The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts The Stovebolt Volunteer Fire Department 1955 GMC Series 410 Firetruck

I will head out to the shop later on today and see if I can ID the rear end that is in this thing.
As of now, it has a 261 jobmaster engine in it that's dated from '59.
This truck had an electric pump on it so I'm guessing it had a TON of idle time to keep the batteries charged - the odometer shows 06535. Common sense would tell me that its turned over and its 106535 or maybe even 206535 given the engine is not original.
The guy I got it from had it for 25 years, used it for the first 2 years to water a racetrack he built in his field then it sat for 23 years after that. He bought it from the guy who acquired it from the Buffalo MN Fire Department. He was very adamant that the mileage was true and it had never rolled over - Given how clean the frame is and the condition of the paint on the floor inside the cab I would almost agree with him but I guess we'll never know...

When I found this truck, it belonged to the dad of a guy I worked with. We did a little trading and it became mine. As mentioned, it had been sitting for 23 years - I brought my dad with to pick it up. All we did was dump fresh fuel in it, check fluids, and top off the coolant. It fired right up and drove 35 miles home. Only thing I forgot to grab was a kidney belt - the flat spots on the tires from sitting all those years made the ride miserable.

My end goal with this truck is to either make a rollback truck out of it or build a ramp body for it. This is where I will need the most help. I am looking for things such as upgrading the suspension/drive train. I am trying to figure out if its worth while to use the original frame and just upgrade or buy a newer truck and just do a cab swap. I picked up a pair of 12v cummins this past summer, in doing some quick measurements, it appears one of them would fit into this truck nicely.

Do you guys have any experience or knowledge with this? Are there axles/brakes that swap into these trucks ? Its got the split rims with dayton wheels, the last shop anywhere near me that would work on these just closed.

I am no stranger to fab work, just wondering if anybody has already been down this road and can offer some advice.

My apologies for the Sunday morning ramblings!

Thanks again guys, I appreciate the help so far!!