vtwinsideways
Senior Member
Heather’s 1941 P/U
My wife inherited a rodded '41 half-ton after her father's passing nearly four years ago. It has an ailing SBC, a three speed Saginaw, '55 Chev rear end, AMC spindles for a drop on the front, modern steering column and box and a tail pan added to the bed. After much deliberation and soul searching, last year she decided that she wants to put the old truck back original. The fact that we have attended and competed at the Newport Hill Climb for the last 8 years may have played heavily into her decision as it is a stock event except for a modified Model T category. To get the build rolling, we found front and rear ends from a seller posting here on the Barn and my father and I drove to Cleveland OH to get them. A friend locally decided to sell an 8CM and a 39 toploader he had been sitting on, so we picked them up too. We didn't want to get too carried away until we had more of the pieces of the puzzle together, so we didn't start restoring anything until about a month ago. Another local friend bought a '29 Sedan and it came with a partially disassembled 99T (9T?) "raised" deck Mercury with a sideloader. Heather bought it and I brought it home. The heads were off and the water pumps and the timing cover also, but the engine was seized. The cam didn't move, the crank didn't move and the clutch was firmly rusted in place. We've been squirting it almost every night for a month with ATF and last night we got the cam to turn over almost all the way. All of the valves are operating. The trans slid back another quarter of an inch farther than it had before and when I turned on the crank there was ever-so-slight movement of many of the pistons!
My wife inherited a rodded '41 half-ton after her father's passing nearly four years ago. It has an ailing SBC, a three speed Saginaw, '55 Chev rear end, AMC spindles for a drop on the front, modern steering column and box and a tail pan added to the bed. After much deliberation and soul searching, last year she decided that she wants to put the old truck back original. The fact that we have attended and competed at the Newport Hill Climb for the last 8 years may have played heavily into her decision as it is a stock event except for a modified Model T category. To get the build rolling, we found front and rear ends from a seller posting here on the Barn and my father and I drove to Cleveland OH to get them. A friend locally decided to sell an 8CM and a 39 toploader he had been sitting on, so we picked them up too. We didn't want to get too carried away until we had more of the pieces of the puzzle together, so we didn't start restoring anything until about a month ago. Another local friend bought a '29 Sedan and it came with a partially disassembled 99T (9T?) "raised" deck Mercury with a sideloader. Heather bought it and I brought it home. The heads were off and the water pumps and the timing cover also, but the engine was seized. The cam didn't move, the crank didn't move and the clutch was firmly rusted in place. We've been squirting it almost every night for a month with ATF and last night we got the cam to turn over almost all the way. All of the valves are operating. The trans slid back another quarter of an inch farther than it had before and when I turned on the crank there was ever-so-slight movement of many of the pistons!
Last edited: