The Stovebolt Site Forums Welcome! Welcome Centre Do It Yourself (DITY) Gallery 1946 Chevy 1/2Ton in Utah - "Here We Go"

Sounds like more enjoyment than work. Glad you are getting in some fun.

John, when you hit a rough surface or pot hole, does your steering wheel jerk all over the place and you have trouble staying in a straight line?

If not, I suspect your thoughts about the lever action shocks are misplaced. These trucks have very stiff springs. The ride is pretty hard over less than smooth roads. Tube shocks won't change that.

When Ol' Roy came to me, the shocks were shot. None of them would expand on their own when compressed. A couple had leaks and no fluid in them. The steering wheel would practically jerk out of my hand when hitting moderately rough roads.

With proper sized radial tires and working shocks, the truck stays straight on course with no jerky steering wheel, but the ride is still a lot stiffer than you'd be used to in a modern car.

If your truck tracks straight over rough surfaces and you don't have to fight the steering wheel, your lever action shocks are working properly and I doubt tube shocks will give you the improvement you might expect.

Truck drives straight and steering is easy to handle when hitting bumps or pot holes. Well, I guess I'll have to get use to all the little bumps and not worry so much.

Good for you John, 100 miles is admirable. Part of the fun of driving an old truck, or any old vehicle for that matter, is to pay attention to the way it drives and how far we have come with the newer vehicles and all the electronic nannies that are built into them.
My wife and I kids think I’m crazy, but I learned to drive in a ‘51 3100 and the first thing I do is turn off the nannies before I leave the yard. Enjoy the bumps and rattles and the inevitable wandering steering. You’re in 1946.

Ha! All those squeaks and rattles, but no radio! I agree - Old School driving is part of the fun. I feel like I'm in a covered wagon.

Welcome to my world. I'm a fish out of water when driving a modern car.

Gave away some free sweet corn today. My neighbors were very happy to grab some.

John - We need to become closer neighbors - LOL!

BTW - Thanks for a perfect picture of your truck being used as a truck!

Still adding miles and getting "thumbs up" from other drivers and lots of conversations at gas stations and Home Depot parking lot. I'm getting better at down shifting from 4th to 3rd without grinding gears. I'm learning that I need to plan ahead for stopping as the brakes take a lot of pedal force to stop in a hurry. I took a drive to Harbor Freight yesterday and noticed I didn't have my phone. Probably left it in the garage? Nope. As you can see in the picture, I left it on my front fender and it dropped off a couple miles from home. When I got home, I called my number (I still have a land line) and a nice lady answered and said her husband found it in the road. No damage thanks to my Otter Box. I feel so lucky. And yes, I gave her a tip!

That’s funny! Those darn round fenders. Glad your phone survived. One day on my way to Fleet Farm I was looking for my phone in the cab of my newer truck. Couldn’t find it and thinking it through where it may be was on my rear bumper, 5 miles from home on a busy 4 lane highway I pulled over and looked on the flat area of bumper. There it was.

I once left my cell phone sitting on the bed rail of my pickup truck. I drove around the block and when I came to a traffic light and stopped I heard it rattle onto the ground but was still rolling to a stop. Of course when it hit the ground it bounced right into the track of the truck and I ran over it with the back tire.

It was a flip phone so it wasn't damaged too badly but the battery was bent and look like a melted piece of chocolate in a silver wrapper. I straightened it out as best I could and cram the whole thing back together and use that phone for a number of years after that

Quick run out and get yourself a lottery ticket before your luck runs out.😀 I think the big guy was looking down and sent your Guardian Angel to find another mortal to find and save your phone from a crushing event.

Nice to hear you got it back in working order.

John

My truck was sitting for a week and the cardboard under the transmission showed there was a slow leak from the drain plug. So, I slipped under and gave the plug a little more tightening. I'll put some new cardboard down to see if that helped.

I keep a large supply of big sheets of cardboard for all these leaking vehicles. Some people have fancy ceramic paint or tile floors in their garages. Mine are covered in cardboard!

I kept the cardboard from my TV purchase a couple years ago. It has been easy to figure out where the little drops are coming from. Left rear - a few drops of brake fluid. Both fronts - have small amounts of hydraulic fluid from the lever shocks. (That was one reason I was thinking about changing to modern tube shocks.) But, the cardboard definitely helps.

All these little leaks made me realize why there was so much gunk on everything when I started on this project. 🙂

It's self preservation. These leaky trucks coat their entire undersides with grease and oil over the years. This keeps them from rusting away.

👍 😂

Not a bad idea with the cardboard, although my garage floor has a few leak spots that are too late to absorb. Wood shavings do a great job if the leak is fresh. Rub them around, sweep them up, floor is almost as good as new.