The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts New Guy with a '46 Chevy 2 Ton

Hey all,
My name is Les and I'm new to the board. Well, new as far as posting anyway. I picked up a '46 2 ton back in 2000 while I was in grad school and have been reading on here and other sites since then. I had quite a few resto plans for it but then the Army came calling and off I went. I've been back for about a year and have just started working on the truck. In the interest of driveability, I bought a '71 1 ton and plan on putting my body on that frame. That way I'll have the 350 engine...not the I-6, I know:( , 465 transmission (with PTO), and a bit more streetable 4.56 gears(with plans later on to swap those out for something higher). I just finished stripping the '71 and am getting ready to prep the frame. After the work of removing the doors, fenders, cab, etc...now I'm thinking I should have went with a newer frame. Not that there's any damage to this one, it just seems it'd be easier to get late 80's running gear rather than early 70's. Oh well, we'll see how it goes. Anyway, I hope to prep and paint the frame before the end of the month and get started switching the bodies in February. After I get the '46 body lined up on the frame, I get to take it back off and start the glorious task of bodywork. I've never done any bodywork before so I'm sure my post count will multiply exponentially once I start. Well, I better cut it short before I start rambling on too much. In any event, thanks for all the wisdom that's been shared over the past few years and I look forward to getting my 'Bolt on the road and meeting a few of y'all!

Oh, I almost forgot. My plans are to put a sleeper behind the cab, and a bed behind the sleeper, so that my family of 4 can all enjoy riding in the truck at the same time. If anyone knows a good route to go as far as finding a sleeper, I'd be glad to hear it. So far I've toyed with the idea of adding a semi-truck sleeper but don't know if it'll look okay or more like a hodgepodge. Thanks again!

Less, what wheels do you have on old chassis? 10 lug I assume. Tires 8.25? Any good tires on them? If so, wish to sell? I see you are from MI, how far north? I'm in NE Indiana.
Keep in mind the fenders arch high at opening, and may look odd on smaller wheeled truck. You may also have axle width problems, new frame wanting to stick tires out past fender edges.
Far as sleepers, there are always ads in those trader brand mags and others, out of MI area and Northern ILL. Pick up the Big Truck trader, some gas stations have selections. OR, truck stops. There are lots of truck suppliers in S. MI.

GL,
I'll have to take a look at the tires and see how much life are left. My thinking was to get new updated rims and put the old tires back on them, or get new updated rims and new larger tires. That should take care of the small wheels in large wheel well problem. As far as the tires sticking out, I got lucky as the measurements are pretty close from the outside wheels for both frames. I think the new track width is actually a bit narrower so that gives me room to play as far as rim offset and such.

I've been looking for sleepers for about a month now but haven't seen anything in my price range (I've seen 2-3 that aren't too far off). I'm an "economical" shopper and don't like to buy something that I can build for less so I'm in the 0-300 dollar range...more than 300 and I feel like I could shop around for materials and build it exactly like I want it to be rather than buy pre-built and modify it. I think I might have a line on one right now..just waiting to hear back from the gal.

Thanks for the tips, I'll have to google some of the S Mi. truck suppliers and see if they'll send me some plans and brochures.

You have a couple of companies that build custom truck sleepers in Indiana I think double eagle is one can't remember the other. perhaps you could score a takeoff however they would likely be 96" or 102" wide. If I can find some of their ads i'll follow up. Also they are very expensive new so it may be they'd rather scrap then sell old stuff reasonable

I had my eye on a 41 that had been converted to a tenwheeler .the cab and chassis was there but the rear axles had been stolen. It had a single sleeper with crank out windows I think it was accessed thru side door as opposed to the crawl thru that later came thru. It was in fair condition having been in the barn since the early 50's unfortunately a hurricane came thru and dropped the barn before I found a donor truck for axle. that's the only one I've seen of that vintage with a addon sleeper box. good luck in your hunt.

Shucks, I hate to hear about the barn dropping on the old truck, it sounds like it was a keeper for sure. I found a sleeper on Ebay, actually it was a whole truck they were going to take to the scrap yard if it didn't sell. Well, it didn't sell so I called and asked about buying just the sleeper but they won't return my calls. 96"...I think that might be a tad too wide but I'll measure to make sure. I appreciate the offer to follow up, hopefully somebody will take mercy and sell cheap that they were going to throw away anyway. I'd like to do some metalwork on the sleeper and make it fit the bodylines of the truck but my body skills are limited. One thing I want to do is cut the Chevy bowtie in the back of the sleeper and back light it, I think that'd be a nice touch....

Wow... a '46 2 ton... that is one of the trucks on my list...



-W

You should have bid on it, man!

In my experience, people who say "im gunna junk it if it dosent sell" usually do just that if nobody bids.

It's really kind of silly to put that in a listing anyway, because you're really saying, "If nobody bids, i'm going to give it away".. which makes folks think, well hell.. i'll just wait till the auction closes and then offer to take it off their hands for free.

A '46 2 ton truck is a wonderful thing indeed. Everybody outta have one!

Look around for companies that service larger farm trucks.

A friend on mine in Idaho buys used Diesel tractors and removes the sleeper, lengthens the frame if needed, and uses them as farm trucks.

He says used sleepers are hard to give away.