New member to my family!

[ThatXJGuy]

Look what I brought home yesterday!



I actually found this truck way back in 2010 when I dated the owner's daughter (small world lol) but he said he wouldn't sell it and he was going to fix it up some day... Well a couple years later he had some hard financial times and lost his whole place and guess what ended up in a salvage yard! So for a steal of a deal it's now at my place awaiting its much deserved restoration. It will be a whole new experience in comparison to my M-39 series 5 tons I have been working on. I have already been doing a bit of research and will be doing a lot more but Im sure I will have a few questions.

Its an as usual "ran when parked" truck but the date of parking may have been up to 30 years ago... The awesome lack of rust on this one and my others is due to our wonderfully dry climate here in good old Wyoming and the tires are actually in amazingly good shape but the two on the side that was facing west are pretty dried out and cracking.

My first question for all of you knowledgeable WWII era trucks is if anyone knows what is the deal with the 10 lug rear axle and 6 lug front? The front is the standard 6 large bud lug setup but the rear appears to have regular nuts and washers on it... Its probably some jimmy-rigged deal I will have to Un-do but has anyone ever heard of it?


I am also curious if these were supposed to be 6 volt systems originally. I was pretty sure they were and I will just have to see if this one has been converted at some point but I was wondering. I would also appreciate some pictures of some specific things at some point if I could like closeups of how the front bumper is supposed to be and the tire carrier and other misc. accessories but we'll get to that point eventually.

 

[jbayer]

Nice find, hope you can it back to it's former glory.

 

[OilfieldRoughneck]

I like it. Good looking truck. i use to live out by 8 mile. Looks like your somewhere near there

 

[ThatXJGuy]

Yeah, are you still in the area?

 

[ThatXJGuy]

Well I just started messing around with it and already have bad news... The transfer case has major shaft play on the input/handbrake shaft and the transmission seems to have a little on the output. Looks like it will need another transfer case or major repair to this one.

 

[OilfieldRoughneck]

No I sold my place near lost wells buttes. Bought a cabin up in Dubois

 

[NDT]

The rear hubs should be 6 hole Budd like the front. Something went wrong there. Yes to 6 volt system. Super easy to convert to 12 volt using WWII components available.

 

[turnkey]

Nice find ..looks like a fun restore project in the future.

 

[NDT]

Also, that symbol on the door is an original WWII stateside service command insignia. The front bumper is a simple heavy C-channel that I would get fabricated locally. It has a bottom cut out for the winch cable.

 

[ThatXJGuy]

I was meaning mostly what bracketry, hooks, holes, rings, etc. Are around the bumper to get it back totally original. I'll have to pull a wheel off and see if its a goofy hub or somebody modified it or what because the axle is definitely original. I think it has a 12V alternator on it but the starter definitely looks original, and I haven't checked any lighting or ignition system stuff to see what voltage the rest of the system is.

 

[m109a2]

Drive that beast to a rally and you will be a rock star.Al

 

[ThatXJGuy]

I felt like a rockstar just trying to get it home! I got stopped twice before I could even get out of town! I can't wait to get it going. I need an ignition switch for it and to clean up some starter connections I think and I should have it starting soon and I downloaded a page with all the bearing numbers including the transfer case so hopefully that's all it will need. We'll see but I think I'll throw all day tomorrow at it even though I have more important things I probably should do instead.

 

[nattieleather]

Nice truck. You got some work cut out for you but you should be able to get it back in working order. I love the headlight mod someone did. Gives it a different look than on the fender where they are suppose to be. Keep posting picks!

 

[ThatXJGuy]

Nice truck. You got some work cut out for you but you should be able to get it back in working order. I love the headlight mod someone did. Gives it a different look than on the fender where they are suppose to be. Keep posting picks!

I think the headlight lift was for a plow but I'm not sure. There is some gross bracketry welded onto the frame in the front and mostly torched off that I'm guessing was for that. I'm just glad they didn't weld the pipe to the fenders or something dumb like that, I'll be returning them to their original altitude soon. I spent the morning pressure washing the engine bay and underside of the truck which was NOT as clean as the body. I think the truck lost 20lbs of grease that I would imagine was once soft but is now rock hard. Durring the cleaning I found a broken off tab on the top left of the transmission where it bolts to the bellhousing. Does anybody know about the metallurgy of the transmission housing and if it is weldable? At this point neither the tranny or t-case is usable and I'm not guessing its easy to find replacements so we'll just have to see if they are repairable or if I will have to lose the originality factor and put in a different power train. As soon as my buddy gets his axle off my workbench I'll be tearing apart all of the gear boxes and making that decision based on what I find.

 

[gerrykan]

There are several knowledgeable Chevrolet 1 1/2-ton folks that post over at the G503, if you have not visited that site.

http://g503.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=25&sid=d4d4bd6f69024273d52045ac96b37523