The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk First Real Progress in 2 yrs!

Well, I can't believe it but the cab is off the truck and I'm ready to pull the motor / tranny so I can start degreasing / scraping the frame. For a couple years the thing ('53 3/4 ton) has been sitting there in the messy garage with the front and rear sheet metal just kind of piled up on top of it. Everything finally has a place, if only for storage until later, and I can actually walk (get this...) ALL THE WAY AROUND THE TRUCK! I also have about three hundred photos I've taken along the way that I've updated with notes as to what the heck the photos are actually of. I know it doesn't sound like much, but for the first time in a long time I'm not embarrassed to open my garage and actually work on this. My one question is, when I remove the motor and tranny, what do I do with the drive line? I'm going to clean and paint the frame. I'm leaving the rear-end as is for now (mainly for financial reasons at this time) but painting it. I'm also going to leave all the springs as they are but paint them as well as good as I can. Is the drive line something that has to be rebuilt or removed? It turns real easy and nice when I move the truck around. This is not going to be a show truck, I just want it to look nice driving it. Any ideas?

I can relate! Yesterday I finished welding up the cab corner/patch panels, that I started a year ago. Unless something is obviously wrong with the drive shaft, I'd, just remove it to get it out of the way. I think the carrier bearing is about the only thing that might have a wear issue. Just keep plugging away and eventually it gets done. Kinda like eating an elephant, one bite at a time. LOL.

I know where you're coming from. I've been working on my 50 3/4 ton (3600) for about 8 years now. In the beginning I was going at it gung-ho, but then I got very tired of how slow the progress seemed. I even considered selling it because I felt like I bit off more than I could chew.
Then I had a revelation ... I found that the project was much more satisfying and FUN if I only worked on it when I was in a good mood and not tired or frustrated. Also, I decided not to put any deadline on completing it. This made the project much easier to handle. Now I just tackle one task at a time and don't think about the next task until the one at hand is done. I'm seeing real progress one task at a time, and I'm really having fun doing it!
You can look at my photo album if you want to see my progress.
Good luck and keep the faith!
FYI, I sold the original drive train on ebay and went with all new v-8/turbo 350.
50-3600-Guy

Very Nice photos!