The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Early 'Bolts (1916-1936 1st Half) 1927 Chevrolet Capitol 1-ton -- Full frame-off resto

Bill ...

Great idea. I'll take it under advisement.

John,
Sounds like some interesting discoveries on your flywheel. I can't imagine why it would have gotten put together that way.
One note on the engine. I have a friend who has a 27 he is rebuilding with the same set up as you where he has a 27 block with a 28 head. He has found he had to custom make a heat stove for the exhaust where the air cleaner attaches and has the tube that runs over the carb otherwise with the 27 block which doesn't have the crank case venting to the carb that he doesn't get enough air flow and he runs lean on his engine. I'm no expert but when you get to that point if you have issues......
Maybe someone else will have some wisdom. I was going to ask it over on the vcca site also.
As promised here are some shots of the trim that goes over the sheet metal at the back of the cab. Also a couple of pictures of 'Grumpy' coming home and about where the body is at today.
Didn't want to highjack your thread with any more than that.
I'll send you a pm about any parts you may be able to help me with.
Keep up the good work on Peggy's truck!
David

David -- Not a hijack -- good info sharing!

I got the flywheel off yesterday -- I found that the pressure plate bolts, as well as the flywheel bolts, were hand tight and that there was no clutch disc installed (that's hanging on my wall, too ... and looks new ... ). AND the timing marks on the flywheel were off ... Leading me to suspect that the rebuilder didn't have the ring gear or the clutch and just set what he *did* have back on there to send back with the engine and misaligned the timing marks as a flag.

Thanks for the shots of the trim. Did you get replacements or were your originals usable?

By the way ... did you get a wood kit for your cab? If you did, did it have the pieces for the seat base or any of the floor boards?

My trim pieces will be reusable. They are quite pitting, but not all the way through. A thin coat of filler and high build primer and they will be fine.
As far as wood, I bought several pieces from Jim Rodman at Autowood, like the A and B pillars, windshield bottom and top, one sill piece and one door header. I duplicated the other sill and door header on my own. I had enough wood in my cab back to duplicate that. A new roof frame work (bows were kinda tricky) and then made the new roof slats. I have one door done with new wood and just need to do the other side. The seat riser was easy to figure out after I got some measurements off a fellow members truck who lives about an hour from me. Floor boards need to be made yet but are also pretty straight forward I think. I just need to get the engine and trans in with pedals etc so I can figure out where to cut holes and slots. Doesn't your cab have all the wood?
I could lend a hand with measurements if needed.
David

Davis -- Thanks.

Yes, my cab is "mostly" done. I do have some original floor board pieces, plus one or two other pieces with sheet metal attached that I have not been able to identify. I won't be able to verify if my intact floor board pieces are correct until, like you, I get the engines, transmission and pedals in place and the cab mounted.

I was wondering about the seat base because it seems I have a complete (extra) wood kit. It's still wrapped up in its original shipping boxes and I don't want to rip into it if I don't need to (i.e., the remaining pieces I need aren't in it anyway). The seat base looks simple enough to replicate and the '31 my friend has will probably provide the measurements, although we could verify with yours.

John

Wasn't at the shop this weekend, but I still moved forward. Following the guidance above from you experts, I got the ring back on the flywheel. I even turned it so the unworn part is toward the "front" so the starter will engage unworn teeth

I set the ring out on Peggy's ramp in the sun (very warm today) and I had the flywheel in the house with ice packs on it. The ring got nice and hot after a couple hours and the flywheel got nice and cool ... and using a piece of 2x4 and my caulking mallet ... bing bang boom, together they went!

Yay!!

Thanks for the help, gang!!

Note: The propane torch was standing by if needed.

Congrats and job well done! Lurch has an original seat box made by Chevrolet, so I can do some measurements and take some pics if you need them.

Dean

Thanks Dean!

Hold that thought (about the seat measures) ... it will be awhile yet ...

Yay ... 2nd baby step to Carlisle Gold with this project!

Got off work early yesterday and swung by the shop for some quality time with Calvin. I was hoping to get the engine stand together and get the engine on it. A secondary objective was to get the blast cabinet "out of storage" and OpCheck it. Getting the cabinet "out of storage" pretty much meant getting all the cobwebs removed, plugging the vacuum/light power cord it, airing up the compressor and checking function on everything.

The shop has pretty much just been a storage facility for the last 4 years -- Just a place to park the '49 and the '73 Binder. Since then, the '49 has come over here to HQ, along with the Binder to make room for the '27 project and Joe's '69 1/2-ton project.

I think the last person to actually use the blast cabinet was Hambone for the '66 K-10 project .... and that's been a few years now.

So there were a LOT of cobwebs to clear out and dust from the viewing window. So that all went fine.

Until I went to switch the compressor on .... This is a compressor (5 hp, 2-stage with a 60 gallon vertical tank) I got more than 20 years ago. It hadn't actually been used much, either. well, prechecking it, I noticed it didn't have any oil on the case. Oh well, so much for the cabinet opcheck.

So I returned to the engine stand.

I got the stand put together and was ready to mate it to the engine ... I didn't have the right bolts ...

Done for the day??? Well, methinks, I could always run next door to my former neighbor (and who we actually sold the farm to), the Stihl Dealership, and see if they had compressor oil and the right bolts (4 - inch 3/8-14 shoulder bolts) to go into the 174's bell housing. So I did. And They did. Cool, I was back in work!

Now with the right bolts, I started to mate things up. Only .... the bolts wouldn't go very far in ... crud, corrosion, whatEVUR.

I needed to chase the threads or else risk damaging the only bell housing available on the East Coast for this engine ... (Not actually true -- there's another one on the parts engine, but you get the point...) and my tap and die set were back at HQ.

Soooooooooo ..... back to the compressor. I put the oil in and fired things up. All great until things stalled at 20 psi ....

About the time I was about to say a naughty word, I remembered to shut the drain valve at the bottom of the tank. Things went pretty smoothly after that. My bag of Black Diamond medium abrasive was even dry enough to use!

I managed to get a part of the radiator support blasted.

It was about time to go home anyway, so I declared victory, awarded myself several decorations on the spot, turned off the lights and went home a hero.

... trying not to think about how long this project is going to take at this rate ...


John

Two steps forward and one step back is still forward progress. You did get the blast cabinet set for you next piece so that is a victory.

My project was a three year ordeal and I’m in year five, with no end in site. My wife always doubles my time estimates but at this rate maybe quadruple would be a better estimate.

Amateurs. I'm 17 years on my project with another 3-4 others started in there. One finished, 2 close, another a big pile of parts and another one sent to a new home.

But, as I tell my crew at the end of day as they bang out their time sheets, "It's not a race, gentlemen. It's not a race!"

LOL, I was wondering why that compressor was making that hissing noise when it stalled out at 20 psi.

Looks like it's time to get the cobwebs off the welder too, John. You can award yourself another medal for that one, too.

I'm only on year 8 of a 5 year project. But the end may be in sight.

I am surprised the black bag of blast material was at all dry. I know how wet it gets in there.

But glad to hear of another restoration project taking the space in the garage

Not necessarily from a hearse.

Henney built custom bodies for commercial vehicles and trucks as well as limousines, taxicabs, buses, ambulances, and hearses.

Maybe the Professional Car Society can help you with the Henney serial number. Where was the Henney tag located?

https://www.theprofessionalcarsociety.org/

Also, the name of the company was changed from John W. Henney Co. to Henney Motor Company in 1927

You can find out more here.

http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/h/henney/henney.htm

Thanks Otto! The Coachbuilt web site has a lot of interesting info. Um, the Henney tag was at the bottom of one of the loose parts boxes ... The bed parts I *have* identified, and seem to have been part of an express body (which is what I want to put back on the truck eventually), are "Schurmeier-Whitney" which is another interesting piece on the Coachbuilt web site.

Yesterday, I got the hood and fenders (three pairs of fronts and 1 pair of rears) over to the sand blaster -- Kenny Saufley, for you SoMD types. Kenny is related to my boss and we've done some work over there, so I am familiar with his work. He is also recommended by our own MPandC (Robert) who is going to do the body work on the fenders.

The fenders, by the way, are all pretty decent ... but ... each one has a flaw or two. Fortunately, none of the fenders share the same flaws so Robert is confident he can make a good pair out of the 6 of them. The rears are solid and not dented or creased ... just a few holes from the rust bugs ...

The hood just needs to be blasted clean and repainted .

That's good news for the rear fenders. Typically, the RR is always destroyed as no one can see them when they make turns. Especially on my Suburban! Took a while to find a righty.

John, you mention that you'd like to build an 'express' body.

FYI, I have an original 1928 truck body catalog from the Hercules Body company and they have a number of 'express' bodies that fit onto a Chevy one ton truck chassis.

Attached are a couple of pics from the catalog.

Cheers, Dean

Dean ... Perhaps I have the nomenclature wrong ...

This is the body I'm hoping to build.

In the meantime ... I need to ask you about pictures of the radiator support and how it all goes together. I think I have everything but it seems ... flimsy ... like I'm missing something...

That is a handsome bed for the truck. Might have to find someone with some nice white oak planks and equipment to edge and plane.

I agree, that is a fine looking bed for your truck!

The hardware reminds me of what would've been used for a horse-drawn wagon. Very cool!

Regarding the radiator support, here are some pics from Lurch's setup. What is not shown are the two carriage bolts that hold the bottom to the front cross member of the chassis.

1. The lower side flange pieces are looped/integrated/locked to the bottom piece and placed on the backside of the radiator.

2. Then the top flange is put onto the radiator.

3. Third, the two assemblies (top and sides/bottom) are wired together on the sides.

4. Then, you can bolt on the radiator shroud using 1/4-20 x 3/4" flat head slotted bolts. They should go through a strip of welting (might be the wrong word) that the hood pieces lay upon. A similar strip is bolted (or riveted) to the cowl for the back of the hood pieces to lay upon.

5. After all that is assembled, then you can bolt the radiator assembly to the chassis using carriage bolts. It is impossible to get a wrench in there to hold the top of those bolts, so the square under the carriage head holds the bolt in place while you tighten it from below. The last photo shows the interlocking pieces at the bottom corner and also shows the head of one of the carriage bolts that bolts the whole radiator assembly to the front chassis cross member.

Keep having fun! Dean

So you assemble the whole thing and *then* mount it to the frame?? The radiator is merely *held* in place by all this, not actually bolted to anything? That's sort of what intuition was telling me ... but I kept thinking that there had to be more to it than that..... apparently not. And the wire ties .... that's interesting ...

Peggy is about to lose her favorite office decoration ...

In other news, I turned my attention to reassembling the brake system over the weekend. A few parts went through the blast cabinet.

Hopefully, someone like Dean can walk me through how this gets mounted and connected to everything...

Yes, the radiator and its shell are held in place by the sheet metal surround (which is wired together).

Then, the sheet metal surround is bolted to the front cross member of the chassis (with two carriage bolts). I modified my previous post to include a few words about the carriage bolts and I modified the last photo to point out the head of one of these bolts.

The top back of the radiator shell has a bracket where the hood center support bolts. The other end of the hood support bolts to the firewall. This support is a thin sheet metal channel that has a bolt riveted to each end (3/8-16 I believe). This hood support steadies the top of the radiator assembly. It also allows you to adjust the distance between the top back of the radiator and the firewall so that the hood space is proper.

Regarding the brakes, there are some good figures in the repair manual. Use the figures that discuss the AA brakes (1927) and not the AB brakes (1928). The brake discussions in the repair manual mostly cover car brakes, not the one ton truck brakes, but the info is basically the same.

One thing I've run into before is the service brake bands (external to the drum) sometimes need to be man-handled to become round enough to brake well. I did a write up over at the VCCA about this issue. Here's a link to it: https://vccachat.org/ubbthreads.php/topics/415134/brake-band-bending-technique.html

When I get a chance, I'll take some pics of Lurch's brake setup. One thing to note is that the brake light switch is located along one of the long brake rods that stretch from the brake pedal back towards the rear axle. ;-) Goofy, but fun!

Cheers, Dean

Thanks Dean!

Here are some pics from Lurch's underside. Since I have his transmission laying on the ground at the moment, the brake pedal and e-brake assemblies are not in place for this photo session.

The photos start at the front of the brake rods and then go towards the back.

1. The first pic shows the front of the emergency brake rod. This is on the passenger's side of the truck. Disregard the wood stick.

2. The second pic shows the front of the service brake rod. This is on the driver's side. I slid a plastic tube over this rod when I installed it because it seemed to come too close to the battery terminals for my comfort. The wood stick going across the open space in the pic is my elbow rest when I was recently measuring the hole in the end of the crankshaft.

3. The third photo shows the two brake rods going through little holders that are bolted to a sheet metal cross member at the rear of the gas tank. At the bottom of this pic you can see the brake light switch, which is activated by a little lever that clamps to the service brake rod.

4. The fourth photo shows the same area as number three, but closer to the driver's side of the truck. Details include another view of the brake light switch, along with the gas line, filter, and portable gas station assembly.

Okay, a little extra explanation is in order. Both of my trucks use their vacuum tanks to deliver fuel to the carb. Occasionally, the vacuum tanks lose their prime, usually from sitting too long between drives (three weeks or more). I have a tee and a valve plumbed into the fuel line on the output side of the gas filter so I can easily fill a small plastic 12 oz. soda bottle with gas that I use in turn to prime the vacuum tanks with. I have a 1/8" NPT plug in the top of the vacuum tank so I can easily pour the gas in the top for priming purposes. With this set up, I have my own portable gas station (at least for the vacuum tank). ;-) Here's a more detailed description of the system that is in Justin: Lurch's vacuum tank priming system

5. The fifth photo is a close up of the brake light switch.

6. Photo number six is looking back at the brake rod assembly that transfers the motion of the front brake rods (service brake and emergency brake) to the dual brake actuator rods mounted on the rear axle.

7. Photo number 7 is a side view of the rear axle brake actuator rods. The rods closer to the front of the truck are for the service brakes and the rear rods are for the emergency brakes.

8. Pic 8 is a closer view of the brake rod transfer setup. Notice the NOS screen door spring and coat hanger wire pull-back setup. ;-)

9. Photos nine and ten are views of the brake actuator rods going to the rear backing plates.

Enjoy! Dean

Thanks Dean!! That helps a LOT!

Turns out the piece I worked on over the weekend doesn't even go to this truck. Turns out I have a bunch of pieces then that don't go to this truck. It appears to be for a vehicle with front brakes, too. Yet ... I had holes in the frame that matched up to its mounting plates exactly. Maybe my frame is from a later truck??

Anyway, I just got back from the shop. I mounted the tranny in place just to be able to figure all this out. Turns out this is much simpler than I had thought. And when I left today, I had working brakes -- both parking and service.

And now I know where the brake light switch goes!



Also, I picked up my starter and generator from Wenger's.

That is coming along nicely.

Thanks Doug -- wish you were still here ...

I do have fond memories of restoration in the old OR. Have not found that up here yet, but maybe if I build it, they will come.

The OR was a very busy place.

I do believe that logic (build it and they will come) still works.

Since John is working on the drive train of his '27 one ton truck, here is a discussion of different transmissions and u-joint parts that fit in it: '27 and '28 Tranny and U-joint discussion

Cheers, Dean

Dean, Maybe post that link in the "Early Bolts section rather than in here -- probably get more traffic. Besides, I will be posting a question for you. It will be an open question but you're probably the only one around here who can answer it. I can also post it on the VCCA forum too if you think it will be helpful over there...

Meanwhile ... I did start assembling the radiator group... Found out I may have the wrong radiator ...

For Peggy's birthday yesterday, I got the radiator issue fairly well figured out. The later radiator I had with the brackets that wouldn't allow it to work in this application turned out to be the correct size ... so I took a deep breath ... put a fresh battery on the sawzall ... and now the radiator fits. Mostly. The two upper brackets still need to come off in order for the grille cowling to sit down on the top of the radiator. The gap formed by the two brackets being there will prevent the radiator cap from fitting.



I was also able to do a rudimentary leak check on the radiator, too. So far, so good.

And it turns out that where Dean's Lurch has wire fasteners on the radiator supports, I had two sets of ... clips? that draw the parts together and hold them.

And here is what the clip arrangement looks like

Slept on the couch, huh?

Oh no. It was a great afternoon at our house.

I wish ...

Today, got the complete radiator and cowl assembly mounted on the truck and the engine on the engine stand to check all the bearings. Big day.