Restoration of a Chevrolet WA

[Dave Newcomb]

Those old fire trucks are excellent material- I have parted out 3 of them for other uses, all under 5,000 total miles each! The last one is becoming a Military G8T Ford. and as for the long WB; the Ford frame was drilled for both WB's! The correct rivet holes were there for the short WB spring hangers! Looks great. I donated the Fire apparatus to a local Fireman's Museum. Newc

[Bob Carriere]

I have had luck with glueing the gasket to the pan........ NOT ON the block

Using Permartex in a very thin coat on the pan sides, corners and over the bearing cap......... I usually take fine sewing thread and lace the side gasket using the bolt holes.....find the finest thread your wife has in her sewing basket....... it will hold the gasket in place while drying....... I glue the bearing cap gasket on to the cap........ trimming the end of the gasket is done during a dry run before the Permatex is applied and that I fill the corner with a good an mount of Permatex before dropping the pan back on....... it is wowth waiting overnight to let everything set properly....except for the Permatex aded to the four corners. I do not bother to remove the thread as bolting will shear off any excess. I use old HD axle grease that has almost hardened to putty to give the cork a verylight smear of grease. I like to hand tighten snug and a few hours later give it the last final 1/4 turn with a screw driver nut driver.

Easy to to when the engine is up side down on the engine stand..... BUT the real fun is when you have to remove the pan two years later from underneath and everything comes out in one piece and can be reseud again.

Same applies to the top valve cover and the side valve covers.....even if if the Permatex is not fully set, the fine thread will keep things from sliding.

How many think of modifying the two bottom screws of the timing chain cover by drilling/tapping the bearing cap for bolts..... so that the timing cover can be removed at a later date WITHOUT having to drop the oil pan.....

Cheers

[Philippe Jeanneau]

After some prep work with the starter and carburetor, plus fixing the battery tray and making a new fuel line, I was able to finally crank this thing over until I almost got it to run, almost!... BUT after a while, I was almost done with the battery and also knew from the sound of the engine cranking over that I had bigger problems...

Today I got a hold of a compression tester and confirmed my worse fears... After running the test a couple of times I got the following...

#1 60 lbs
#2 00 lbs
#3 20 lbs
#4 90 lbs
#5 15 lbs
#6 90 lbs

So, despite the mystery oil treatment and diesel fuel, I have 3 cylinders with a great problem... I have decided to remove the cylinder head, oil pan and pull the pistons out... I am sure that the rings on #2 #3 and #5 must be still stuck to the pistons, some partially, some fully or perhaps even broken...

With any luck I hope to remove the stuck rings and replace them with a new set of STD rings after cleaning the cylinders with a hone... Then I will re-assemble everything and hope to get it running this way. It may not be ideal, but the whole machine shop/professional rebuild is not an option at the moment...

A real shame that the damage to this engine seems to come from just being left to the elements for 35 years... I was sure I could get it to run after freeing it up, but that would have been too easy! I will tackle it Monday and see what other surprises we have... Still, I am determined to get this thing running before going for plan B.

[Philippe Jeanneau]

New (used) replacement engine installed and running. Additionally, the missing torque tube is also finally in place...

[Bob Carriere]

....now I know who to ask for advice on the torque tube......

Just got over a cold spell of minus 21C and we chickened working in the barn
for 4 consecutive days......takes too long to warm up the place and only leaves a few hours for actual work.

One question.....what is the actual height of those sand tires??

You are doing great!!!!!!

Stay healthy

[Philippe Jeanneau]

Never done one before, but got it figured out pretty good... It is actually a very good design, with the only drawback today being the lack of parts...;((

BTW, I have another post about parts wanted... Some have to do with the torque tube... If you could gloss it over, I would appreciate it.

I guess if you want to work in the barn you have to start the fire at 6.00 am!..

The actual height of the Goodyear R-3's is 30.75" with the weight of the truck... You loose close to 1" without any of the weight... The other tires I purchased are 31.50" and are now mounted on the closed cab truck... I think I will purchase 6 more for lack of anything else... You can see the two tires side by side for comparison... The Chinese deal I had for 12 of the other sand tires similar to what I got went south when it got complicated with the usual stuff...

I'm moving slower than I would like to, but inching along... At least I have a running vehicle with a torque tube. On to the brakes.

[Bob Carriere]

...after looking at the recent posting of the tube what else is missing?????

Inching along is all it takes. I am working inside cleaning up a spare basement bedroom that we have been using for storage..... half is going to the junkyard. Will convert the bedroom into a walk in closet for seasonal clothes nad a small radio room as I am taking everything out of the sun room.... bunch of no 19 military radios and tube testers.....boss's orders she wants the sun room back. I had it for 7 years and do miss it for relaxation on cold sunny days.

Joyce as now decided to retire in March so we need to make more efficient use of the rooms we have.

Busy right now redoing my 1940 cargo box 3 to make one. I looks like, at this point in time that I will be using the 1937 rolling frame that has been restored by PO and build an early 38/39 short wheel base officer truck....around 128 inches instead of the 133 in. I found out that the brake have all beendone by PO, new wheel cylinder, frameblack epoxy and fabricate a civilian cargo box to fit the frame...... may copy from the 1940 truckbox for design model. Current GM wheel/rims are 16 inches with mismatched civvy tires but low and behold the Chrysler trucks of 73 to early 80s have 16 inch rims with the same 5 on 5 1/2 bolt pattern.....now shopping forlarge/wide 7 or 8 inches ( maybe after market) used rims..... that wouldbe a direct bolt on and keep the other parts for making a proper 1533 Canadian model at a later date...... should I live that long....

On your 39 open cab w2hat kind of box are you planning...... the original 30 some locally modified used something very similar to the civilian model cargo box withadded wooden side for greater height...... you could copy from a 3/4 ton standard Chev box...... I have seen nice repro stake side pockets for Ford boxes ..... GM boxes must exist also somewhere.... the rest is all flat 16 gauge sheet metal......

Doing a 42 CDN 107 inch box should be fairly straight forward with the guidance of the guys from Australia.

I am desperately trying to teach myself how to do a professional sketch on the computer using Fusion 360....... supposedly easy but hard for my thick skull.....wold make posting results of my designs on MLU very easy and a dream to order parts pre bent from the steel fabricator.

I can work up to 16 gauge 40 inches at the pan brake in the barn..... headboards and tailgates and longer side parts I have to get pre cut and pre bent but then I can switch to 14 gauge for greater stability on the wide spans.

So much to do so little time...... follow up on my home email.......

Stay healthy

Bob C