1946 Chevy 1/2 Ton Pick-Up
04-09-2010, 10:00 PM
#1
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1946 Chevy 1/2 Ton Pick-Up
(View the original thread at Stovebolt.com.)
My dad bought this truck when he was 18, back in 1968, for $200. In 1976, his ex-wife made him park it when it left a nice, long oil streak on their brand new driveway. It never started again.
Since the time when I was able to walk, I loved to jump around and play in the truck. It sat in the backyard of our LA home. My dad always promised me that we would have it running by the time I'm 16.
About a year ago, we started our quest to get it running. We took it to our horrible vessel mechanic who had completely restored one and sold it very inexpensively to at $14,000 to finance his daughter's wedding. He said it would cost us at least $2500 to replace or rebuild all the engine components. We said fair-well.
We learned from our friend that it had a cracked head. We went and picked up a rebuilt '46 216 for $200-300. Then, we took her and the new engine to our normal mechanic, who pulled the old engine and dropped in the new one and rebuild all the brakes.
They did a horrible job at wiring it. At some point in their process, they loosened the e-brake. They wired the the ballast resistor straight to the starter with pig-tail connection to give and cease power to the engine. If you were driving the truck alone, you would need to put it in gear, hold the brake, and let out the clutch, otherwise the truck would roll away if you left it in neutral to try to undo that connection.
When we got it home, I yanked out all the wiring in her. The only electrical wires that were still there were the battery cables. Now, the truck is basically completely wired and everything almost everything works on her. The dash gauges don't work, but they still look pretty sitting there.
Sure enough, I'm now 16 and the truck was running before my 16th birthday. My dad nor I want to fully restore her. We want her to be kind of rustic, and seem a little aged, but nothing bad. She is in almost perfect shape as she is. The tailgate is totalled as a PO installed a towing hitch and the tailgate drops right onto it, the section of metal below the lower grille has seen better days, only one vertical members of the lower grille has a slight dent in it, and two of the fenders have almost unnoticable dents in them.
With that being said, here is my plan for her during the summer. I'm going to take the bed off of the truck to give me some nice light and working space to try to clean her up. There have been several layers of paint and they are all now faiding and chipping off, so I'm possibly going to strip the paint and primer her. While the bed is off, I'm going to clean up the trim and re-make the bed with new wood, since all of the original wood is rotted and falling out. To get it street legal, it needs a new windsheild, windsheild frame, windsheild wiper, and horn. And my final plan for the summer is to convert her over to a 12 volt system. When it comes to vehicle mechanics, the electrical syste, is my forte. I have a complete diagram drawn out of how she will be wired up.
The last plan, though it isn't immediate, is a new fuel cell located under the gas tank. Not that there is anything wrong with the stock one, we just find the location of it to be dangerous. So like everyone else, we will ahve a little opening door in the bed to fill up gas. But we don't want to start making the truck look too unoriginal, so we will cut the original fuel filler off of the gas tank, and somehow manage to get it to stay sticking out from behind the passanger door. It will probably be welded to the trim that will then be screwed into the cab. This way, it will at least look original and like there really is the gas tank still there.
These fallowing photos were taken before the beauty was revived.
And here is a pic of her after being revived. My laptop hard drive crashed, so this is the only current photo I have of her right now. As I type, this is right where she sits.
My dad bought this truck when he was 18, back in 1968, for $200. In 1976, his ex-wife made him park it when it left a nice, long oil streak on their brand new driveway. It never started again.
Since the time when I was able to walk, I loved to jump around and play in the truck. It sat in the backyard of our LA home. My dad always promised me that we would have it running by the time I'm 16.
About a year ago, we started our quest to get it running. We took it to our horrible vessel mechanic who had completely restored one and sold it very inexpensively to at $14,000 to finance his daughter's wedding. He said it would cost us at least $2500 to replace or rebuild all the engine components. We said fair-well.
We learned from our friend that it had a cracked head. We went and picked up a rebuilt '46 216 for $200-300. Then, we took her and the new engine to our normal mechanic, who pulled the old engine and dropped in the new one and rebuild all the brakes.
They did a horrible job at wiring it. At some point in their process, they loosened the e-brake. They wired the the ballast resistor straight to the starter with pig-tail connection to give and cease power to the engine. If you were driving the truck alone, you would need to put it in gear, hold the brake, and let out the clutch, otherwise the truck would roll away if you left it in neutral to try to undo that connection.
When we got it home, I yanked out all the wiring in her. The only electrical wires that were still there were the battery cables. Now, the truck is basically completely wired and everything almost everything works on her. The dash gauges don't work, but they still look pretty sitting there.
Sure enough, I'm now 16 and the truck was running before my 16th birthday. My dad nor I want to fully restore her. We want her to be kind of rustic, and seem a little aged, but nothing bad. She is in almost perfect shape as she is. The tailgate is totalled as a PO installed a towing hitch and the tailgate drops right onto it, the section of metal below the lower grille has seen better days, only one vertical members of the lower grille has a slight dent in it, and two of the fenders have almost unnoticable dents in them.
With that being said, here is my plan for her during the summer. I'm going to take the bed off of the truck to give me some nice light and working space to try to clean her up. There have been several layers of paint and they are all now faiding and chipping off, so I'm possibly going to strip the paint and primer her. While the bed is off, I'm going to clean up the trim and re-make the bed with new wood, since all of the original wood is rotted and falling out. To get it street legal, it needs a new windsheild, windsheild frame, windsheild wiper, and horn. And my final plan for the summer is to convert her over to a 12 volt system. When it comes to vehicle mechanics, the electrical syste, is my forte. I have a complete diagram drawn out of how she will be wired up.
The last plan, though it isn't immediate, is a new fuel cell located under the gas tank. Not that there is anything wrong with the stock one, we just find the location of it to be dangerous. So like everyone else, we will ahve a little opening door in the bed to fill up gas. But we don't want to start making the truck look too unoriginal, so we will cut the original fuel filler off of the gas tank, and somehow manage to get it to stay sticking out from behind the passanger door. It will probably be welded to the trim that will then be screwed into the cab. This way, it will at least look original and like there really is the gas tank still there.
These fallowing photos were taken before the beauty was revived.
And here is a pic of her after being revived. My laptop hard drive crashed, so this is the only current photo I have of her right now. As I type, this is right where she sits.
Last edited by B4Runner; 04-10-2010 at 09:26 AM.
05-20-2010, 03:05 PM
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I had the same truck when I was 18. The front was fairly solid, but it was missing the bed and the brakes did not work. Your truck might seem in bad shape to some people, but honestly for a truck that is 66 years old it is cherry compared to the one I had. Even with no brakes, I drove my truck all over the backroads of north florida (I guess that is what granny low was for).
I think that truck has timeless art deco body lines and it was the first truck made after the factories converted back over from the war effort. Basically a little piece of American history and it's been in your family so long.
Anyway, awesome truck, post more pics as you restore it.
I think that truck has timeless art deco body lines and it was the first truck made after the factories converted back over from the war effort. Basically a little piece of American history and it's been in your family so long.
Anyway, awesome truck, post more pics as you restore it.
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