The Stovebolt Site Forums Welcome! Welcome Centre New guy in Utah

I hope this is the right place for this... just signed up and this is my post to the welcome desk.
Last August I bought a 53 Chevy 1/2 ton that was all there but barely ran.

I've always wanted one, ever since we moved here from Oz in the '70s- our new UT neighbour had a nice blue one and I thought it was the coolest thing ever.
I rebuilt the carb, plugged the mainfold leaks, fixed the brakes, got new tyres, new battery, new front bearings, tightened the steering box, put in new plugs/wires, had new generator bushings and brushes put in, and a lot of other little tweaks- and Voila! Suddenly it ran pretty well, and now it's inspected and all legal.
Basically everything was there when I bought it,and all the electrical stuff worked, but it needed ALOT of adjustments and messing with.
In November I did a compression test and found a dead cylinder; I removed the head and found a burnt exhaust valve. The guy I took it to for fixing is taking FOREVER... I'm squirming 'cause I miss driving it like anything!

Sorry this got longer than I planned.
I've been lurking for a couple of months but now I'm here.


I have photos but I cant figure out how to upload them- maybe later.

JGriffin

Your in the right place and we welcome you to Stovebolt! One thing, we found while working on trucks is patience. If we want them or not. Hope you get the head back soon so you can injoy it again.We would love to see it. Just put your pictures in snapfish or some free hosting site and put the link in your post.

Welcome J Griffin, hopefully now that the holidays are over, the guy can get your engine back together soon. Nothing better than cruising the streets in an old stovebolt.

Leo

Welcome, I'm also new at this and have enjoyed talking to these folks. I drove my panel home a short distance 6 years ago and its been garaged since. Hope this year it will see the light of day. Good luck with your truck.

Thanks for the welcome and replies. And for the how-to on getting pictures up. Here is a link on that 'snapfish' site...

http://www5.snapfish.com/thumbnails...SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

The upper image is the initial haul in Logan, UT, last August. The lower image is the truck after I got it all legal and driveable...

Now to get that head back on. I sure hope that guy knows what he's doing.

I plan on making it a daily driver, fixing the dings (no major damage or rust), and having it (inexpensively) repainted.

Nice looking truck, J. I see you kept the grille body colour. I did that too but am always second guessing that decision. Hard to see but do you have the back of the horizontal grille bars painted in a bone/white colour?

Good Job ! You saved another piece of GM history ! I hope you enjoy it for years to come....gmguy

The paint you see is from PO. It is overall maroonish red, I think it once was metallic before 25 years of sun faded it.

Originally it was forest green- in fact the rims still are green.
I had planned on painting the truck black with that cream white colour ('bone'?) for the grille and wheels. Lately though, I have been leaning toward re-doing it in the original green all over, with black boards and bumpers.
I cant decide yet!

JFG, welcome. It looks as if you snagged a pretty nice truck. It will being you many hours of satisfaction....to offset the frustrations sometimes
Keep us posted

Welcome to the Bolt. That is a nice ride! Hope you get to drive it again real soon.