Lately, the 1951 Chevrolet truck has been running better. Nowhere near to road ready, but little things that were a problem before have fixed themselves. At this time, the wheel brakes are non functional. But I can stop the truck with the handbrake, which works on the driveline. I haven’t been able to work on the truck much over the last several months, and somehow, the hand brake got stuck in the on position. I could still move the truck around on the driveway, under its own power, but as soon as I pushed in the clutch pedal, the truck would stop.
That released by itself; and the fuel problem got better. The carburetor needs new gaskets, so it won’t hold gas in the float tank for too long. If it sets for a week, then I need to prime the carburetor to get the manual fuel pump moving gas again. Usually, that takes 3 or 4 tries. But lately, the slightest little prime gets the whole thing revved up and running fine. That and rolling around nicely, it makes me want to work on mechanical things, not just paint and body.
But there’s something more inspiring than that, a goal of sorts. a friend runs a ministry for troubled inner city youths. He said he’d like to see the truck in the annual Christmas parade, promoting their ministry. Somehow, just having a target date is inspiring. In the Bible, Proverbs 29:18, it says “Where there is no vision, the people perish…”
I’ve had the bench seat out for awhile, so that I could do some fiberglass body repair on the back of the cab. I wanted to put the bench back in, so I can drive it easier, but the inside of the cab is so rusty. I’m sure it hasn’t been painted in all its 65 years. I hate moving a piece of equipment around in a shop, without cleaning that area where the thing is going. Same with this bench seat. We’re working on getting a sandblasting setup, but it’s not quite ready. So everything I did inside the cab was by wire brushes. The bulk was done with the power tool, but I finally got a new type of wire brush I’ve been wanting; and man, is it nice. It’s in one of the pictures below, it’s the “cat tail” brush. This one is made of steel bristles, the smaller one is brass. I need these to get behind places where other brushes can’t fit. I got the brushes at Northern Tool.
I have found a few places inside the cab that look like it was painted a color similar to the old Rockwell power tools I just got. The outside of the truck was Forester Green, so maybe the inside was too; and these grey places were just an undercoat or something. I decided to mix up a batch of color for both the tools and the cab. If I want to make it green later, I can, but this is clean for now.
After cleaning with the wire brushes, I vacuumed, blew it out with air, then solvent wiped it. Each step is important. What the compressed air does is blow dust out from crevices. If you didn’t do this prior to spray painting, the dust would come out at that time, and stick to you new finish Very ugly.
So I’m pleased with the results, and what’s neat is that I’m getting better results in a lot of the things I do these days. And I’m no teenager. I’ve been paying closer attention to how I feel when I do or don’t eat certain foods, and my thinking is clearer than it’s been in years. God made me quit the drugs and cigarettes I used before, That was part of the journey I’ve been on for 27 years. Physical restoration is only part of the journey. Learning about life is the other part. Lately, I’ve been looking at Isaiah chapter 57. There’s some neat stuff in there. One really cool thing is being reminded of the word”revive”. It’s similar to “restore”, and that gives me more passages in the Bible to find relevant teaching.
This is getting long, so I’ll relate what I’ve found another time. The pictures:
__The tools.
__The area behind the seat, before.
__The area behind the seat after.
__One of the rear axle seals is out, leaking differential oil. I started the process of putting in a new seal.
__My oldest son saw what I was doing, and loaned me an old repair manual, for old trucks. How cool is that? Thank you Lord Jesus for a pretty cool Saturday.
