42 Chevy G506 382497-S Restoration

[Farrell Fox]

Got my front end mostly taken apart. Trying to save as many original bolts as I can. The radiator was a pain to remove, and I think it is because the fan sits about an inch too far forward on the pump. I had to cut one of the carriage bolts to get the radiator frame mount off the chassis. It's 103° outside, and I think I'm about worn out for today. Tomorrow I hope to start stripping the front end, and at least priming it. I need to come up with a clever way of removing the cab 

[Farrell Fox]

Went out this morning and grabbed a nut and washer for the pintle. They didn't have a castle nut, so I had to make one. Cleaned up the threads, and installed everything on the truck. Sure looks good, can't wait to get it painted. With the rear end metal work done, time to continue stripping the rest of the frame.

[Farrell Fox]

Got up early to work on the truck. Of course today is the hottest day of the week. As luck would have it, the trees I neglected to cut down during winter have provided adequate shade, and tolerable work area. So they can stay for now.


I removed the regulator and radio filters from the firewall. The black straps are for the regulator. You can see the nuts and spider washers for the filters. The crappy blury photo shows the tinned areas for the filters.









For removing the cab, I couldn't find a used hoist or gantry for sale locally, or anything at a reasonable price for that matter. I didn't want to shell out a few hundred bucks buying a new unit or building something to use maybe twice. I also had to work around my stuck steering wheel. Even with the propper pullers, any additional attempts to remove it would result in damage to the bakelite, so the steering wheel stays stuck. The hinge pins on the doors are stuck, too. So I had to leave the doors on. Despite all this, I came up with a simple way to remove the cab with no special tools or equipment required, and that can be done by one person.

I placed two 4x4 wooden blocks under the rear cab mount. This facilitated clearing the steering wheel once I removed it. I lifted the cab up, and slid it over the engine about 6 inches. This allowed me to simply roll the cab over, clearing the steering wheel, and onto the pillow I made from a large camouflage net. This was quite simple, and easy to do, and I did this by myself without any assistance











With the cab off, and exposing the bottom of the cab, and chassis area, I can start cleaning and stripping in preparation for priming and painting. This area is a little difficult, since there are brake and fuel lines to work around. The gear boxes will also require sand blasting, since the flapper and wire wheels are not really going to work well in these areas.



Chad and others wanted to know how the brake line from the master cylinder to the hydrovac was run. Mine is still present, and runs through the transfercase crossmember.

[Farrell Fox]

Jun 24, 2019 5:22 pm

Didn't get much done today. I cracked a rib on Saturday, and it hinders progress quite a bit.

I figured I'd do something easy and take apart my pivot bracket assembly for my master cylinder. Of course this stupid cotter pin refused to come out. I ended up cutting the rivets and removing the whole bracket. What a waste of an hour.



I thought for sure I'd break the bolts holding the exhaust pipe to the manifold. Luckily a few weeks soaking in penetrating oil and heat from a torch broke them free.




I even got my heat control valve working again.


Got most of the front of the frame stripped. It's about ready for sand blasting. My rib is hurting too much, so I'll start again tomorrow.

[Farrell Fox]

Jun 27, 2019 1:48 pm

I'm still hurting from cracking my rib, so I took it easy and started doing small stuff. Got my radio filters blasted and painted, and restored my fuel filter, which came out pretty nice. I also disassembled my carb, completely cleaned it, painted the steel with black VHT epoxy paint, and reassembled it. I'll give it a new accelerator pump, and gaskets when the time comes to install it. For now I can cross these off the list

[Farrell Fox]

 Jul 02, 2019 1:00 pm

I was able to get a little more done. The front half of the chassis is proving to be more of a challenge, mostly in part due to the dried grease build up on the hard to reach areas like the engine mount brackets and transmission crossmember. It also doesn't help that my tiny air compressor gives me only about 20 seconds worth of hard charged blast pressure good enough to cut through the grime. I need to drop the t-case to clean the rest, but I can't do that yet with a cracked rib. I also will drop the transmission and install a new clutch disc when the time comes. For now, I'll just stick to what I can handle while handicapped. The bottom of the cab stripped pretty easily. Took quite a bit of primer and paint though. I'll eventually get the underside of the das







I also dug out my decals for my oil filter and got those stuck on. Took me a few days to find a place with decal set in stock. This will look nice when I reinstall it back on the firewall 

[Farrell Fox]

Jul 02, 2019 6:37 pm

Spent a little time on my hood. Sand blasted the hinges and hard to reach spots, then later I'll lightly sand the spots I can preserve the paint. I'll try and blend in the areas I'll need to paint over. Before I start that, I needed to retrace my factory applued registration numbers. The blue drab was nearly all gone, but the numbers left shadows of where they once were. I used a combination of both left and right numbers to form a comolete USA number. I'll need to figure out where the supression S is supposed to be located. Once I get these plotted out, I'll make a set of stencils. 

[Farrell Fox]

Jul 04, 2019 7:53 pm

Ah ha! I found the S!

[Farrell Fox]

Jul 11, 2019 11:29 am

Been working on canvas lately, so I haven't done much with the truck. I did get a nice visit from Cody. He was nice enough to trade me some missing parts to my spare tire carrier. Thanks to Cody, I've now got a complete carrier assembly!

[Bill_Wolf]

Nice documentation of your restoration!

Keep up great job and keep posting.

Bill

[retro-roco]

Jul 02, 2019 6:37 pm

Once I get these plotted out, I'll make a set of stencils. 

The smaller numerals visible at the bottom appear to be based on the numerals in the AR850-5 manual. I created a font with those shapes if you decide to recreate them.

The larger numerals share a lot of features with the font used on the Ford GPW, but that 7 is unique...

[Farrell Fox]

Aug 06, 2019 9:07 pm

I finally had a chance to put in some work on my truck. Got most of the transmission and bell housing blasted. I wish I had a bigger compressor, I'd have this all blasted in no time! My little 35 gal. compressor only has about 3 minutes of good blast pressure before it has to recharge for another 5 minutes. 

I was yanking the hose over to get a better angle, and ended up blasting a hole in my freeze plug.  ...... So now I'm replacing the freeze plugs, which look paper thin, and on their last leg anyways. If it's not too hot tomorrow, I'll try and finish the mid section, and get it painted. Hopefully NAPA has freeze plugs in stock.

[Farrell Fox]

Nice documentation of your restoration!

Keep up great job and keep posting.

Bill

Thanks, Bill!

Jul 02, 2019 6:37 pm

Once I get these plotted out, I'll make a set of stencils.

The smaller numerals visible at the bottom appear to be based on the numerals in the AR850-5 manual. I created a font with those shapes if you decide to recreate them.

The larger numerals share a lot of features with the font used on the Ford GPW, but that 7 is unique...

I actually made an exact copy of the numbers by tracing them out, and cutting a stencil. However I plan to go with the larger factory blue drab numbers.

[Farrell Fox]

Aug 07, 2019 8:21 pm

I was able to get the rest of the transmission blasted, and most of the engine. Each blast lasts about 3 minutes at best, and I was on my 3rd round when one of the neighbors started to complain she could see dust in the air...... They had no problem lighting off illegal fireworks in their back yard, and letting their trash blow everywhere, but I digress.

All that is left is the last two feet of the frame on the driver side, and my bumper. I'll probably buy or make a tent, and enclose my workspace. It will make it hotter than sh$#, but the thing is nearly done.

[Farrell Fox]

 Aug 08, 2019 6:58 am

I found a video I uploaded years ago of the first time I started my truck. 

https://youtu.be/9QECtSg8FHY

[Farrell Fox]

Aug 09, 2019 10:10 am

Got some of the driver side of the frame mostly painted, as well as the transmission. I need to figure out if the bell housing is supposed to be grey or OD 




As I was waiting for the paint to dry, the UPS guy dropped off my PTO cover plate I ordered a few days ago. I can now remove the grease ball of a PTO, and install this nice, clean cover plate. I'll have to get to this tomorrow, as my morning is already packed before I start my shift.

[Farrell Fox]

Aug 10, 2019 9:50 am

Got the engine painted today. I found enough photos of CCKW engines with grey bell housings, so I assumed the G506 would be the same. It's not perfect, and it's a post war engine so it never will be. But it will look pretty close to being correct. If I install the radio supression shielding, it might hide more of the post war features better. I still need to add the water pump adapter plate. I also need to figure out if I need to shim the front motor mount. The engine seems to sit a little low. Perhaps when I replace the mount, it might solve that issue.

[Farrell Fox]

Aug 13, 2019 3:09 pm

I got a little bit of the front of the chassis stripped and painted. For the front of the bumper, I took the time to trace over my original unit markings. I plan to try and sand the surrounding O.D. plaint and blend it in with new paint, and preserve the original markings as much as possible. Some of the markings are too far gone, like the bridge weight numbers and the star, so those have to be reapplied anyways. But if the preservation process for the others fails for whatever reason, I have an exact duplicate stencil to reapply them with. I even plotted their locations on the bumper for future reference. The additional benefit is I can use these to mark the rear of the truck as well.

Tracing them out was rather easy. I used a straight edge wherever possible, but also whoever originally painted them on, did them pretty thick. This left a ridge along the edge of the numbers my ball point pen easily followed. Once I traced them out, I stuck the transparent sheet to construction paper, and cut them out with a sharp box cutter. I'll do the same with my hood numbers.

[Farrell Fox]

Aug 22, 2019 11:23 am

I spent some time this morning straightening out my spare tire carrier hinges. They were cock-eyed, but the press made easy work of them.




At my previous rental house, it sat on about 3 acres. On the side where I parked my stuff, a garage had burned down with everything in it years before we got there. When we moved, I cleaned up my parking area, and took anything that might cause a fuss with the landlord, and tossed it in my Ben-Hur trailer. Apparently I picked up a steering wheel puller, because I found it in my Ben-Hur while looking for stuff. The thing at the end comes off by backing out the set screw.

[Farrell Fox]

Aug 27, 2019 7:17 pm

Got my spare tire carrier stripped, primed, and painted. I put a few heavy coats of O.D. on it, so I'll let it sit till next time I can work on it. Next will be mounting it to the frame, which will require some cutting and welding of the hinge plate. I'm going to simply graft it onto what's left of my trucks original hinge plate.