Hi all!
I haven't really had much progress to report since I got this '51 Chevy 1
ton with the original dual wheel option back earlier this year. It was
still being used for logging until just a few years ago, has no bed, and the
floor is almost nonexistant in the cab. Up until now, I've been slowly
taking parts off of it and labeling zip-lock bags full of nuts and bolts.
Well, yesterday I had some friends over for a cookout and we lifted the cab
off and set it on my homemade cart I had built. There were four of us so,
with two of us on each side of the cab, we just picked it up and moved it 4
feet towards the passenger side, balanced the middle of the cab floor on the
passenger side frame rail and then the two of us on the driver's side came
around and helped finish lifting it onto the cart. Some people on the list
expressed skepticism at only 2 people lifting a cab of an AD truck off, but
going by how easy it was to lift with 4 people, I would guess 2 people of
moderate strength could pull it off.
I got to thinking that less than a minute of work was hardly sufficient
reason to feed 3 guys, so I also got them to help me, with the assistance of
a standard floor jack, move the frame 90 degrees so that it is now lined up
with the retaining wall along my driveway that will serve as my sand-catch
for when I sandblast the frame.
There were some questions about building a cab cart a few months back. I
looked at the plans someone had posted on the web but never got around to
printing them out. So I just measured from the inside of the front cowl to
the inside of the other front cowl (I suppose one inside edge of the
floorpan to the other would give the same measurement) and used that as my
width and from where the toeboard meets the floorboard back to the back of
the seat frame (just in front of where the gas tank would be) for the other
dimension. Then I used scrap wood (3 sides were 2 X 8's while the 4th side
was a couple of 2 X 4's because I ran out of 2 X 8's that were long enough)
to make a frame, put a couple of 2 X 4's across the lower edge of the frame,
mounted some casters a friend gave me for free on it (off his Snap-On roll
away that he mounted inside a van) and it works like a charm - total cost:
$3.00 for a box of deck screws.
I guess altogether this isn't much progress for 6 months, however, I don't
think I'm doing bad considering my only cash outlay to date has been for the
following items: Browne's restoration manual, a service manual, and a clutch
head driver bit set.
Next steps will be to put the frame up on jackstands and remove wheels,
front suspension, rear end, motor, tranny, driveline, front bumper (still
has original rivets on the mount, although a very large and heavy piece of
plate steel was welded to it), and master cylinder/brake lines. Then I can
sandblast and paint the frame. And on the cab I still need to remove
everything under the dash (gauges, wiper linkage, etc). I'm unemployed
until mid November so I hope to have most if not all of the disassembly done
by then. Then, with the new job it'll be time to actually start putting
some cash into this project.
Even though I am only about half way through Step One (Disassembly) for a
restoration, it does feel good to have *something* accomplished. =)
-Justin Earl
Cartersville, GA
'51 Chevy 1 ton dually
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