The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Re: What did you get done on your 'Bolt today?

I used my '49 to haul a lawn chair to a car show...
My '50 is loaded with all of the seats out of a Nissan Sentra which I recently cut up to scrap it. She's currently dead in the water now due to a plugged up fuel tank outlet, but as soon as I get done swapping out the original sending unit for a '54-'59 top loading fuel pickup/sending unit, I will be taking the refuse to the dump.

My 216 powered '53 is my only vehicle so that means I drive it every day. All summer long in the heat pulling trailers, hauling rock, lumber, or my paintings to art shows four of five hours away. All winter long in the snow, ice, and salt. And sometimes I wash it and take it to a car show or dinner with my wife.

Basically, if my truck won't make it, I don't go.

My panel is always loaded with tools and spare parts and occasionally with timbers and stuff that's to long for my familys 6 ft. box pick ups.

WOW, lots of great using trucks out there! I thought I drove mine a lot, but twotone certainly put me in my proper and humble place with his "216 powered '53" only vehicle daily driver. A '50 Suburban camper (nice windyville1), the boss's red/black grain hauling rig, and 52Carl's poor abused, overworked chair hauling car show going '49 along with all the others just give a body a great all over feeling.

Not sure what is says about me but I've taken to not washing the '51 that often since it just seems in character for a bit of country road (as in dust and dirt) to hid the shine it has when clean and waxed.

RonR

I haul Mustang motors, gravel, redwood bark in the back of my beater. It loves the attention when I do that.

So, Nash, you have a 216 in your 53 GMC? I looked at your photobucket pictures and that sure is what it looks like... Did you do a swap, or a previous owner? Is that a Canadian-built truck by chance? I know they had a 224 ci engine that looks just like a 216, but with a larger bore. Interesting... Glad to see you are keeping it on the road.

Great artwork too!

I delivered 6 heavy concrete footing blocks today. They look like Flintstone wheels. 20" in diameter and 7" thick. Each one is 200 pounds. 1200 pound load, no problem.

Frank50,
My truck originally had the GMC 228 but at some point it was changed out for a "54 235. Later a gentleman bought the truck to use the 235 in a project and swapped it out for an old '49 216 just to be able to move the truck around. When I bought the truck it had a plastic gas can zip-tied to the exhaust manifold, no brakes, broken springs, and no wiring other than two battery cables and coil wires. I drove it home like that.

The first thing on my list was get rid of that 216! I paid a guy $3000.00 to rebuild a GMC 270, swapped it in and spun the bearings in the first 5 minutes. So . . . . .

Ten years later after all the work I've done to the truck the only thing I haven't touched is that sweet old, smooth running, sewing machine sounding 216.

I do have a GMC 302 sitting in my garage that might find its way under the hood. Some day.

And thanks for the compliment!

I have used my 58 3100 for my tile work. Tearing out bathrooms and doing repairs since I blew the head gasket on the 98 2500. I do not hesitate to do a 60 mile one way trip to do a tile job. I picked up carpet at the home depot and have tore out shower pans and any thing else that comes my way. The 58 will handle all of it. It may be a little slower at 60 - 65 mph on the interstate but when I get off at the exit everyone who passed me 10 miles back are sitting beside me on the exit ramp. I like to use things for what they were made for. In this case to do work. I want to use it as a work truck, whatever the need be it can rise to the occasion. Once the job at hand is done, a little soap and water can do wonders to restore your beauty to its original form. I look at it like this: I am older than my truck, so if I am still busting my a-- - then the least the truck can do is accommodate me.

Finally tracked down the elusive vacuum leak on the replacement SBC 350 I just swapped in to my 49 GMC. It isn't the power booster fitting in the manifold like I thought, it's the manifold at the 6/8 runner.... When I'd spray the fitting and get increased idle I'd tighten and tighten, remove and add teflon tape etc., until I finally realized the overspray was hitting where the manifold bolts to cyl's 6/8. When I redirected the spray it finally revealed itself. The manifold is a Weiand Xterminator which is a single plane designed for high rpm. I believe I'm going to swap it for a Edelbrock Performer dual plane which makes better power at lower RPM, where I likes to cruise.
Dang previous owner put excessive amounts of RTV on it when he installed it....

My '55, on the job, reroofing my friends house. Mostly supervisory duties these days, but can haul a load of shingles or a water heater if required!

My '57 two ton is almost roadworthy, first real task for it will be hauling hay, I should be able to get 100 bales in it without killing myself or the truck, depends on how high the wife can climb and stack 'em.

Worked on the spare tire carrier, removed the rear rack and heated the big wing nuts, everything came apart ok. Soaked the wing nuts and eye bolts in muriatic acid, washed and painted, ready for the spare now.

I seem to enjoy my truck the most when using it as intended.

Yep, that's a good looking rig and load. Spruce?

Western Washington Douglas Fir and Hemlock

Best picture ever!

Stopped wringing my hands today over matching some paint for my new '46 horn button with the shade of my new brown steering wheel... instead, I sanded out the pits, buffed it out with jewelers' rouge on my bench grinder and finally chucked it up in a drill and finished polishing it with Brasso!

Looks like "store bought" chrome!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BlEflTslT3P/?taken-by=gld8217

That is one sharp looking truck. Building that bed, very cool.

We used our 58 this last week to pull our trailer down to Oregon and back. Weighted about 16K overall rolling over the scales.

Boiled my carb in water and simple green and put new innards from the rebuild kit.. Now the truck can idle and this had been the first time I've had to turn off the ignition to stop the engine


Next focus is brakes then I should be able to drive around the neighborhood..

Mike, That is one Good looking package. I suspect you're never at a loss for folks to visit with when you set up at the RV park. Any shots of it going down the road?

Youse guys are forcing me go review a couple of pics of our 51 flatbed 3600 with a load. The hay shot is from last season's haying as is the Luckenbach Tx with a load of folks, the Luckenbach staff. We drove to Luckenbach again this year and while no group pictures, we were invited to park in the convenient employee parking spot.

I'm a firm believer in using trucks as trucks; otherwise what's the point?

However, under full disclosure, I also use a car... as a truck.

This morning picked up some maple firewood on the way to work in the GMC.

I can personally verify you will NOT want to drive the '42 I sold you in the winter months. It runs fine but is VERY COLD without a heater:)

Summertime with the cowl scoop up and windshield open is really quite nice!

I went to an antique camp trailer show last weekend. What a hoot! The guys restore them and the wives decorate them. And I love it when the trailers have matching tow rigs!

Here is an image of my 42 after some extensive bed rust repairs.

Yesterday and today, pretty much stripped the cab in preparation to getting it on the rotisserie. Had quite a time getting the steering column support out, even though it had cracked thru the column mount holes and was shorter than normal. I wound up cutting the fixed bolts that go thru the firewall and will probably use carriage bolts when I put it back in. Also got the pitman arm pulled off. Will unbolt the steering column and remove it another day.

Here's a photo of the stripped cab.

Wiring marker and clearance lights, I'll try to make the DOT happy. Truck never had cab markers on the roof, I'm not going to drill holes in the otherwise good roof so I hope it's ok. I'll have marker/clearance on all eight corners of the grain box, lighted west coast mirrors that I found on Craigs list, factory parking lights on the front wired as running lights, new truck take off medium duty tail lights, so far all lights working other than the high beams-still soaking the screws for the floor switch.

Hauling firewood today.

I removed the doors to start body work a few months back and recently finished rebuilding all four door hinges. Knowing how difficult it was to align the doors on this 64 year old truck I had visions of chipped paint and dents when I go to reinstall after paint. I recall reading that someone used pins or nails or whatever to capture alignment so I decided to drill & ream alignment pin holes through each door / hinge. I drilled and reamed them for .250 pins and fabricated pins for use when I'm ready to reinstall the doors ( one of these months) . I used a 15/64 drill and a .250 reamer. Wrapped tape around drill shank to make sure that when I broke thru I didn't smack into the door skin on the other side. Babied the reamer through and yep I used cutting oil . Here's some pics...

Beautiful old truck, running fine and doing what it was made to do!

I like the sound of the gears humming along. Good video, thanks for sharing.

I finished my garage / work space last week and moved my next project inside...

Nice looking paint booth and 52/53 stovebolt

Very nice, what you going on with that exhaust fan?

LOL, you noticed. It was already there, put in years and years ago. The garage is about 60 years old, part of an old commercial property that I bought last year. It looks like a fan that would go at the top of a large warehouse for ventilation. I doubt I'll use it since I don't like much air movement when I paint but it's too big and I didn't feel like taking it out.

[img]http://www.cmaynard.com/Truck/HaulinRedsMotor.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.cmaynard.com/Truck/HaulinWoodChip.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.cmaynard.com/Truck/HaulingStone.jpg[/img]

[img]http://www.cmaynard.com/Truck/haulindirt.JPG[/img]

1Plowboy -nice looking truck... I see you have a pickup bed installed (9ft?) in place of the original flatbed... how do the dually wheels clear fenders... had any problems with clearance? did you use standard height wood blocks for mounting bed or did you have to increase height to get clearance?

Let’s keep this thread on topic. Questions about systems and accessories should be addressed in their proper forums. Thanks, The Stovebolt Staff

I wish I could use my 50 4100 as a truck, But what can you do with a fire truck? Can't haul anything on it, and it is not much good for putting out a fire anymore either. I can't even figure out how to put a hitch on it since it has a 2 foot standing platform hanging off the back. All I can do is cruise around. It can haul 300 feet of leaky fire hose, 4 fire extinguishers , a US flag, and 2 rickety wooden ladders though.