mrchevrolet
New member
that back window panel looks like it was cut from a 46-47 hudson pick-up
Lead Sled? Rat Truck? What the hell is it?
- Thread starter Greg@RME
- Start date
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Greg@RME
Active member
I'll have to do some searching, I thought it was from the Chevy truck the bed would have come from, but haven't done any comparing yet. Thanks for the info!
Shea Laking
Well-known member
WOO-HOO!!
Thanks for sharing your progress. This thing's hellakool.
Regards,
Shea
White Trash Renegade
Well-known member
I think it may be from a Ford F-1
Thunder1
Well-known member
Anyway you look at it - it rocks! A genuine rockabilly rust wagon!
It looks like something "Bobby Fleet & His Band With a Beat" would have driven in the Andy Griffith Show.
Thunder
It looks like something "Bobby Fleet & His Band With a Beat" would have driven in the Andy Griffith Show.
Thunder
Greg@RME
Active member
Well, it's been awhile since I've updated this... it's not that I haven't had anything to add, but more that there hasn't been much to report over the last couple months. Between the long winter, the cold garage and having too much on my plate, the car has just sat in the garage.
I finally decided to get down to business... the last issue I had after getting it running was getting crap from the gas tank, into the carb. Bonehead had an old beer keg that had been used as a gas tank, so I picked it up to replace the gas tank. As you can see, I didn't end up using the keg. I drained the gas out of the tank and while it had a bit of rust & junk, the tank was actually in pretty good shape. Instead I just added 2 fuel filters to take the junk out before it got into the carb again and blew out the lines with compressed air. I pulled the carb apart and sprayed out the junk that had gotten in from the 1st time I got it running on gas and fired it back up. It ran & idled well enough. [cl
Next up was getting it to roll... I put 4 new tires on the car since the old tires were shot, went with Coopers from Big-O. I tried hard to find a used/junkyard set of tires with a whitewall that I could grind and make into a wide white wall, but they were about impossible to find. So new tires it was... you have any idea how hard it is to find inexpensive, new tires that are still made with a white wall? Pretty hard... My investment into the car about doubled after buying new tires. I've decided I'm not going to grind wide-whites into the new tires. It does feel good to have new tires and not having to worry about a blowout.
After getting it on new tires and seeing that it was running well, I thought what the hell? Lets see how it drives! The brakes seemed to work well in the garage, so I slowly eased it out of the driveway... with a huge smile of my face! I drove it around the neighborhood... one of the hubcaps fell off and I turned around to get it out of someones front yard.
The first drive went very well, I was actually impressed with how little work was required to get it back on the road!
Driving a car with a 3 on the Tree is interesting... it took all of 5 minutes to get used to it... it's pretty cool. I feel quite nostalgic driving & shifting the thing. The steering wheel is so big, the bottom of the wheel is in my lap while driving. Feels like the damn thing is 3 feet across.
The headlights, tail lights and brake lights all work... I didn't have to do anything! Makes me even more impressed with the quality of cars they built in the '50's. Turn signals don't work, but there is 1 wire under the dash that's disconnected, that may be the issue.
I don't think the generator is working, I have about 6.3 volts while the car is running. I think I should have at least 7.5, right? The bearings in the water pump are shot... it makes a helluva lot of noise when running. Not a big deal, a replacement is around $40. I have a new fan belt and will replace the upper & lower radiator hoses while I'm in there. The engine temp, oil pressure, fuel level and battery instruments all work!!!
Here's some pics from the first drive, last night-
On the seat, the essentials of a 1st drive... starting fluid and a fire extinguisher.-
I finally decided to get down to business... the last issue I had after getting it running was getting crap from the gas tank, into the carb. Bonehead had an old beer keg that had been used as a gas tank, so I picked it up to replace the gas tank. As you can see, I didn't end up using the keg. I drained the gas out of the tank and while it had a bit of rust & junk, the tank was actually in pretty good shape. Instead I just added 2 fuel filters to take the junk out before it got into the carb again and blew out the lines with compressed air. I pulled the carb apart and sprayed out the junk that had gotten in from the 1st time I got it running on gas and fired it back up. It ran & idled well enough. [cl
Next up was getting it to roll... I put 4 new tires on the car since the old tires were shot, went with Coopers from Big-O. I tried hard to find a used/junkyard set of tires with a whitewall that I could grind and make into a wide white wall, but they were about impossible to find. So new tires it was... you have any idea how hard it is to find inexpensive, new tires that are still made with a white wall? Pretty hard... My investment into the car about doubled after buying new tires. I've decided I'm not going to grind wide-whites into the new tires. It does feel good to have new tires and not having to worry about a blowout.
After getting it on new tires and seeing that it was running well, I thought what the hell? Lets see how it drives! The brakes seemed to work well in the garage, so I slowly eased it out of the driveway... with a huge smile of my face! I drove it around the neighborhood... one of the hubcaps fell off and I turned around to get it out of someones front yard.
The first drive went very well, I was actually impressed with how little work was required to get it back on the road!
Driving a car with a 3 on the Tree is interesting... it took all of 5 minutes to get used to it... it's pretty cool. I feel quite nostalgic driving & shifting the thing. The steering wheel is so big, the bottom of the wheel is in my lap while driving. Feels like the damn thing is 3 feet across.
The headlights, tail lights and brake lights all work... I didn't have to do anything! Makes me even more impressed with the quality of cars they built in the '50's. Turn signals don't work, but there is 1 wire under the dash that's disconnected, that may be the issue.
I don't think the generator is working, I have about 6.3 volts while the car is running. I think I should have at least 7.5, right? The bearings in the water pump are shot... it makes a helluva lot of noise when running. Not a big deal, a replacement is around $40. I have a new fan belt and will replace the upper & lower radiator hoses while I'm in there. The engine temp, oil pressure, fuel level and battery instruments all work!!!
Here's some pics from the first drive, last night-
On the seat, the essentials of a 1st drive... starting fluid and a fire extinguisher.-
Greg@RME
Active member
This morning the wife and I went to work on the interior. There was a lot of nasty stuff going on, so we tore out the homemade headliner, pulled off the 2 seat covers and the bed sheet that was stretched over the bench, then drove down to the local car wash and vacuumed out the interior. We tossed the blanket back on, threw in a Vanillaroma air fresher and called it good.
I took it for a drive up to Boneheads house, so he could check it out. He was pretty stoked to see it on the road and have a chance to look it over in person. With a little hot-wiring, Jeff got the 2-tone horn honking! The horn button is MIA on the wheel, so I'll have to add a button on the dash.
Here's the El Combino in Boneheads driveway.-
Later in the evening I took the wife out on the backroads, took some pics and put her behind the wheel. I'm pretty sure that she is more excited to drive this thing than I am!
And some videos from the drive this evening-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbXOMHISL4c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N17vQeTmNMs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPihdTRKlkk
I took it for a drive up to Boneheads house, so he could check it out. He was pretty stoked to see it on the road and have a chance to look it over in person. With a little hot-wiring, Jeff got the 2-tone horn honking! The horn button is MIA on the wheel, so I'll have to add a button on the dash.
Here's the El Combino in Boneheads driveway.-
Later in the evening I took the wife out on the backroads, took some pics and put her behind the wheel. I'm pretty sure that she is more excited to drive this thing than I am!
And some videos from the drive this evening-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbXOMHISL4c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N17vQeTmNMs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPihdTRKlkk
Bonehead
Skull Master
A lot of grinning going on in the vids.
earthman
Fascinated by rolling objects!
That cozy comfortable friendly old car-ness!
CR55
It's just a little surface rust!
Congrats!!!!! I love to hear about our members helping each other..that's what is so great about this place and the hobby! Now wipe that smile off your face!!..CR
..CR
The Tackman
Well-known member
That is one awesome vehicle. Congrats on getting it on the road and hopefully many happy miles ahead of you two.[cl
hotrod preacher
"Official RRR Chaplain"
good to see that the project is a "success" [cl
hope you have alot of "miles w/smiles"
not just different--but cool.......
hope you have alot of "miles w/smiles"
not just different--but cool.......
doggone
Well-known member
I like it ,great find I would like to find something like that
Greg@RME
Active member
Thanks guys, yeah there are big smiles all around when cruising in the El Combino! It's hard not to grin driving something as unique as this.
The plan from here is to get it legal, replace the water pump and valve cover gasket then just drive the tires off it. Hopefully we can get it into a couple car shows just for fun. My wife is excited to drive it to school where she teaches.
Along the way, there will be a few more mods. I think at this point, the mods will be simple weekend-type things. I really want to drop the car, probably 4" in the rear with blocks and start out with 2.5" in the front by stepping the A-arms. We'll see how it does on the streets with that. If it's fine, I might drop the front down a bit more.
I have a friend that has offered up a couple air bags and some other parts, so they may get put in the garage until I come up with a plan.
I've also got the fender skirts to install, those combined with dropping it should really look good. I have found a exterior windshield visor that's not too expensive, so I may look into picking that up.
It's a work in progress, like most project cars are, but at this point the hard part is done... it's on the road!
The plan from here is to get it legal, replace the water pump and valve cover gasket then just drive the tires off it. Hopefully we can get it into a couple car shows just for fun. My wife is excited to drive it to school where she teaches.
Along the way, there will be a few more mods. I think at this point, the mods will be simple weekend-type things. I really want to drop the car, probably 4" in the rear with blocks and start out with 2.5" in the front by stepping the A-arms. We'll see how it does on the streets with that. If it's fine, I might drop the front down a bit more.
I have a friend that has offered up a couple air bags and some other parts, so they may get put in the garage until I come up with a plan.
I've also got the fender skirts to install, those combined with dropping it should really look good. I have found a exterior windshield visor that's not too expensive, so I may look into picking that up.
It's a work in progress, like most project cars are, but at this point the hard part is done... it's on the road!
Last edited:
Shea Laking
Well-known member
AWESOME!!!
I'm grinnin' right along with ya!
Regards,
Shea
I'm grinnin' right along with ya!
Regards,
Shea
rustydusty
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2010
- Messages
- 46
Cool car!!!
As an old El Camino fan, I love the car/truck body style. In Australia they built El Camino styles through Holden/General Motors since the 30s and continue to this day. They probably built something similar to your 'custom' in the 50s.
As an old El Camino fan, I love the car/truck body style. In Australia they built El Camino styles through Holden/General Motors since the 30s and continue to this day. They probably built something similar to your 'custom' in the 50s.
Reign
Well-known member
how did i miss this thread until now? that thing is an awesome find.
Reverend D
Well-known member
Very cool man. Glad to see its rolling down the road. The dash is really pretty clean in the pictures. I love those old bel's very cool cars and well this one is unique to say the least. Nice find.
Regards,
D.
Regards,
D.
