which was March 2022, but I have looked everywhere for a driver's side steering knuckle on the Napco front axle, and have only found a passenger side knuckle on eBay.

My plan for the truck is to restore everything mechanically, but keep the current patina as I think it looks kind of cool, as well as it would take a lot of work and new body parts to totally fix all the rust and dents, but maybe someday I'll do a total restoration.

I plan on fabricating a flatbed for it as well as I think it was a factory stakebed bought by the county when it was new.

It's a big project, and the engines gonna take some work, but it's a fun one that I've enjoyed working on so far and look forward to being able to drive eventually.

So far I have felt quite welcome in this forum, and I've appreciated the feedback I've gotten so far. Look forward to the responses I get.

Thanks, Joshua