Mt truck took out some zombies today.This truck may look old,but,there's still power under the hood.

                                               "Day of zombie killing"

                                            Zombie leg stuck to the grill

                                              "My truck feels better now" (Also ate up a Dodge & ford truck).

I call it my" "Zombie killer Truck"

The Clutch on the truck is fine,just needed to drive the truck around

The truck sat in a garage before I bought it,It shifts fine."All 4 gears & reverse work great"

Windshield wiper & heater are Inop.

Windshield wiper & heater  don't work & need replacement.Oh well,The truck gets me where i want to go.It's fun to drive.

Drove the truck Today

I change the belt on the truck & drove around the neighborhood.Drives nice,shifts great

Carburator Rebuilt & New Brakes on all 4 wheels

This was fun to do,now the truck runs good.

New parts on the truck.

These are the pics of the new items we have installed on the exterior of the truck.

Both tail lights are on now.

This is our friend Jeff Tigner; he's the one that gave us the tire rims.

The new tires are on; no more rubbing on the rear fender.  This picture is of the rear driver side where the oversize rim was.  One of the rims Jeff gave us did not work so we had to go back to Ron's Tires with a rim off the truck and have the new tire mounted on that.  It's all good!  Ron's Tires didn't charge us anything for the swap.

Pics to go with the post

Here are some pictures of the repairs posted in today's earlier blog and observations

This shows the CHEVROLET lettering on the tailgate from inside the bed.  A steel plate has been welded onto the other side covering the letters.

The alternator is needs to have a rear mounting bracket put on.

This shows the thermostat housing; you can't see it but there is a new thermostat in there.

Here's the new distributor cap

Here's the new fuel filter I added on.I hate those inline fuel filters.

This is a picture from Ebay of the license plate bracket we just bought. The bulb goes on the bottom so this picture is upside down.

More discoveries and some progress to being street ready

If you want, feel free to comment on any page on our blog. 

 We gladly welcome any suggestions; repair advice, websites for parts that won't drain our finances, words of encouragement, etc.   

On Friday, the 23rd of August, we took the truck for a very short test drive.  We came to the realization that the cause of the "herky jerky" was not a bad flywheel but a sticky gas pedal that was preventing us from shifting into the lower gear.  Long story short; no need to have the flywheel resurfaced.  Any suggestions to remedy the sticky gas pedal will be greatly appreciated.

On the same day we got the truck registered and titled in Jim's name.  Cost a "whopping" $34 for 2 year tags then on Monday we added it to our insurance policy.

Today we were able to take the 4 rims, that were kindly donated by our friend Jeff Tigner, to Rons tires Pros and got 4 new P235/75R15 for a total of almost $430.  Tomorrow Jim will put the truck on the concrete and get the tires put on.  Rons Tire was very nice and put Nitrogen in the tires for free! 

Here's a picture:

Jim's been busy under the hood.  He added a fuel filter just before the carburetor, installed a thermostat because the truck didn't have one.  Here's the funny part.  To start the truck there is a toggle switch in the cab that no matter what position it's in the truck will turn over; but of course it won't start if the switch is in the off position.  We make it a habit of turning the switch to off when we don't need to start it.  It was time to move the truck to the concrete for some underneath work but for some reason the truck wouldn't start.  We thought because it was a 12 volt alternator that the coil should have the same voltage.  The coil under the hood said "6 Volt" so we went to Autozone and bought a new 12 volt coil.  Installed the coil and the truck STILL wouldn't start.  We bought a distributor rotor and ordered a distributor cap.  After coming home Jim asked our son Vinny if the switch was in the on position when he was trying to start it.  Vinny told Jim which side the switch was to and we all came to the realization that all this time the switch was in the off position!! DANG IT!  Because we installed the coil we couldn't return it.  It has been listed on Craigslist. The reason we don't need it; there is a voltage regulator that the 6 Volt coil is what is used.

The bolts holding the rear fenders on were loose or missing so on Tuesday we put some in and tightened up the loose ones.  That was easy.  We came to the realization yesterday that the license plate bracket is broken.  The piece that holds the light is gone so we found a new one on Ebay for about $45.  It should be here sometime next week. There is a lot of rust on the bolts holding the old bracket on so we bought some Liquid Wrench and hopefully it will be easy to remove the old bracket.  We also bought 2 rolls of 20 foot 14 gauge wire for our lighting system.  

Another problem we have run into is finding a replacement grille; in an earlier post we stated we found one at R & R auto for $30 plus shipping; unfortunately that grille is gone.  The only other intact grilles we can find are over $600; OUCH.  We will continue to hunt on car-parts.com.  Some other websites that we have found are http://www.americanclassic.com/ and 

http://www.classicindustries.com/

That's all for today.  Thanks for looking and PLEASE leave a comment; even if it's just your name and the date you visited.

More discoveries

It has been one week since we acquired the truck.  Here are the discoveries we have made.

1) There is no thermostat so we will buy a new one.  The housing will eventually need to be replaced.

2) The reason the clutch is "herky, jerky" is because the flywheel needs to be resurfaced.  Matt is coming over Friday to remove it.  Bullhead Machine will resurface it for $30.

3) Can't imagine why someone would do this; a steel plate has been spot welded onto the back of the tailgate covering the "CHEVROLET" lettering.  We will see if Bullhead Welding on Alta Vista Rd. can remove it.  Otherwise the replacement cost for a tailgate is out of our range for now.

4) The front grille will definitely need to be replaced.  We found on on car-parts.com for $30 and an additional $35 or $40 for shipping from R and R in MN.  A new one is around $800.

5) We can rent a pressure washer at Home Depot and add some baking soda to remove the paint and rust.

6) The visor on the driver side is too long.  We will replace it and get a bracket and visor for the passenger side.  We found everything we need to do this on Ebay.

No pictures to post today.  We will post pics of the flywheel both before and after and, with his permission, a picture of our friend Matt. 

In the Beginning

On Tuesday August 13, 2013 we got a 1954 Chevy Pick up.  The amazing thing about this truck is all the glass was intact and it ran!  This truck is going to need a lot of cosmetic work.  As time goes by and changes are made they will be documented and photographed for this blog so our family and friends can see our progress.

This post shows how the truck looked the day we got it.

 The front grill/bumper has been painted over and part of it are missing.  We think the turning signals go underneath the headlights.  The first things we're going to do is get a manual, 4 tires and 3 rims.

 There is no back bumper and the tail lights need to be replaced.  No turning signals we know of. 

 You can see better here the issues with the grill/bumper.

 We are going to replace the steering wheel with a smaller one.  It's a simple single nut system so Jimmy can handle that. The knob on the dash is to operate the windshield wipers; it's toast.

 Whoever owned this truck before us was a wire fanatic.  The wires are all over the only sun visor . One goes to probably an interior light; the rest; who knows?  time will tell

 Yup, it's a gun rack!  The only thing that doesn't need fixing except to find a gun to mount on it.

 Lots of options to pick from to make the truck bed useable.  We are considering wood covered with metal. 

 The license plate bracket is barely viewable.  It will need lights if we want to drive the truck at night.

 Rust, rust and more rust.  Both doors need new weatherstripping and window weatherstripping to.

 Look, no locks. 

 This is the 18 gallon gas tank.  It is located behind the seat.  For some odd reason the gas gauge always registers full and we know it isn't so. There is a loose wire that should be connected to the sending unit but we don't know where. You can see a picture of it down below.  We will replace the sending unit and see if that fixes the problem.

 Passenger side dash view.  They painted it black.  The glove box opens no problem but is is empty; we need to buy an insert.  No radio, heater doesn't work and there are missing knobs.

 This truck originally had a generator but it has been modernized so it has an alternator and a battery.  The battery is in the passenger side floorboard.  Gonna be fun installing carpet over this.

 There's the loose wire on the gas tank.

 The starter has a push button system to start the truck; no key required; SCARY.  This is is the passenger side of the motor up against the firewall.

 This baby's got a straight 6 in it. 

 Here is the bypassed heater hose.  We will find and buy a heater core so this truck can at least have heat.  No AC in this old boy.  We are also going to buy a 6 blade fan.

 This is in front of the passenger door.  Lots of bondo was used on the truck.  We will fix it up. 

 This is the driver side of the engine.  You can clearly see the alternator.  This truck requires only 1 V belt.  The oil filter (on the right edge) is a canister that you open and insert. 

 A 1 Barrel Carburetor is all she needs. Also here is a partial view of all those crazy wires.

 There is a cowling above the hood; it is stuck open.  Probably some WD-40 will fix that.

 Sorry this picture is blurry; this tire is mounted on a double rim.  No tire shop will touch it because they are very dangerous.

 Just so it could move they put tires and rims on the rear that are too big. 

This is the driver side rear tire.  It is rubbing against the rim.

When we got the truck there was a bench seat in it that was just thrown in.  We have removed it.  That is why the pics of the gas tank are not obstructed.  There is a frame for a bench seat that we are going to make useable.  Our friend Matt Roush has offered to help us with our project.  All we need to do is get some money and we can start.

Feel free to post comments and suggestions.