Stovebolt.com Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts 57 6500 made it home

Got her home today. It runs, drives, dump seems to work (only lifted it about 12 inches and then put it down and disengaged the PTO, 2 speed rear seems to work (Didn't drive it much, on/off trailer and into my garage). Brakes do nothing, pedal goes to floor, gas pedal sticks etc. Parking brake worked good enough for the little driving I did. The plate on the door says 18000 lbs. It is a 6503 based on the VIN. It has 8.25x20 tires on 6 lug wheels. From what I had read in the 1957 Chevy truck info on gm heritage center I was expecting 22.5 wheels but maybe these were an option.

So, it needs a new battery, the seller said it needed a gas tank (has an outboard motor tank hooked up sitting on passenger floorboard currently), brake work, driver door adjusted to close better (have to slam it and it is sagging), work on the roll up windows and most likely new tires. Guessing the rubber on these is pretty hard or degraded and not really road worthy. Will definitely need to change all fluids and get a new air filter.

Anyone know if there is a filter that fits in the old oil based air filter canister?

22.5” tires are a direct replacement for 20” tires, 22.5’s are tubeless so no dealing with split rims which many service people cannot or will not deal with. Just need to get proper wheels. Are your wheels Budd(stud centric) or hub centric. You will need to know that when searching for wheels. Nice truck.

Ed

Welcome to the stovebolt world. It never ceases to amaze me of how many sweet "garage queen" grain trucks appear. Your project looks like a nice one! Rebuilding the brakes on bigbolts can be a pain, but very doable.

If you ever decide to try to go with 22.5 inch 6 lug stud centric rims; I have one, but just one.

It looks really good from 25 ft but looks like it spent quite a bit of time on salty Michigan roads judging by the frame and under the cab. There is some bondo in the body/doors for sure (looks like wasn't well done and starting to crack/pop), but the original floors look to be already patched in spots and cab corners and body mounts look solid enough to not need replaced. The previous owner was a "thick bondo and lots of paint" farm tractor restoration style guy. There are a lot of those around here! First use will be as a dump truck around the property. I plan on digging a pond next summer and cleaning up the property (previous owner left several junk/brush piles about) a bit then maybe next winter or the following convert this over to something more road worthy. Going to repaint a different color at some point (currently rustoleum safety blue) and run the sheet metal it as-is. It won't be perfect or a full resto but just really want a "shop truck" for the months there isn't ice/salt all over the roads up here and wife wants to drive it in local parades.

Called the local tire shop, they can't get any 8.25-20 or 900-20 tires at this time. She said at least $100 each tire to put new tubes in if they are split rims. Shouldn't need too great of tires for using in on my property as a dump truck but that is a bummer since I wanted to drive it to town on occasion. I will keep an eye on the local classifieds also in case some decent tires or wheels pop up. I may end up just getting newer axles to throw under it during the rebuild to address the gearing, brakes and wheels issue all at once or just buy a "newer" complete running truck and do a body swap.

Hey mdkelly, if the time comes that you are changing running gear for something newer, I would be interested in the rear axle. Also I found a tire shop down here in the Ann Arbor area that sells and mounts used truck tires. If you need the number let me know. They do have a branch in Flint/Burton but I don't know how each branch is managed so they may not help you.

Nice rig!

78Buckshot, I would love to know the name of that tire shop. I lived in the AA area from 2007 until I bought this place last August. My wife is from that area so we go down there quite often still to visit her family. I will most likely just get a couple serviceable front tires for now and run it as is once the brakes are working.

I found 4 of the old Alcoa aluminum 22.5 6 lug wheels that would fit and make finding tires easier but the asking price is $1500 and that seems pretty high for only 4 wheels, no tires. I would have to spend another $600 for two more steel wheels (whenever they are back in stock) and then $1800 -$2400 for tires to go on those wheels so not sure if that is the best way to go or not. Just new wheels/tires would cost more than getting a running 90's or early 2000's donor truck!

Since I am so new to this maybe someone can answer what could be a silly question. Are the old tube type tires always hard to find and out of stock or is this just another casualty of the pandemic? I am thinking maybe the current difficulty getting tires could be due to the supply chain issues and at some point in the future the tires will be easier to get. If that is the case, I will just stick with these wheels.

I bought 4 Michelin 22.5" XRV that are almost new-$75 each on Craigslist. I then found Schrader Tire and oil, bought 4 used Firestone steers 10R-22.5 and had them mount all 7 on my freshly blasted and painted steel wheels. Total cost with lots of PPG paint and primer left for other projects was about $1300.00. Schrader has branch listed in Flint/Burton. The branch in Ann Arbor/Ypsi is on Morgan Rd. at Carpenter, ph. (734) 434-9300

Hey mdkelly, I just saw (6) Michelin 235/80/22.5 XRV on Craigslist Toledo, those are the same size I'm running as steers on mine, they want $800 for the set of six. They are shorter than I wanted for my drives 'cuz I have a 7.20:1 rear end so that's why I'm running the 10R-22.5's on the rear.

My truck has the 20" split rim wheels so those tires won't fit. The 8.25x20 tires seem to be pretty hard to locate right now as are the 6x8.75 bolt pattern 22.5" wheels. I think the tires I have will have to work for now, hoping the lack of 8.25x20 tires is just a side effect of the supply chain issues going on.