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My 1940 Chevy Restoration

Rebuild Phase 1

Goal:      Get truck running and Mechanically Sound. This includes Pulling all
              body panels and painting them in primer, get frame and running gear
              painted and all mechanical parts in working order

I plan on using a 235ci engine from a 1960 Chevy Biscayne. I got the engine from a guy in Michigan. It was in pretty rough shape, but complete and it had never been rebuilt. My goal for this was to put together a mild street engine for the truck. I had the engine completely rebuilt  by a local machine shop, Port City Machine. Brian Scrutin has run this shop for quite a few years. They do really good work. I had them bore it 30 over, add an "RV" cam and balance everything. The job was delayed a couple of times due finding replacement parts for things that were unusable from the original engine. The oil pan was a mess and so were two others. I finally got one from Bowtie Bits that was in very good shape and useable on the engine. I'm very glad to have the engine done and out of the way. I will dress it up as I go along.

This should do nicely!

The condition of the truck when I bought it was; that the frame and body were in pretty good shape with the front suspension having been rebuilt only a few years back. The truck is very solid and very complete. It has everything original, including the under bed spare tire carrier and engine hand crank. It came with front and rear chrome bumpers and bumper brackets. The rear brackets are a bit tough to find. The truck also came with a four speed, granny low transmission. I have driven quite a few older three speeds, but never the old super low four speed. Man is it a riot. I swear this truck could pull my house off it's foundation. Fun but not what I wanted in the final truck. The other item the truck came with that I didn't want was the old low pressure, Babbitt bearings, oil dipping 216.

Original But!

I found some original AC44 spark plugs that I have added to the engine. These are the original spark plugs called for in the owners manual. They are nothing special but I like the four green stripes on the plugs.

I really wanted a Mallory Dual Point distributor for the truck. I am very comfortable with breaker ignitions. I know everyone is going to HEI and other more "modern" ignitions, but I like the simplicity of points, condenser, and a coil. After searching for Mallory components (I actually bought three distributors and two coils) I started finding parts on eBay. I ended up with the distributor I was looking for. A ZCM 180. In Mallory speak that translates to a Z - Vacuum and mechanical advance, C - 24875 points, M - Uses the Magspark transformer, 180 - Somehow translates to 6 cylinders I haven't figured that out yet. I also bought a Voltmaster II coil. After I got that home I thought what I really wanted was the Magspark transformer. Well I actually found a NOS Magspark. It is in brand new condition. I am rebuilding the distributor now. As promised here is the after picture. After the rebuild I am sending the entire lot to Mr. gasket for testing. I'll report on that after as well.

ZCM 180 before ZCM 180 After NOS Magspark

The next step is to pull off the front sheet metal and strip the frame back to the firewall. I will refurbish and paint the frame and front suspension. before reinstalling the engine and transmission. So far everything is coming off just fine. This truck was fixed up not that long ago. I am missing a few sheet metal screws here and there.  The grill is not as nice as I had thought. I may sell it to help finance a new one. It's got a couple pop rivets holding a couple bars together. Not the quality I would like to achieve. The headlights and parking lights came right off. I labeled the wires for later. I have been looking around at the fenders. I am hoping the entire front shroud will come off as one piece. That would be very cool.	One days work From the backside.
Well I hit the jackpot for me. The rest of the front shroud (fenders and braces) came off as one unit. I removed the headlights and parking lights. Labeled and disconnected the remaining wires from the terminal blocks on the fenders. Took out the radiator, and then went after the rest. Once the radiator was out I could see the entire front bracing was only held to the frame by two bolts.  They were extremely rusted and I ended up breaking one as I was removing the nut. I noticed it was heating up, but not before I spun the bolt right in half. The rest of the fenders were fastened to the frame in the back by two bolts on each side and and to the running boards by six small nuts and bolts. After that the entire front lifted off as one piece. Easy enough for me to lift off and on by myself. I will leave it this way until it comes time to refurbish it. The next task in the project is to remove the old engine and transmission. This won't be easy, but certainly easier now that the sheet metal is removable.	Off it comes. All in one piece.
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