1943 lend lease chevrolet (3ton)

[Shaun Mastin]

next step was the engine and boy that was a head ache , ill put it simply , that everything need to get replaced and machined. but not to worry a year later and thank you to rod my engine lives again. on the other hand my gearbox was imaculate didn't need to touch it , just gave it a good clean and replaced the gaskets , and to give the both a lick of paint

[Mike K]

Looking great.

You will not have any issues finding spares. When I think back, those LL Chevs were a dime a dozen. I was up at Glenrowan around 1998 and the guy running the Lake Mokoan caravan park had a LL Chev for 600 bucks, his family had bought it in early 60's for the farm. It was a beauty, running , minimal rust , straight cab and get in and drive it. My uncle had one on his farm in the early 60's at Devon Meadows near Cranbourne

Can you let us know about ROD the engine guy , where is he ? Did you install the metal timing gear ?

[Shaun Mastin]

thanks mate
yeah you say that but ive been to the swap meets and on ebay and facebook and not a lot has come up far as parts , its mostly full or half vehicles for sale .
its rod smith from the gmrg

[Shaun Mastin]

Next step was to pull apart the steering box , overall it was in good condition just gave it a good clean , re greased everything and made new gaskets for it.

Sent in my radiator to get re-cored. the guy ended up using a hilux core and re-using the top tank and making it work with that and the bottom tank he fabricated to fit in the frame. the cores abit thinner than the original but you wont reallt notice in once everything in , I wasn't going to spend $2,000 on an NEW original honeycomb core

The last photo was the diff in the vise , with me about the check the backlash of the gears

[Mike K]

Originally Posted by Shaun Mastin

its rod smith from the gmrg

Geelong military ????? group

[Shaun Mastin]

Yeah mate Geelong military re enacting group

[Mike K]

Originally Posted by Shaun Mastin

Yeah mate Geelong military re enacting group

Ok

I see you have flat top pistons in that 216 ? . This would be a 1941 onwards US sourced engine. The head was designed to go with those pistons.

The Canadian engines had the domed cast iron pistons e.g. CMP's used . If you try to fit the other type of head the domed pistons hit the head !

They also changed the valves and other minor changes , so be aware of this when ordering parts

[Shaun Mastin]

so after everything got sandblasted and got new bushes for the shackle pins, I got everything put back together and painted and started working on the steel work of the tray.
when most of these trucks came out here , the aussies put an 8mm strengthening plate along the side of the chassis to beef the load capacity to 3ton
mine started to delaminate so I had to take it of and make up new ones. the originals were riveted on, instead of re riveting it I brought 13mm bolts and bolted it back up , and then ran a bead of truck silicone on the joints to prevent water from getting in there again