The Stovebolt Site Forums Welcome! Welcome Centre New Guy with 52 GMC 1 ton Nitro truck and 69 Chevy 1 ton flatbed

Hello,new to the site and have been looking for a while but this is my first post. I recently bought a 1952 GMC 1 ton dually that was originally built for a very unique and dangerous purpose. It was specifically built and used to carry Nitroglycerine for the purpose of "Shooting" oil wells! They used what they called a "torpedo" to lower the Nitro and, in one example, marbles, called the "Marble Shot" down a well and set it off to "Shoot" the well. Basically this is the earlier and much more dangerous version of Fracking that is used today. It has a very unique and heavy custom made bed and it has spools for the drop wire and charge wire that are controlled separately or together and run from a hydraulic PTO off the transmission. The truck has sat for many years and is in relatively rough shape but is mostly complete. I have been slowly working on getting things like 18" tires because I want to keep the stock wheels. That being said, the reason I bought the 69 1 ton was because at one time someone put 19.5 tubeless wheels and tires on it so I bought it just in case I could not use the 18's on the 52. The lug nuts on the 69 are even identical to the 52's lugs. I will post more in the one ton section to post pics and probably ask questions.

Pics here:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=9203232#post9203232

CAD, nice to have you here and share a piece of history lots us have never heard of. Write a story for the DIY Gallery and let Peggy post your story, along with a picture, in the gallery. Keep us posted and we're here to help. Congrats on a great find.

Welcome CAD, good to keep things stock as much as possible. Good luck with it.
Leo

[quote=Achipmunk]CAD, nice to have you here and share a piece of history lots us have never heard of. Write a story for the DIY Gallery and let Peggy post your story, along with a picture, in the gallery. Keep us posted and we're here to help. Congrats on a great find. [/quote]

[quote=1953 panel]Welcome CAD, good to keep things stock as much as possible. Good luck with it.
Leo[/quote]

Thanks guys, it is a very interesting truck to say the least. I am not a very good writer or story teller but I may give it a shot. This town(Bartlesville, OK.) started because of the Oil industry, Phillips Petroleum Company(Phillips 66) originated here and was Phillips headquarters for decades until just a few years ago. I am in the process of learning more about it and its history and it is very interesting.

Leo, I plan on keeping it as stock and original as possible. I just found a set of 5 Denman 700-18 tires that are 6 ply and still have the tiddies and mold lines on them and they are very similar to some of the rotted tires that came on the truck! They are a very good looking tire with the wide whites from a early 30's big car, Cadillac or Packard etc. I am going to black out the white part and turn them inside, don't think a nitro truck would have had the wide whites back in the day!;) Also, I bought the 5 tires for $300 shipped so I feel like I almost stole them! I had already bought the 69 1 Ton previous to finding the tires because I had read on here about the 19.5 tubeless were the way to go if the original 18" wheels could not be used. Now I have to find one or possibly 2 more of these tires so I can have a complete set and possibly a spare. It will be very slow progress but I still enjoy it!

Posted link with pics.