Share In My Pain!

[Tony Ingram]

For those of you who don't know I recently purchased my first truck to restore back in December. After turning over stones here in California for a while I finally found the truck I have wanted, a 57' H-63. Fortunately the truck wasn't too far from home so I jumped in head over heels, bought it and drug it home. The guy that sold me the truck told me the thing had been running within the last five or so years. I thought I was getting a pretty good deal. I had never driven or worked on a truck. Old cars and motorcycles had been my thing. I thought, how hard could it be, there's just a frame and cab right? Anyway come to find out from another guy who knew the seller, the truck hadn't been running in 15 or so years. I got it home and after ripping out the rain soaked rubber floor mats, cleaning out the bird and rats nests and chipping off some 1/2 thick bondo, I had alot bigger projsct than I ever thought. I stood back and said, "what did I get myself into"? I wanted to attempt to get the beast started but I couldn't get the cab up all of the way because the cab jack and hydraulic rams were shot. I took the rams off, had a friend rebuild them and got a heck of a deal through a buddy on a 12 volt hydraulic pump (best investment so far). I stood outside and watched the cab go up and down with eases and my wife looked at me like I was crazy but I thought I had just made a huge improvement to my truck. Now it was onto the engine, a 673 thermodyne that still had the series parallel set up which come to find out was wired totally backwards. I straightened that mess out and still had no luck. My fuel rack was stuck shut. Thanks to the help of fellow members of this site I figured it out and with alot of elbow grease, bad words and busted knuckles, it torched off, after I bought a 12 volt starter and converted everything. Standing in a cloud of exhaust smoke with a tear getting ready to run down my cheek, my wife came outside, smiled and said the neighbors were going to call the fire department on me. Anyway I got it running pretty good and told her I was going to take a break from it to do some honey do's around the house. Well, I thought I would be content for a while but then I just had to drive it out of my rv parking so it was onto the brakes. What a nightmare. Troubleshooting and trial by error takes alot of time and money. I pulled the drums off, cleaned all of the bushings, replaced seals, dust covers and put it back together. Still no luck. My brakes still weren't working good enough to drive it. Thankfully I met a good ole boy here in Bakersfield that owned a diesel truck brake shop. After pestering him enough times with questions and so forth he came out to my house and took a look at my brake system. He scratched his head and proceeded to tell me alot of things were backwards. He said I'd be better off starting from scratch. He said come by when you're ready and he'd have the system drawn up to clean up and simplify everything. The next day I was down there and I don't know if he felt sorry for me or what but I walked out mof there with all new parts to completely re-do my braking system (cans, hoses, foot valve, qrv's, fittings, etc.) for a little more than 500 bucks. Pretty good deal I thought so don't ruin it for me if it wasn't please. I got back, rep[laced everything and now the brakes work beautifully. My thought of content with pulling it out of the rv parking was now a thing of the past and now I had to get it on the road. Needless to say the wife said "I told you so". One thing just leads to another she says. I have to agree with her. I've realized that this part time project has become somewhat of a quest or I guess even an obsession. Once one thing gets fixed it's right onto another with no time to waste. My dad and s\ome of his old car buddies had told me about a little car show that was going to be a fundraise at a local school. When I told him I was going to take the old Mack everybody thought I was crazy. Hey, I just got the brakes fixed so that required a road trip to try them out. As I pulled into the registration line among all of the flamed out high boys and muscle cars I guess you could say the thought of "what am I doing here" did cross my mind. I pulled onto the lawn, not quite like at Pebble Beach but I was pleasantly surprised with the crowds reactions. It seemed the old rust bucket was the talk of the show. Everybody wanted to know about it and hear it run. On my short return trip home I knew I had to kick it into over drive and get to work. Money is definitely an object so everything is being done myself, can't send it out to be done like some of the big boys out here. My plan was to just get it driveable through the summer, enjoy it and tear the chassis down this winter. Figured I'd get the running gear all done and painted and the body work would have to wait awhile especially since it was going to require alot of time and money. I was wanting to find a donor cab and atleast try and piece two together to make one so it wouldn't cost so much. I've been searching the web to no avail and then on Friday, with a stroke of luck located a 57' H-63 cab for sale on craigslist (Denver). Apparently it belonged to a sandblasting shop owner who had bought it to make a transporter out of it. He lost the lease on his shop and was having to downsize some of his toys. The cab was complete, rust free and was only missing the headlights. The price was $400 obo. I couldn't believe it. I work graveyards and waited until Saturday to make the call. No answer but I left a ton of messages. I had it all lined out, a buddy of mine lives in Denver so he could take some pics and Garth aka Packer was gonna pick it up for me. I started making plans on how I could speed up the process and save a ton of money on the restoration. The truck wasn't posted until March 28, 2009 so I figured I had a good chance of sucking it up. Finally got a hold of the guy who was selling it tonight. He said that he had a bunch of old muscle cars he had to put in semi trailers because he had no more room. Well what about the H model cab I said. Well I hauled it off to the crusher on Tuesday, you were a couple of days late he said. He said that he couldn't find anybody to store it for him so he took it to the scrap yard and watched as they crushed it like a pancake!! I told him it was a shame since there were only a little over 4,000 of them made. He said he didn't realize it was such a rare truck or he might have tried a little herder to save it. Well I'm back to square one. I know I'm not the only one that has seen his dreams of a faster, less expensive restorations shot down in flames but for anybody who hasn't, "please share in my PAIN"!!! I thought I heard the sound of taps playing in the background as he told me about it being crushed. That sucks..

[HeyCharger]

Hang in there. When I brought my BEAST home, I thought to myself, what have I done now. That is ONE HUGE job.

Then I had a cup of tea, sat down and told myself, No. It's not one big job, it's just hundreds of small jobs.

You will get there. Most of us have heard the phrase "you should have been here yesterday"

Again, a lot of us are not in the industry. We beg, borrow or st... to get things done.

I find that a lot of businesses help me out pricewise, when I tell them that I'm not in the industry and the part is going to help restore an old truck that is on conditional registration (ie not going to be used for earning money).

As I said. hang in there. You Will Get There!! Rod.

[monty]

Well Mate, Standing around with mates drinkin beers, you can tell everyone what you did, how you did it.

thats why you got A Mack to restore.

how bout some picks of this beasty?

-Monty

I find that a lot of businesses help me out pricewise, when I tell them that I'm not in the industry and the part is going to help restore an old truck that is on conditional registration (ie not going to be used for earning money).

ill have to try that Rod, what sort of things have you blaged using this scam hehehehehe

[other dog]

There's always setbacks that seem to pop out of nowhere, but you've made tremendous progress!

Shame about that cab though.

I believe the old saying "nothing's as good as it seems, and nothing's as bad as it seems".

Good luck.

[Rob]

There's always setbacks that seem to pop out of nowhere, but you've made tremendous progress!

I believe the old saying "nothing's as good as it seems, and nothing's as bad as it seems".

Good luck.

I believe it's always worse, much worse than it appears and presents an impediment to progress you'll never be able to surmount.

Must be why they call me the eternal optimist.

Keep going, you'll get there, just not overnight. You've already done better than a lot by not giving up.

Rob

[mackniac]

Hi !

Just don't leave the project just there , take you time and will will succeed !!

this truck was rusting for so many years give yourself half those years to restore it !!

then the final product will be very nice !! I'm sure !!!

Mackniac !!

[michael c]

16390 I feel your pain I found one of the nicest single B-61's I had ever found for a project. I was delivering a load of stone one day not too far from home and I spotted a mid 70's U model in a woods with a junk demo trailer hooked to it. The more I thought about it the more I woundered what other goodies might be in there with it. About a two day later I went back and asked the property owner if I could go scavenger hunt she said no problem. On my adventure a little farther in the trees I found this excellent single axl B-61. I looked the truck over good and could not belive the shape it was in, other than a broke air horn and winshild form a tree limb that had fell visibly I couldn't find much wrong at all. The cab had no rust even at the bottem in the back seem where they are usually bad, the seats were not even torn "sweet". Needles to say it was coming home with me I didn't even care if it ran. I skipped back to the house and played it up like I would do them favor and get that "junk" out of there, she said I could just have the truck if I come got it, so I told her I would be back in about a week once I got done on a job with my little dozer to drag it out "ok" she said. In the mean time the county the truck was in just passed a new ordance that any vehicle without plates and not garaged the property owner would be fined. About a week and half went by and I went back for the truck and what I found was sickning. When the old woman found out about the ordnance she must of paniced she had her grandson go ahead and drag the truck out with his tractor but instead of chaining it around the bumper or even the axle he looped it through the cab and drug the truck over on its top totally and competely destroying it! Needles to say that was slightly dissipointing.

[Freightrain]

he looped it through the cab and drug the truck over on its top totally and competely destroying it! Needles to say that was slightly dissipointing.

Oh CRAP!! That's crazy! Bet you couldn't pick your heart up after it hit the floor that hard. Man, that's pain.

It's sad when people don't know and do stupid things like that.

[vanscottbuilders]

Tony,

Two small observations for you -

A) You are moving at tremendous speed for a part-time restoration project.

A professional shop would require a year or more to finish that truck.

Give yourself a little credit. You started with little or no truck knowledge, you

have no shop and no steady help. I would say you are doing very well indeed.

Your cab, based on the photos you sent me, isn't going to require that much surgery.

Rust is a fact of life in fifty year old vehicles. The steel in the Mack cab is excellent.

Welding is a pleasure on the old truck, once you get back to clean metal.

And you live in Hot Rod Heaven; there has to be somebody out there who can bring

that cab back to life reasonably.

The crowd's appreciation of the old truck is pretty normal at car shows. The trucks are unique,

and seem to bring out the best in people from all walks of life.

Keep plugging, and we will share your pain, if we can share the glory too!!

Paul Van Scott