Marten's '53 build

[Marten]

Well super excited and willing to tell anyone that will listen right now. My wife was poking me yesterday so I got the truck out for the first time ever and went for a short drive. Took her with me. That was something new for me, not my wife going with me, driving a hot rod. It starts, stops, turns, goes forward and backwards. Very cool. I have a brake problem to look at as I needed to stand on the brakes to stop it but I did it guys.
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Every spring I have waterfront property. This will dry up in June, very low lying land with rock about a foot below the ground there.
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Wife took this pic. Didn't know how bald I was getting.
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[bmarler]

good on you for getting it out for a spin. where i'm at it's rarely dry enough in the winter-ish months for me to feel like getting my cars out. (lame i know)
you truck is looking good, i think i'd spot in a little primer on the doors and then spend the summer driving it. then you can tweak all those little bugs (like the brakes) while you enjoy it in the good weather.

[Ronf]

WOW Marten this is fantastic! Looking really nice. I'm with Brian, prime the doors and drive it for the summer months. Not only you get to have hot rod summer fun but you can work out and tweak the little problems that pop up after a full off build (like your brakes). Looks like you are down to final paint? Great fall/winter final spin on this build. Congratulations on a great build.

[bmarler]

i was looking at that picture filling the tank through the bed floor. brought back memories, that's exactly how my '56 f-100 was set up. man i miss that truck...

[Marten]

Thanks guys. That is the plan, drive it for the summer. Deal with whatever little thing comes along. Not sure how I am going to paint it. Been thinking about it. Not sure how to paint in the garage in the winter time. The reading I have done says to have it well vented. That means heating the air and dumping it outside. Not sure that is a great idea, seems costly. For sure will cover the small areas of filler with some primer before long. Would be nice to find someone that I could do a trade deal with, labour for labour. Will see who I meet this summer.

[Marten]

I have not been driving much. Have some issues that I am working through. Summer is always super busy for me. But for your viewing pleasure I thought I would give you a picture. I wanted to try autocross as the truck was built to handle corners. Driving on the road will not give me what I wanted to feel. And one of my kids has been bugging me to try it. Driver is slow but trying to learn.
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[bmarler]

looks good! are you happy with the performance?

[Marten]

looks good! are you happy with the performance?

For the most part yes. I am having some issues though. The brake booster that I had a mechanic install because he said mine was bad does not work right. Waiting on a new switch for that, hoping that will fix it. If the truck sits in traffic long enough it gets hot, the cooling system does not keep up with the heat generated. Not sure what to do there, trying to get a hold of Champion cooling for that. I have now got some insulation but no time to install it, need to make things a bit quieter. It has the sound I wanted but now that I have driven it a bit, it is kind of loud Handling is good, driver needs to get much better. Just really happy to have it on the road right now.

[Marten]

Well now that the truck has been on the road for a couple of months I am finding some issues. Last weekend was a long weekend for me so thought I should take some time to deal with a couple of them. It is loud inside the cab so insulation became a thing to do sooner rather then after paint.
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Having trouble with my vacuum brake booster system. Seems to come down to a bad switch. Put that is hoping for the best. Monday afternoon and life is good, really happy with the way things went so off for a test drive around the corner from where I live. It is a small sub division, lots of stops, starts and turns. Got a few minutes into in and heard a big bang, crap, now what happened. Stopped, looked but did not see anything. Started driving and heard a clunk, clunk..... took the slow 1km drive home and up on stands again. And this is what I found.
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Broke a u joint which in turn broke the stub shaft or stub axle. Then the half shaft flapping around and hitting anything it could find ground out the groove you see. That put an end to being able to auto cross this weekend.
On the up side the truck stopped each time. Would be nice to go a bit faster to see how that works but now to find the parts and fix it. Not as easy as I thought finding parts for an older Corvette rear end.