Chevrolet C8 1940 Cab 11 restoration, The Netherlands

[Alex van de Wetering]

Bob, Dave, no luck with removing the shock arm so far. The "fingers" on my puller are thin enough to fit in between arm and shock housing, but the fingers slip off every time the pressure rises.
I think the Hydraulic puller as Dave mentions could do the job, but it all comes down to the fingers of the puller itself. Some sort of a fork that fits round the axle would be better than two separate fingers, I guess.

Alex

[hrpearce]

Alex you need this atachment for a hydraulic puller for the best chance of sucess. You could try a hose clamp around the botom of the fingers it may work.

[Bob Carriere]

You need that two piece gear puller to have a good purchase with the fingers of the puller.

I tried that...... I was getting some serious tention on the puller..... and even greased the acme tread to be sure it would not gall up on me..... no luck !!!!!

I am sure heat woulhave made the difference.

Why are they so hard to remove...??

Bob

[Alex van de Wetering]

Well, It's been ages since I posted a progress report, so it's about time. Sadly I wasn't able to spend too much time on the Chev over the past few months. One of my biggest supporters of the project passed away, so as you can imagine the priorities shifted and there were lots of important things to do, none of them involving old rusty trucks.
But, we are back on the project and I will try to post some pictures today and later this week to show what I have been up to.

I moved my attention from the rear springs to the front springs, due to a lack of the proper replacement parts and inspiration. Both springs were disassembled and rust removed with the rotating wire brush and many hours of energy. I fitted new bushings in all springs eyes.I used one of the old rear springs pins and the broken breaker bar to remove the old bushings (after heating the spring eye). The spring pins are about the same size as the spring eye of the front springs, so that worked really well. I installed the new bushings after heating the spring eyes again and using the attaching bolts to force the bushes in with a hammer. The bolts ensured the bushes didn't "implode". One of the brass bushes required some gentle reaming with the Dremel multi-tool...job sorted!

Alex

[Alex van de Wetering]

As you might remember one of the front springs on my truck had an extra leaf installed and the spring clips were crudely lengthened and holes redrilled next to the original ones. I was expecting to find one or more broken or overbent leafs in the spring, but that was not the case. So, I shortened the spring clips again and re-assembled the spring with the correct amount of leafs. All leafs were stripped of rust, primered and sprayed before re-installing them with new bolts, new centre bolt and spacers for the spring-clip, cut from some steel tubing.

One of the axle bumpers was far gone, while the other is actually pretty good. Budget is tight to I only replaced the bad one and cleaned up the original one. The replacement rubber is about half an inch taller than the old one, so maybe I will end up replacing the other one as well....

I was able to salvage a good threaded bushing from my Chev and re-installed it in the frame with help of a new pin. Heating up the bracket on the frame works really well for removing or installing a new bushing. Yes, you need a hammer, but it doesn't take enormous force to get it into position.

Alex

[Alex van de Wetering]

Just as I wanted to re-assemble the rebuilt Front springs I realised I forgot to order new seals for the spring pins. The "Filling station" offers cork-rubber seals for the early 40's trucks and rubber ones for the late 40's trucks. "Chevs of the 40's" only stock the full rubber type. In the end I found a dealer in the UK who had the seals and they were here in Holland the next weekend with some help from my brother who lives in London.
Assembling the springs was only a few minutes work; new bolts, pins, bushes and grease nipples were fitted.
After the advice from Bob and Phil I attached the upper fender supports and indeed....there is another bolt hidden between the fender and support....the last bolt I needed to remove before I could disassemble the nose panels with the vents......well, after I realised left and right are combined into one with a small panel in the middle......the one with the hole for the engine crank.
Thanks guys! Most of the nose is now removed.

Alex

[Alex van de Wetering]

While taking the nose section apart, I noticed a cut in the arch bar to clear the steering box. The cut is rather crude and seems to be done with a torch......not factory I guess(?). Also the plate surrounding the steering shaft and pedals seems to have been altered to get it to fit around the steering shaft. Anyone recognize this? Is this C8 specific or was my steering box "Saginaw gear" replaced at some stage?

I dropped the rear shock absorbers off at a friend who didn't have too much trouble removing the arms with help of a hydraulic press. The original C8 arms are now fitted to the rebuilt shocks I bought on the web.

Alex