The "New" Truck

Since I am starting this blog a couple of weeks after getting my dream truck I guess I should get everyone caught up on what's been going on thus far. I came home from a meeting at work on my birthday to open the garage and see a 1950 5 window Chevy pickup that I had dragged Margaret to see a few weeks earlier. I had seen an ad on Craigslist for the truck, it was just sitting out in a huge yard, covered in surface rust. The ad said it it was running and that the guy had purchased it from the original owner. It also said that it came with the original title and over $2000 worth of parts. I dragged Margaret down to Happy Valley, southeast of Portland a couple of days after seeing the ad. When we were there I told Margaret it was the truck I had always wanted. After drooling over it for almost an hour we left and I had all but talked myself out of it on the way home. Saying it would be too expensive to restore and that we just don't have the space to store it or the resources to restore it. When we got home I tossed everything into the recycle bin. Although the truck has been my dream since I was at least 4 or 5 years old I just couldn't bring myself to begging Margaret for it. Luckily I have a wife that loves me because I didn't need to beg. Apparently Margaret grabbed all of the paperwork I had tossed and called up Dave, the owner of the truck, and told him she was going to purchase the truck for me for my birthday, and had asked him to be patient with her while she set everything up. So during the next few weeks she had been secretly going down to his place to pick up parts and store them in our neighbors garage and set up getting the truck up here to our house. Needless to say I was totally surprised when I showed up and saw my dream sitting in the garage. When I got out of the car after driving up about the only thing I could do was scratch my head, in total disbelief...Margaret had pulled it over on me and given me the truck of my dreams!

Later that afternoon, we went and bought a 6 volt battery and tried it out, with no luck. It didn't even sound like it was getting any juice to the starter. After some head scratching and swearing, I noticed that the coil was a 12 volt. So I exchanged the 6 volt for a 12 volt. I dropped the new battery in and we tried turning the key again. It now had the juice to get the starter going but it just wouldn't turn over.

It just didn't sound like it was getting any gas. I picked up some starter fluid to see if I could get it started that way. No luck. Then after some more brain storming with Margaret and my neighbor, Kevin, we came to the conclusion that I needed to be able to turn the ignition to allow current to flow through everything. Since I didn't have a key I had to disconnect everything attached to the ignition and bolt it all together to close the circuit. Still the engine wouldn't turn over.

While all of this has been going on, when I get too frustrated with the engine and starter, I've been working on other small projects that need to be worked on, such as getting both the cowl vent and left side vent to open again. Since the driver side window was shattered I've removed the glass and am working on removing the rust welded bolts that are holding the frame to the window shelf. I've cleaned out the glove box compartment, found some 1940's pennies, and some plastic pieces that I need to clean up to figure out what they are exactly. I've been working on removing the aftermarket turn signals from the front fenders, without much luck since they have been rust welded on as well.
I pulled the starter out to replace the starter switch, but found that the screws were stripped and stuck. Luckily with a little work and some Vise grips, I was able to loosen the screws and remove them. Once I had the old switch out I could easily see why the starter only worked intermittently...there was so much corrosion and wear on the copper plates that there was barely any contact when the switch was depressed. Now that I had removed the old switch I had to find new screws that would fit in the existing holes, so I could install the new switch.

After reinstalling the starter I tried to start the truck again. Once again, it sounded like it wanted to start but wasn't getting any gas, then the starter sounded like it was dying...until after a few tries, it did die. I removed it again, and have taken it to several auto parts shops, like Baxter, Autozone, and Parts for Less, to see about getting it tested to see if it really is dead. Since it is from such an old truck, there isn't really a good way to test it, but two of them say it is dead and it's time for a new one.

That about sums up what's been going on with my new truck for the past couple of weeks. Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to figure out what's going on with the starter so I can actually start it and see what else might need to be done.