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Words & Photos: Tommy Parry
The process of overhauling an ancient, rusting truck is never easy. Finding a project base that's almost wholly intact is a godsend. Thankfully, some projects start out more pleasantly than others, though having a little more from the get go often means a higher starting price. This '46 2-ton was a real barn find gem. It wouldn't remain pristine for long, though - some odd upgrades were on their way.
Finding this ancient relic collecting dust in a barn was the first step of many, but Puppy had to have it. Bartering and negotiating, offering to sell the cabin and having long discussions with his significant other was the next step. After a year of back-and-forth, the 1946 Chevy truck was purchased, and so began a long, eventful, build. The truck had been sitting for an eon, but it was solid and in one piece, and that made all the difference.
After the body came the powerplant: a torquey 454 from a 1979 Chevy C20, which would prove plenty of power for old truck with the help of custom headers and a Tunnel intake. But this build was not about speed alone - it had to have style. The bed was removed. Then came a serious scrubbing to try and lift the decades of grunge from the bed. Five hours and several gallons of elbow grease later, and the truck was hardly recognizable.
Certainly the truck had seen better days, but nobody was denying how much potential this seventy-year-old vehicle had. One year after the purchase of the truck, the real breakdown began. The front clip was removed, the front bumper pulled in three inches, the suspension rebuilt and converted to a spring-under-axle setup, and then the front clip was reattached. Following this quick fix, the rear axle was removed and so began the tough stuff.
Once the rear frame was z'd, cut down, and welded back into a solid, single piece, leaf spring bushings and new pins were machined by the Puppy himself. Completing the rear end was a Dana 80 rear axle with disc brakes on either end. On the front, the standard drums were retained.
Up to this point, the process had been relatively straightforward, but after this the flavor of this build became something else entirely: a rat-rod wrecker.
The engine bay was attacked. Decades of rust and degradation made it a bit tricky to pull the rivets from the bay, but afterwards the hydroboost unit, transmission crossmember and battery box were pulled to make space for the motor and transmission mockup. The icing on the cake at this stage was the fabbing of the motor mounts - which are pieces of art and testimonies to Puppy's obsession with detail.
The preparation had been done well, because the engine slipped in smoothly - though the fit was tight! With only one inch of clearance on the oil pan, less than a half-inch between the engine and the firewall, and the same space between the engine and the radiator, you might expect an old truck would have a little more working room. Apparently not.
A modern radiator was sourced and shoehorned in, and a set of 19.5" locking ring/2-way wheels wrapped in 9.0-20 rubber were mounted on either end of the front axle.
The ride height was kept relatively high, though Puppy wanted it lower. The reason he kept it as is was to preserve the original sheet metal; z'ing the front would force him to tunnel into the cab to make way for the transmission. Regardless, the final project is clean and understated, yet shows that the selection of the right parts are more than enough to turn heads and pull other vintage rat rods out of the ditch.
