I’ve been building this truck for two years now. Time flies when you’re having fun so they say. What was intended to be a very cheap, quick and dirty truck… like I said, two years ago I started this build. This was one of those ran when parked deals. Which I must tell you, having pulled dozens and dozens of cars from fields, barns and garages over the years, this is the first time I’ve been burned. The guy was honest enough. He had owned in for three years and had picked it up while traveling through Nevada where it had been parked for a dozen or so years. That’s when they told him the “ran when parked” story.
The truck came to me very complete but pretty rank and needed some massive decontamination. I was fine with that. Once home I began the process of checking out the motor etc. I wanted to be careful, as it had been parked for many years. So, I pulled the plugs and oiled the cylinders. At that point I put a breaker bar on the end of the crank to see what would happen. I moved about 30 degrees then clunk. Then back and clunk. Oh boy, not good. I initially thought maybe a stuck valve. When after pulling the valve covers everything looked good I then pulled the pan and that told the whole story.
What I found was parts of pistons, bearings and nuts and bolts. It seems the motor really didn’t have that many miles on it, and while performing the rebuild they somehow forgot to tighten the rod bolts. Two of the caps backed off then all hell let loose. Check out the photos of the rods and pistons, they tell the story. The motor then went down to Tim McMaster for a complete rebuild. In the end only the block and one head were salvageable. All the other parts were hashed.
Generous friends donated some parts and we sourced some other good used parts to fill in the rest. New rings, bearings, cam and an original “B” intake and we had a nice little mill for the Monster Hauler. Now on to the bodywork and paint work. The photos tell that story well, if something doesn’t look right or you have a questions, just comment below.
