The Stovebolt Site Forums Welcome! Welcome Centre Do It Yourself (DITY) Gallery 1948 3100 Thriftmaster -- Step by Step

Thought I would start a DITY Gallery thread on my 1948 Thriftmaster.

I am in the process of bringing this old truck back to life and she is fighting tooth and nail against my efforts. Probably not the truck, just my inexperience on a project of this scope.

A little back story about the truck. I purchased this truck when I was 17, about 24yrs ago. A couple years after I bought it I got a job about 1.5hr commute from the house and this truck just wasn't up to the task, so I traded it to a guy for something better for commuting. A couple years later I joined the Navy, but never stopped regretting getting rid of that old truck. Fast forward 8yrs, I'm at home on leave while transferring from Pearl Harbor and I get a certified letter in the mail. The letter was from a gentlemen working road construction who found my truck abandoned in a field, he talked to the landowner who told him to take the truck, so he towed it back to his place. When he filed for a lost title the truck came back with my name as the last registered owner, the guy I traded it to had never swapped the title over into his name! The letter stated I had 5 days to contact this guy or he would become the new owner. I contacted him and proceeded to crush his dreams about building this truck, gave him $500 for his trouble and I had my truck back. I couldn't believe it, what are the odds? I didn't have the time or the means to rebuild it as I wasn't making much money and was in between houses transferring to Washington State so I put the truck in storage beginning 2005. Now to the present, after spending $50 a month for over 10yrs in storage, I finally have the truck in my garage. I went a bit crazy and began buying all the parts I could find to get this truck back on the road. I have realized some of my mistakes in pre-purchasing all those parts, but they will all need to be installed before this thing will be driving down the road.

Step 1-Assessment.

The gentlemen that had the truck started the conversion to 12v. He installed an alternator, but hadn't changed much else. All the fuses in the fuse box are blown along with most of the lights in the truck. The truck is full of dust and dirt as even in storage in Nevada the dirt had piled up and the truck was in that field for who knows how long with the windows down and the front and rear broken. There is an inch of dirt in the underside of my dash, and about 3" behind the seat near the gas tank that was added before I initially got the truck. The tires have all dry rotted, but still hold air somehow. Every piece of rubber in this truck is rock hard and crumbling, luckily the dry air in Nevada hasn't added any real rust to worry about. The bed is gone, I can see the axel inside the bed rails. One head light broken, but I'm sure both need to be replaced. The wiring is still original, but the rodents have gotten to it making it unserviceable. The truck rolls thankfully but doesn't stop, it has no brakes at all. The transmission still goes into gear, we had to use that as our brakes when loading it on the U-Haul trailer from Nevada to Washington State. I can turn the fan and feel the truck want to move, so I don't think the engine is seized. I'm still wondering why the truck was abandoned after I traded it, I still haven't discovered why. The carb is missing, so a quick engine assessment is out, my father-in-law owns a carb shop is California, I talked to him and he sent me a fresh rebuilt Rochester carb for it. I know the Rochester isn't the original, but its free.

Step 2-Begin tear down.

My 11yr old son and I get out the shop vac and go to town cleaning everything to see what's underneath. After filling an entire garbage can with dirt, dead rodents, and garbage we can now see very little serious rust, mostly surface. The gauges are pulled out and sent to a guy for rebuilding, this guy totally rebuilds them with new faces, bezels, and 12v gauges for only $200...They look brand new! We strip the dash, we tear out all the switches, cables, wiring, glove box door and speaker grill. Pull the seat and frame, and remove the gas tank that has been sitting for years without a cap. There is a weird stinky yellow liquid substance sloshing around in the tank, we empty it and throw it in the recycle. We remove the seat frame, windlace, trim, and front and rear windows. We pull the windshield wiper motor and Ranco valve and send them out for rebuilding. My guy that rebuilt my gauges also rebuilds heaters, so I take my Fresh Air Heater and $200 to him and he trades me for a freshly rebuilt heater and heater core complete ready for paint. We strip all the mechanisms from the doors, remove the glass and now have a bare cab interior.

Step 3-Paint and rust removal in cab.

I hit up the local Harbor Freight for wire wheels and brushes and we begin the dirty nasty job of removing all the paint and rust in the cab and from the doors. We removed the remaining headliner, firewall cover, and some sticky substance that was probably carpet glue from the floor. This process makes an amazing amount of dust and with the cold weather outside my entire garage is covered top to bottom in a layer of dirt, rust and wire wheel guts. We took all the rust off of every surface even underneath the dash. This process took days to finish, we then coat everything in Rustoleum self etching primer and we have the cab pretty much ready for a painter. We remove the dash brace, wiper brackets and cowl vent mechanisms then strip and paint them black and reinstall under the dash. We removed all the pedals, drivers side vent mechanism and emergency brake, strip those and paint. We paint the floor, backside of dash, and headliner. The interior of the cab has been stripped of all paint and rust top to bottom, what's next?

Step 4-Under the hood.

The engine is covered in dirt and grime, we remove the intake and exhaust, wire wheel, add new gaskets and reinstall. We pull the spark plugs, they look like the truck had been running a bit rich. I spray a bunch of WD40 in the cylinders, install new plugs, wires, points and condenser, and a new 12v coil. During the cab rust removal we removed all of the grommets and seals from under the dash so my firewall is full of holes. We removed the headlights, installed new hardware, gaskets, grommets and wiring then reinstalled. The headlight terminals are broken so add those parts to the list of stuff I failed to purchase. We pull the starter and clean an inch of road grime off it, I disassemble the solenoid clean it, then paint the starter then reinstall. I replace the stop lamp switch, headlight dimmer, and the clutch and brake arms bumpers which were a pain. All the pedal springs are replaced, but my pedal assembly underneath is caked with old grease and road grime, I though about rebuilding it but decided to wait for a bit. The pedal assembly looks like an entire can of worms by itself. I replaced the pedal shaft seals which now causes my accelerator shaft to not reset freely as it did before, maybe it just needs time to stretch out the new seal. I removed the ground strap near the starter and started removing it from the frame, but ran out of time so I'll finish that later. This weekend I began tearing down the rear drums. The shoes were so old the brake spring pliers were tearing up the material on the shoes, but they needed replacing anyway so off to the parts store. I haven't begun reinstalling the brake shoes yet, still waiting on parts. The drivers side E-brake cable was seized, I had previously purchased one so I replaced that, the passenger side is also seized so put that on the parts list. I found a guy on Craigslist with a new paint ready grill, and two new bed sides for $300 so I couldn't pass that up. The back of my truck is full of parts boxes.

So this is my current status as of 5May18. I have a few calls out for painters. One guy offered to paint the inside in his garage (No paint booth) for $1500, another guy wants $3200 but he has a booth and a business restoring cars. I am waiting on another bid that should be somewhere around $2k for inside paint and fix a couple interior dents. I'm unsure of what the cost should be, but I'm guessing around $2k? Any thoughts or tips anyone has would be greatly appreciate on any aspect of my build. I welcome criticism as well, I know I deserve some. I will post pictures soon.

I hope you and your son wore proper respiratory protection while cleaning and vacuuming the cab. The Hantavirus is not something to take lightly. Looking forward to reading about your progress and the photos to come.

Now that's an introduction and a fine first project post! It certainly sounds like you have the ability and drive to get the truck on the road in fine fashion.

Don't hesitate to ask questions and welcome to the 'Bolt.

RonR

Update 25Apr2018

The work continues as I try not to go to far down the rabbit hole before I even turn her over.

Step 5-The Brakes.

All the brakes have been restored. I replaced everything except the backing plate on all four tires, replaced the emergency brake cables and the pedal return spring. The huck brakes are a real pain to get parts for, and waiting a week between ordering and receiving is really slowing my progress. I really should plan and research more before ordering, that way I can get all the parts in one single order, plus it saves on shipping! The truck hasn't hit the ground since the brakes were repaired and I continue to tackle little bits of multiple different projects. While replacing the brakes with the truck suspended on jack stands, I noticed some movement in the drivers side front tire. At first I thought maybe the 33ft/lbs I put on the castle nut wasn't tight enough, turns out the drag link is loose, probably rusty broken springs. I ordered a new one and it is awaiting install.

Step 6-Seatbelts and Interior.

Since the cab interior is totally stripped and painted, I began the install of 3 point seatbelts. At first I was a bit apprehensive to start drilling holes in the interior especially since I didn't have an installed seat to check shoulder belt height. I did plenty of research and read through Daves Tech Net seat belt installation tutorial probably 20 times. That along with viewing videos and other instructional posts I determined my shoulder belt height to be 40.5" from the floor. I drilled the main bolt hole and was fortunate enough not to drop the backing plate inside the cab shell. I had marked where the other two holes would be, drilled them and then welded through the interior cab skin to the backer plate....Success. Both shoulder supports and the belt spool are now mounted with both backer plates welded. I can't fit the latch belts until I get my seat and base back in the truck.

While waiting for the upholsterer I have installed about 75% of the noise dampening material. I started about midway up the back wall, and have worked in all the way under the dash on the passenger side. I did the rear wall and floor, under the seat, the transmission cover and the passenger floor and wall. I am dragging my feet a little on the drivers side due to all the pedals etc, its going to take a lot of smaller pieces to fit around all that junk. I also did the entire inner roof, so hopefully that and the headliner I have designed should reduce the noise from the top.


Step 7-Front Metal.

On the front of the truck I took the new grill, splash apron, gravel guard, seat frame, and both sides of the hood latch to powder coating. They were finished in a gloss black that looks pretty cool with the old school patina on the truck and the hood closes and latches!. I was thoroughly impressed with the quality of the finished parts, there is some visible pitting in the original metal from rust and 70 years of driving around but most of it is on the gravel guard. I replaced the bumper brackets and front bumper, the original bumper had tow bar mounts welded to it and once they were removed there were big chips out of it. I installed new driving lights in the grill, and ran the headlight wiring into the engine compartment and have new terminal blocks awaiting installation. I have a new chrome rear bumper awaiting installation as well.

Step 8-The Engine Compartment.

As far as the Engine goes, I found a local Chevy parts guy with a used original 1948 underbed gas tank I picked up for $80. I figured it was a good deal as it came with a filler neck and a complete strap set. The previous owner at some point had removed the original tank and installed one behind the seat in the cab. This was obviously not a guy concerned with doing it right as it looks to me like he cut the hole in the cab with a screw driver and hammer. The holes on the inside and outside of the cab with need some welding and body work before paint. I did the poor mans pressure test on the tank as instructed by my local radiator shop. He had me plug all the holes and dump in about a quart of acetone, then tape the fuel filler tube really tight with duct tape and shake. Before I did this I thought to myself, acetone + pressure could be bad so I gathered up all my safety equipment first goggles, respirator, and gloves then went to work. He was right about the pressure as my first attempt showed me a lack of tape at the fuel filler. I taped the crap out of the hole then went about shaking the acetone inside the tank. I am happy to say the tank is sound! Once I can clean up the straps, the new tank and fuel line will be mounted to the frame and I'll be ready for the next step. I am planning on hard line down the frame, then a short piece of flexible fuel line from the hardline to the fuel pump. I don't want to put undue stress on the hardline with the (fingers crossed) movement of the engine while running.

I popped the cap of the distributor and noticed the points adjusting screw was hollowed out, remembering the attention the points require I set out to look for a new charge plate. Turns out, charge plates are really hard to find, so I ordered a rebuilt distributor and installed it. I may send the original off for rebuild sometime in the future, nothing wrong with having a spare. I am thinking of trying to crank the motor soon, I need to replace radiator hoses, and plug the temp sensor hole. As I am looking around the engine, I notice a worn and cracked fan belt, obviously something that wouldn't take to long term storage so I loosened up the alternator and took it off. Immediately I noticed both the alternator and water pump have a good amount of resistance on them, so more parts on order.

Step 9-The seat.

During all this other nonsense I had taken my seat to be reupholstered, I got it back after about 3 weeks and its beautiful. I used a thicker leather like vinyl in a dark gray and black, it turned out fantastic! I can't wait to get it back in the cab, its currently taking up a large amount of space in my walk-in closet as I don't have room for it in the garage. I am missing a ziploc of seat hardware, it is hiding from me, so the search is on. I have a new stainless cable to run to the pulleys once I find the missing parts, after that the seat and base will be ready for the road. I had the same guy take my cardboard door panels and cover them with the same material, these are going to look great once the door are reassemble and are hanging back on the hinges. I had my upper hinges rebuilt from a local guy, he charged me $80 for the set, they look brand new and should now hold the door open as designed.

This is my progress so far. am trying not to go too far, but it turns out there is a lot to do to get one of these old trucks back on the road.

Update 8May2018

Step 10.

Installed a new water pump, alternator, thermostat, radiator hoses, and alternator. What better way to make it work than to make it all new. Everything went in fairly straight forward, only took 3 trips to the auto parts store and everything is in and tight. I haven't run any wires from the alternator yet as I have all the wiring stripped from the truck until I can get the interior painted.

I finally got around to installing the year correct tank with straps under the bed and routing new fuel lines to the fuel pump. A 6 foot piece of hard fuel line and about a foot and a half of flexible fuel line did the job. We cranked the motor without spark to verify the operation of the new fuel pump and realized the connection to the carb was loose as it was spraying fuel everywhere. Good news, fuel pump works! I wired the coil to the ballast resistor and the other side to the solenoid on the starter. My foot pedal is slow on the return, I hope its just from no use in the last 15 or so years. On 6May2018 I hooked up the battery, had my son work the pedals in the cab, put a screw driver between the ballast resistor terminals and crossed my fingers. He engaged the starter and the engine popped and shuddered, nothing. I verified firing order and had #5 and #6 swapped, corrected my mistake and tried again. This time the ole girl fired right up and idled!!!! It was if she had been running everyday since I placed her in storage. A little adjustment using the timing light and idle screw and she is purring along. I'm starting to get pretty excited and I can really see all my hours of work being worth it.

I finished up the sound deadening material in the cab and am ready to start reassembling the door mechanisms and hanging the doors on the rebuilt hinges. I'm sure lining up the doors is going to be a huge pain, but I just have to proceed one step at a time. But shoot, I have brakes and a running engine, its almost ready to test drive, there is just the little issue of somewhere to sit.

You have been busy.........and it shows. I can only imagine the smile as you listen to it purr!
Thanks for keeping us posted.