Sure looks sweet inside eh?

The rug is on the seat 'cause the seat springs poke through and ripped some Levi's of mine.

The floor board is optional.

Wiring? I've got some extra.
Once we charged the battery and reconnected the fuel line it started up like a champ. Maybe a little Starter Fluid to help.
Kai is ready to drive, but he'll have to wait to get it on the road.
Darren and I drove it around the driveway. What you can not see is that Darren is grabbing the wheel trying to help me turn. The steering is tough!

So the deal with the steering is that the exhaust is rubbing against the drag link, the bearings in the worm gear look like the candy "Nerds". The king pin was the size of a large cigar in 1941, and now is the size of a pencil. That's all.

Piece of cake.

I drove down to SLC to towed it home on a flatbed trailer with my Touareg. Once I got there, getting the truck on the trailer was a bit of a struggle and I have to thank Ron again for organizing a neighborhood mechanic to come over and patch it up enough to drive up the flatbed.

Towing it home was a great experience. The Touareg pulled great, it was steady at 70 mph and got 14 mpg. There was plenty of power to pass in the passes. Also, being alone on the road like that was a pleasant change up from helping Serene raise three kids under four years old. Not saying that I did not miss them.... but you know.

I have pictures of the GMC on the flatbed behind the Touareg. I'll have to find them.

Now, here is the truck up in Seattle.

The first order of business was to get started right away...

So a few months later I actually start to do something. My brother Darren and I start small with fixing the door latches and windows. works like a charm.

Then we tried to start it up.... nothing. Not a click, not a 'rrr', nadda. Turns out it is a good idea to charge the battery.

This is my 1941 GMC Truck Project. I bought this truck from my father-in-law, Ron. The truck was at Ron's place in Salt Lake City. These are the photos of the truck that Ron provided from SLC. Thanks again Ron for selling me the truck.

As you can see it is essentially complete but definitely in the need of some love.

The specifics of this truck for those who are interested are the following:

1. 1941 General Motors Truck
2. 3/4 Ton (gross weight of 6,000 lbs)
3. 228 straight six
4. 6 volt electrical that has been switched from pos ground to neg ground
5. 2 wheel drive
6. Runs strong

Ron had put some work into the truck before I got it and I believe he had the following done:

1. Cleaned gas tank
2. New points and plugs
3. New ignition
4. Adjusted carb


The truck had some particularly rough spots which were the following:

1. Did not like to start or keep running
2. Tough steering
3. No wipers
4. No tail lights
5. Grill missing a couple louvers
6. Cracked exhaust manifold

The truck is mostly original so the first decision was to be whether to restore or to rebuild or to modify. This was not an easy decision since there are not many of these around with all original parts, and I felt a historical obligation to stay faithful to the past.

In the end I decided that I wanted to drive and enjoy this truck on the road and that would mean safety improvements and modern parts...  Also, original is expensive and and hunting down original parts is time consuming.