The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk 1949 3800 where do I start?!

WOW! Awesome web site! I can see this is going to provide me with tons of information about the restoration of my newly acquired 1949 3800. I got the truck and many, many parts from a friend who needed to get it out of his yard because he was moving; can't beat that price! anyway, it comes with a running 216 and 350 which are out of the truck, no bed, no breaks, it seems to be pretty much in pieces; and I wonder where I begin. Last night, I started pressure washing the frame, etc. Any tips or insight? Thanks!

Welcome to the Stovebolt!

Assess the amount of rust you have to deal with. If the truck spent any significant part of its life in the western part of the state its rusty, and dealing with that will be one of your biggest and most expensive challenges.

Do you have a title? Take care of that before investing too much time or money in it.

Decide what you want to do with it. Restoration? Hot Rod or Custom? Driver? Most the decisions you'll need to make will flow from knowing where you want to go.

Get a copy of the assembly manual, because if its in pieces you'll need it to figure out how it goes back together!

Welcome! I think you have a already started in the right direction. Research, general cleaning, taking an inventory of what you have. Oldsub has it right, where do you want to take this project, restore, rebuild, hot rod, daily driver? Check out the articles and posts that have been written on these pages by going to the SEARCH section located across from the stovebolt page BULLETIN BOARD heading not the SEARCH in the upper tool bar. Check out TECH TIPS in the upper tool bar too. Buy a few BOOKS including the assembly manual and the shop manual. Be sure to check out the LINKS Pages when looking for vendors and other helpful information. Don't get rid anything until you have identified that you don't need it, label everything that you take off and put it in baggies. Enjoy the hobby and keep us informed, visit the pages often and pictures are a plus! ......g

Thanks for those tips! I've got a clear washington title; and this has been in eastern washington it's entire life. I found an old registration from the original owner under that seat that was garaged 8 miles from where I live now! Imagine that! It has rust behind the doors on the cab lower corners. Other than that, only really surface rust that is proving to come off pretty easy with the pressure washer. I'm planning on building this as a low budget restoration. thanks again for the information, guys!

Yes, welcome to the Stovebolt Page!

GMONIZ and OldSub gave you the best advice -- please wander through the rest of this site, paying particular attention to the parts they suggested. Then, check the Gallery -- we have at least one other '49 3800 in there (um, I'm pretty familiar with it...) Only the highest caliber Stovebolters are allowed to own '49 3800's so welcome to the "Upper Crust"!

You'll find that a lot of parts interchange with the 3100's (1/2-tons) until you get to the frame (suspension, brakes, axles, wheels, etc) and the bed (running boards, filler panels, too). The bed on the 3800 is the extended bed (9 foot) and as far as I know, nobody is reproing the 9-foot bed sides or the filler panels.

At least one of our fellow 1-tonners is making his own bed sides by cutting and welding two sets of 1/2-ton bed sides and stake pockets -- this may be more than you want to do, so just keep on the lookout for stuff you need at swapmeets, etc. You should be able to get decent used (if you can find them) fairly reasonably as there isn't much demand. Just let us know if you need dimensions and we can tell you.

The running boards and filler panels for my truck were found because we ran into a guy at Hershey who knew they were AD stuff and that they weren't 1/2-ton. He didn't have a clue what they were and also knew not too many folks were interested in them so he had 'em marked cheap.

Work slow -- ask lots of questions and we'll help you get that beast on the road.

Regards and Welcome!

John

3800 series owners upper crust? Well danged if I am not proud to also be a 3800 owner. However, unlike many of you, mine is a grain bed one ton. It came with a 10' bed complete with sideboards and stock rack for hauling livestock.

The year I bought the truck (1997) I hauled slightly over 100 bushels of wheat per trip during my wheat harvest. Uh, that was to test the brakes--they passed.

I no longer grow grain so this spring I cut the bed down to 8' and applied diamond plate steel to the floor. It is still a work in progress as I am working a temp full time job in addition to my regular employment. Paint goes on the entire truck in September if all goes as planned.

This is not only my daily driver but my only vehicle so it is not always easy to work on in between trips anywhere.

In addition to the other comments about what to do, I would suggest that you get several parts catalogs and peruse them to see what all is available and to see what you may wish to replace or add rather than refurbish.

Welcome to the forum. I'm fairly new here myself and don't post much because of time constraints.

Well darned if I didn't get windy and forget to tell you about the cab corner sheet metal repairs that are availble at about $25 per corner. Chevy Duty parts supply has them, so does Jim Carter.

I was going to build my own custom 10' bed for the truck; mostly because I already have the iron for the flatbed; and for me it's all about the $$. That's not too bad for the corner pieces, either. I'm going to need to keep with Oldsub; as he's a Washintonion and he may know where some good swap meets, etc are. Thanks for the welcome, Guys!