VCCA Home Forums GENERAL DISCUSSION What did you do with your vehicle today? 1928 1 Ton LP truck

FS order shows to be on delivery truck. Just ordered 4 6.50-20 truck tires, tubes and flaps. Having a correct set of 10 bolt rear wheels picked up in Ca. to ship here this weekend. Also began designing route to San Diego using Backroads.com. Post Covid of course. Phish
https://goo.gl/maps/pKR1Wz9Xrb6bSs3A7

I guess I will be nice, but to the guys that cobbled this truck to sell, shame on you. Shame on me for buying it. The only way to get whole is to drive it everywhere. What do you do when your going to sell a non running 28 truck with rims that have broken latches, you put 21 inch rotted tires on 20" rims that have no latch and you tack weld them! Soon as foolish buyer drives it, tires unseat and blow up. Giggle!!! Waiting on backordered 6.0 front tires and a recore radiator to arrive we will be driving. New 6.50 rears are on. The good news, the donor trucks have horrible rims but a few of the rivet latchs can be moved to the tack welded rims. I guess I just want my stuff right. Just venting, Phish

PS found the miss. Loose coil bracket.

Phish,
I think I have some extra rims in Missouri.

Mike

Thanks, have repaired 2 rims and if we can transfer latches combined with rims Rustoholic found us plus Chipper; 2 trucks rolling. Thanks for the parts and will be replacing them soon. Phish

New exhaust installed. Need to grind the welds on patch rim and cover pin holes with JBW. These two will be used for spare tires if the rims I have enroute are good. Knocked the bad starter rings off and one is a slightly larger size than the other, Both 110 teeth. Making progress. Phish

We have the correct rear hubs thanks to members Dean who put me in touch with Ray. A fellow racer got them as far as Dallas where I loaded them. Heavy suckers. Put new Firestone 6.50 X 20 on the back and 6.0 for front back ordered. Used our own method to split the rims, by the time we do 8, will be good at it. We now have 3 types of rim fasteners. Phish

PS Put the hub on the truck, then the tire. Trust me

Radiator recore in. Just need front tires to show up and a quick trip to Chippers. Phish

New correct front tires on with rims from Chipper (thanks). Vac tank lost prime for some reason so pulled top and filled. Not sure why that went south. Dog got our manual and left it in the rain. All good! Boyd made a small night run with lights. When Lemons car off rack, going back into pan. Still think something not right but truck seems to fly for its age and will lock up the brakes. I am impressed. Phish

Once in a blue moon, my vacuum tank will lose its prime too.

To avoid having to take the top of the tank off to prime it, I added a 1/8" NPT tee into the inlet line with a plug that I can easily take out in order to squirt some gas in there. See the photo with the red circle.

To facilitate squirting the gas, I have an empty Coke bottle with a tube attached to the cap.

To fill the bottle with gas, I added a gas valve inline under the gas tank so I can fill the bottle directly from the tank, thus eliminating the need for a portable gas can. See the other two photos.

I keep the gas squirter bottle with the truck in the toolbox that I keep in the truck's bed.

Cheers, Dean

Dean,
I was sure that your next level of preparedness was going to be:

"To make sure I always have gas in the tank, I have a tanker truck follow me everywhere I go"

Mike

Thanks to you guys for persuading me to not whack it topless. We will construct some pull up side glass with straps (like our hemi cars) and run the new wheels off. Will devise a primer fill system like Rusto. Good news I picked up an extra carb and vac tank from Chipper this week. I want to peek into the rear gears and adjust brakes as per manual. Punch list getting smaller. Using a portapower and bars with correct liners, tubes and rims, tire mount in 10 minutes. Phish

I sure am enjoying this tale of bringing life to the 28 1 ton LP.
Keep us updated. I look forward to each chapter.
Dewane
CarDC

Dewane : Your not the only one who looks forward to reading the saga of the 28.
Phish: Thanks for posting. It appears that you are a very knowledgeable person that can repair/fix things.

Dick

Thanks for watching. My claim to fame is knowing what I dont know. There is a wealth of knowledge on this thread and when I need help, the Chip is 110 miles away. Rusto and 35 mikie are a click away. Changed out vac tank late today and made a 45 mph pass. 16 miles and counting. I think these things were basically a farm implement. No mirrors, blinkers, dome lights and a tight pack at 6' 2". I would love to know who and where it went new 93 years ago. Phish

Marley' the non dalmatian loves to cruise in it. Why not longer?????

It has been indeed a pleasure to be able to help. I don't get as much satisfaction as you do but any is worth the effort. Helping others helps us as well.

Phish - So where is Westlake ?

West of the lake. IE Lake Charles. We are on the west side at the bottom of the big I 10 bridge, a sea of blue roofs. 28 miles from Texas line in SW Louisiana. Still a debris field but come on by if your traveling I 10. When all the industry is bringing in money, they belong to Lake Charles. When the smoke and smell, they belong to Westlake. Phish

Most uncomfortable 21 miles of my life, California here we come. Vac tank has to be working now. I have some Mopar windshield mirrors. Since this is not a concourse project, will zip screw one in. Must not have seated the front and rear pan gasket correctly but dont care. Chipper told me how to set bearing clearance so going back in. Someone needs to make those end gaskets with holding tabs. Also need to tighten steering now that dog brought the manual back. On deck is my now son-in-laws Challenger. Shaker hood six pack with factory sunroof was in parked in his back yard when I first met him. WHAT???? Stashed it to restore for him. Phish

As for comfort while driving, may I suggest adding a pillow on the seat? ;-)

I struggle with the front and rear oil pan gaskets every time I drop the oil pan on my '28 engines.

Here are some of the things that I keep in mind when putting the pan back on.

1. Do not rush the assembly. Give sufficient time for the gasket sealant to get really sticky so as to hold the gaskets in place. I use Permatex Super High Tack gasket sealant for these gaskets.

2. Clean all the gasket surfaces on the block with acetone and a clean rag.

3. Start with shaping the front and rear curved gaskets. I use Ray Holland's method of sticking two gaskets together and let the sealant dry while attached to a round bottle so as to keep the curved shape. I usually leave them tied up overnight. See the pic below. I make the gaskets longer than needed so I can carefully trim them to the correct length when fitting each gasket to the curved surface where it will go. More on this later.

4. Using four 1/4-20 x 1" bolts with the heads cut off as guides and screwed into the block bottom, I glue the long side gaskets onto the long, flat surfaces of the block. I trim the end of these gaskets so as to kiss the bottom of the curved end gasket surfaces. I leave the guide bolts in the block so they can guide the oil pan into place more easily.

5. Next, I lay under the engine, hold up a curved gasket to the curved surface, and (using a super sharp little hobby knife) I trim a little off one side of the gasket until it fits perfectly around the curved steel surface and touches the side flat gaskets.

6. I smear some of the same Permatex on one curved surface, put one of the curved gaskets in place, and hold it there in place for at least 2 minutes. Repeat for other curved gasket.

7. Right before I attempt to put the oil pan on, I squirt a little dollop of RTV into the corners where the curved gaskets meet the flat gaskets.

8. I carefully lift the oil pan up to the bottom of the block and put in a couple of the 1/4-20 screws that hold the pan in place. BTW, I make sure the flat gasket lips of the oil pan are flat and I use 1/8" x 1" reinforcing strips to keep the oil pan lips from getting deformed.

9. Before I put all the bolts in to hold the pan on, I inspect the two ends of the engine to see if I can see a sliver of the curved gaskets showing outside the oil pan. This visual inspection confirms that the curved gaskets are seated properly.

10. Satisfied that the curved gaskets are in place, I put in the rest of the oil pan bolts. Considering that the end bolts go into the splash zone in the engine, I put some sealant on the threads to make sure oil does not leak out via the bolt threads. See the second photo below.

It's always a crap shot (for me) to get the end gaskets in properly so they do not leak.

Cheers, Dean

Phish,
There are generic, hinge mounted mirror arms that should work on your truck. They are on eBay and I might have some. They will require a longer hinge pin or or 1/4 inch bolt. The hinge end is an adjustable C arrangement.

You might want to look into having your legs shortened before your trip. They could put the removed sections on ice and reinstall them when you get home.

Mike

Come to think of it, the leak could be from the front main bearing, if you've taken it off after installing the rear plate of the cam gear housing.

To fix the last engine knock when I rebuilt Lurch's engine, I removed some shims from the front main bearing while the engine was in the truck. The result was I got rid of the knock, but in the process I disturbed the seal between the lower half of the bearing and the rear cam gear housing plate.

Even after smearing a bunch of RTV in there before replacing the bearing half, the engine still leaks 8/10 of a teaspoon of oil per mile. So, Lurch in his old age is reduced to wearing Depends. See photo.

To correctly fix this leak, I'd have to open up the front of the engine enough to get that rear cam housing plate out and re-seal it. Not happening any time soon.

Cheers, Dean

Dan Oday in the San Jose area has a little RP. He is fairly tall too and replaced the back seat cushion with a cut down foam piece. gives him about 3 to 4 extra inches. If your truck is too uncomfortable it may be worth a try. Art

Shipped 2 engines to J&M Machine in Mass. Let the spending continue! as I would say to my kids at Mardi Gras. Back in the good ole' days. Phish

I saw the mouse nest that came out of the pan. Looks like the rest of it has been rebuilt. Hopefully it won't go too bad. Art

Mouse house motor still here, still stuck. Will be used as a backup if a hard part is bad off HA and P1 motors. Phish