It started a little over a year ago. My father-in-law asked if I wanted to help build/restore a truck. I have always been the do-it-yourslf type for the most part. So site unseen I said yes.
Edit August 2023: Read the rest of the truck story in the Gallery entry by Thad from July 2013.
This is what we started with (see images below): first, teardown, bare Frame (almost).
We decided to turn it into a street rod (I did not know what that really mean at the time).
Decisions, decisions... Being an engineer by trade, that meant research, research, and more research.
We decided on a SBC 327 so we found one from a '64. It is now 0.040 over, 9.5:1 compression, 270H comp cam, balanced, Full MSD ignition, EZ-EFI, ect: It also has a TH-350 that is built up just a little. Rear from a 93 Ford Explorer, perfect fit with explorer springs and fabed brackets (oddly a 3.27:1 ratio :D: ) pix
TCI IFS pix
Exhaust, Drive shaft, Shocks: Currently have a rolling chassis that runs {and sounds pretty good}. Had a pretty good mp3 file but won't work here.
I was little worried about the idle quality based on what I was told about the cam selection but...
Chassis with Cab pix.
We are now in the process of body work and finding replacement parts. This is where the real work begins (not that it hasn't been fun thus far).
With a year of work behind us, it has been very much of a learning experience so far. I am sure the learning is just beginning... I hope to have a drivable rig by the end of this summer?
Thanks for looking and I hope to keep this updated as we move forward.
Welcome to the " bolt ". Always great to have another Art Deco truck in our midst. I am interested in how your EFI system performs. My 327 is pretty close to yours in spec, except for the Edelbrock carb setup. When you get her on the road we will need to compare notes.
Welcome to the Stovebolt. Had an Art Deco back in the mid 80's and let it get away. Yours brings back memories.....but yours, even now, looked better than mine!!! Good work your doing.
Man, what would be really cool is to research that decal on the door and restore it over the paint job. So you'd have a custom rod with a nostalgic reminder on the door.
The painting on the door is from a local electrical contractor. The funny thing is I know a contractor who says his dad used drive that truck when he worked for that company... Small world. I doubt it will get restored at this time?
We now have a replacement cab, grill and running boards. Moving forward again. Cab is on the frame for now to test fit seats and steering... Pictures of cab on frame...
Progress.... Seats, Steering Column, Steering shaft, Column Shift linkage are fitted now. Working on floorboard and toebord now. Will have to get updated photos posted soon.
It has been a long time in the making. Built by us, welded by a friend.
We are also in the process of laying out the wiring. Chose a Speedway 20 Circuit Harness, it is prety much complete with everything from the fuse block, fuses, connectors, etc. Had to rearrange the harness.
Well, it been a while since I checked in. We got the 41 road worthy (sort of). Had an alignment done and off we went. We have been driving it around on back roads to work out the kinks.
The engine was not performing the way we expected. After hours of revising timing, vacuum advance, EFI settings, etc. without any luck we took it to a tuning shop and had it ran on a chassis dyno so they could tune it... A pic of how it looks on the way to the tuning/dyno shop.
Come to find out, we had missmatched some parts. The intake and cam were too big and not playing well with the rest of the engine (ie power pack heads, etc.) I can post the dyno results if anyone is interested (dissapointing of course).
We decided to make a change... We pulled the engine and tore it down to the short block. Kind of glad we did since we found that one of the roller tip rockers had a broken pin. That was a surprise.
We changed the power pack heads, cam, lifters and intake to basically an Edlebrock #2022 Kit (whole upper end) with some minor differences and added a set of full roller rockers. It is about ready to go back in.
Hope to get it running again in a few days. Based on the tuning guy, we should see a significant difference. Hope that is true...
We will see what happens when it hit the road again...
This is a good update to the truck. Glad to see you are making progress. Good to be posting it here. This helps folks who happen to jump in on your Gallery page to see how far you have gotten by clicking that link on the top of your truck page. This was our aim with this DITY Gallery and the links on the individual Gallery pages.
Peg
~ Peggy M 1949 Chevrolet 3804 "Charlie" - The Stovebolt Flagship In the Gallery || In the Gallery Forum "I didn't see this one coming. I don't see much of anything coming. :-O"
Hey 41 327, Nice work, I enjoyed your thread, I bought a 46 with the IFS setup about a month ago and pulled the old engine and trans but that's as far as I got and may have to sell it (dunno yet) but your thread sure makes me want to dive in and get busy again!
looking good!
Last edited by Peggy M; 08/12/202310:05 PM.
1946 Chevy small block truck 1941 Chevy 3/4-Ton -- sold Sept. 2014 | "Ole Rusty" | In the Stovebolt Gallery
We finished the engine revisions and got it back in. It sounds totally different that it did but it does run better than before. Due to weather and other factors, we have not been able to drive it much since getting it back together.
A pic of what the engine looks like now. We had to loose the 'vintage Chevrolet script' valve covers due to the roller rockers but it still looks good.
We are now doing the daunting task of body work (not my favorite thing...). Working on the fenders and front end at this time. Rear fenders are next then to the doors.
Does anyone have an idea if there is a template for the shape if the top portion of the lower grille??? The top of this one is ~1" behind the lower part of the upper grille. We are working on matching them up...
Currently having the windshield frame blues... The one we have appears to be too rusted to salvage and getting it apart in the center is not working out too well either...
We will be tearing it down in the next month or so to get everything sand blasted. Then it will be time for some primer and filler...
What rear are you using? Also, what is your steering column from? Did you need to do any modifications to fit it in, like shortening it? I have one from a '93 Blazer I'm thinking about using. I am also using a 700r4, so would be just fine with the column shift.
Thanks, and once again, really nice work!
~ Victor 1941 3/4-Ton Pickup (in process). Read about it in the DITY Gallery 1955 Grumman Kurbside "Doughboy" 235/3 on tree w/ OD 1957 3100 - moved on 1959 C4500 Short Bus "Magic Bus" - moved on 1959 G3800 1 Ton Dually "Chief" - moved on 1958 C4400 Viking "Thor" ~ moved on to fellow Bolter
The steering column is from an 85 chevy van, the rear end and springs are from a 1993 Ford Explorer. We added a 1" adapter to each side to get the width we needed due to wide rear tires (255 70R 15).
Daunting body work task.... Well it has been 9 months of cut, patch, re-patch, weld, ect and it is now almost ready for the epoxy primer... Yea. No pics to share this time but soon.
Looking at gaskets, seals, weather stripping, ect. I am looking to get a few things from Steele Rubber Products and the rest from Jim Carter... Are there better sources?
....are there better resources? You've dealt with two of the best but there are others. Sometimes it just depends on what the item is your looking for. Congrats on your hard work. It'll surely be worth it and will last a long time.
Well, as time goes on so is the project. Getting ready for some real paint soon. It seems that fitting the hood so it sits sort of straight has been one of the biggest challenges.
Just hope that we can get back together just like this once it is painted.
I have to get around to updating the gallery and such...
I think we can see the light at the end of the tunnel now (just hope it is no a train...).
I'm putting mine back together now too. Didn't do near as much body work as you've done. I had to get a "V" brace bar to help with the hood + front end assembly. It came, but it's a bit short and I'll need to modify it; maybe its for a car or some other model than a 3/4 ton.
Your truck looks really good!
~ Victor 1941 3/4-Ton Pickup (in process). Read about it in the DITY Gallery 1955 Grumman Kurbside "Doughboy" 235/3 on tree w/ OD 1957 3100 - moved on 1959 C4500 Short Bus "Magic Bus" - moved on 1959 G3800 1 Ton Dually "Chief" - moved on 1958 C4400 Viking "Thor" ~ moved on to fellow Bolter
