Hi folks, just wanted to introduce my new toy and me, being new to this forum. The truck is a 1953 GMC Hydramatic, 5 window, long bed, 1/2 ton. I found him on ebay last spring and decided, to bring him from Oregon to Germany. It looked pretty solid, with the right patina, which i intend to keep as much as possible. All safety equipment will be overhauled or renewed though. Here in Germany all vehicles have to pass a strict safety inspection every two years; so in order to get this sticker, everything needs to be safe and legal. At the moment, i´m cleaning the frame and related parts and paint with special anti rust paint. Next step will be the box, where all the wood is long gone and some metal parts are also a bit week. But this kind of work suits me best, as i´m a metal constructor by trade. So hopefully you guys can help me out, if i get stuck in some kind of problems. Greets
Truck looks to be good starting material, super job of frame cleaning, and WHAT THE DEVIL is that trailer designed for? Never seen anything like it with the cage for the truck to set in.
Hi, look´s like there are a few GMC supporters out there as well The truck came into Rotterdam and then was brought to my home with this yellow "big" truck. The truck driver said, when he stopped at a gas station, he all of a sudden saw a few scumbags coming from nowhere, trying to nick those number plates Maybe that fence slowed down their transaction, luckily. First i thought about getting a media blaster, to clean the frame, but after taking off the box, i discovered, that the rust didn´t sit to deep in the frame, so i took a wire wheel and angle grinder instead. It took about 3 or 4 hours and it came out very nice. The paint i´m using is called "Rostegal" and has a very good reputation of crawling into the pores of rusted surfaces and sealing the metal against oxygen. On the rear, there are set of second leafsprings, anybody seen that before? Thank you for the welcome
Gruss Gott! Your english is fantastic, I especially like the Beer Ad sign in front of your house. You must be a real Bavarian. Where do you live in Bavaria? Sorry, about those old tags being stolen, they cost a lot for antique license plates. "Willkommen bitte sehr, nichts zu danken" Elky. Chuss, Flashlight
Welcome elky ! Those extra springs are called " helpers " and were very common when your truck was a work rig . Keep the ' patina if you must but : remember this : rust NEVER SLEEPS so seal it up our your toy will be junk in a few short years . Get ready to be teased about the FUGLY GMC grille .
@Flaslight, thank you for the compliment, I´ve been around old American iron now quit a few years, and most useful information is manly written in English. But don´t be fooled, you should here me speak I am also into old Panheads and El Caminos. The Pan is a 56 and the El Camino is a 1967, which i think is the best looking year for it The GMC is very much appreciated by my wife. It was a birthday present last year and it hit her heart straight away! So i thought, buy here a toy and she´s happy, when i´m in the workshop restoring it... The beer sign you saw is in front of the gas station next to our home, but no doubt, i like this stuff We live in Immenstadt, which is very close to Oberstdorf(Skijump), so at the very end of South Germany, 35 miles away from Austria. Here a picture from outside the window... You speak German a bit?
Ach du liebe, After going to the usual American R&R slopes (Garmisch and Chiemsee) I asked my German neighbor where I could go, that the real germans skiied at...he told me Obersdorf. So I went there and what a beautiful place you live. My wife fell down a lot after learning how good Hefeweisen Beer is. It has been since 1990 that I left deutschland, but I spoke good conversational german, "wie ein kinder". My wife worked in the Kreis Krankenhaus in Ludwigsburg and after 3 years was very good but with a schwabish dialect, bavarian dialect is all its own. We found that speaking German and English that we could go to most countries and get around well. I guess we both know how to make woman happy, I just pulled a 1982 jeep grand wagoneer limited from the woods nearby, and best of all, like a good german I didn't pay much, in fact $0 or euro's. Flashlight von Stuttgart
Beautiful view Elky67! Immenstadt and the Oberstdorf region are truly beautiful. Ich kann auch ein bisschen Deutsch, but I was never very good even with the 5 1/2 years we lived in Muenchen und Ismaning around 1990, our two boys were born in Muenchen. I miss a lot of the small things, bike paths and foot paths that seem to go almost everywhere, and of course the local Biergarten. I'm just a beginner but the guys in this forum are great. They pretty much know everything and are incredibly helpful. viele Gruesse, Steve
Steve, You got consecutive tours, how lucky for you. I tried but they were closing my Hospital in Stuttgart. I wanted Aviano or Nuremburg, they sent me to Florida. Not bad though.
Hi Steve, yes it really is a nice spot, to live, though the winter is a little bit to long for our kind of hobbies, like motorbikes and classic cars. The season is only about 6 month long, as in winter there´s to much salt on the road for precious metal. I have a sister in Munich, but don´t come too often to the big city, we do prefer the relaxed country lifestyle. But as far as the Biergarten goes, your right, they are the best in Munich Keep practicing, you´re doing good. Greets Dietmar
Hello Dietmar and Flashlight, I have to admit to being a geek on a post-doc while I was over there, working on the Roentgensatellit project, an X-ray telescope. My problem was that all the Germans that I worked with spoke English nearly perfectly, and we were short on time so English was spoken. But my German is good for shopping, talking about the weather, getting information in train stations, and ordering at restaurants. I always enjoyed the Aumeister Biergarten in Muenchen, but then I don't think that I was ever at one that wasn't pleasant. I went to school in Wisconsin where there is eight months of winter and four months of bad sledding. Well, not quite that bad but you do learn that when it gets down to about -27 with a -70 wind chill it doesn't matter whether you are talking centigrade or Fahrenheit. It is also really hard to change a tire with mittens on. But for retirement we'll be heading to an island in Washington State where life is slow and calm, and rush hour is the twenty cars trying to make the ferry. A perfect home for my truck as the maximum speed limit is 45 mph. No upgrading rear ends or overdrive for me. Tschuss, Steve
Papers Please? I want to know if all these trucks going to Europe are registered through our State Department. They have a Department for registering the transport and sale of priceless Antiques. This to us, is like taking a Mummie from Egypt, or a Monet from France. Of course the penalty is much higher if its a Chevy, GMC's are actually encouraged to be removed by some and they turn the other way when one leaves. Inspector Comrades Nate and Coilover will be arriving soon, do not try to hide these Antiquities in secret Swiss garages, we have our ways. Do not be alarmed when they arrive, be cordial and offer some Beer, Bavarian type is good. If you did not know of these rules, we are sorry. Finish your work on them and we will then pick them up. The trial will be at the Hague for International Crimes. Commissaar Comrade Flashlight
The Sausages ! Don't forget them ! I like them more than Beer . I spent all day yesterday in junkyards looking for (and finding !) parts for my European Spec. Mercedes 300TD , I was sad to see so many nice old German cars . rust free , being crushed for scarp as no one here wants old Luxury cars V-8 108's , SLC's etc. . That photo is so very nice .
Now that's a sin. In the land of their origin they are not even to be found "Verschrotten" (shredded) by those nasty inspectors Volker speaks of. They will deadline your car for even a bad (rusty) cosmetic appearance. But they are probably using the metal to build Xray telescopes with Dennis. Yikes the Germans have the secret Xray telescope. Kling-ons beware. Flashlight
Wasn't there a rule that if you could push a screw driver through a rust spot your car would fail the inspection?
