eightup

Progress has been slow the past couple days.  The salvage yard set me up with 4 new wheels, a crossmember, and they have a b61 that will be providing a leaf pack in a day or two. 

In case anyone was wondering you can fit at least 4 wheels inside a ford focus.

Sandblasting is about halfway done.  Maybe I will be able to finish that up tomorrow.

Spent the morning hunting down some brake parts and tires.  Ended up grabbing two long stroke 30/30 spring brake chambers.  I'll set those up after I finish painting everything in a day or two.  Had two 24.5x11 tires mounted on the two tubeless rims I did have.  Found four more rims that I will be picking up in the morning.

I spent half a day taking the nuts off the leaf spring u-bolts and in the end I couldn't get the u-bolts out.  Ended up cutting them off.  Also pictured is my helper Danny, she excels at finding the most in the way place to drop her ball. 

Both leaf springs removed along with the rear crossmember that is all sorts of bent up. 

Driver's side leaf spring had two cracked leaves (top two) in it so now I have the choice of getting a new leaf pack, finding someone to make me two leaves, or converting to air ride.  I'll see what the salvage yard has to offer when I pick up the rims tomorrow morning.

I plan on picking up some primer and paint in the morning then firing up the sand blaster in the afternoon.  If any of you NC guys want to come over, now's the time cause I really hate sand blasting.  Assuming I don't run into any more speed bumps tomorrow, I should end the day with the rear primed and ready for paint.

4 hours ago, tjc transport said:

agreed. only thing i would change would be to go with air park chambers and get rid of the hand brake. 

Think I am going to replicate the brake setup featured by thomastractorsvc in his thread:

4 hours ago, Brocky said:

Did you remove the 5th wheel to clean the frame or are you going to replace it with a gooseneck ball to haul your other toys?? 

I pulled the 5th wheel to clean up the frame and to rebuild/clean up the 5th wheel.  I don't ever see myself ever actually needing to use it so it might become a fancy shop ornament.  For the near future I will probably build a flatbed for the rear and a gooseneck ball but it could change.

3 hours ago, mattb73lt said:

That actually looks pretty solid. The back of the cab is a rust prone area and it looks good. How is the rest rust wise? That looks like it'll clean up nicely and make you a good hauler. There'll be a few big expenses(tires/rims!) but it shouldn't be too bad for the rest. Depending on the level of restoration, it would be about as much as doing a car if it's mostly cosmetic.

The back of the cab has two pinholes where I can see through.  The rest looks pretty solid but there are a few spots that had cracked bondo that was probably trapping water for years.  Probably once I start blasting panels I will find a lot more spots but its to be expected on any vehicle this old.

2 hours ago, Licensed to kill said:

Relatable. I also bought a B-61 to build into a puller for my 5th wheel holiday trailer and initially planned a quick, cheap "make it run and look decent" project that I could easily finish in one winter. Also, having done several cars, this was my first foray into bigger trucks as well. As is typical for me, my "quick, cheap" project has encountered my usual "slippery slope" and has become..........neither. Kinda like Forrest Gump when he started his run, "well, I've gone this far, I may as well keep going" so...I RAN. Spent a full winter on it then, last fall I got a booboo and had to take a winter hiatus but am starting back on it now. Too bad we weren't closer as I am sure I have some parts you could use. If you are interested my build thread can be viewed here https://canadianrodder.com/forum/index.php?threads/project-gunsmoke.23609/ I look forward to following your progress. 

Hope the hand is doing better.  Looks like you were making some good progress before.  Mine is going to remain a bit more stock than yours partly because I don't have a way to move these heavy parts around like you do. 

I'm going to preface this with I am new to large trucks but no stranger to old cars.  I saw this truck about 2 weeks ago and decided I had to have it and that it would likely be the worst financial decision I have made in a while.  I'm sure there will be plenty of questions in the future and hopefully you guys can help me out along the way.

The truck is a 1960 B61T with a thermodyne non-turbo diesel.  It's last working job was moving reefer trailers probably about 20 years ago.  Now my goal is to bring it back to life to haul around my other old toys.

Starting pulling stuff off of it right away cause disassembly is what I'm best at.  First to go was a welded on deck

Then onto the tires which I'm pretty sure are older than I am.  Two were tube type tires and two were tubeless 11x24.5s.  I'll be setting it up for tubeless 11x24.5s all the way around.

Now the hard part was getting that hitch off.  After removing the two bolts and grinding out a couple welds I ran into the issue of how to move hundreds of pounds off a truck using an engine hoist that doesn't roll on gravel.  Ended up going with a more of a "push it off the side of the truck approach" which worked fine.

Tomorrow I plan on dropping the axle and suspension and rear air tank to prep the rear half of the truck for sand blasting and paint.  Now for a few questions

1. Is there any surface on the axle I shouldn't paint?  Will painting the surface that is in contact with the rims make it more difficult to install/remove them?

2. Are brake parts easy enough to find or should I look at more modern parts and upgrade slightly?

Hey everyone, just picked up a 1960 Mack B61T today.  It runs and drives, just needs some TLC.  I'll be starting a build thread over in the classics section, looking forward to learning from you guys since this is my first truck.

Now on to the good stuff: