The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts Maybe new addition, a few questions

I am thinking about adding a new addition to the stable (53 1 ton dump, 52 coupe). The only thing holding me back right now is the color and I know that is silly, but the cost of painting it will put me more into it than I would feel comfy. The man in possession of this truck says its a 39 one ton, but it has 10 lugs rear and 5 front and some giant front fenders making me think 1 1/2 ton.

Everything has been done on this truck and the man that paid to have it done paid dearly. The man in possession is just a middle man and a close friend, so I will be getting it priced right.

It has a 2 speed rear end, any idea what gears? 8.?? and 6.?? sound right? How exactly do I shift it. I know it has a lever in the cab, but do I double clutch it say in third?

It has been "hotrodded" with authentic stuff. 2 rochesters on an offy, fenton headers, exhaust is above the cab on some side pipes. 12 volt generator, late model 235. That's fine with me, but more stuff to break as far as I am concerned. I would have been happy with late model 235, 1 carb and factory cast iron manifold.

Any other things I should look for?

Thanks,
Chris

Earl Shibe will paint any car, any color, for $99.95 (thats the roll down the windows and spray package, I believe)

If that's too rich for your blood, WalMart sells spray paint for 89 cents a can!

From what I understand, the old big bolts were not painted all that well in the first place, so a quickie paint job would help lend an air of authenticity to the vehicle and pacify the staunch purists at the next show!

My '46 2 ton has 10 lugs rear (dualies) and 5 in front with giant fenders, it's my understanding that they didn't rig them like that till you got to the 1.5 ton trucks.

I've heard that some areas didn't have a 1.5 or 2 ton rating for a non-commercial vehicle, so it's possible to find a vehicle registered as a lower "tonnage" than it says on the title.

My '46s title says 2 ton, it's VIN suggests 2 ton, but the last time it was registered (for non commercial, private use), it said 1.5 ton.

The 235 might be another indicator if the actual "tonnage" of the truck.. i've heard that the 235 wasn't common in the trucks till they hit the 1.5 ton mark.

See if you can get the number stamped on the Mfg plate (located under the hood on the passenger side twards the windsheild) then plug the numbers into the VIN Cruncher ( http://www.geekoasis.com/vincalc ) that number will tell you for sure what you're looking at.

I'm trying not to show too much interest, pulling the VIN or snapping pictures would show a lot of interest, I have crawled it from front to rear and I like it regardless of true size.

Whoever did the rodstoration went through a lot of trouble and money. The exhaust pipes still smell like new when you fire it up and this truck was finished over a decade ago. I would be embarassed to have the kind of money spent on this truck in my 1 ton. I can buy it for about a third of the receipts. It is not a truck for purists by any means, its just cool.

The paint job is an 80s or early 90s decent quality single stage paint job. I will just have to live with red, cause it was done interior and exterior. Maybe black or grey on the outside would look okay with the red and black interior.

It was a 216 truck that has had a late 235 transplanted in it, I sure wish I still had that 261 I let go about 5 years ago.

When did hydrovac start? The brake setup on this thing scares me. Pedal setup is overly complicated.

I have fired it up and putted around the yard but not driven it as the brake cylinders need to be gone through (sat over 10 years). Am I correct in that these have 6 expensive wheel cylinders?

What is the correct 2 speed rear end shift method for the early 2 speeds?

Chris

More than likely it's a 1 1/2 ton, if it's a Chevy.Especially if you say it's a 2 spd. rear axle. No one ton truck would have had one. Chevrolet didn't list a 2 ton rated truck until 1946. Can you write the ID (VIN) Plate info., on a piece of paper. It would definitely help to ID the truck. If he doesn't have the Ton rating correct, how do you know he has the year model correct.

You only really need the first "chunk" of the VIN.. which in that year would be 4 or 5 characters.

With those 4 or 5 characters you can determine the trucks year, plant of mfg, the truck style (1 ton 1.5 ton) its wheelbase, and even what month it was made.

The man in possession of this truck is quite savvy and a good friend of mine, he has been trying to use this to get my 1953. He buys and sells lots of old cars and trucks. Part of the purchase is the negotiation game. He knows more or less what he is in possession of and that his price to me makes him $600 (or so he says) and is still a third of what was put into the truck in cold hard dollars (too much).

How do I know it is a 39?
1939 -One year only dash
two piece window with crank out
1939 grille

There is no ton rating on the title which I have seen. And as I said before I don't care what the ton rating really is as far as the frame is concerned, it has a 10 lug 2 speed rear end at this point in time. I just want to know how to shift the 2 speed rear end so I don't lock it up as I keep reading lots of novices do on this forum. If I can swap the non synchro 4 speed for an SM420 without any real modifications?
And what else I should look out for as my experience has been limited to 48 and up light duty.

I called him and got the vin, its a 1.5 ton 133 inch wheelbase, here's the vin 1VB054674

Chris

As far as what you should look for, it depends on the price and what you're buying it as.

I'd guess since you keep bringing up the fact that the sales price is a third of what the guy put into it, and that the guy paid dearly, that the sales price is high, and what you're looking at is a fully restored truck.

If the truck is in fact "fully restored", then i'd look at it like i'd look at a new vehicle.. because thats what "fully restored" means.

Every part on the truck outta be clean enough to eat off of. Check for rust (or shoddy repairs) in the usual places you'd look for them in an AD light duty truck.

Then theres all the normal things you should check whenever you buy a used vehicle (like water, oil, stuff like that)

The big issue with those big trucks is the brakes, since they like to rot out from the inside out.. but if this truck is a "fully restored" truck, all that stuff should be new.

The point I keep thinking about is, you don't like the color, the truck sounds expensive, and your already thinking of swapping the tranny out.

In my humble opinion, if you're going to pay premium jack for a 1.5 ton, it really should be just the way you want it, otherwise, you might as well grab a solid $300 (or less) truck and do it the way you want it. (and probably save a bundle, too)

There was a thread on here that addressed the "how do i shift the two speed axl" question.. you may try the search option to find it.

Keep in mind there are TWO search features here, one is the google search, the other is the built in UBB Board search.. try them both (one seems to work better than the other for different things)

I personally have no idea how you shift a two speed rear.. but somebody around here i'm sure does, or can point you to the thread that has that info.

For all intents and purposes, it is fully restored, but not concourse, its rodstored like a parade truck. I have been through my share of projects and drivers. Having done 6 cars/trucks in the past 5 years (I do everything but the body and exhaust myself), I can tell you there is no way I could build this truck for what I can buy it for. Of course I never would have spent the rebuild money on the 235 or the tranny, or the fentons, or the offy, or the HEI. Nor could I have a 1989 dually as nice as this one for the same price.

I have lots of parts here and there including 2 good SM420s and 1 good SM465s, double clutching ain't my forte, that's why I asked about the tranny.

I don't buy cars/trucks with rust at all. There are no $300 solid trucks on the gulf coast, we have to go to Nebraska (arizona, texas, SD, ND, montana) to get them from nice people like you, bring em back here and sell them for $2500.

Maybe I can get a few pics to see what everyone thinks this truck is worth. If anyone feels they are comfy discussing numbers, PM me.

I've been around this forum a long time (back in the Phat, Nate and Tony days, was around when gl showed up), but lost my password a couple years back had to change ids and haven't worked on a stovebolt since late 03.

Thanks for the help fumblin46.

Chris

It's really hard to put a value on Antique Big Trucks. Not as big, of an market out there, as pickups, panels, Suburbans, etc. Take up more space, can't park them in a normal garage, not as practical, as a small truck, for running errands, etc. Would not be worth as much, as a small truck, in the same condition. I've probably bought, & sold at least 20-25 Antique Big Trucks, in the last 10-15 years, & believe you me, I can never guess what they might bring. It all depends on who's looking for one at the time.

If you like the truck, buy it.

Being a native floridian, i'm all too aware of what the gulf can do, and what can happen to vehicles that happen to live right on the coast during a flood.

Up above the mason-dixon, it's the road salt that rots 'em out.

I've always wanted to get into the old trucks, but like you said, back East they aren't cheap.. out here in Nebraska, they just about pay YOU to take them out of their lawn.

If you like the truck, you can't build it for the asking price, and the price is right buy it, man.

I subscribe to the theory that if you have to think about it very long, you probably don't really want it or can't justify the expence.

Okay here are a few pics, I did not do a good job taking them, rezing them and uploading them, but you'll get an idea of what its like. I made an offer this afternoon that involved a trade, we'll see what happens.

[img]http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-6/1022778/100_0727.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-6/1022778/100_0730.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-6/1022778/100_0728.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2005-6/1022778/100_0729.jpg[/img]

Thats a really sharp looking truck!

Color wise, the red is a little loud for my tastes.. maybe if there wasn't so much of it (like if the fenders or bed were a different color) but it looks like the guy was going for the vintage "hopped up" vibe, and the red suits that nicely!

Whats the story on the '53 your middleman has his eye on? Is in in the same kind of condition?

I did both searches for the "how to shift a two speed rear", but haven't been able to find the thread. I'll keep looking and if I find it i'll post a link to it here.

Yep, its quite red, I'm glad I posted pics and got some feedback, I never thought about giving it the old red cab and black fender two tone, that might make it right for me.

My 53 isn't quite finished, its in my shed and should be done in a month of working on it at night, but it is green in the same condition (no rust) with a dump bed, dually with 17.5 inch wheels, fuel injected V8, SM465. I own a nostalgic tour boat and am trying to finish it to tow the tour boat to the launch.

The 53 has passed through the middleman's hands at least once in the past and people stop at my place on almost a daily basis to try and buy it. He has a buyer that is after it, I just love the way it looks too much lot let it go (my great grampa's farm truck was just like it but blue).

I couldn't find too much on how to shift the rear, the posts were not as informative as I hoped, I sent Oly an email and hopefully I got through the spamblocker.

Chris

It was a discussion that sort of evolved from another topic.. and a fellow stovebolter posted just about step by step instructions on how to correctly work the two speed rear.

I'm pretty new here (joined in January when I got my first stovebolt) so it would have been a discussion that went down between January and probably April.

Now I wish i'd paid more attention!

The way I shifed the 2 speed in my truck(it was electric,but I'm sure the same method would apply) was,accelerate,upshift the 2 speed and let the throttle up,when you feel it shift,accelerate, shift the trans up,shift the 2 speed down,give it a dab of throttle,when you hear the axle shift accelerate,repeat step #1,accelerate,repeat #2 etc.you'll have to mess with it and get your timing right,it just takes some practice. as long as you do things a little gently until you sort it out,I doubt you'll do any damage to it. Get your brakes worked over,take it out and have some fun with it.

It found its way to my place late this afternoon.

I want to go through the brakes real good, but I drove it a little bit down a country road, 2 speed rear shifts much easier than I thought.

That non synchro 4 speed is LOUD!