The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Panels 'N Burbs My 50 3800 Panel Project.

Ok guys. I guess I am going to start a thread that I will keep updating. No pics yet as I have not picked the beast up. However, my actual transferred title arrived in the mail today. Feels like I actually own the truck now . Normally I would have a ton of pics of what it looks like now by this time of year but spring has been odd here in ND so the truck is still under 5 feet of snow. Once It starts to melt it will melt quickly. Though it is not supposed to break freezing where it is till the 29th of March . As soon as I can get to the truck I will put up some pics of it.

Hi Chris,

I hope you enjoy your project as much as I have mine. The one ton panel is such a rare piece you're going to get an awful lot of attention; I know mine has since getting it on the road.

I did not get to take a really close look at it. There is a rust hole on the bottom of the rear panel on each side, however, the door jams appeared to not be rusty. The interior did not appear to have any rust in it. Though I was only able to open one door enough to get my head in due to the amount of snow. The hood is rusty but i have a few so that is not a big deal, and supposedly it runs. I purchased it from a guy, who bought it at an estate sale. He said he put some fuel in the carb and it fired right up and built oil pressure. At that point he turned it off. took off the wires and took out the starter so no-one would try to start it in his lot (he buys lots of old cars, I will take pics when I pick up the truck). In any case even without being able to look at it really close what I saw justified the $600 price tag for it I think, or at least hope . I have a question though. He thinks it was an Air force truck as it has what he calls bomber seats in it that are aluminum framed. Has anyone heard of these trucks coming with an aluminum framed bucket seat?
I have not heard of that before, but he is a military vet so I do not doubt what he says. Guess I will find out more when I get the truck. Going to be a couple weeks but I will try to take some good pictures.

As far as I know, they only came with a formed sheet steel driver seat with an optional fold up jump seat.

You'll find front end sheet metal readily available, but anything behind the front doors is pretty much unavailabe. Brake parts are pretty rare too. Aside from that, most other mechanical parts are the same as the one ton PUs.

Chris,

Jim Carter has a few 47-55 panel-body rear panels.

He has rear cab corners.

These parts are for the 1/2 ton and will not fit the 1 ton panel. The only pieces that will work are the fender well repair panels.

George

Would the rear sills be the same for 1/2 ton and 1 ton? JC used to sell them (and Ray Stanley may still be making them)?

The rear sill is the same. I am not sure about the rear valence, I don't see why they would be different, but I believe the rear bumper brackets are different.

Yes the sills are the same and the valance too as far as I know. The bumper brkts should be the same, but the bumper is different in that it's much heavier, otherwise it appears to be the same as the front.

Thanks, that clears things up a bit. A couple of the 1 ton panels I have seen were fire trucks and the rear valence was different. The one tons used a heavier bumper both front and rear, but they have the same curvature as the 1/2 ton.

Is there a way to confirm if the 1 ton rear bumper brackets are the same as the 1/2 ton?

Worse comes to worse on the bottom panels I will just have to fabricate a new piece of sheet metal to weld in there. Not a huge deal. I can't actually wait to tear into this beast and see what all needs to be done. The way the weather is looking though I won't be able to pick it up till after my business trip. That puts me out till the end of Arpil . Oh well, it has been waiting for me for almost 63 years, it can wait a bit longer .

The sheet metal between the rear of the front door and the front of the rear fender is made for the 1/2 ton and I think Ray Stanley may have the pattern to make panels for the 1 ton too. If not, you may be able to use the lower sheet metal from a set of front doors. They have the same curvature, but I am not sure about the length.

The 1/2-ton and 1-ton rear-bumper brackets for 1947-1955st Advance-Design panel-body (SGL. UNIT) trucks are different (Group 7.836, SGL. UNIT)

Photobucket Pictures

Always good to lead in with the pictures

Well, the guy I purchased the Panel Truck from Delivered it to my dad's place over the weekend (It was dry and he was bored ). So my dad took some pictures of it and looked around a bit.

As you can see it is rusted through on the bottom behind the fender. Also there is a fair amount of surface rust on the hood. Other than that is not bad.

The motor is actually a 235 out of a 1954, at one point someone changed the motor.

It appears that the truck was last licensed in 1973.

The guy I purchased it from says the motor started right up last year when he tested it. I am going to change the oil and the coolant on the motor and try to get it running this weekend. I will post videos of my attempt and success/failure.

Nothing more of interest to say now. I will post some more interesting pictures on Sunday/Monday of this beast.

While changing the oil and coolant, also change the fuel. Bad things can happen quick running aged fuel.

I did not get it running . Oh well, I did tear out the interior, Clean out the mouse droppings, Rebuild the Carberator (there was some rust in it), and take a bunch of pictures. By the end of the day with everything my father and I were doing at the farm we got to the point we realized the Ignition coil was arcing and not working properly. I am going to bring out an entire new ignition system next time I head out there with a new ignition switch as there is not currently one in the truck. It turns over easy, just no spark getting to the plugs really. It will run . It appears the van was last licensed in 1978. I am having the seats rebuilt here at home as they were easy to remove and it would be nice to have something to sit on when working on starting that beast next time I am out to the farm.

While I was at the farm (only for 1 day) I also took a bunch of pictures of another old 1949 pickup I have. The original 216 is locked up on that one so I filled the cylinders with Marvel mystery oil. I might try to sell this truck, it was originally purchased as a parts truck but I never used any parts . May have to turn it into the new project truck once my son's pickup and my van are done.

The last fun thing I did was to take some pictures of an old 1964 chevy my dad wants to sell.

I will post the pictures when I get a chance today and update again.

I have posted some extra pics, A few before and after cleanup pics for the truck.

Lets list out the structural bad
1.) Floor pan in front of the seats is rusted through.
2.) There is rust in the lower rear panels behind the fenders.
(I have already contacted Ray Stanley about replacement panels)
3.) There is rust above the window on the drives side.
4.) Kick panel on the passenger side is rusted through.

All other rust in the pictures is just surface rust and will be taken care of with a bit of sand blasting .

Now the Good.
1.) The underside of the truck is coated. Almost no rust underneath at all.
2.) Other than a blemish that goes about 2 layers deep in the corner the original wood floor is in excellent shape. It looks like that could be repaired easy enough.
3.) All the door jams are perfect.
4.) None of the hinges have anything but surface rust.
5.) Fuel cap is on the van
6.) Rust in the front is only surface rust.
7.) Running boards are in perfect shape.

All in all I am extremely happy with the shape of the truck as a starting point. Does anyone have suggestion for a best practice replacement floor pan to purchase for this truck?

Check out the link in my signature for pictures .

That's in better shape than most. The rear cab corners looks to be salvageable and may not need full replacement. I noticed the rust on the dash and was concerned about a window leak or a roof leak, seeing the pictures of the visor header confirms that. I would locate the source and fix it, even temporarily before it gets worse. Nice find!

Not too worried about the rust on the window yet. It won't be sitting outside anymore until it is finished.

I expected the rust around the window and the floor. I was just surprised to find the doors in such good shape.