VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 1939 chevy truck

we just bought our first classic truck and are very excited about getting her restored to her old beautiful self again can anyone help us find the right start to putting this piece of america back the way she should be. would like magazine names, websites or any information please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well New 39 owner, you started off right by comeing here.
Check out some of our preferred vendors( we have no financial interest in them), we have just found that they are who we like to work with. The Filling Station , also Chevys of the 40's, or Americian Classic Trucks will have stuff for your truck, and they have online catalogs and online ordering.
I would suggest the next thing for you to do would be to purchase a Shop manual or sometimes called a repair manual from one of the mentioned vendors,
Also have you joined VCCA? It is a good club for preserveing and restoreing Chevrolets mostly back to original condition and we have a good monthly magazine (The Generator & Distributor),all at a reasonable price at: www.vcca.org
You also should consider subscribeing to Hemmings Motor News ( also on line) Hemmings is the bible of Car and truck restoreing.. with many parts, vendors and services offered to the hobby.
BUT,
COME BACK HERE OFTEN AND ASK QUESTIONS OR JUST GO THRU ALL OF THE ARCHIVED INFO THAT IS HERE, AND WE WILL SEE YOU HERE IN CYBERSPACE.....

Welcome , new1939owner , nice trucks those '39s , I hope you get lots of pleasure during your restoration efforts . I did 60,000 miles in my '39 during the late '70s , and had a faultless run in it . Now the '40 is the daily driver .
There is a wealth of knowledge here , just ask .
Also look in at www.stovebolt.com for other help and a huge list of helpful links .
Have fun .

The only magazine that I consider of value for restorations is "Auto Restorer", 1-800-365-4421. It covers tool tips, how to information, everything you need to think about for your retoration.

Join the VCCA for the use of the technical experts. Those guys, like the Skipper, will take the time to help you solve problems. The magazine, the Generator and Distributor (G&D), doesn't have much in the way of restoration advice but there is an excellent parts for sale section and you get it free for joining the club. In the beginning and if you run into trouble finding a part I would pick up a copy of Hemmings from your local news stand, it's not a magazine you need to come to the house every month.

This is one of the best web sites for asking technical questions about various aspects of the restoration process. The other is www.chevytalk.org. That site has a lot of members and a lot of technical advice also.

The first thing I would do is follow MrMack and dusty's advice and order the shop manual for your truck. Log onto Chev's of the 40's web site at www.chevsofthe40s.com and order the manual from them. The reason to do this is so that they will send you their catalog. They have the best catalog out there with pictures of all the parts and all the parts listed by part and group number, the way chevrolet logged them. It wouldn't hurt to pick up a body manual also.

Next I would log onto E-bay Motors and find a parts catalog with at least a ten year spread, say a 38 to 52 parts catalog. That will give you all the parts that came with your truck but also list parts that are on other models that are the same as the one you are looking for. The parts catalog is an invaluable tool.

Have at it! Good luck! Let me know if I can help further,

Brian

Welcome new 1939 owner
All previous postings are good advice especially if you have not had much experience in the automotive repair industry. Also if you ask a question here we all try to answer in a terminology that you can understand. Being a mechanic for a living My suggestion is if there is doubt about quality repair or replace it first time dont patch it, it will come back and bite you later and when you least want or can afford (murphy's law).
Secondly dont rush the exercise that is when you make mistakes.
I have had a 38 truck in restoration for 24 years (Wife interupted), and I have lately acquired a 39 of the same size.
I am in Australia so the only way I can help is via the net. I do have a workshop repair manual for the 38 which I may be able to email pages as required, my scanner is broke but there is other ways around that.
Happy Chev restoration and motoring

One other thing, take all the video and photos you can before and during the tear down process. I used video while I was taking the '38 apart and it has come in very handy but for a different reason than what I had originally intended. I would take video of each aspect of the the more difficult and important subassemblies, brakes, etc. as they were dismantled. But what I end up using the video most for is the obscure things like, how was the trim done in this area, or what type of bolt/screw was used here. The video is good because although it showed the items I wanted on tape it also showed other items in the background.

I got to the point where I would just video the entire car at various stages just because I didn't know what information I would needed later on.

Brian

All of the vendors that have been mentioned are great. But as far as the earlier iron is concerened I would certainly take a look at Jim
Carters Truck parts in Independence, MO as well as Obsolete Chevrolet Parts in Nashville, GA