The Stovebolt Site Forums Welcome! Welcome Centre Do It Yourself (DITY) Gallery 1952 Chevy 3100 - "From AL to PA - It's only a drive"

1952 Chevy 3100
"From AL to PA - It's only a drive"

I recently acquired a 1953 3100, mostly original, but un-driven since approximately 2005. Bought it from a lady in Alabama (about 100 miles from where I grew up). Her grandfather was a mechanic and he drove it until the late '80s. After his death, her father took over the truck and drove it occasionally. He intended to fix it up but he passed in 2005 without doing anything other than keeping it running.

The truck was subsequently put in a barn and left untouched since 2005.

When I bought the truck, I had it hauled up to Pennsylvania. My Dad drove up to Huntsville (AL) and picked up approximately six bins of parts that had been collected over the life of the truck, including four transmissions in varying states of repair. I picked these up from him over Christmas when I was home.

A little bit about me. I am handy and have rebuilt several houses myself and work in engineering / construction. However, I have never turned a wrench on a vehicle in my life.

I have always loved old Chevy trucks and finally decided it was time to own one. Having grown up in Alabama, this one with a little bit of red clay caked in the wheel wells was the one I couldn't refuse. So with the help of my five year old and seven year old we are going to get the old 216 engine running, strip it to the frame, rid it of the rust, clean it up, while trying to keep it as a close to a original as possible. Eventually, my plan is to paint the truck the original green.

Actually, we have no clue what we are doing, but one way or the other, we will figure it out. I have spent many hours digging into this site and have found a lot of useful information.

At 30 days in, we have already broken two rocker arms, a gas tank that looks like Swiss cheese, my daughter has learned how to use a ratchet and effectively use curse words (don't tell the ex-wife).

Look forward to learning from this community and sharing what I learn.

I have attached a picture of the truck leaving Alabama and one of it safely in its new home in my garage.

Welcome to the Stovebolt Forums, William

That's a solid looking truck.

There are lots of folks here to help you learn about your truck and how to wrench on it. (Although we'll likely refrain from teaching your daughter new curse words. ) Working with a son or daughter is a rewarding thing.

Welcome to Stovebolt William. Saw you already posted some questions in The Engine Shop ... and getting some help with those rocker arms.

Sounds like you are a capable guy at building and fixing stuff. I imagine you'll find turning a wrench on a vehicle will be as rewarding. The Stovebolt Collective is hear to help. Just ask away!

So you moved from Alabama? That caught my eye (being a former Warrior, Gardendale resident. At the time (1978), found it was a great place to live).

You may be close enough to participate with the ODSS group. Generally, their get togethers are family friendly, since most of us have young-ish kids or grand kids. We met a few of them in earlier Homecoming events at the Farm. Check them out and let them know you are here.

And keep those pictures coming.

That's a good-looking truck. Good score.

Welcome

John

Another NICE truck from Alabama. Mine came out of a barn in Cullman some 27 years ago. Recently one from Oneonta, Al. was featured on here from Bring Your Trailer. Just a thought, if you plan on keeping the original drive train, focus on the mechanicals, clean up the interior, freshen up the paint and petina and drive. you will get a lot more looks, comments and questions. less overwhelming and the exterior can always be done later.

Welcome to the Stovebolt Community William!

Your truck find looks outstanding and sounds like you already have a good start on your plan. As yourself and others have said, your engineering/construction skills provide a great basis for learning wrench turning.

Anytime you get stumped, or just have a question that your not sure of, ask away! We are here to help! Looking forward to your future posts and pictures (lots and lots off pictures please).

Enjoy the experience with your kids. They will remember it forever!

Dan

Sweet! I would also recommend refreshing the drivetrain and leave the body. What an amazing looking truck. Congratulations! Have fun with your kids. That is some special stuff right there.

Welcome to the 'bolt. Enjoy the process and keep the end in sight!

Yes. It does look like a good project. Definitely enjoy. Sounds like you have a good attitude about it all.

Good to see another Pennsylvanian here. Nice truck. Should be an interesting super bowl to boot.

Figured I would post an update on my old truck.

Past 45 days I have stripped the truck of everything and while I know this is posted in the Do It Yourself Gallery I do not paint!! So over the past week I delivered the truck (in about about 1,000 pieces) to a friend's body shop for prep and paint. Truck is going to be painted its original Juniper Green (with all the paint suggestions I ended up having the BASF rep at my buddy's body shop track down a mix that matched the original color so hopefully that turns out)

Not sure what type decides to go frame-off for their first re-build project, but it has been fun so far.

While the truck and panels are getting painted I will be cleaning and painting the engine transmission and some of the drive train and generally cleaning up all of bits and pieces that came out of the truck.

Haven't posted a ton lately, but I have spent many many hours scouring the forums and stealing the answers from past questions. And the engine wouldn't be running without the support of alot of people in this forum.

Attached are a handful of pictures of my kids helping me with the truck and some general project photos. My 8 year old has told me we are getting our Christmas tree in the truck this year so we have a long way to go and a short time to get there!!

Definitely making progress. Thanks for the update and glad its a family project to. You'll be able to haul a big Christmas tree in that truck!

Moving along nicely!

Well. Hopefully the trip goes well, but unfortunately there's a great chance that it won't. I don't see a safety chain attached to the chassis up front in case the winch decides to let go. Also the yellow straps holding in the spare parts in the vehicle are attached to the rollback, not the towed vehicle. Therefore when the towed vehicles suspension fluctuates up and down, as it should, with the movement of the rollback, the straps will tighten and loosen accordingly, and will cause damage to the parts that it's intended to hold. The right way to secure the parts in the vehicle should be strapped to the project, not the rollback. Just a heads up. Good luck.

To pile on to glenns towing comments, I pick up ratchet straps along the highway all the time, where they've rubbed in two and fallen off. Especially where they go over a sheet metal edge, they'll wear through in a heartbeat, especially if they're attached to the rollback bed and the suspension compresses going down the road, It would be much better to hook them on the truck chassis instead so they don't loosen as the suspension flexes.

The trip to the shop went well. That was an in progress strap down. Chains were added to the front. Also in addition to the yellow straps there were several black straps which held the panels directly to the frame

Post when you get a chance. That's one of the nice features of the DITY Gallery. It's kind of a "Never Ending Story" for your Stovebolt. And stories are even better with pictures!

I have been posting a couple of questions in the various forums but today was a happy day. The truck is back from the body shop. Took right around 90 days (but got a little discount for them to fit it in between insurance jobs). I have lots of work in front of me getting everything back into truck, but while it was at shop I rebuilt the original transmission, steering box, cleaned and painted a pile of parts. Truck is the original juniper green with a little pearl added to make it pop!
Goal is end of year to be driving, but work and parenting might get in the way of that.

Welcome back William!

It does look great and "pops" as you say. Sounds like an awesome goal. Keep the updates and pictures coming.

Dan

Way to go. Keep pecking at it. Just 15 minutes every day will do wonders. It all looks so familiar but I know its rewarding.....and let the kids get greasy and dirty too. They will talk about it for years.

That pearl in there does seem to make it appear a little shinier. IMHO



I wonder if your little helper will like helping you put it together??! Great Father-daughter time. You do have heat in the garage, ja?


Glad you'll able to keep up with this build story. You are posting as we had envisioned for the DITY G: posting the questions in the Shops Area and bring us the good news here. Each "chapter" has happy reports and happier pictures.

Starting to get everything back together, but first picture is what happens when your kids help organize the bolts and dump them out of the nicely labeled bags and into a single bin᠁hours trying to make sure I have the right bolt in the right spot putting this thing back together᠁still wouldn’t trade a minute of their help!

Absolutely precious time and stories that will be told for many years. Thanks for update.

William, so glad to see you are still plugging along. *Charming* (best word ) - the story about the kids "help" with organizing. But the second pix with her really getting INTO the nuts and bolts of putting stuff together is encouraging. It only gets better!

It has been a little bit since I posted but we are making quite a bit of progress. Engine, transmission and hopefully all of the major parts are back in the truck! Very happy that without too much effort the transmission seems to shift properly after a rebuild and re-install.

I ended up buying a new radiator (paid twice as much so I could have an American made radiator). I have installed the vent windows on both sides twice now after rebuilding them....apparently I should have paid attention that the window crank needs to be installed first, plus side I am getting good at taking them in and re-installing them.
After some advice some people on this forum I decided to forego disc brakes and completely redo the drum brakes, hoping to finalize install of those this week. Waiting on parts to rebuild the gauge assemblies and re-install those. I have spent hours digging around on here looking for advice on how to accomplish each task.

My kids did a little dance today when they saw that the front clip was back on and I installed the headlights. In the words of my daughter "she has her eyes back"

We still have a long way to go, but I feel like the end is in sight. Hopefully will be attempting to crank her up in the next month and take her for a spin by the end of the year. Hoping for a late start to winter in PA this year

Awesome job and great looking build. Time spent with for kids, priceless. They will remember that for their lifetime. Keep up the good work and thanks for sharing!

It has been a while since I posted, but I have talked to a few on this site in the background. Got the truck to run over Christmas, but the wiring in the starter decided to give out. I paid a local shop to rebuild the 12V starter not knowing that would be an issue. The bushing were replaced as was the bendex. Apparently the old assembly had enough play it would mate up with a 6V fly wheel, but the new assembly did not have enough play and on second attempt to crank it shredded the gears on the starter...After a few messages I got down to what the problem was and rebuilt the old 6V starter (took a while to get all the parts), but this weekend the weather was decent so we pulled the truck out of the garage and gave it a whirl. We put it on blocks, cranked it, ran it through the gears made sure everything worked. We made it 150 ft down the driveway before a neighborhood kid and my dog came running necessitating a stop which resulted in all work stopping on the truck for the day due to neighbors asking questions and my kids being kids.

Below is a link to a video of the ride down the driveway. I am sure there are things that aren't perfect, somebody will tell me the paint is a shade off original or the engine has a funny noise...and I know I still have alot to do to make it run well and be a regular drive, but for a guy that has never worked on a vehicle before this truck I am pretty proud of the fact I have it running and was able to drive it after it had been parked for more than 20 years. I truly appreciate the support everyone on this site has provide, as somebody that turned 40 late last year I can only hope to have the knowledge and experience the older generation has shared with me to help me get the truck this far.


https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/eb8l586ndm2jksw686tlj/h?rlkey=0yavtr3zab5mkq724ouucbomv&dl=0

Also not sure if there is a better way to share videos on this but its best I know how to do.

P.S. Enjoy the commentary from my soon to be nine year old...there are a couple of minutes of that in the unedited video with favorite comment being "Dads inside its not like he is gonna die" This commentary will be making an appearance at some future milestone in her life.

Doesn't get much better than that!

That is fantastic!!!

I absolutely loved the video! It's got everything: an old truck, kids and a dog! Your enthusiasm of your videographer was priceless. And in the play-by-play commentary, you could feel the excitement. "We're driving the truck! It's going!" ... a good giggle: "We did it!"
You all surely did. Congratulations. These are moments worth sharing. Keep up the good work and mostly these memories. I believe there'll be plenty more. We will anxious to see them as you able able to roll out them out. Thanks for this grand (and detailed) update.

Great job! I really enjoyed your story and how you shared this experience with yours kids! Hope you make lots of memories with them driving around in your new old truck!

Looking good👍👍

It's been a few months since I have posted, but in that time its been very busy for us getting the truck road worthy

The kids and I got to spend two hours in the Montgomery County Courthouse after a bad title combined with the lack of title in Alabama and rather ridiculous Pennsylvania title laws, but I learned how to file a title suit in PA (I skipped the attorney to save a couple thousand dollars) and the kids got to see the inter workings of the court system. Luckily the previous owner was super helpful and provided all sorts of documentation to make it easy for me.

A few weeks ago while my parents were in town from Alabama we took the truck out and entered it into the local Hatboro Moonlight Memories Car Show (great car show and good people that run it...after they sent my kids an award for being cutest accessories, which total made their day).
We had a great time talking to people about the journey of the truck and our adventures in getting it road worthy.

Appreciate all the support I got from this community in getting the truck up and running. I know will be on and off all the time looking for tips on finishing up the 100 small items that need to be adjusted...plus the kids want to get another vehicle to work on (they want an El Camino).

I hope you enjoy the pictures from the show.

Awesome update William and thanks for the great story and pictures to go along with it. You've made some fantastic memories for your kids and am sure you will continue to do so! Oh yeah, the truck looks "Outstanding"!!!

William, this entry title makes the "eyes roll" (as your t-shirt says). From AL to PA was more than just "a drive" after all, considering all the legal hurdles you had to go thru. Great "teaching" opportunity for the kids, as you said. Glad it all worked out. And the "Accessories" Award ... excellent. Sounds like the Stovebolt is a hit all the way around.
See you over in our virtual garage as you start to tackle 100 small items. Remember: there are not stupid questions.

I love your son's t-shirt. That's awesome. I just wish I had had a son who could wear that, although my youngest daughter would qualify. She helps her hubby with lots of projects, and did the first oil change on the truck we bought her for college.
Keeping the younger generation involved is priceless.

Awesome work on the truck, BTW.