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56' Firetruck

Uploaded by Gonzo, September 02 2010 11:15 PM

Owner: Gonzo (View all images and albums)
Uploaded: September 02 2010 11:15 PM
Views: 578
Category: Vehicle Photos

This is the 1956 Firetruck I'm restoring for a customer.  The only thing I'm not doing is the paint.   It has 15k original miles on it.  There is a full functioning generator (same year as truck), a gas heater, bell (the bell is on the pass. side front fender... it's not in the picture... it's on the owners desk), siren, flashing lights and all kinds of odd electrical gadgets on it.

So far I have the engine running like a top and working on the generator now.  All the wiring needs gone thru and repaired.  Last is the brakes...  Once it's all painted I'll get more pictures uploaded.

As far as I know it was used to haul a crew to grass fires.  It's not a pump truck but more of a people hauler.  It has compartments everywhere and seats lining both sides.  The passenger operates the sirens and bell..   Pretty cool restoration....

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Gonzo

September 03 2010 08:39 PM

There is a decal on the dash... It says... KRG 236 rescue 26... I'll bet that was it's CB call sign back in the day...

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Gonzo

September 12 2010 10:57 AM

Update 56 firetruck; All the electrcial is done, everything is in working order. One of the wierd things was the dash. There were turn signal indicators in the dash but no sockets, no signs of any sockets. I wired in a set from the turn signal switch. Works great! The last major hurdle in the wiring was a gas heat exchanger under one of the rear seats. I haven't repaired one of those in years. The fuel pump had completely rotted away and the fuel metering unit was trashed. I found a low output fuel pump that would work and a new piece of synthetic rubber worked perfectly to rebuild the diaphram in the metering unit. (gotta love the old stuff... ya fixed the stuff... you didn't just replace the stuff) The last thing was to get the fuel lines cleared and the blowers to work. Took a little time but there up and running...
The system requires a 10 second prime then you flip the switch to "heat" and in another few seconds the burner will flip on ... sounds like a jet taking off... really cool. When you shut it off it takes about 20 seconds to come to a stop. It actually will burn off all the fuel in the unit before it's complete stopped. I guess that way there is no raw fuel inside the unit when it's not in use. (that probably explains the prime also)

My next big project is the brakes... OMG... should be fun. Brake shoes, wheel cylinders, new lines... etc.... all of which hasn't been moved since the late 50's... Gee, can't wait...