The Stovebolt Site Forums Project Journals Project Journals 1950 Chevy 1/2-ton Farm Truck: Frame-up restoration/modification

In about 1970, my Dad found a need for a pickup to help us build a log house on a lake lot he and Mom had purchased. My Grandfather knew one of his old friends (Mr. Puhallo) had a 1951 3100 that he had bought new. Hed used the truck daily to haul tomatoes and apples to the local distribution center in Kamloops, BC. From there, the distribution center sent the produce out to various grocery stores. Mr. Puhallo was thinking of selling his old truck because he was slowing down, and just didn’t see the need for the old green truck any more. A deal was struck, and we walked over to drive the truck the two blocks home to its new parking spot.

Over the years of building our log house, that truck served admirably. My younger sister and I would get wedged into the box, with the dog and building supplies piled around us, while my older sister got to ride up front with Mom and Dad. It was a pretty dusty ride, and everybody in the back was pretty happy to see the lake so we could rinse the dust out of our eyes, ears and mouths.

In the spring, the road was horrible and Dad, always the optimist, would plow into huge mud bogs, secure in the knowledge that if we got stuck (and we ALWAYS did), I was 14, and with a lot of practice (thanks Dad) I became pretty handy at getting the chains on the back wheels. Plus, my arguments about getting dirty didn’t carry much conviction. We were stuck, and the only way out was to get the chains on. Clearly Dad wasn't going to roll around in the mud -- he had to stay clean and drive. Mom, my two sisters and I got to push, and we would eventually get clear.

When I turned 16, I learned to drive on the old green truck. I eventually bought it from Dad, for the enormous sum of $600, and it became my daily driver, getting me back and forth to school and up into the hills where there were all kinds of roads leading to unknown locations.

I torched the original 216 cu.in. engine, but found a replacement 235 in a ‘56 Pontiac. That was when I learned how to change an engine. It couldn’t have taken much more than 2-3 weeks to get that job done. I remember a friend hating that I shifted from 2nd to 3rd with two fingers as we drove home from the ski hill. That old column shift was like buttered silk.I kept the truck until about 1985 when out of province work kept us apart. I eventually sold it to the Father of a friend, who wanted a cool old truck to drive around and wasn’t going to mess with what was still mostly original.

Fast forward to 2010, and I was married with two young boys, and living in Maine. I had borrowed an apple ladder from one of my wife’s colleagues, and returned it the next day to find out he wasn’t home. His garage was open, so I thought I would just put the ladder under cover. There, on the other side of the garage, sat an old, black-looking, dusty 3100.

I talked to him later and asked what the story was on his old truck. He bought it out of Colorado for his wife’s 50th birthday (in 2000) but it turned out his wife liked looking at old trucks, but didn’t really like driving an old truck. I told him that if she ever decided to sell it, I would be very interested. Maybe eight years later, I got a phone call that the truck was for sale, and if I still wanted it, they would sell it for what they paid for it in 2000.

I couldn’t get over there fast enough. We handed over a check, they handed over the registration and a bill of sale, and I climbed aboard for the four mile drive home. This is when I realized why hid wife Heidi hated driving that truck. The tires were badly split with dry rot but I figured I wasn’t going to be driving over 35 mph, and they would probably get me home. The first time I tagged the brakes, the rear brake cylinders seized and for the remaining 3 7/8 miles, the engine had to work harder.

I got the truck home without further mishaps, and tore the brakes apart and replaced all four shoe pairs as well as the brake cylinders, and soft brake lines. While I was there, I also swapped out the front wheel bearings for a tapered set, and flushed and repacked the rears. I also purchased a new of set radials and 15” wheels.

The paint on the truck was heavily oxidized and covered in dust, and I wasn't’ sure what the color actually was. So I set to work with some cut-polish and a 5” polisher. I was really surprised to see dark green paint emerge. I had another green truck in my life.

When I had the 1951 farm truck, Mr. Puhallo had no desire or reason to get the deluxe cab, so all the trim was painted. At some point in my adolescent life, I saw a deluxe cab and loved the look of the chrome grill and window trim. So, while I was working away at what was really a cosmetic overhaul of the ‘50 half ton, I started searching for chrome trim to make it a deluxe cab.

My thoughts were to use the truck as a delivery vehicle for the high end furniture I was building. The body of the truck was still in remarkable condition for a 70 year old truck, and after polishing the oxidation out, the paint still had good shine. The inside of the bed was a whole other story, and had all kinds of battle scars from 70 years of work.

I ground out probably 3/8” putty from the top of the top rails of the bed, got some metal damage sorta squared away, and shot new paint into the box.

The old wood in the bed just had to be replaced, and so did the black wear strips between the planks. I milled out some white oak, sanded and stained it, then laid 15 coats of Epifanes varnish on both top and bottom of the planks before replacing them in the bed. I found a stainless grill, stainless window trim, and replaced the wear strips in the bed with stainless.

After that short list of “improvements,” I bolted the box back on and drove the truck for a number of years. I have the 4-speed granny low transmission, and it’s geared so low that you need to shift into second about half way through the intersection, but 2nd isn’t geared low enough to really get going off the line. Top speed is all of 45 mph. I started looking around for more replacement parts.

I found a 292 cu.in. engine from a 1967 pickup, and eventually located a Muncie M21 with a new clutch and all associated bolts and bits for reassembly. In one of my stops to talk to neighbors, I was given a Mustang ll IFS with disc brakes and a power rack. Now, the wheels are turning and what I thought was going to be a restoration, has turned into what I think of as a ‘50 style hot rod with some upgrades.

As I thought back to my early experience with engine replacement, I decided that removal of the front clip was going to make that job a lot easier. Imagine my surprise when I started finding rust and rot (gasp) when I pulled the fenders away from the cab. What I had thought was a rust-free truck, was not terrible, but not what I wanted to be putting back together.

I have some experience rebuilding and restoring antique woodworking machinery, and my shop is fully outfitted with mostly mid-50’s English machinery, with a couple of early 20th century machines. How hard can it be to restore a ‘50 Chev truck? So, I started pulling apart every piece of the truck that would separate from the frame. As it came apart, I bagged and tagged every bolt and kept all assemblies and their associated bolts together. It’s surprising how much room a dis-assembled truck takes up. I progressed as far as getting the front axle and suspension removed, and was ready to start in on the removal of the rear end when a vacation to the tropics interrupted work.

Unfortunately, on that vacation to the tropics I had a scuba accident, and spent the next two months in various hospitals re-learning how to walk. That work is ongoing, but happily to me, I’m once again upright, and even though walking is super slow and often painful, I’m able to walk.

I think that in the next few months, I’m going to be able to get back to my truck and continue the restoration.

Paul, you have a great truck and even greater story.

Thank you for sharing the pics.

John

This is a great story to read. You are a great story-teller. Will be anxious to read more ... when you get to that point. We sure hope your rehab progresses well. You do sound motivated.

Paul,

Cool story! Spent a lot of time in my youth in Falmouth/Yarmouth/Freeport helping a family friend who was a lobsterman. I think we got a lot of our bait for the lobster traps from a place in Falmouth right on Rt 1. I'm from a little further north in Kennebec County I left home in '83 courtesy of an appointment to the Naval Academy and have been "away" ever since. Anyway -- Cool truck, cool story and welcome to Stovebolt!

Ayuh,
Cap'n John

I too enjoyed your story & tales from your youth. I especially like the old pics. I pray your full recovery comes soon. Take care!

I love your story and the history on your truck. Great find especially in the northeast. Congratulations!

I do have a comment though. Are you sure your truck is a 50? Maybe it’s the photo, but the doors look like they have vent windows which would indicate that they are at least from a ‘51 or newer.

Good point on the vent windows. I’ve never actually checked the serial numbers to decipher a build date. My registration says it’s a ‘50, so to me, it’s always been a ‘50.
One thing I have noticed is that the door bottoms don’t fit the sheet metal at the cab, and by a lot. I think the doors stick out in the neighborhood of 5/8-3/4”. I didn’t spend a lot of time trying to adjust them, because they were coming off and the cab needs some inpatient surgery anyway. The other possibility is, the doors may be repair replacements from a newer truck.

Nice truck! The vent windows and push button handles (instead of swing down) indicate that the doors are either 1952 or 1953.
Kent

Paul, we have a great Tech Tip for identifying a lot of those little details: Advance Design Spotting Guide. Including a bit of a poster to download.

Paul, what a great story and the details are so well written. I look forward to more of it and praying for your speedy recovery. 🙏

I have been beating my uncooperative legs into submission with regular walks to nowhere on our basement treadmill. They’re not happy, but they are also not in charge. The most difficulty I have is in standing, so I found myself what I like to call “an [censored]-job”. This particular a-job has been to tear down the 292 cu in motor I have had in inventory for 5 or 6 years. My wonderful wife bought me a Vyper chair for Christmas last year, and it’s finally getting some use.
The first order of business has been to remove the manifolds and carb, peel off the fuel pump, remove the distributor and head. The harmonic balancer presented a problem in that it didn’t want to come off with the 3 jaw puller I had, so I moved on to removing the pistons. It was after I had all the pistons sitting on my bench that I phoned the machine shop where the block is destined, to find out exactly what they needed. That would have been a phone call best made before removing the pistons. I want to deck my block, and that can’t be done without an existing measurement from the top of the piston crown to the top of the block. Hmmm. I guess one of those pistons has to be reinstalled on the crank to get that measurement. I’ll pretend the block is already bored out and the re-install is practice for the actual re-install.
I’m waiting for a couple of tools before proceeding. One is a harmonic balancer puller, the other is a piston ring compressor.

If you're not going to reuse the piston rings (which isn't a good idea anyway), just remove them from one of the pistons to reinstall the piston and rod to the crank. No need for a ring compressor (yet).

Now that you mention that bit of common sense, I’m wondering what I was thinking. The rings are getting scrapped alright. I’ll re-install a piston the easy way and measure my space. Thanks for your help.

I’m finally back at work on my truck, but the time I am really able to spend on it is still limited.
I know. 15 minutes a day and it’ll eventually get done. My brain isn’t wired that way, and I much prefer getting to work, and working until just before I start making mistakes. A young boatbuilder asked me years ago if there was any way to tell if the hole he needed to drill was going to go all the way through and split out the back side of the panel. I told him to put his hand on the back of the panel, and stop drilling just before he drilled into his palm. He gave me a real look, like maybe I shouldn’t be in charge or something. I just laughed. It’s the way we learn that is interesting to me. I can’t recommend the hand behind the drill method, but I’ve learned the warning signs of getting tired over the years and know when it’s time to walk away.
So back to my truck. I have the chassis up on stands, and leveled it to check and record the centerline of the front and rear end. I only measured one side for the rear end, but Interestingly, the front end measured 1/8” difference from side to side using the frame rails as reference. I’m going to find a center point on the frame and check diagonals, and I’m also going to check the other side of the rear end measurement. It’s possible I guess that the frame isn’t square, but a few more measurements will tell me a lot.

After many months of looking at that rear end hanging off the back of my frame, I finally separated it today and pushed it sort of out of the way.
Before I unbuckled the rear end, I confirmed my “build to” dimensions for both the front and rear ends, and wrote them down in my book, which will eventually have all the info for what I’ve done, what I’ve used, and maybe even what I wished I’d done or used.

I have been writing down info too. If I ever need to go back to verify something, at least I have it down in a note book. Also, I've been trying to take lots of pictures, but sometimes I get busy and forget. Glad you are back and working again.

Sometimes we forget to look at the bigger picture while we congratulate ourselves on progress.
I took my engine block to a machine shop to be magnafluxed and massaged. I finally received the call that it was ready to come home, so drove an hour north to collect it. It looked great. Clean of all paint, all shiny milled surfaces and cleanliness everywhere I looked. I got it home and then had a number of other things that needed attention and it stayed in the back of the truck for 1 1/2 days until I could get back to it. For some inexplicable reason, I forgot what happens to clean cast iron when it’s left, and how fast that happens. When I got my block out of the truck and into my shop, it had covered itself in a haze of rust.
It’s going to be wire wheel time this afternoon after I seal the block top and bottom. I’ll prime it when it’s clean again, and keep the rust-monster at bay until it’s time to shoot color on my engine.

I have finally gotten back to work on my truck.
The engine that has been sitting in inventory was stripped and delivered to a machine shop to be massaged and returned, which is where I am now. Because this is a budget restoration, I have gone the direction of getting the block done and once that is back together I’ll do the head. In hindsight, I’m glad I went this route.
After a few phone calls to the machine shop, which was an hour away, Nate listed all the parts I was going to bring with the engine block. “Are you sure that’s all I need to bring?” He assured me that was everything. So I loaded everything in the truck and headed north. As I was unloading, Nate asked where the pistons were? 😳 I have zero experience with machine shops and engines, but I stayed calm and told him they were in my shop because he hadn’t said to bring them even after I had repeated what he asked for and asked again if that was everything. So, back I drove to get more parts, but not before asking again if that was all they needed.
Two hours later, I was back and this time Nate asked where the main caps were, which is when I guess I went full Yosemite Sam on him. Luckily the owner overheard my unhappiness and came around the corner to see what was going on. He drove down to my shop later that night to pick up the rest of the parts that Nate had neglected to inform me, were necessary for them to do their job.
Nate should have a check-list of all the parts that are needed for an engine job, no matter how small or large the job is.
I got the block masked and shot with primer, then shot 3 coats of color on it and the oil pan. I went with stock Forester Green because I want to retain the original color somewhere. When I repaint the eventual reassembled sheet metal, I’m going with a much lighter green.
I am working on getting my crank bolted in place, and am having clearance issues between the crank journals and the main caps. I have the caps numbered so they are going back the same way each time, but a couple of them are too tight, a couple are too loose, and some are just right. (Like the three bears) I’ll rearrange the placement of the caps and the plasigage material to hopefully arrive at a regulation 0.002 clearance under my caps. If not I guess I have another phone call with Nate.

I'm liking these rebuild stories - keep them coming! I agree, Nate should have a check-list to make sure he gets everything he needs. Or at least a handout sheet for customers.

John, we agree! We like them too. As the Gallery submissions continued to grow way back when, having this DITY Gallery forum sure made a lot of sense to us.
Glad you have your 1946 in there, too! "I don't really have a great story about the truck" ... we disagree. You've got some great step by step posts! With great images! I bet a bunch of Bolters are learning a few things.

I have been working on my engine. I got it machined, painted and have started the re-assembly. Last week I managed to get my crank in, got all the main cap tolerances dialed in, and then lubed and torqued them down. Today after checking all the con-rod tolerances, I got the bearings lubed and the caps torqued.
Next up is to get the plate off my old cam and get it and the new gear pressed onto my new cam.
Pictures coming

Does anyone have 292 casting codes? I’ve been searching around and have struck out.
My casting numbers are:
CON 2 L 101 3994258
Stamped number is F124TKL

Engine is looking good!

Paul, Some quick checks of my resource documents comes back with:

Casting# 3994258 = 1963-72 292

CON 2 = Assembly Plant Conveyor# 2

Block Casting Date Code L 101 = L - December, 10 - 10th Day of December, 1 = Build Year - 1971 (this would likely make it a 1972 model year engine)

Serial# F124TKL = F - Flint Plant, 124 = sequential number, TKL (called an engine "suffix" code) - 1971 & 1972 292 CID 6 Cyl - C10, K10, C20, K20, Suburban models

The serial# and casting date code pretty much confirms this should be from a 1972 model year truck. I think this give you what you need.

Thank you. That gives me exactly what I was looking for. When I bought it, I was told it came out of a K10, but in the intervening years I had completely forgotten the year.

Glad to be of help Paul.

I got my crank gear removed and replaced yesterday. I read in the instructions that came with my gears, to not mix manufacturers, keep the new gears together. Yea, whatever I said. The old gear looked exactly like the new gear, the teeth meshed up, and it was going to be pain to remove and probably a bigger pain to replace. So, I did what any red-blooded American would do. I persevered and got the old gear removed and the new one pushed on.
With the old gear in my hand, it was pretty obvious that one of the teeth was deformed and would have been a problem had I left it in place. On to the cam gear.
Mostly I needed the thrust plate under the cam gear. I could have cut the old cam in half and slipped the thrust plate off, but that would be a waste of a good cam that someone might be able to use. Perseverance once again, and the two pieces separated and the thrust plate was mine. There was no spacer ring under it, or on the cam though, so I guess I’m not putting the new gear on my new cam until 12bolt Tom’s package arrives next week. Oh well, now I have time to do all the things I should be doing instead of playing trucks.

When things go bad, and by that I mean expensive, there are a couple of common causes. Stubbornness and stupidity (listed together because they’re best friends) are one, while ignorance is another.
I had a bad spell the other day. I watched a couple of videos and decided I didn’t need to sub out getting my timing gear on the cam. I got everything set up, got the cam secured in a vertical position, gloves, torch, dead blow hammer, woodruff key in place, and I heated the gear to place it on my cam.
The first attempt was super easy, but the woodruff key fell out. The gear came off by hand, and the second attempt had the same result. The darn woodruff key fell off again. By now the gear had cooled and had a pretty good bind on my cam, and this is where the stupidity came in. Instead of reheating the gear, I put my puller on it and started winding the puller post against the end of my cam. After a few turns I heard the gear release, which is when I realized I had fractured my gear and it hadn’t released from my cam at all. Excellent.
When I heated the gear a couple of days later to remove it, it came off annoyingly easily, which kind of made me ripped. It could have really given me a struggle so I didn’t feel so numb from attempting the removal without heat. Lesson learned.
I’m going to glue the woodruff key into the cam with red loktite, and be more careful when my new timing set arrives.
I almost hesitated to admit to this bit of brain fartedness, but we’re all human and we all make mistakes. This probably won’t even be my worst one by the time I get my truck back together. We pick ourselves back up, and keep moving forward.

Always good to learn from mistakes. Not always good to make mistakes, but good to learn from them anyway. Can't tell you how many times I've ended up buying the same parts. I guess it's only $$$. But one thing I feel good about is pushing forward. I sleep good at night.

I finally got back to my motor the other day. I still had trouble with that darn woodruff key that kept falling out. After spending some time measuring things, I realized that the milled slot in my old cam gear was deeper than the milled slot in my new cam gear. A futile visit to a machine shop nearby to see if they had the next smaller size key, resulted in me spending some time with a file, making my old woodruff key smaller. After some minutes of modifying, my cam gear dropped right over the woodruff key and cam end, and sat for a while to cool and shrink. The cam is now inserted in my motor and I’m ready to put the oil pan on.
Maybe I’m crazy, but I took all the oil pan bolts over to my wire wheel and cleaned all the crap off the threads, and then cleaned all the crap off the heads. Then I shot all the heads with gloss black and will fasten my pan in place when the paint is dry.

Not crazy. I wire wheel all fasteners and threads after removal. Depending on what I'm working on the heads sometimes get painted.

I have my motor put on the back burner for a while until I can afford to get my head done. I have a ton of other work to do, so there’s no standing around wondering what I can do.
I started welding in boxing plates on my frame the other day. I have to grind a lot of rivets and pound them out, to remove all the X members. I have reference marks on both frame rails front and back if I have to re-square everything back up to re-install my
X members when I’m done.
I’m still have a lot of difficulty getting down on the floor and then getting back on my feet, so test hefted my frame off the jack stands, and thought it might be doable to flip it on edge. Then I rethought that idea, and took down my front clip that has been hanging from a chain fall so I could use that instead. It took the afternoon to take apart my clip, and this morning I’ll move all the parts behind my shop and stash them in my truck box.
Back to my frame; The main x member has rivets top and bottom and through the sides of the C-channel. I found the easiest way to remove the rivet heads, was using a sawzall on the heads and finishing up with a die grinder, then pounding them out with a bolt held by vise grips. The flare in the bottom of the C channel by the rear end location seems to be made by heating with a torch and pounding the bottom of the channel down some. It’s pretty wavy, and each side is slightly different. I’m not sure what the reasoning was behind that, but there it is.I fitted my boxing plates as best I could, then tacked them in place.
I’m not the worst welder on the planet, but looking at the first side I did, you wouldn’t know it. Even from a distance it looks pretty bad. I’m going to grind my slag flat, cut it loose and start again. To me, it’s unacceptable and there wasn't even an argument with myself about who was right, and who was wrong.
I’ll post some progress photos when I have something exciting to share.

Ok, now I have something exciting. In the previous post, I mentioned the swelled out sections of the frame back by the rear end. I welded my first boxing plates in like this a few days ago and it’s been bugging me ever since.

So the first thing I did when I went inside the shop was to cut one the passenger side boxing plates loose, ground everything flat and re-beveled my mating edges. I then squared down from the top of the C channel and marked the bottom where I needed to cut it. Mr Sawzall took care of the excess. After that bit of surgery, the plate fit much better, and I was much happier with the way it looks. By the end of my work day, I had 3 of the four plates stitched to the C channel and ready to final weld.

This metal work is a new thing for me. I’ve been a woodworker ever since I was 14, and this project is my first attempt at cutting and shaping metal and welding it together. I never imagined that the thing to cut would be the frame rails of the truck,and that was my mistake. Once I figured out what was wrong, it was a relatively easy fix. The boxing plate on the driver’s side will be a replacement. I got the bottom to fit pretty well, but then ground the top of the plate to match my frame rail. It’s already too small, so I’ll get another piece of steel on Monday.

It's looking pretty good Paul. I always debate about getting a welder. Lots of instructions on YouTube and it looks like something I could handle.

It’s not particularly hard John, just a matter of mastering the technique to be able to lay down a good strong bead. My plan had always been to box in my frame, and build up from that. When I started peeling my truck apart, it became clear that I was going to have to learn how to weld sheet metal too. Now here’s where I put my enabler hat back on. Once you have a welder, think about how many household projects you could fix yourself. In fact, you could buy a bunch of busted metal stuff just so you could fix them all with that new, handy welder.

If you get a welder, you'll find lots of "friends" who need things fixed also.

Paul, on your boxing plates, if you're going to end them somewhere along the frame, the recommended procedure is to have the end scalloped (cut back in the center of the boxing plate and getting thinner as they meet the frame flanges.) What that does is reduce the stress at the flange to boxing plate joint, by allowing the boxing plate to flex a bit with the flange. A sharp angle there concentrates stress and would increase the possibility of a crack starting at the joint.

Thanks Kevin, I’ll look into that but may need some more clarification.

Paul

LIke this:

So that scallop goes at the very end of the boxing plates at the ends of the frame rails? I still have short sections of plate to cut once I release the last X members.

If you're running the plates all the way to the end, there's no need for the scallop. That end can be flat, as there's no stress at the end like there would be at the middle. If you're boxing the whole length of the frame, then a scallop wouldn't be needed.

Even better. Thanks Kevin

I told myself I would go down to the shop and just spend maybe an hour working on my truck. I have a lot of welding to finish off the seams on my boxing plates, so started on the front plate on the passenger side. I welded an inch and ran into a spot bead, which was kind of annoying. I jumped back a foot and welded another inch and ran into another spot bead. It was at that point that I started to rethink my strategy of many spot welds to reduce concentrated heat in my frame rails. I shut off my welder, and picked up my 4” grinder. I ground down all the spots, and merrily welded 2” strips of bead before leaping ahead a foot to do another.
In hindsight, the way I have approached this boxing project has been too tentative. I didn’t want to create too much heat, but I could have used fewer spot welds and achieved the same result. Live and learn.

My one hour in the shop, turned into 5 hours down there. I had the two forward plates to locate and weld in. I have to leave the forward X member in place because that’s where the core support bolts on. So, my boxing plates aren’t going all the way to the forward end of my frame. I cut out some half circles at the forward end of my forward plate where it meets the X member (thanks Kevin). I managed to get all but about 7” of seam welded before my wire spool ran dry. I was already tired and had I not run out of wire, I would have finished up. As it was, I changed the wire spool and turned out the lights.

I like the "15 minutes per day". You can a lot done in 15 minutes or 5 hours! When you hit your groove, you just want to keep going.

That may be true on some days, but I didn’t have much of a groove going today. I did finish up all the welding, and got the bottom side of the passenger side frame ground flat. Not much motivation today, and I stopped after 2’ on the driver’s side.

With the clear weather and high atmospheric pressure, walking was once again manageable. I was happily skipping around the shop, graceful as a little gazelle and making plans to hang my motor and get started on whatever needed to happen to fasten my motor mounts.
I had looked at 12Bolt and balked at paying $115 for a set of mounts, so went to Speedway Auto and opted for the $7.00 ones that were reported to be the stock units. When I pulled them out and went to attach them to my block, only one of the bolt holes lined up. “Hmmm”, says me to me “clearly this isn’t right”.
I trudged back inside, and opened the page to 12Bolt and sheepishly pressed “buy” for the previously too expensive set. While I’m waiting for 12Bolt Tom to box and ship, I’ll get my bell and transmission bolted onto the end of my block so I can locate my frame bracing that has the trans X member built in.

Here is the X member carnage. The main member was built in place from two pieces and it was clear it wasn’t coming out in one. Mr Sawzall made removal pretty easy. The last X member I remove was the one to the very rear of my frame. I welded on a piece of 2x2 angle iron, to tie the two frame rails together, then removed the last bit of stock structure. I have it marked to cut and weld back in place if I decide to go that route, but am currently thinking of a piece of heavy round tube to carry the new upper shock mounts.

I have my new bracing sort of tentatively located. It’s at least within a couple of inches of where it’s going to live. The transmission attachment plate is resting where it’s probably going to live. The width of these assemblies needs to be cut to fit my rails. The space between them, where my tube will run, should be about 7 wider than what is shown. The transmission mounting plate shows how much I need to dice off the ends of the tubes. I’ll have a better idea when my motor mounts arrive and I can get my motor and transmission measurements.

On to housekeeping: I have been bothered by the lack of light, but am not allowed to climb ladders yet. Now that I am no longer spending time inside a welding helmet, the lack of overhead light is an issue. Our 15 year old doesn’t know it yet, but he’s about to volunteer for ladder duty and “changing tube fixture camp”. I’m sure he’ll be thrilled, as only a 15 year old can express.

I forgot to add this photo. Kevin Hansen alerted me that leaving the boxing plates square where they ended, would lead to premature (never one of my favorite words) stress and potential cracking. He instructed me that I should put a scallop at the ends, or in this case, trace a paint can and cut it out.
At the back end, I ran the boxing plates the full length after welding on the 2x2 angle. I haven’t decided whether I will cap them or leave them open. I have lots of time for that decision.

Your progress is looking good. 👍

Thanks John, another benefit of poor lighting 😁
It feels good to be done with the boxing plates. It was a tedious project that kept me occupied with thoughts of waterskiing and weekends at the lake.

Paul -- About your lighting... Are you switching out from florescents to LEDs?

Yes, I was given a bunch of LED fixtures but didn’t get enough to eliminate the fluorescent ones.

Today was the day I re-leveled my frame and got ready to hang the engine sorta where it’s going to live. I spent about 2 hours lifting and wedging and finally got it so it was level on both frame rails and across the ends.
Whoohoo, I’m making progress now!
I received my motor mounts from 12BoltTom, got them bolted to my block and got my engine hung from my engine crane. Then I started maneuvering that whole lash up so the block was over the frame opening. This is when I reached the first hurdle, and it stopped me dead in my tracks. The darn engine crane won’t let me position the engine even close to centerline. I needed to pick up the engine with my chainfall, but that meant moving my frame over about a foot so it’s under the centerline of my chainfall. This is when I reached the second hurtle. When I lifted the front of the frame on my floor jack, it fell off the jack stands aft. And this is when I knew my day was over.
I have the engine hanging inside the frame, but I now need to re-level it and make sure it’s still square. I made punch marks on the top outside radius of my rails, directly over the axle centerlines. Pulling diagonals between those punch marks will let me know pretty fast if I’m good to go.

I have been getting my engine placed fore and aft in my frame. I thought I had it fairly close at the end of messing with it yesterday, but looked at it today and started all over. God only knows what I was looking at yesterday, or maybe some vandals got into my shop last night and adjusted it for me.
Anyway, now that it’s on centerline and level, I started patterning my frame mounts. I started by bolting a pad to the motor mounts, and then worked with thick cardboard before transferring my shapes to 1/4” plywood. Once I had them fitted to my satisfaction, I hot-glued them together.
Now I am working on fitting the tubular bracing inside my frame. At first layout, it looks like I have a total of 4 1/2” to cut off each assembly. I’m going to start with 2 1/2” and lay them back on my strong backs and see what it looks like.

Paul - Looking at your mock up of the engine mounts, my mind asked this question. What are you planning on using to act as a vibration/engine movement damper or buffer with the frame?

A solid mount from frame to block is going to transfer all the engine vibration and torque twisting directly to your frame, potentially leading to a very uncomfortable ride experience I think.

Good point Dan, thanks. I’ll have to rethink this.

This is why I love the Stovebolt community! Post what you are doing and you get extra eyes to help you think about your project and give you additional ideas.

My 15 minutes in the shop was more like 3 hours, but I’m moving ahead. My tubular stiffenizer arrived in 6 pieces, so I laid it out on the floor, made sure it was square and tacked it together. I finished all the welds with it placed on my frame to get it at a comfortable height. It is now placed about where it’s going to live within eyeball tolerances. My string line has vaporized, so I’ll pick up another coil of string tomorrow and place it where it really wants live before marking the tubes to fit between my frame rails.

Paul - I think here's a possibility maybe worth considering on revising your engine mounts. Perhaps use these insert mounts bolted to your existing black bracket (3 point bolt side). You will then need to reconfigure your frame stand piece to step the mount face back enough to fit the mount between the two fixed brackets.

The frame side plate would be setup for a single bolt/washer connection that goes up through the underside of the plate into the flexible mount center threaded insert. The insert mounts become your front of engine vibration dampers. Make sense?

I’m thinking about this style of mount. It will isolate the engine vibrations, it’s clean and elegant, and the vendor has excellent reviews. It’s from Paul Horton Hotrods up in Ontario.

Paul, I saw that one too when I was peeking through the web. As you mentioned it does look well engineered and should perform well. My suggestion was mostly based on thinking you might want to use the already made mounts attached to your engine.

As you say, it does look "clean and elegant". Looking forward to seeing how things turn out.

One thing I noticed if I’m interpreting the picture correctly is engines are typically not level. They need to be matched to the angle of the rear end so the universal joints work properly. The intake manifold where the carburetor sits is normally level and a good place to start.

Thanks for that, I placed it level and on centerline so I could pattern my frame mounts (aborted) and place my tubular stiffenizer to catch the end of the transmission. The motor is where it needs to be fore and aft, but that’s all.
My plan is to get the front and rear ends back in once my bracing is welded in place. As soon as my bracing is located fore and aft, the motor will come back out and go back on its dolly until it’s really time to place it.
I’m really appreciative of you guys keeping an eye on me as I move forward on this project.

I have been spending a lot of time getting my tubular stiffenizer into my frame, and today it is finally in. Being that the frame is a big wedge, fitting the ends of the tubes to the frame rails was pretty straight forward. I marked my cut lines with the whole assembly on top of my frame rails and back about 2” from where I wanted it to be. That guaranteed that it was going to be big and I could fine-tune it forward to where it would finally live. I clamped it from the forward X member, and ran a saw blade between my frame rails and the tube ends to correct any misalignment from my initial cuts. Once it was slid forward into place and fitting nicely between my rails, I measured diagonals between my axle centerlines that I had punched into my frame rails tops. The green tape tabs are where my punch marks are, and makes them easy to find. The frame was out of square about 3/8” so I put a come-along across the long diagonal and ratcheted it square. I have the tubes about 75% welded, but I was getting tired and walked away. I’ll finish them up tomorrow and then give the whole assembly a cleanup with my grinder so it’s ready for filler and paint when the time comes.

I have reached a decision point that I am not ready to make yet. It’s my rear end that I need to decide on. On the one hand, I have an OE rear that I can slide new gears into, replace all the seals and shims and put the 1950 rear back in my frame. That would be after cutting off all the factory brackets because I’m not going to be going back to leaf springs. Or, wait until I can afford to buy a Ford 9” without already installed brackets that need to be cut off, that is already set up for highway speeds, and that doesn’t have to be modified for disc brakes.
With all of that hanging in the balance, I’m going back to my engine. I have the head back from the machine shop with all new valves and hardened seats, new valve springs, and I have even shot some paint on it.
Since putting the lower end back together, I have second guessed myself on whether it was assembled properly so the first order of business is going to be going backwards before I can go forward. I’m going to dismantle everything I have re-mantled, and recheck assembly.
I know, but I have the time and I want to be completely sure of internals before I bolt everything else together again and start bolting on the externals.

I never gave it much thought before, but every welding or fabrication shop I have ever been in has been pretty dark. I found out why. Welding and then grinding welds makes a lot of black dust. My shop and everything in it has gotten pretty well covered in a fine layer of black steel dust, so to combat it I’ve been driving my shop vac around doing my best to clean it up.
But not all at once.
I spent an hour with a 4” grinder and a cup wheel, removing the “safety orange” paint off my old Muncie M21/new Saginaw. I rattle-canned a coat of Forrester Green on it before stopping for the night.

Wow Paul - That is looking sweet! Hard to tell that it is the same transmission. Well done.

Does that M21 have a cast iron case? I have never seen a cast iron Muncie.

Thanks John.
And TUTS, it sure looked like iron to me. I was expecting an aluminum case when I started peeling paint, but that would explain the weight too.

Paul - That's a Saginaw cast iron 4 -speed. A solid transmission for your truck. The M21 would have been an aluminum case Muncie product.

If you’re right, and you probably are, (2 out of 3 doctors and all) I’ve been hosed. I was told it was an M21 by the guy I bought it from.

Sorry Hope the wallet bite wasn't too horrendous! FWIW, it could still do what you want as far as driveability goes. If you want to know more on the specific transmission, how to ID, gear ratios and the like, post the question in the Driveline Forum where we can break it down and/or point you to what you'd like to know.

It’s all good Dan. It’s pretty likely the gentleman didn’t know it wasn’t an M21. He seemed pretty darn honest and a total straight shooter.
But now that you got me on the “things I’d like to know” path, here’s one.
Why isn’t there a warning tag that the transmission shouldn’t be left vertical overnight? 😂😖
Luckily I have loads of absorbent sawdust.

Whoopsie - LOL! I didn't say anything when I first saw the pic as I figured you wouldn't have stood it up for painting full of earl. Many of the earlier manual transmissions didn't use seals at all, just a "slinger" to keep oil back out of the input shaft collar, and those only work when on a mostly level plane and oil level is at proper level or below. Sometimes parking on a steep downhill slope could result in oil getting out and ruining a perfectly good clutch.

Neither the EPA, nor the Coast Guard showed up so I think we can pretend that little oil spill didn’t happen.
I had been having thoughts of impending disaster, and second guessing myself about the way I put the lower end of my engine together. I decided to pull apart everything I had done and start over. I had numbered my main caps with a sharpie when I took them out, but then had moved a couple into different locations in an effort to get better clearance numbers. After thinking about it for a couple or three weeks, I realized that each of those caps would probably have a number stamped in it. I started taking apart my engine on Thursday, and sure enough I found some numbers stamped on the main caps. Three of them were completely legible, but 2 were only moderately visible and the last 2 were really questionable. With the aid of a really strong light, I was able to get five of my seven caps in order, then finally made out the 6th one, and the process of elimination identified the 7th.
On Friday I started back in with torquing my main caps and checking clearances. They didn’t change much. My tightest one was 0.0015, and two were about 0.0018 and four were 0.002. I cleaned off the plastigauge schmutz, lubed the bearings and torqued my mains down. The connecting rods all measured 0.002 except one that was a tad tighter and I estimated it to be 0.0018.
Now I can sleep peacefully. Do I feel a little foolish about mixing up my cap order? Sure, but I’ve never had an engine apart before and I’m learning as I go.
With that bit of worry taken off my plate, I refastened the timing cover, set the harmonic balancer, and the oil pan in place and fastened them, then set my head in place and torqued it down. I slathered the lifters and slid them in place, and then put the push rods in their homes.The side covers are fastened in place temporarily until my cast aluminum ones arrive. They’ll keep dust and debris out while I continue to forge ahead.

I seem to second guess a lot of things I've done while putting this '46 together. Mostly I believe I'm OK since I research each task and ask questions before tackling it. But, one that's been on my mind lately is the water pump. I was reading some posts about the water pump and sealing the threads. I think I did, but now I'm second guessing myself.

It’s 4 bolts John. Take it off and check. I have found that when I’m second guessing myself, there’s a reason for it. It was a total step backwards for me, but I’m not sorry I did it. I really should ask more questions before I end up getting myself in trouble. I was thinking earlier that there is so much knowledge here and I should take advantage of it more.
Unlike you, I’m more of a “go for it” guy, and I pay for that sometimes

I spent a couple of hours yesterday, attempting to bolt up my intake and exhaust. The Clifford intake looks great, but the bolt locations aren’t exactly accurate. After much fussing and enlarging holes, I finally just walked away from it. Besides, there was a hockey game I needed to watch.
The Oilers won 5-1 in case everybody or even anybody was wondering.
Back at it this morning for another hour and I finally have it
semi-bolted down. I need to fabricate two custom saddles to fit into spaces my fingers barely go.
Anyhow, it’s eye candy and it’s fun for me to look at.

That color really looks nice.👍

John

Those are some monster carbs! My little single barrel is feeling a wee bit inadequate. 😁 Wondering why the front half of the header points back and not down?

More gasoline than the engine can possibly use.

They are a pair of Weber 2 barrel carbs. I expect my motor to be making 320-350 hp and I don’t want it going thirsty.
I think the tube length is the same front and back. I wondered why it didn’t go down too, but it may look better when the exhaust is run.

Go oilers Go