First of all, let me say thank you to all of you who offered advice and
technical info on towing using a U-Haul Trailer. I made the trip from
Houston to Hastings, Nebraska and back last weekend without a problem. I
towed an empty U-Haul "Auto Transporter" up to Hastings behind my 95 Bronco,
loaded up my purchase, and towed it back. The U-Haul towed like a dream both
empty and loaded. It is really a slick trailer. I'd like to have one of them
for my own. I made the 1680 mile round trip by myself in three days.
As for the 41 GMC, I am ecstatic! I bought the truck sight unseen, having
found it on the Internet. All I had to go by was a set of pics. I have found
out the hard way that pictures often do lie. I bought a car this way some
time back, and had Horseless Carriage deliver it to me. When I got the car
off of the trailer, I realized that I had definitely been had.
Not so with the GMC. I decided to go and get this one myself. When I first
saw the truck, I knew that I had made a good deal. I've posted pics of the
truck on Photopoint.
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?=1328059&a=12499040&f=0
The truck was advertised last October as not running, and in rough
condition. The asking price was $950.00. I contacted the woman who had
posted the ad, who said it that her husband had put it together a few years
ago before he died. The truck then sat in her driveway for a couple of years
totally neglected. He had installed a 327 Chevy V8, and done some paint
work, but other than that as far as I can tell it is basically stock. I
figured that for the price she was asking, it looked like a reasonable deal
even if it was rough, so I agreed to pay her price as long as she didn't
mind holding onto it until the winter weather cleared up. She agreed.
I finally got the truck home last Monday, and took a good look at it. At
first I was not crazy about the color combo, but now that I've had it for a
few says, I have to admit that it is growing on me. It needs an upper grill
section, the filler piece between the upper and lower grill, the left filler
piece that goes on the side next to the radiator, the front hood hinge
receiver. and the right hood section, but everything else is solid, clean
and RUST FREE! When I pulled the dip stick, I was amazed to see that the oil
in the crank case was cleaner than the oil in the vehicle that was used to
tow it home, and that vehicle had just had an oil change. This evening, I
put a battery in it and some gas and hit the starter button. The V8 turned
over once, and fired to life.
Next I have to take a look at the brakes. I'll do a complete rebuild on them
before I attempt to drive it, but if all goes well, this truck will be on
the road within a couple of weeks. We intend to use it as a
driver/cruiser/work around the house truck. With its 3/4-ton capacity, and
long bed, it will no doubt see some of the duty for which it was originally
intended. Not to tough mind you, probably not much worse than an occasional
trip to the Home Depot, or the feed store for a bale or two of hay for our
pet pig, and a few sacks of corn for the deer.
Is there anyone on this list who may know of a source for the grill and
sheet metal pieces that I need for the front? I know that the left side
filler piece and the hood half can be used from a Chevy, but the upper grill
section, and the middle grill filler piece may be tough to find. I need a
bone yard that happens to have one or more GMC Art Decos. Does anyone have
any ideas?
While I'm at it, I'll post a link to some pics that I have posted on
Photopoint of a treasure that I stumbled across while tooling through the
Texas back roads a few days ago.
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?u=1328059&a=12440895&f=0
I had heard about a bone yard a few miles out of town that had a lot of old
vehicles. Since it is wild flower season here in Texas, My wife decided to
go along for the ride. The bone yard turned out to be not so much, but on
the way we caught a glimpse of a pair of old Willies sedans. We turned
around to get a closer look. I got out and started walking along a side
road, and stumbled across what seemed like over 100 acres of old cars,
trucks, and tractors. There was at least a quarter mile of road frontage
with cars and trucks lined up side by side for the entire length. There
were piles of old car, truck and tractor parts more than twenty feet high.
The area was very over grown, but when I got to the end of the yard I looked
along a fence and saw that there more rows of cars and trucks behind the
front row for as far as I could see.
There was no sign on the house at the front of the property indicating that
anything was for sale, or that there was any kind of business operating
there. Only very obvious signs along the fence very emphatically stating NO
TRESPASSING!
I snapped a few pics and stored the location in my memory bank. One of
these days, I may get up enough nerve to go and knock on door of the house.
oletrucks is devoted to Chevy and GM trucks built between 1941 and 1959
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