Hello all. It's been a year now and figured I'd give you guys a progress report. Things are going slow but steady on the '46. It's too big to fit in my garage and the barn is all wood, so I was at the mercy of the weather for all my cutting, welding and grinding.
There have been a few changes to the plan, mostly the Perkins idea has been dropped. Was ultimately just gonna be too big (long) and expensive to make work properly. The little 1950 216 and 4-speed that powered the truck when I bought it found a home in another member's '46 1.5 ton, so things went well there.
I decided early on I didn't want to put a V-8 in the truck, but most any in-line engine would work, so long as it wasn't so long that I had to chop the cab or relocate the radiator. I ended up buying a good-running 250 I-6 out of a 1975 Chevy 1/2 ton, though ultimately I'd like to see a 4BT Cummins in there. For the trans, I did some part trading and scored a 1991 700-R4 automatic with O/D from a t-boned 3/4-ton van with only 18,000 miles on it! I fabbed up some engine mounts and modded the original transmission cross-member from my long gone '67 Camaro and set everything in place. The 250 is about 3 inches longer than the original Stovebolt engines, which didn't allow me to run the stock fan, so I had to break down and buy an electric fan.
The stock drum brakes are now powered by an 8-inch dual-diaphragm booster and dual-circuit master cylinder mounted to the frame under the cab with a universal street rod brake pedal assembly from Jegs.
I ended up removing the warped-up frame-stiffening plates from the frame and was greeted by holes in the frame big enough to throw a softball through! No biggie. When you live in the Salt Belt, you know how to deal with rust! Several days worth of cutting, grinding, cussing and welding, plus the addition of 200 lbs of 5/16ths steel plate and the web of the frame was repaired/replaced in the contour of the original stiffeners.
I just got the interior of the cab smoothed out and painted. Now it's just getting the dash and heater put back in, getting the wiring harness in place then sending the cab and fenders to my buddy for the final bodywork and painting.
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