The Autocar is just about finished. It needs some paint touch up and I have a grill guard and new front hooks that need painted and mounted, but mechanically it's about finished.

I mounted an electronic tach called a Tiny Tach. I made a bracket out of 3 inch aluminum angle and mounted it on the dash.

I also made a seat  base out of C channel and a piece of 1/8 inch steel plate. These were made so I could utilize the old mounting studs on the floor. The new Bostrom seat is 6 inches narrower than the old Autocar deluxe driver seat. I also gained 7 inches of leg room. It's so much more comfortable than the old seat.

I made a new rubber mat around the gear shifts. I replaced the fuel tank sending unit, so now the gauge is accurate.

Bob Kiser came over and he along with my Dad and daughter Haylee, reinstalled the hood and front fenders.

With the mechanical stuff finished, I took a couple test drives around the neighborhood. After getting used to the 7 speed Spicer I took it out and filled up the fuel tank.

On Thursday, June 20th,

I reinstalled the running boards. Bob had repainted them and they looked great.

On Saturday, June 22nd, my youngest daughter, Rilee and I took Big Melvin to the Bonfire car cruise for it's maiden voyage. The 8.3 Cummins engine has so much power compared to the old gas engine it's hard to believe. Everything worked perfectly. I couldn't believe it. The truck was a big.

I'm posting some pictures of the interior.

I had my shoulder surgery and decided I better start working on some truck projects.

I can't do any heavy lifting, but I figure I can start working on my new seat. The Bostrom T Bar seat I got off Rocco had been sitting outside for awhile. The cushions need replaced and the foam was soaked. Rocco gave me a new bottom seat pan and cushion he had. I pulled the cover off the back pan and have decided to have an upholstery shop make a new one.

Some you may wonder,why replace the driver's seat.  Well , anyone familiar with the Autocar Safety Cab, which was used until 1950,knows it's about the size of a Ford Ranger or S10 Chevrolet cab. The Autocar Drivers Cab which replaced it is much larger. Larger people will find it hard to impossible to get behind the wheel.

Even though my truck was equipped with the Deluxe seat, which gives you adjustment for your lumbar, legs and tilt of your back, I haven't found a position to make it comfortable. I once drove the truck about 120 miles and when I got out, I felt as if someone beat me with a hammer.

The seat has to have a low back,due to the hight of the cab. The T bar seat has a low back,suspension,and ample adjustment. It also looks period correct. You can also gain about 4-5 inches of leg room due to the design of the T bar seat.

Let's start the seat restoration:

 I did my usual procedure when I restore anything. Step one tear everything apart. The seat was stripped down to the last nut and bolt. The ratchet mechanism was frozen and all the grease fittings were plugged up. The small shock absorber,that serves as the suspension was also frozen. The seat also needs new rubber stops and one pivot pin. I ordered the shock from Jack Sell at Sell's Truck Parts in Sarver. The rest of the parts I needed are,Surprise, obsolete. We'll tackle these later. A word of warning. I e-mailed Bostrom and was informed that the only parts available are the shock and some seat cover foam. These will only be available this year. If you have one of these seats or would like to restore one later,I would suggest you at least buy a shock,while you still can.

I next washed all the parts in my parts washer. This is basically a sink with a pump that circulates cleaning solution from a barrel under the wash tank. This dissolved years of old grease and also helped dissolve some of the green Mack paint.

After everything dried, I began cleaning the parts in the blast cabinet. You could also use a wire wheel on a grinder. I don't like to use chemical paint stripper as it tends to hide in places until you paint the part then it oozes out and destroys your new paint. Been there,done that. I like to start with clean metal,especially when I'm doing a color change. The media blasting also broke the ratchet loose, freeing up the adjustment.

The next step is to apply a good primer to seal the metal and help the paint adhere.

Most Bostrom T Bar seat's I've seen were painted black. My seat was painted Mack green. When I restored Big Melvin the first time,I used silver hammer tone paint to finish the dash,seat frame, trim pieces and steering column. I decided to paint the Bostrom frame hammer tone and leave the seat cushion pans and accent pieces black.

Re assembly can be tricky. The best advise I can give you is to take pictures as you disassemble. If you try to use the parts diagram,you'll be scratching your head in a few places.( Like how the tension spring for the back and forth adjustment goes back on. Luckily for me,I had my Dad's seat to refer to.)

I reused the rubber stops. These are a round rubber block that has a rubber nub on the back. The nub goes through a hole in the seat frame. When you pull the stop off the seat pan for your restoration,the nub pulls off. I used a stainless steel sheet metal screw backer up with a flat washer. Insert the screw through the hole and screw it into the stop. It seems to work pretty well. We'll see going down the road.

The pivot bolt's are hollow and have a grease fitting on the end. A small hole lets grease through to lubricate the rollers and bushings. When I attempted to lubricate the bolts, The grease fitting in two bolts stuck in the grease gun and pulled out of the bolt when I pulled the grease gun free. Who would have thought....
These can be fixed by running a tap in the bolt and re threading it. I new grease fitting can then be installed.

Finally the frame and lift mechanism are assembled and the bottom seat pan is installed. The funky thing about this seat is the pan holds everything together. If you take the bottom pan off,the seat separates in half. Every pivot point was lubricated with either gun grease or white lithium grease. I also used stainless steel bolts,nuts, and washers in the reassembly.

Valley Seat Cover made the cover for the back seat and did an excellent job.

Would I restore this seat again. Let's look at the facts: These were thousands of these seats made. Most were put in trucks that got worked hard. The covers are almost always ripped. The seat is designed to have the cover and pan replaced as a unit. You keep a couple in the shop. One gets ripped, slap on a new back or bottom and go down the road. Except The pan's and backs aren't available anymore. Bostrom didn't have any and want ads I posted  on several of the antique truck web pages I frequent failed to produce any. The same can be said for the covers them selves. Not available.

This leaves you with a trip the upholstery shop. Find a good one.Then get ready,they're not cheep. But quality work will last a long time.There's no sense putting time and money into a project,then skimp on the part everyone will see.

Unless your seat was sitting outside,like mine was,it may not be necessary to do a complete tear down. Touch up the nicks in the paint,lubricate all the pivot points,and replace the covers,and the shock and you could have a like new seat. The covers will be the most expensive part.

I rebuilt mine to new. I got a seat that was exactly what I wanted for about half the cost of an air ride seat. It also gave me sometime in the garage and kept me busy with I recuperate. So,I'd say it was worth it.

I attached some pictures. Please leave me some feedback and feel free to ask me any questions.

Here are some before and after pictures. I should have taken some during the rebuild,but once I get started, I didn't want to stop. I'll take more next time.    

Here's an update.I know you've all been waiting anxiously. Before I get to the good stuff,I need to give you an update on me.  I fell off a step on my porch on Feb 22 and dislocated my right shoulder. I have surgery on the 20th of this month so I figured I'd update this before the big event. It's going to be a while before I can do anything on the truck.

I went to Rich's house yesterday to take a test drive in the truck while I could still shift. The following was done to the truck:
 Engine was replaced with an 8.3 Cummins turbo diesel engine (250 HP)
A 7 speed Spicer overdrive transmission replaced the Autocar 5 speed
A Ross power steering box replaced the manual steering unit
The radiator was recored
The rear breaks were changed to maxi breaks

I was very happy with Rich's work. The amount of fabrication it took to make this work has to be seen to be believed.

The truck starts right up and idles great. The transmission shifts smooth and is fully synchronized   and is so much easier to shift than the old 5 speed. You don't need to double clutch each gear like the old transmission. It's like shifting a modern pick up truck.

The power steering makes a word of difference. Big Melvin's tires are over 4 feet tall. Steering it going down the road was an adventure with the manual steering. They were almost impossible to turn when the truck was stopped. Now you can turn the steering wheel with one hand.

The amount of power the engine puts out is crazy. I drove the truck a lot when I first restored it. The 501 Autocar gas engine was rated at 145 HP when it left the factory in 1948. You had to shift a lot of gears on any hill you came to.  The 8.3 Cummins is rated at 250 HP.  I pulled a hill in 6th gear with the aux. transmission in high that I would have used 3rd gear and the low side of the transmission with the old engine.

The engine is also fitted with an exhaust break. This holds back pressure in the engine and slows it down when you let off the gas. Although it doesn't have a  loud bark like a jake break does,it does make pretty cool hissing noise.

I only drove it a couple miles and look forward to getting it home and completing it.

I've added some new pictures. The engine needs detailed before show season.

My radiator is junk but I got a new seat......

When doing any type of conversion or restoration,problems always crop up. Parts that came off don't fit where they're supposed to,parts get lost, or parts you figure are good, turn out to be junk. It's been my experience that the parts that are the hardest to change,are obsolete ,or are expensive are usually the ones that need replaced. 

Take my radiator for example.The main reason for replacing the engine in the Autocar was that  you couldn't trust it not to overheat. Take it from my experience,if you have any thing with an engine that's been sitting for 20 or 30 years,pull the soft plugs and flush it out.  Even this may not get it cleaned. You may have to tear the engine down and get the block hot tanked. There's nothing worse than going to a show,or trying to get home from one and having your truck puke antifreeze everywhere. Yes ,I've been there a couple times....

Anyway, when the radiator was pulled, Rich informed me it was full of rust and scale. Usually a radiator can be boiled out at a radiator shop. Then its back flushed and all is right in the world. However, if its full of rust and scale,like from an engine that's been sitting for a long time and the owner wasn't smart enough to flush it out, the antifreeze circulates and goes through the radiator,dragging the rust and scale along with it, it slows the flow down,the engine gets hot, more crap breaks loose,and bang,pretty soon your plugged up tighter than Dick's hat band.

On a normal truck or car, the top and bottom tank can be pulled off the radiator and thin metal rods are used to clean out the radiator tubes. This is called "Rodding it Out" However, Big Melvin's radiator can't be disassembled without breaking the core,so its down at Evan's Radiator Shop getting recored,causing a substantial lightening of my children's college fund.  At least I know I won't have an overheating problem once the engine conversion is completed.( I hope)

Now for the good news: I've been looking for a Bostrom Viking T Bar drivers seat. This is a vintage looking suspension seat used in a lot of old trucks. The seat is fully adjustable and has a ratchet to adjust the ride stiffness. My dad has one in his 1964 Diamond T and it's pretty comfortable. I was planning on buying one and had contacted Bostrom.  They advised me the seat had been discontinued,however replacement parts were still available.

Last Saturday night, I had attended our monthly truck club meeting. Club president, Rocco Kempa, advised me he had been reading my blog and had an old Bostrom T bar seat in his back yard. He took it out of a B Model Mack, and told me I could have it. I'm going to try to pick it up next week. I never rebuilt this type of seat before, so it should be a fun project.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more fun and adventure.

It's been a while, so I figured I'd give everyone an update on the Autocar.

I went to Rich's house today to load the old engine and transmission. John Brillman, a friend of mine who rebuilds magnetos and sells electrical parts for old trucks and tractors( The Brillman Co. ) also has a couple old Autocars similar to mine. I saw John at the Tri-State truck show in Winchester Va. and mentioned that I was going to re-power Big Melvin and he agreed to purchase my engine and transmission. Brillman drove about 5 hours from his house in Va. and picked up the engine and transmission.

While I was at Rich's house, I got a chance to look at the progress he has made on the truck. He has the engine and transmission mounted. The exhaust changed from 3 inch to 4 inch and mounted.He bent and cut the shifters for both transmissions and mounted a second battery so it would have enough power to turn the engine over.The radiator is still out getting cleaned and he  has to mount the steering box. I need to get a new tachometer since the one I was using for the gas engine will not work and change the amp gauge to a voltage gauge.

Plans for the future include mounting the AM/FM CB radio I acquired,Purchasing and mounting a pyrometer and boost gauge for the turbo,and finding and mounting a Bostrom T-Bar Viking drivers seat.

I also have a rear end with higher gears that needs gone through and mounted and converted to Maxi-breaks.

Converting the truck to a bigger diesel engine from a gasoline engine is a lot of work. If you decide to under take this, I recommend you either be a master mechanic and fabricator, or know someone like Rich. Like Dirty Harry said, " A MAN HAS TO KNOW HIS LIMITATIONS "

I talked to Rich today. He started  setting the engine. He has to make new engine mounts.I had his wife Cindy e-mail me some pictures of the operation.

The 8.3 is longer than the gas engine that came out of Big Melvin,so Rich ad to do some juggling to get it to fit. The Spicer transmission is also about 11 inches longer the the Autocar 5 speed so he's going to have to shorten drive shat.

The Cummins exhaust is 4 inches and the Autocar is 3 inches. We should be able to adapt the pipe to my old exhaust. I also had him add a bung for a pyrometer probe.

I plan to take the drives side fender down to him the week between Christmas and New Years. he needs this so he can fit the power steering box.

One the engine is set,he can start adapting the air to air cooler.

Hit a snag....

The engine transplant was going too smoothly. I got a call from Rich today. He said there's no way the engine will fit in the frame,as the starter was hitting the manual steering box. The box is on the inside of the frame.

We discussed the possibilities,which there was only one,he would adapt a power steering box to the truck. This will mount on the outside of the frame. The engine has a power steering pump on it and I have the power steering reservoir from the Freight liner the engine came out of. Rich will have to modify the steering column but it should work well. He's going to use a box he salvaged from a school bus.

One added bonus is it won't be as hard to maneuver it a low speeds.