No progress today, but here's a bit more writeup that I've been meaning to put down on digital paper.
First off, here's a basic "details, specs, and features" list for the truck, bullet point style:
- 1948 Chevrolet 3600 (3/4 ton) Thriftmaster
- Full pressure oiled, insert-bearing 235 engine swapped in by a previous owner
- 12V converted by a PO
- Rochester B carburetor on the bench, and a chinese Rochester B knockoff on the truck
- SM420 4-speed transmission
- Eaton H052 rear axle with 4.57 gearset and open diff
- Factory heater in unknown operating condition
- Cool old camper shell that needs alot of work but all of the parts are there
- Spotlight that is currently inoperative
- Odometer is broken around 33k, but judging by the accelerator pedal wear the truck definitely has at least 133k if not 233k. Hard to imagine an old truck like that putting down more than 200k miles, but I was told that the previous previous (x2) owner used it as a daily driver until he died, so I don't know if I'd say it's an impossibility
- Recovered seat (as some have noticed) done under the PO's ownership
- At some point it had front and rear turn signals installed and wired. I broke both taillights trying to fix them, so the truck is currently cruising with a single Harbor Freight magnetic trailer light on the rear until I get a plan down and in progress
Secondly, here's my "to do" list as it sits right now. I'll try to keep it somewhat organized by urgency and ease of completion:
- Basic maintenance
- Change all fluids
- Grease all suspension and steering components
- Put in a seatbelt
- Bleed the brakes so they work a bit better (Well, at least a bit more mediocre-ly. [I've been spoiled by modern brakes...])
- Free up and/or lubricate:
- Throttle linkage
- Choke cable
- Cowl vent
- Parking brake
- Seat track lock and control
- Find and install 2 new taillights and re-wire-in turn signals.
- Improve headlights (I drive to work before sunrise, and the headlights that are currently on the truck are quite terrible)
- Reconnect vacuum wipers
- Operational check of cab heater, fix if necessary
- Figure out why rear shocks are disconnected and replace or reconnect them
- Add a side toolbox on driver's side of bed
- Kind of a stupid thing, but I want somewhere good to store spare parts so I'll probably toss an ammo can or toolbox on there so I can keep a fuel pump, carb, and dizzy on hand among other basic parts.
- Look into swapping in a vacuum/fuel combo pump to hook to vacuum wipers
- Improve stopping
- Depending on how bad the brakes still are after a bleed, I may look into disk swapping it
- Improve top speed while keeping stock rear axle
- It seems the tried-and-true method is a 4.11 rear end gear swap which is an option, though I've read it's becoming hard to find those these days
- What I'd like to do (if it's financially feasible) is install an overdrive unit. Novak Conversions, who I am well familiar with due to ordering many Jeep parts from them, is supposed to be bringing out a gear-driven, 2-speed, manual-shift, .76:1-high ratio overdrive sometime soon. It is supposed to bolt to SM420s, SM465s, T18s, and NP435s.
That's all I can think of right now. I may edit the list later if I think of or remember more projects that need to be fixed.
Last edited by T.M.; 07/27/2026 4:02 AM.
