The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Panels 'N Burbs Lonely no-more! ('52 burb/bus)

Ah.. At last I've found you all. I KNEW I wasn't the only nut-job with a fondness for the fat fenders.

I found my truck at the end of a farm driveway with a $1500 sticker on the dash. It had spent it's younger years as a rural school bus. It still has the "emergency door" inside the back doors and a "cap. 12" sticker over the passenger door. I was a junior in college and feeling very flush after a summer living with the parents and working full time. I had visions of piling 25 of my closest friends in the back and legendary road trips. After buying it, my parents (very wisely) insisted that I have the brakes checked/fixed by our family mechanic. (If I couldn't GO, it was MY problem... If I couldn't STOP, it was EVERYONE'S problem.) 4 new wheel cyls. new Master cyl. new lines... He even fixed the E-brake. Great. Lots of stop. Not much GO.
I got it down to school. A difficult trip punctuated with stops to clean out the fuel lines, 2 runs to charge the battery, and a blow-out on the driver's front tire. Younger, dumber, but one of my favorite days of all time. I played with it when I could through my Senior year. (It even entered a Sculpture contest at homecomming when several students put big eyes in the windshield, large wings out the sliding windows and a paper-mache stinger out the back doors. Can you believe we came in second to a yellowjacket made out of watermelons? No justice.) I've since graduated and spent 9 years moving on average once every 6 months. Baltimore, Key-west, Minneapolis, New-Haven, I got married last fall and finally landed in Cooperstown NY. Always in the back of my mind... the bus... the bus... the bus...
With no plans to move in the forseeable future, I had the truck hauled from Iowa to Cooperstown and have begun to get greasy.

I didn't do TOO much dumb stuff 9 years ago, but I DO wish I had drained the gas before I left it. MMmMmmmm 5 gallons of Varnish anyone?

Here's where I stand.
Blew out Fuel line
Rebuilt the Carb
Changed the Oil
Changed Spark Plugs and Wires
New Coil
New Points
Drained and Replaced Coolant
New Battery
Engine starts and runs, but rough.. I think it's missing on one or more cylinders, and I don't dare run it long as I haven't tested the thermostat yet.

TO-DO list
test thermostat
check compression
Drop Fuel tank and scrub it.
ditch 17" wheels for 16" wheel tire combo (anyone want 'em?)
the ol' 12v conversion

Head scratching list
keep 216? How much should I dump into a 216 that many people suggest swapping for a 235 or 261?
I suspect the front fenders and hood are from a 54. Hood bird... green where the rest of the body was orange... was it wrecked? Inner fenders are ripped up.
Finally, What exactly DO I own. Bigger than most suburbans I've seen. Was it sent to a coachbuilder? I'll try to include a pic or two. If they don't make it on to this post, check in the gallery. You'll especially like the Home-made School-bus-passenger-door-opening-device. Ahhh. Mid-west ingeneuity meets a stick welder and some BIG steel rod.

Driver's door Serial #5KSH-2373
Stamped # by Distributor AKCA5I237I

Thanks for enduring a long post. I'm trying to digest everything I can on this site and welcome ANY suggestions and or warnings. Also, if anyone's headed through the Upstate area, I'd be happy to trade lunch for any pointers. Be sure to bring pictures of your ride too.

Glad to be here. You guys are allright.

-Joel

BETTER PICTURE OF THE SCHOOL BUS

I wish I could find out more about this one. It looks like he did the ONE TON IFS modification.

Are these buses modified panels? I have only seen Suburbans before, described as school buses. These look like 1 Ton panels.

Joel,
Welcome to York State. In July next year there is a great Car Show at the Syracuse Fairgrounds called the Syracuse Nationals. Lots of trucks show up. "Right Coast" puts it on. Its a good time. Maybe I'll see you there.

52pu

I've spotted a possible donor truck behind a barn on my commute. Don't you just love it when the leaves are off the trees? I'm getting whiplash from all sorts of treasures that were hidden all summer. Almost makes the recent snow showers worth it.

It's a BIG A/D flatbed. I haven't had a chance to get very close to it yet, but before I get my hopes up too far, I've got a quick question for boltland.

How interchangable are body panels between the various series? If the flatbed turns out to be a 3600 will I be able to use the fenders on my 3800 panel? How about the inner fenders? Clearly I'll have to keep looking for a better set of rear fenders. *grin*

One more quick question... How many aftermarket coachbuilders were there in the early/mid fifties? Just trying to figure out who may have done the conversion from panel to people hauler?

Thanks again for the help. I don't know what I did before I found this site.

-Joel

Within a year, cab, front fenders, hood, doors, grill and such interchange between all the 3000 series trucks except for the panel/suburban specific body parts. Differences year to year aren't huge, but can cause issues.

This BIG Flatbed is probably not a 3800, but more likely a 4000 or 6000 series. Unless your measure of big is different than mine...

The 4000 and 6000 series trucks share cab and doors, but hood, fenders and grill are all bigger.

5000 series trucks are the COE or snubnose trucks and most all parts are different.

Some Chevy and GMC parts interchange and others don't.

Joel -- I've been looking for you. The images that you sent with your gallery submission are ... well ... probably not the ones you meant to. Nothing naughty here, guys. It's a picture (two of them) of the floor!

Got your gallery all written up -- just need those photos!

Thanks,
Peg

I feel I need to defend my picture selection honor here. *grin* I tried to send about 4 pictures, and while I didn't mean to send the same pic twice, I did send that one on purpose.

That one's a pic of the homebrew passenger-door-opening-device. Welded/bolted/bent and really very functional. Points for creativity to be sure. The school-bus roots rear their ugly head.

joel, welcome to the bolt... according to your #s. 5KSH 2373 5-factory,K.C. Missouri. K- the yr, 1952. S- the series,3800.H- the month built,August. 2373- 2373rd chassis off the production line. As far as the eng. # AKCA denotes this as an eng. made at the Flint Mich. engine plant,and used in 36/3800 trucks. Its def. a 216 with 92 HP 6.6:1 comp. ratio with 1BC carb. hope this helps if you didnt get the info already. Steve Sr.

When you have the engine idling, keep your hand on the top of the radiator. It will feel cool to the touch until the engine reaches operating temperature. Then if the thermostat works the radiator will suddenly become warm. On my truck it also slightly changes the rpm.
Nice story, cool truck.

Gill I hope you know this post is from almost 5yrs ago & Joel hasn't posted in almost 1.5yrs...Joe

Thanks,
I will see if I can try to contact him
Gill