The Stovebolt Site Forums Welcome! Welcome Centre Do It Yourself (DITY) Gallery 1955 1st series 3600 - We call *it* "Half Back"

The time has come. We're about to get serious about getting the truck on the road. I want to warn you right out of the gates, this truck will be built in fits and starts. It's nowhere near my only project and it's not pivotal to operations around here so it won't be the first thing to get wrenched on, but it will get wrenched on. I don't think there will be a ton of work required to get it road worthy, but a fair amount of work nonetheless. My wife hasn't named the truck. The folks we got it from called it Old Blue. We already have an Old Blue Chevrolet, so that won't work. Hence my name Older Blue. I don't like Older Blue as a name for the truck, so we'll call it Half Back for obvious reasons until the truck gets an official name. I'm not even sure I like Half Back, but whatever.

So lets get started.

I have what I believe to be a '55 3600. This truck has been in my wife's family for quite sometime, but I'm unsure just exactly how long. It made its way to us and we are going to try to get it back to use.

After sitting since 2004, at the very least, we were able to get it running last night. I use the term "running" loosely as we had to bypass the ignition switch and pour gas in the carb to keep it going. There is no key and the floats don't seem to be stopping the gas flow. There also no fuel tank. You get the picture.

The cab of the truck seems to be almost completely solid. There's nothing rusted through that I've seen, although there's a piece of sheet metal in the drivers floor pan that might be a replacement for a rusted out original.

The hood, fenders and doors are all good, I believe. There is one pretty big problem. Earlier in it's life the truck was converted to a camper. The entire rear of the cab and most of the roof were cut out for access to the camper.

Y'all will know better than anyone, is it worth saving? The truck was free so total investment is $0. I really hate to see the truck sit there unused and since we ripped the camper off, I need to get it drivable fairly soon. Any and all suggestions and advice are appreciated.

That pretty well gets you up to speed to today. The first issue that has to be dealt with is the frame rust. I have a friend that is a good welder and fabricator, he's also extremely picky about his work, so he's the guy I have doing it.

I also started a thread that's in Paint & Body Shop looking for some input: "Can it be saved?"

Pictures below. There is also some pretty serious rust on some of the frame cross supports and the last 14 inches of the frame rails. That is getting fixed as well, but I didn't take pictures for some reason. I'm hoping I can rob the cross supports off the '51 frame but I haven't checked it out close enough to be sure.

Since the truck was converted to a camper, there was a lot of extra junk welded to the frame, as well as some reinforcement welded to the rusted out spots. All of this needed to be gone so my man can cut out the trash and make repairs, so that's what we did today. I dropped the axle and springs out from under and took the Metabo to the frame. She's looking factory now. I attached a pic of all the junk I cut off. The differential needs some attention so I'll do that while we wait for the frame repair. I couldn't touch gear oil with my finger and it looks like we very much need a pinion seal, but the truck hasn't run in so long it's hard to tell what else is needed. Once I pull the cover I'll have a better idea of things. It will probably be worth just to replace all the seals. There's basically no slack in it, so I think it's mechanically sound. I also have to do some research to find out just exactly what it is. It's a 10 bolt cover free float axle, and she's a heavy girl.

I don't have any paperwork, only the VIN to go by. The truck does carry enough sentimental value for me to want to save the cab. The welding will definitely be out of my league, but everything else I can handle. The wife was sharing the video of it running with the family that grew up taking trips in it and some where really excited. They even had a picture of it from way back and it was a pretty sharp truck. I floated the idea of replacing the cab, but it didn't feel right. Around here at least, cabs where kind of rare. It could also be that I wasn't looking in the right places. The one I did find was pretty rusted up and there were several holes. There is a local guy who's done some work body work for me before who will probably end up doing the welding. I'm assuming that all the sheet metal is stamped at the same plant overseas and will be of comparable quality. There's a place in Georgia that supposed to be high quality stuff, but I can't remember the company name.

The truck is drivable, but I mean just drivable. With the massive hole in the cab, leaving it out in the weather isn't an option, so I'll need to park it under the barn. I just need to be able to drive it in and out of the barn. The truck tries to pull itself when you put it into gear but feeding gas straight into the carb makes that a little tricky. Goals are to put some tires on tomorrow and get rid of the two piece wheels on the front. Then I'll have to figure out a way to get it to start without a bunch of jumper wires running everywhere.

That's where we are at today. Not sure how long it will be on the frame repair. Dude does it on the side and I told him I wasn't in a hurry. My last build thread was a 6 year ordeal, with a multi year hiatus. Hold tight men, we'll get it done but it might take a while.

Wow, with rust-outs in the frame like that, I'd really consider finding a replacement frame. I had some rust on the rear arch of my frame from the bed wood sitting on it that required a little patching, but nothing like you showed around the rear spring mounts. That's a place of high stress, and if you keep that frame, your guy needs to be real careful about repairing it. I'd hate to see your project fail from a frame failure if you hit a serious bump.

I’ve got a lot of faith in my boy. I think he can fix it. We’ll see how the repair looks after it’s done, if it’s suspect I won’t be against hunting down another frame.

I’m not too worried about a Grandfather’s Axe situation either. We will save what we can of our original truck, but whatever happens, happens.

Maybe he can save it.

That 8-lug rearend likely has 4:56 gears. What is your long range plan for use of the truck?

I got the rear end torn down today. Kind of hard to see the pinion, but I'll figure out a way to count the teeth and we'll know for sure soon.

The truck will have an easy life. I am going to get everything working like it should and then just drive the truck. I'll use it to get feed and stuff at the co-op and other light farm use. Might even use it to pull the old 35 Massey to local tractor shows because I don't think that will be too much for it. I was telling the guy doing the frame that it wouldn't ever be max loaded and worked hard, but he said there was no way he'd let it leave his possession without me being able to load it up heavy and not worry, but I never will. After we can use it for a while one day we'll strip it back down to make a pretty truck. Right now I just want one I can use without worrying about scratches and dings. I might clean and paint the chassis as I go this time around but I'm not committed to that yet.

Got her back from the boys yesterday. I really couldn't be happier with how it turned out. I don't have any concerns about strength of the frame. I know for sure that it's stronger than it was, because there where "reinforcement" plates welded to the bad spots in the frame that had been on the truck while it was being used. I also was trying to learn about frame repair on the YouTubes, and man, some of the stuff on there was abysmal compared to what my boys pulled off. Anyway, he's some pics. Pic 1 is the total job. 2 is the spring hanger area that was rotten, I cut a piece out of another frame I had that is in pretty rough shape for the repair and that's what you see here. 3 is the reinforcement on the spring hanger repair. Also the cross brace that runs between the frame rails had angle braces that ran from cross brace down to the frame. Those were in pretty rough shape, so they cut them out and fabbed new ones. 4 is the new bumper rails? I guess? They were cut and welded and rusty, and the cross brace was bad too, so they put new rails on and fabbed a new cross brace. 5 is the reinforcements on them.

This is the cross brace on the bumper rails. I'm really happy how it turned out, and I think it's going to be just fine.

I started wire wheeling the rear axle housing today to get ready for paint. I'm collecting parts for it as well. It has the 12"x2" drums that I was afraid were going to be elusive, but I found them on RockAuto. Also got shoes, wheel cylinders, hub seals and axle seals. I haven't been able to round up new brake hardware, I'm hoping I can but if I can't I did save the originals. I think.

Onward we go.

No more progress as of late, but I was able to add a piece to the puzzle. I don't know if seats are actually rare, but I know I haven't seen any in the aftermarket. I also haven't seen any OEM for sale either. The only one that I found for sale was in Illinois and it was recovered and expensive. This one was not and it needs new foam and recovering but the springs and structure are all in great shape.

2 and a half years later.

I'm back and I'm thankful this thread still exists. We were at a car show the other day and before we even got registered my wife said she wanted to buy a truck. We don't need another truck and I haven't touched this one so I figured I should start back on the one we have. So I decided to pick up where I left off.

The rear end was torn down with the intention of replacing the pinion seal and that was it until now. The third member sat in the barn and got a little rusty, the drums and differential cover are MIA, and the housing sat under a tree behind my storage building. While cleaning this all up in the effort to use it, I had to relearn what the axle is. It is of course an Eaton HO52. I hated that I had left it in pieces until I learned that parts are unavailable without effort and a good bit of luck. I had thought I'd swap backing plates with a newer 14 bolt to get things moving faster, but there was no guarantee the third member would last. I decided any money spent on the old axle was wasted money and that swapping a 14 bolt in was the correct and permanent option. I got one yesterday. The drums were frozen to the shoes so I knocked them off today and cleaned the axle up. I think I'm going to sandblast it and POR15 it or something so I didn't get carried away cleaning. I popped the cover and all is well inside. In case this doesn't go as quickly as I hope, I reassembled everything minus anything brake related so nothing will rust or be lost.

The leaf springs need new shackles to hold the pack together, new centering bolts, U bolts, bushings and spring pins, etc. I'll tackle that first because I can't put a new axle in without springs to mount it to. Honestly they probably need replacing but at $400 each that will wait until the truck is at least pasture drivable. Then I'll figure the pinion angle and replace the spring perches. I have a loose plan and hopefully have a pasture truck in the summer of next year. Hopefully.

I'll be lurking around and updating the thread as progress happens. For now, have some pictures of the new axle. It's not pretty, but it was free.

Welcome back OlderBlue! Glad to see you've decide to get back into your truck and sounds like you have a good plan in the works. Always nice when freebies come along that you can take advantage of.

BTW - If your looking for new 9 leaf rear replacement springs, here's General Springs 3/4 ton replacement springs (need to order two as they are sold individually) for a lot less than $400 each. A pointer offered just in case it may help you out.

I appreciate the link! That’s a much better deal.

Springs are assembled. The clamps I bought were underwhelming. It took enough effort to remove the one I replaced to convince me to leave the others in place. Two of the factory clamps were missing so I got some square U bolts to replace them and fashioned some new straps. Do they look nice? No. Will they work for my situation? Yes. I probably don't even need them. Also on the list of things I probably don't need are new bushings. Two are shot, two are good. Depending on how hard they are to press out, I may not replace the ok ones. I just don't want any undue slack while I'm fitting the 14 bolt. There's also a fair chance those springs will spend more time under the truck than I intend, so I want to give myself the best chance at success that I can.

I'm limiting myself on how much I spend each paycheck because despite what I tell myself, this will take a while to to get drivable. So I'll buy the rest of the hardware to mount the axle when I get paid again. Probably.

Did the original straps have a stud on the bottom to keep it in place?

No, actually. Because according to LMC there never was a strap there at all. lol. The u bolt must be the ghost in the rust I’m seeing there. I’ll remove those straps when I install them. Not sure how I missed that.

I just leafed through my Factory Assembly Manual and it does, indeed, show that on both front and rear leaf springs there are two straps on the rear half of the spring and one strap on the front half of the spring for 3600 and 3742 models.

There is a significant error in LMC's diagram, however. Notice the shock absorber is an MC Escher impossible design. The upper mount is shown on the outboard side of the frame but the lower mount is shown on the inboard side of the frame/spring.

The 3100 shock absorber mounts on the outboard side of the spring and frame. The 3600 shock mounts on the inboard side of both.

Thank you for double checking. Do they reprint the assembly manuals? I hadn’t noticed that about the shocks. Thanks for pointing it out as LMC is all I have to go on at the moment and I’m sure it would’ve been a headache in the future.

On a related note, I got the new bushings in this morning. I made a little driver to fit the old ones and it went smoother than I could’ve imagined. If I have time this afternoon I may get the springs back on the truck.

OlderBlue - You can find lots of vendors offering a 1947-54 Chevy Truck Factory Assembly Manual, which basically covers your 1955.1 Series.

Here's the link to the one Classic Parts offers. It's just about the least expensive one offered from one of our go to vendors, which all basically offer the exact same reprint.

I ordered one from them. Thank you.

Springs are back under the truck. New u bolts, spacers and spring perches have been ordered. Hopefully I will have a good rear end in the truck in just a little while.

Glad to hear of the progress! Keep updates coming as the work progresses.

Yes sir.

I didn’t feel like sleeping so I pulled the front clip as it has to come off to swap cabs anyway. It’s hard breaking my habit of trying to save wiring. It’s too old not to replace and the truck has about 400% more wiring than it came from the factory with.

Always good to have something in the shop to keep you occupied when “you don’t feel like sleeping”. I’ve had my share of those nights.

Yup - That wiring looks a lot like mine - lol!

On a different note, what's that "doodad" that seems to be holding your hood???

100%
The red and black? That’s a Milwaukee 12 volt under hood light. I saw someone talk about it in a shop tool thread here and bought one. It’s handier than a shirt pocket because it’s great lighting wherever you may be.

Gotcha. I didn't recognize that the apparatus holding onto the hood was supporting the light itself - duh. Time to get my tri-focal glasses prescription checked - lol!

I haven’t abandoned it again, just been working a lot of overtime. It took a bit to round up my torch and get my bottles swapped out but I got the spring perches cut off the new axle. I’m also collecting parts. Napa had a Black Friday sale so I got new drums for 20% off. RockAuto had lug studs for 37¢ each, but they only had 8. So four per wheel for now. I also got a cheap set of wheels and tires off Marketplace.

Still around. Hopefully with the holidays over overtime will slow down and I’ll have more time for the truck. I decided to weld the perches myself, so I bought a new welding setup and spent some time getting familiar with it yesterday, as I’ve never MiG welded. Seems easy enough. Plans are to weld the perches in this weekend. Fingers crossed.

Fitted the new perches today.

Yep, just like stick welding the metal needs to be clean from rust etc. Will you be welding with gas or flux core wire? What size welder did you buy? Just curious, there are lot’s of smaller machines out there that are very capable for most of what we do working on our trucks.

John

Oh yeah that was just fitting the perches up as they are made for a 2 3/4” tube and had to be opened up a little bit. I’ll make sure everything is cleaned up nice before I start welding things up.

I bought a Hobart Handler 190 that I’ll be using .035 solid wire and 75/25 gas with. It will supposedly go down to 24 gauge so hopefully it will be useful for tacking repair panels in as I think I might give that a shot when the time comes. It’s nicer than the other MiG I had before and is easier than my stick machine for sure.

The Hobart Handler 190 is a nice machine. I bought one for my Son-in-law and used it for some fabrication on his Land Cruiser. I didn't have an opportunity to use it for sheet metal, but I believe it'll do the job. I'd suggest using 0.023 wire for that. Definitely clean the rust off before welding.

If you use flux core wire, you can get away with a little rust, but even then it's best to have it nice and shiny.

Glad to hear you’ve had a good experience with it. I have to say I really like it.

I couldn’t sleep tonight so I thought I’d start getting things ready for welding the perches on in the morning. One thing led to another and now it’s 0230. I really did not expect this to go as well as it has. The perches are only tacked in, and I want to get everything bolted up before I pull it back out to weld it fully. I’ll do that in the morning. I’m just shocked that my measurements were accurate and it seems to have gone together the first time. I guess there’s time for something to go wrong tomorrow but I’m optimistic.

OlderBlue - Not sure if you've considered it, but setting your pinion angle accurately needs to be done with everything on the ground and weighted to the normal truck weight specs. Otherwise your angle is going to be off when you get everything assembled.

Here's a good Setting Rear Axle Pinion Angle thread that could provide some helpful info in getting yours properly set and finishing the welding job.

That thread offers a link to the specs for a 1950 Chevy Truck. Here's the link to the 1955.1 First Series Data for direct reference on your trucks specs.

Glad to see you're making great progress and hope I'm not raining on the parade. Just wanted to hopefully save you from a possible misstep that might turn out to be a real pain in the you know what.

Thanks for posting the reminder Dan. I’m not close to setting my rear end yet, but printed the pages of the pinion angle thread to put into my build book.

No rain at all! If anyone ever has reminders please share them. I did consider the pinion angle although I never mentioned it.

When I decided on swapping out the axle I found the thread by Griggs on his 14 bolt swap and used it to get started. He made clear the importance of driveline angle so I factored it in during the mounting. I measured the pinion angle of the HO52 that was in the truck and it was 2*. So from that I figured 2* would be a good place to pin my angle for my 14 bolt. Once in the truck, unloaded, the pinion measured 0* and the transmission out put shaft measured .6* down. The specs at the link you sent me, thank you for that, don't show a unloaded vs loaded weight for a cab and chassis but for the regular pickup truck it gave a difference of 4 inches. I just realized I misread it and thought it said two inches, and thinking there was 2 inches difference between loaded and unloaded I used my front end loader to compress the rear two inches and remeasured. I got .6* on the pinion and 1.2* down on the output shaft. So we maintained the .6 angle differential, which from what I've read is acceptable.

A couple things to note, I do not have level ground. There is no concrete for me to use that doesn't require dragging the truck somewhere. The front end loader is all I have to "load" the truck as there is no bed for this truck. I'll have to build it. To me what's most important is that the driveline maintained the same differential from unloaded to half loaded I can only assume it will do the same at max load. In the worst case scenario I can shim to increase the pinion angle if absolutely necessary.

Ok I compressed the rear suspension 4 inches to simulate a max load. The pinion angle was 1* and the output shaft was 2*. So we are within spec through the entire load range.

Glad to hear you were able to work through this an it turned out well. Keep us up on further progress.

I got the junk cab off today and it occurs to me this is as far as I've ever torn a vehicle down with the intention of rebuilding it. We were really already at that point with the rear axle swap, but seeing that much frame brought it home. And the only connection I missed was the emergency brake rod that runs from the pedal to the rear. It's ruined but I can deal with that.

I guess I can discuss where we go from here. I think I'm going to go ahead and start with the brakes. With the cab off I can easily access everything that will be replaced, which is in fact everything. Plans are to swap to a power master cylinder and disc brakes for the front and new lines front to rear. I ordered a new timing cover and oil pan gasket but the timing cover has a ding that I don't like so I'm going to get another. I will pressure wash everything but with a winter storm headed this way this weekend I doubt it will be soon. Cab mounts are ordered but I'm leaning on doing some sandblasting and prep to the new cab before I put it on. I'm not entirely sure how deep I'm going to get into that, but we'll see.

That's the plan for the time being and it's subject to change. Onward.

Nice progress! With just the frame sitting there, access for your upgrades will be easy. Try to get those completed before mounting the cab again. I haven't worked on my truck since the holidays - trying to get motivated again. I'm doing some front suspension work on my daily driver car today and hope that will transfer to me starting work on my old truck again. Stay strong!

Nearly 50 today so I took the chance to clean things up best I could with the pressure washer. Another issue I hadn’t considered came up. I’m actually glad it did because now’s the easiest time to replace the freeze plugs so I’ll put it on the list.

A couple of questions that I don’t feel warrant their own threads. I have hubs, axles, third member and housing of the HO52. Should I just throw them in the scrap pile or could they possibly be worth using to someone? Second, I have the bed sides and front for a bed for this truck. Fenders are missing and no floor but I thought I might sell them for parts money. Solid with some rust, any suggestions on value?