The Stovebolt Site Forums Project Journals Project Journals 1951 Chevy 3100 “Alaska Road Commission” - A restoration saga

You‘re at the point that all your hard work is finally paying off. It looks fantastic, great job!

This needs to be preserved as a "how to do it right" article. Thanks for taking time to put it together Kevin.

RonR

Ron, I think the Project Journals are meant to be a "living document ... tech tip with feedback!" Phil has them very well arranged. Hopefully Bolters will hit the PJs when looking for some info. Hence the title starts with the date, and then a bit of a blurb about the focus.

Ron, there were a few instances of "don't do it this way." LOL! I guess that qualifies a bit as how to do it right.

Hopefully we do learn from our mistakes!

October 2023

Fabricated and installed a vacuum reservoir behind the dash using an old propane cylinder. Mounted it just behind the speaker grille. I used hose clamps to secure it with a bolt thru each hose clamp and down thru the dash. Repaired headlight wiring harnesses and main wiring harness with period correct fabric covered wire. I had already added dual contact sockets to the parking lights so added wires for those, and for a 7-wire turn signal switch (turns out I didn‘t use that.)

November 2023

More work on the wiring harness. Installed the cowl vent. I initially tried the “deluxe” gasket, but it put the vent much higher than the cowl, so went with the original style foam gasket. I ordered samples of cab windlace from various vendors, as the stuff I got from JIm Carter didn't fit very well. The bulb wouldn't even contact the door for a good seal. Picture shows from top to bottom: original, Jim Carter, Restoration Specialties tan, grey, and Steele rubber black. Decided to go with the tan from Restoration Specialties which seemed to be a nice match to the interior paint color.

December 2023

Wrapping harness with vinyl tape from Summit racing that worked pretty well. Wrapping was a 4 handed project. Got the harness installed thru the firewall grommet after reaming it out to accommodate the slightly larger harness (4 additional wires for the turn signals.) With my daughter visiting for Christmas helping, installed the cowl vent operating linkage.

January 2024

Started the new year with a shop cleanup. It was sorely needed. Connected and routed the gas gauge sender wiring. Fit the rear window gasket. (no pics)

February 2024

Re-keyed the door lock to match the ignition switch. Used disks from an extra ignition switch cylinder for re-keying. Wet sanded and buffed cab paint. Picked up running boards from the shop that shot bedliner on them.

March 2024

More wet sanding and buffing on cab. Installed rear window. Recommend anyone working on a rear window installation get a tool with a more comfortable handle. Installed windshield. Decided to fix a defect at the upper right of the windshield that I expected to be covered by the gasket. Installed door latches. Decided to ditch aftermarket 7-wire turn signal switch in favor of the more period-correct 4-wire switch that was on the truck when I got it. Cleaned up and painted the 4-wire turn signal switch.

April 2024

Installed the inside windshield trim. Installed the firewall blanket, voltage regulator and fuse box. Worked on the wiring for the turn signal flasher and relays to operate the turn signals. Bartamos put me on to a setup to use a 4-wire switch with the rear brake bulbs. I mounted the relay block on the steering column support under the dash. Wired the headlight switch, mounted the instrument cluster, speedometer, and ignition switch and completed the under dash wiring. Started getting the passenger side door windlace installed. Very difficult to slide it in the track.

May 2024

Finished installing windlace on both the passenger side and driver’s side. Wound up trimming the dovetail on the windlace to get it to fit easier. It still took two of us to get it in, one pushing and another pulling.
Installed the cowl vent drain hose and the vacuum reservoir. Installed the driver’s door latch, window run channel and window. Modified the inner fenders for the 4-position wire terminal blocks to support the turn signal wires. Trimmed out the passenger door, including vent window, then removed the vent window to install the rain shield - oops! Wet sanded and buffed the passenger door. Shot primer at the windshield corner repair area and painted it and some other areas on the cab that needed touching up. Painted the replacement (NOS) u-joint ball.

June 2024

Fabricated a driveshaft bushing puller. Tried using it and failed miserably. Wound up ordering one from a vendor. Installed the headliner and bows. Installed dash components (speaker grille & glove box door.) Installed lower door windlace and retainers. Installed and wired brake light and dimmer switches. Installed the engine in the chassis, Installed u-joint and torque tube ball, clutch and brake pedal shaft. Did some sanding and buffing on cab roof and passenger door. Had some friends and neighbors over to help set the cab on the frame.

July 2024

Installed the steering gear. Got the bed positioned on the frame and bolted down, along with the rear fenders. Installed the driver’s side running board, apron and door, then turned the chassis around and installed the passenger side running board, and apron. Installed radiator support, radiator, grille apron and hood latch panel, Adjusted the valves filled the radiator and fired the engine. Quickly shut it off and mopped up the oil (forgot to plug a connection.) Once that was cleaned up, had a successful run.

July 2024 continued

Target is to have the truck roadworthy by the first weekend in August for the big car show.
Installed and adjusted hood. Assembled and installed inner and outer front fenders. Installed rear bumper and exhaust pipe,

August 2024

Getting down to the wire. Installed seat frame, passenger door, floor mat, grille, door stickers. First drive across town to a friends. Some issues with starting that turned out to be timing. Made it to the Jay Olfson Show and Shine in Downtown Anchorage (my wife took that picture of the tiny truck .) Later in the month participated in the Alaska State Fair Parade and car show. On the way home, had an engine noise that turned out to be a babbit rod bearing melted out. But had a nice rainbow over the truck.

September 2024

Picked up a couple parts engines, a 216 with cracked block from Homer52 (thanks Dave), and a seized up 235 with the thought of using the crankshaft out of it. Tearing down the 216 revealed a 0.010 under crankshaft in decent shape, and a couple rods that had chips in the babbit. Did some horse trading with Hotrod Lincoln for some rods.

October 2024

I pulled my 216 engine out of the truck and tore into it, confirming that the #1 rod bearing had melted out. Started tearing the 235 down and found it pretty rusty. Had to destroy a couple pistons to get the rods out. But the result was a serviceable crankshaft and set of rods to build my 216 into a full pressure engine.

Such a fun story you have Kevin. Lots of pictures that shows the great work you accomplished. I'm puzzled as to why your new engine crapped out. Was it lack of oil? Mistakes in the rebuild process? I've not driven my truck yet, but I hope the engine makes it through the break-in process and then gives me years of enjoyment.

John, my suspicion is that I didn't check the previous owner's work. He said he had "adjusted the bearings" and I suspect that he got at least #1 rod too tight. I basically did a leak fix (and a couple other items) on the engine. Years ago when I had a Model A with babbit bearings, I got one rod bearing too tight and it melted out in about 20 miles one night.

That must have been a huge disappointment after all your work, but we pick up and move on.
My biggest fear is that I’ll find out about something I mis-adjusted during my engine rebuild. I’ve taken it back apart to re-do my work, and I’m not sure that I won’t be re-doing my rework. For me, it’s all part of the process, and we can learn as much from our failures as from the wins.
Thanks for posting all of this Kevin. I am constantly picking up good ideas from you. I love the picture of Jerry’s instructions taped to the firewall.

Paul, It was pretty disappointing to hear that rod knocking as I pulled off the highway. But the good side of that was it gave me a project to work on over the winter. LOL!

I also take the Pollyanna view of things. No sense getting bent out of shape over something you can't change.

When you break your leg, it's not so bad. At least you didn't break both of them!

January 2025 (took November and December off except for gathering parts) REBUILDING THE ENGINE

After getting the 235 torn down and salvaging the crank and rods, I decided to use them in the 216, winding up with a full pressure engine displacing about 230 cubic inches. I tracked down pistons with the correct compression height to account for the increased stroke of the 235 crank. Turns out that 1950 Chrysler pistons in 0.080 oversize would be usable in my 216 bored about 0.015 oversize. Since they had piston pins slightly smaller than the 235, I sent a set of pins to the supplier and they fitted the pins to the pistons so the rods would fit correctly. Fortunately the engine had standard pistons, so got the block bored to fit the pistons, and the thrust bearing journal narrowed to fit the 235 bearings. While at the machine shop I had the block machined for a full circle rear main seal. Also got the 235 crank reground to 0.010 undersize and ordered bearings. On Jerry’s (Hotrod Lincoln) advice I got a Melling M29 oil pump and adapted it to the 216. It will provide additional oil volume to support the pressure oiled rod bearings. It needed some changes to the oil pickup tubing.

February 2025 FINISHING UP THE OIL PUMP WORK

Finished up the oil pump tubing, after tracking down a fitting for it and getting the inlet tubing bent to fit..

May 2025 - ENGINE ASSEMBLY

Worked on assembling the engine. Got pistons and rods together and found out the piston skirts hit the crankshaft counterbalances at the bottom of the stroke. Cut them to the length of the 235 pistons on a table saw with a metal cutting blade. Found that there was still interference at the bosses below the piston pin bores, so had the machine shop turn them down for clearance. The pistons fit nicely in the block, coming about 15 thousandths above the deck, well short of the head gasket thickness.

June 2025 - FIXING CAM INTERFERENCE

While installing the rest of the pistons and rods, I discovered that the rods interfered with the camshaft. So I retrieved the 235 camshaft that I had given to the machine shop that has flats for clearance and with an angle grinder, duplicated the clearance flats on the 216 cam. Reinstalled the cam and the remainder of the pistons and rods. Engine turns without interference now.

July 2025 - INSTALLING PAN

Removed the dipper trough and spray nozzles from the oil pan that aren’t needed anymore with pressure oiling to the rods. Cleaned up the pan and repaired some minor pitting at the bottom with some JB Weld. When installing the pan on the engine I found that it wouldn’t seat all the way on the block because of interference with one of the baffles and the oil pump piping, so trimmed the baffle to clear it. Got the pan installed and the bottom end buttoned up.

August 2025 - FIXING SEAT BELT ROUTING AND INSTALLING DECAL ON THE VALVE COVER

Shifted gears from the engine for a bit and fabricated some rings out of brake line to weld into the seat frame for the seat belts to go thru. They previously were routed over the top of the seat frame, then back down below the seat back. Decided to install the “Thriftmaster” decal on the valve cover. I needed to relocate the ARC engine swap data plate, so got that moved, previous holes welded shut, touched up the paint and installed the decal. Installed the rebuilt head and valve train.

What is the reason for the breaks in the cursive lettering on the Thrift master sticker?

You'd have to ask Jim Carter that question. My guess would be to make it look like a stencil, but why so many breaks, I have no idea.

September 2025 - INSTALLING TRANSMISSION

Removed the engine from the engine stand and installed the bell housing, flywheel and clutch, then moved the engine to the roller cart and installed the transmission. Recast the rear transmission mount after finding that the material I had used previously was past its shelf life, and didn’t set up properly. Bought new rubber casting material.

Did the factory use painted stencils? I thought they used decals.

October 2025 - INSTALLING ENGINE ACCESSORIES

Fabbed up an installer to push the balancer on the engine using my balancer remover/installer. Installed the balancer, intake and exhaust manifolds, carb, starter, generator, fuel pump. Cleaned up the oil bath air cleaner I got with the 235 engine. It had a few rust holes in the bottom of it, so filled those and stripped the paint off it. Painted the air cleaner. Removed the back half of the u-joint to be ready to put it on the driveshaft when the snow melts. Made up a tool and pre-lubed the engine with drill. Installed and timed distributor and installed spark plugs. No pics this month.

February 2026 - RESTORING THE HEATER HOUSING

Attended the Antique Auto Mushers Car Show and parade during Fur Rondezvous in Anchorage, and decided that if I was going to participate next February, I needed to get my heater restored and ready to install. Used a wire wheel to strip most of the paint off the heater housing parts. I also need a block heater, so got one on order.

March 2026 - BLOCK HEATER INSTALL

Received the block heater and got it installed in the core plug. Heater was a Kat’s #11612X, 600W.

April 2026 - PAINTING THE HEATER HOUSING

Shot some Rustloleum primer on the heater housing parts. After a few days making sure it was nice and dry, painted the housing with Rustoleum Hammered dark bronze. Reassembled the housing parts.

That is looking nice. I have to put some paint on my heater/defroster although I would have to take it out completely. Looks like you will be on the road soon.

Amazing, something built in the USA!

Great job on the heater housing!