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

Tim,

Gene from Restoration Hydramatics rebuilt the Hydra-Matic.

Engine needs some fine tuning but runs good I had it rebuilt at Hust Brothers in Marysville, California, Craig did a great job and did a few extras.

As far as driving, its only gotten out to the drive way due to the the front clip it still off. It shifted fine with the engine running at low RPM's.

Michael...

Gene rebuilt my 1954 3100 Hydra-Matic.

I have not driven it yet. It is on a restored "rolling chassis". All I have done (on blocks) is started/run the rebuilt 235 and put fluid in the transmission with the engine running and the transmission engaged.

Please post driving reports. Thanks

Today the 53 got a complete service which also included all new ignition components. The solid lifters were adjusted, carb mixture set and ignition lead checked.
I have been running non alcohol added fuels since the restoration and it really starts and drives so much better IMHO.

Where do you get the non alcohol fuel?

You can find non-ethanol gas at this web site, listed by State.

http://www.buyrealgas.com/states.html

To stay on topic, I washed the windshield today

Mike B

Here's another link, https://www.pure-gas.org/

Thanks Mike.
My two cycle engines also thank you.
I also swapped hubcaps today.

Put in some new 6v led lamps for the tail lights.. Plan to take it to a gas station for it's first non gas can fill up in at least 2 decades

Where did you buy your LED lights and what type? 6 or 12 volt?
Individual bulbs or did you go with the type that looks like a card with 8-10 small LEDs embedded in it?
Did you have to make any other changes or was it a “plug-n-play”?
Did they make a big difference? Are you happy with the outcome?

I’ve been wanting to do the very same thing. My 6V lights are dangerously dim at night.

Let’s take this LED discussion over to the Electrical Bay where there is already a thread ongoing. Thanks

I removed the bed from my 56 project truck . I’m replacing the entire bed with a Mar-K replacement. It took me a good 5 hours to do it. May, that’s a lot of bolts!

Tim, got the engine timed good. The Hydra-Matic shifts good shifting up and down. That should ease your mind somewhat. I have only gotten a few miles total test driving. Will see if I can get the front clip on this week and get a better test drive on more open road vs just around the burbs.

Congratulations, Michael

What did I do to my '51 GMC? Nothing! I'm fixing the power going to my garage so everything is on hold now. Baaaah. Good news is, I should have power again this weekend...

Got one side of my cab rotisserie bracket completed today. Have to wait to pull the chassis and cab out of it's spot next to the garage to get the driver's side door off and complete fabbing the bracket for that side.

After driving around for a couple of days with all most no brakes, i found the right front wheel cylinder leaking,still need to replace. I filled master cylinder up and have brakes again for now. I did change the left front wheel bearings, that fixed the growl from the front end. 1954 3100.

Today I finished up total brake job on the rear wheels of my 53 project 1/2 ton.

Got the driver's side door off today and nearly completed the rotisserie bracket for that side. Ran into a snag when 3 out of 4 screws for the striker snapped off in the bolt plates, so had to get those out and the threads cleaned up. Also noted the door hinges had been worked on previously, as one of the springs was completely missing, and the pocket for the hinge had been hogged out.

Got the front clip on and all wired. Took a real drive after engine & Hydra-Matic rebuild of about 10 miles. Cruises easy at 45-55.

54 Chevy 3104

Paint on one of my original wheels was starting to peel and the rust was getting a pretty good hold. It was also running onto my white walls. I pulled the wheel and wire brushed it down to good meta, front and back. I used a trick my brother told me about. I let the air out of the tire and insert playing cards around the outside of the rim between the rim and the tire. It saved me front breaking down the tire and pulling it off the rim. I was able to paint the wheel without painting the tire. While I had it all off I also pulled the break drum and cleaned and painted it. I thought it was a good idea until I looked at my other 3 wheels. Now I am going to have to do them. Oh well., if it wasn't cleaning and painting the wheels it would be something else. It hurts so good.

Doing some clean up on the truck in preparation for my trip to KC.

Put a junkyard alternator on the 37,the one that was on it is probably out or warranty and no sense on spending almost 70 dollars when I want to put a generator back on. Found out the bracket was broken which explains the strange noise I was hearing.

A day late but...pulled the steering column/gearbox, parking brake, and driveshaft yesterday off my '58. The cab and engine/tranny are pretty much ready to be taken off the frame.

Yesterday, I adjusted Lurch's brakes and then took him to the local hardware store for a visit.

Here's the details of the brake adjustment: 1927 LM brake band adjustment

Having fun, Dean

Spent some time cleaning the dist cap and adjusting points and fitting new plugs on the '37 ('54 - 235) still runs like crap on about 3 or 4 cyls , plug leads next ??

Putting the metal bedsides on the installed wood bed floor as my son is putting the roller rockers on our 383 stroker motor! Our one night a week dad and son time! He is 44 and I am just "old"!

Pops the truth is out there

valve lash adjustments

points
points/gap setting
condenser
distributor cap
coil
all plugs/distributor leads/cables/wires
coil-to-distributor lead
spark plugs
(just for the heck of it - run a ground wire from a distributor cap screw to a coil-clamp-to-head screw)

I put 1 rear view mirror on passenger side and almost have the flatbed finished on my 51 3800 dually.

Went to bring mine home from the In-Laws so i can do some fall work on her and start the body work, but she blew an exhaust donut about 2 miles out, so i turned around cause i didn't want to have permanent hearing loss. Had another 60 miles to drive. LOL

Ripped the driver's side rocker panel out of the cab and patched the hinge pillar. Used a light gauge fencepost to brace the door opening, because it's what I had laying around.
Picking away at the rust a little at a time.

Reinstalled front axle with new caster wedges and U bolts.

The truck is put up for the winter. I use an enclosed car hauler since I'm short on garage space.

My '65 C10 started doing a wonky thing, sometimes the starter would not do anything... and I replaced it earlier this year.

Then it was doing the same thing... of course when I was out and about and on the other side of the big city I live near.

I started some basic troubleshooting and found the small wire going to the starter was cracked in places. I wiggled it, it started right up.

I wound up replacing a good part of that wire and thought it was all good... but, nope.

After a doctor appointment one day, same thing... it hit a lick, then it wouldn't.

HMMN.

wiggled the wire, and it started up.

I started checking it out... the wires going to the main engine harness plug wire on the passenger side of the firewall looked like they were ready to give up the ghost, right where it went into the plug. Hmmn.

Many years ago I had to replace one of those wires... so I unsnapped it and two more wires broke off.

I broke out the soldering gun and what not but I was having no luck this time getting going in the direction I wanted, so I just ordered a new engine harness.

Then things got interesting, seems there were different harnesses, for a 6 cylinder with gauges or lights and for a v8 with gauges or lights. Now, I have gauges, so that part was easy, but I have no idea what engine it had originally. Hmmn.

I went with the v8 with gauges, figured I could make it work.

The box arrives, I check out the goodies... yay new parts.

I start looking at the instructions layout... it was pretty neat, they had each wire numbered with a sheet of paper listing what each one was for. However, it was for the very original layout so I had to do a little internet searching to figure out what I needed.

After that, I basically only needed to hook up two wires, 1 to the HEI hot ignition and the other to the small wire going to the starter. I taped off the other wires as my gauges are wired in other ways(previous owner) or not working at all... though I think I will investigate hooking 'em up later.

At any rate it all fired up and runs again, so yay.

Old Trucks are fun.

-Woog

Now that it is running, Woog, you can drive up and see me.

oh, by the way, good job.!

Man I love Craigslist. Today I mounted and wired a set of Hella horns-original cost to the PO was $80, I got them for $15 new in the box. Took the horn button/contact apart and cleaned everything up with vinegar. So far from Craigslist I have found the horns, gas tank with sending unit, new set of stainless heated lighted west coast mirrors, 7" spot mirrors, new truck take off medium duty tail lights- all for less than $200.

Well Buck, you sound like Johnny Cash working at the assembly plant taking one part home each day to put together a car in his garage. lol

"I got it one piece at a time and it didn't cost me a dime"

Made one of those engine stands in the tech tip section looks good now I can get my spare engine out of the box of my truck has been in there for almost two years.

Put some new tires on the old rims finally starting to feel road worthy...

Also replaced the speedometer cable and replaced a parking brake cable...

Going to work on making the tail lights brighter...

Changed the jet in the carb and set the timing with a vacumn gauge this time,runs much better and working on getting a little better gas mileage.