1943 lend lease chevrolet (3ton)

[Shaun Mastin]

My names shaun mastin, ive been looking on this page for a while and decided to register and put up my project

at the time I was on my P's so I had to look for something RHD and didn't want to make anything RHD (eg a jeep) and good forbid I was getting a landrover .So this was the next best thing had a choice of getting a chev , dodge or ford of the era. And me personally I do like the chevys the best.

I got this truck about 3 years ago now from mike Edwards property (rip) , with the help of simon allen and euan McDonald with the transport, it came with a lot of extra parts which has help me along the way with the project

[Shaun Mastin]

tearing the truck down for a full nut and bolt restoration
can see the truck was worse for wear "inbetween the covers"
luckly I had another cab which is in better condition that I used

[Shaun Mastin]

just some more photos

[maple_leaf_eh]

The colloquial name for a gas tank under the seat is a suicide tank. For a while Dodge 1/2-ton pickups had the tank behind the seat back. It was unnerving to hear the fuel sloshing as you drove along.

Looks like a project with good prospects of success. Keep up the good work.

[Shaun Mastin]

oh really, never really thought about that but you do make a good point

[Shaun Mastin]

first job was to sandblast the springs chassis and diff ,
I disassembled all of the springs after sandblasting and wire wheeled and fish oiled in-between them. replaced the bushes and dad made up the nylon spacers for the front . I found that one side at the front was sitting lower so I had to take it apart again and went to jack nevilles house and he helped me make the spring more taught and now its sits more level.
the front bracket that holds the bumper and front shackle was broken and "farmer joe" welded so we had to make a jig and bolted together to re-weld it in properly.

when these trucks came to Australia the Australian army put 8mm strengthening plates along the side .Unfortuntly mine started to de-laminate so I had to cut the rivets and drill them out and make up new plates and bolt them up

the crown and pinion gear was to worn so couldn't use the original , good thing about the banjo diffs that I could keep working without waiting on the diff. I eventually found one and pick it up at corowa last year

[Shaun Mastin]

just some more photos

[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 Kelly]

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 Kelly]

Originally Posted by Shaun Mastin

its rod smith from the gmrg

Geelong military ????? group

[Shaun Mastin]

Yeah mate Geelong military re enacting group

[Mike Kelly]

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

[Euan McDonald]

Looking good Shaun, when did you want to pick up the hood bows for Phil?

[Shaun Mastin]

Thanks mate , ummmm not sure yet , I thought he was picking them up ? ,I'll proberly get it when I start the making the tray

[Shaun Mastin]

Now all that is finished I proceeded on starting with the cab and boy was there a lot of work to be done , most of these trucks theres the use all places of rust like the bottom quarters and where the two sheets of the cab meet at the rib at the back, I did most of the repairs before I sent everything of to get sandblasted

these photos I repaired the front lower quarters which where rotted out and I started to cut out all the rust of the back of the cab.

[Shaun Mastin]

I had spare doors that were to far gone to use but the rib of the door was good and the same as the rib that runs along the back of the cab, so I cut the ribs out of the doors and used them to repair the back of my cab

[Shaun Mastin]

some more repairs , this time the floor where the fuel tank sits and made up another cover plate for the front engine mount , as you can see the old one was worse for wear. and repaired the glove box

I was luckly enough to have the original battery tray but that to was rusted out so I made up a new bottom for that too