The Stovebolt Site Forums Welcome! Welcome Centre Do It Yourself (DITY) Gallery 1941 Chevy 3/4-ton - "Out of the barn restoration"

Hey Folks,

I am currently in the process of getting a 1941 3/4-ton out of a barn and bringing it home. I am a do it yourself kinda guy and love working with my hands. I sold a 1955 Chevy 2 door big block car years ago and miss the ole ride. Always had a love for the old trucks and when this one popped up, I jumped at the chance.

I know I will have a lot of tech questions that I will post in the appropriate forums and look forward to working on the ole truck and getting her ready to put around.

Welcome to the Southern Stovebolters as you are in Tenn. Lots of Bolters around in that area. I'm sure you'll get to meet them. Good luck. We're here to help.
What part of Tenn you in?

Thanks for the welcome. I am in the Sevierville Pigeon Forge area.

Cleaned out a big area in the garage yesterday and hung shop lights so I am ready for it to come home -- hopefully this Wednesday or so.

Welcome skip, looks good. Hope you can bring it back to life. Good luck!
Leo

Thanks Leo,

I plan to keep the 6 cylinder in it and get it running good, Cut the cattle corral on the back of it down and get it to nice bare wood cleared and the cab I was leaning toward semi gloss black.

Plan to clean it all up and make a Sunday driver out of her and drive her to work once and awhile.

Will look into the southern section forum and look around.

Happy man here! We got it out of the barn and transferred it to another spot on a trailer and she will come home Sunday, She has 2 frozen wheels but here's the good stuff...newer 6 in her, 12 volt conversion, wasn't sure as I bought it based off pictures but is a short bed, Has factory clock up between where visors are (heard that was rare), Has been updated with standard shocks or maybe that is the way 3/4 ton trucks were? motor spins freely grabbing the fan and turning it, she has a 16th of Tennessee dust built up on her but I love it and cant wait to start getting the before pictures when I finally get her home and start the road ahead working on it.

Skip

Skips41, Looks good! The recovery and discovery part of the build is the best part. I also have a '41, and I am not too far from you, located in WNC near the TN line.

Paul

Great looking truck! From looking at the photo, it looks to be all there & in good shape.

Thanks guys!

It should come home today. It is on a trailer at a friend's house that went and got it out of the barn for me.

I will get good overall pictures when I get it home and pressure wash it so I can see metal and not 20 some years of dirt.

I have 4 wheel dollies to put her on so I can move it around in the garage. I have a narrow space to work in so those will help to slide it side to side.

pics after a pressure washing and rolled in the garage.

Sweet ride Skips 41'! I know how jacked I was to get my 47' home to my garage in December. I hope to haul my Harley in the back of mine. I bet that bike in the garage will look nice on the flatbed. Oh yeah, welcome!

Thanks Guys!!!

Three weeks ago it was dragged out of a dirt floor barn with a Massey Ferguson tractor. Then two weeks later, I had it in my garage and on the same day I put it in there, I got it fired up. I found it had already been converted to 12 volts and to my surprise all the electrical worked.

I have gotten all the stuck brake drums off and painted two so far. I sold my other Harley to pay off my wife's jeep and free up money to get brake and fuel parts for my '41. I hope to get it rolling down the road in the next few months.

Oh and a friend gave me 4 wheels that are 8 lug that I can put radial tires on for FREE!

getting the front axle work done, Cleaning and painting while waiting on parts.

Skips, its looking good. Nice to see your "staying at it". That's gonna be a really nice pickup.

more done over the last few weeks... brakes.

Axle is finally done with all new bushings shackles kingpins and wheel cylinders

Steering rods and balls all done. Rebuilt the carb and put gas in the bowl and it fired up and ran on its own first time since parked in the barn in '96. It held oil pressure and showed to be charging the battery.

way to go Skip. I can see your smile from S.C. Sounds like a driver now?

Getting closer to the big cruise around the block. Need to get tires on rims. Get rear brake wheel cylinders in. All new brake lines and master in. Clean fuel tank and lines. Install new fuel pump and see what she does. Only seem to get one day a week to work on it.

More done, cleaned the gas tank the best I could and installed new lines and fuel pump and dual fuel filters and she runs on her own now and I was amazed the radiator doesn't leak.

Bending new brake lines and doing rear brakes and installing new master cylinder and soon the big cruise around the neighborhood

ALMOST THERE!! I have 4 new wheels just waiting to go on and it almost happened today. I got all the brake lines done and master cylinder installed. Got tires on the new rims and went to do the final brake shoe adjustment before bleeding the system. Then I got stopped in my tracks trying to adjust the rear shoes and found I cannot adjust them. The emergency brake cables are frozen not letting me do the final adjust before I bleed the system. Oh so close to pulling the old truck outside under it's own power. Called John at the Jim Carter truck parts and he fixed me up (great guy to deal with) with a new cable set up. But now another week before I can bleed the system. I got so close today to drive it out of the garage but I do not want to have an emergency brake that doesn't work on some thing this old so it is worth the wait.....I guess

The wheels on the left are for the front and are narrower and a different offset to clear the old style tie rod ends, The ones on the right have a little deeper dish and are an inch wider for the rear that I got free but had to paint them to match the front.

Good find Skip. I pulled a 49 3100 out of a barn that was up in New Tazewell about 1.5 yrs ago. Got it running and use it as my weekend cruiser. Must be something good in these local barns to keep these ole Stovebolts ready to be restored
I'm in N Knox county.
I'll be needing to address my front axle one of theses days.
Keep at it, theres few things better than cruiseing these E TN backroads in a Stovebolt
Dave

THANKS! I read your story on getting the truck. Very cool!

I hope to drive this a few times before the Shades of the Past car show comes. So I can see what else may pop up that it needs before I try to cruise the strip with it a couple evenings during the event. Then after that, just a weekend type thing and keep tinkering on it.

A little update on my progress. I finally got the emergency/parking brake working and got all wheel cylinders and lines and master replaced. I started the full system bleeding process and have a bit more air to get out and adjust the shoes better. My fuel tank cleanout failed and my new fuel system is contaminated so I have to go back after that and re-do it.

Hoping to have pictures in 3 weeks of it finally out of the garage under it's own power.

I drove it for the first time since I got it in February and it being in a barn since 96..

Drove it to work 2 days in a row, That took its toll on the generator and it stopped charging coming home last night so time for an alternator conversion I guess. As I was coming home last night, I got to thinking ..... I am driving a truck drug out of a barn 5 months ago built in the 40's and I still have the same fan belt and radiator hoses on it that sat in the barn since 96. No jack if I have a flat and the only tool I have with me is a pocket knife. If something goes wrong I'm screwed. About that time, she hiccups and almost stalls but comes back to life. Does it three times but clears up (thoughts of no tools again here). I stop at a gas station for some smokes and the old truck gets rave reviews from folks at the store who beg me not to paint it or change it. As I drive away, I hear horns honking and people waving and smiling as I go by. Then she hiccups again and starts to die. I give her gas but she just starts slowing down and the motor is just not firing and all the sudden BUUURRRR, she takes off again and runs fine all the way home.

I tuck her in the garage and think .... "Skip, you know better than to drive something this old with no tools, duct tape, electrical wire and connectors, spare tire or jack and you never even put a new fan belt on it .... Skip <------- you're one lucky dude that you made two trips to town and back."

Did you polarize the generator/regulator after installing the battery after the long inactivity?

First time I ever fired it up the voltmeter was reading pretty good charging. But as the two days went by, it slowly came down to zero. I'm going to look into it all.

Before you started it up out of the barn, did it have a battery?

If it did, was the battery an old one, and was it dead (did you replace it)?

After changing a battery, and/or generator, and/or voltage regulator, it is often necessary to repolarize the generator (this is described in most Shop Manuals).

If the direction of flow of electrical-current is not established through polarization, when you turn off the ignition, electricity will flow in the opposite direction, draining the battery and maybe harming electrical/ignition system parts.

It looks like you have a 12v system/conversion. Does it have a generator/alternator?

It did'nt have a battery when we pulled it out of the barn and I put one in it new from store.

I will look in to polarizing it again

Wrenchbender posted this in a thread and I wonder if what I saw is just the battery was charged up, I am not used to the generator stuff so when I saw the gauge go to zero it could have been that it was charged up? Still going to repolarize though

His reply to that thread....

Skips41,

I think I misread your post about the ammeter not showing a reading. If you are able to easily start your truck, your generator is most likely correctly polarized.

Sorry about adding confusion to this thread.

NO NO It's all good! I now know how to polarize this system and with you reminding me of that, I dug some more and learned some more. Thanks for the replies. It got my brain in learn mode.

Skip

Here are some pics of the inside. I like the outside the way it is but I wanted the inside to be clean when driving around. So I started the process...

Skip,
The inside cleaned up looks great, a whole lot better then it use to be.

Keep up the good work.

Bread

I found rear wheel seals leaking now so I have to fix those. Soon it will be ready to cruise the car shows coming to town.

Skip, I like the truck just the way it is. You have it where it will Go and Whoa so now drive it and enjoy it. You'll have to beat folks back to be able to get in it!
Way to go.

Alvin I found another 1946 truck also. Already has a V8 and front suspension done but need TLC to be drivable again. May get it Sunday.