CREWzer CAB TRANSPLANT

[sparkydog]

Hi All,
This is the start of what will be a verrrrrryyyyyy slllllooooooowwww project. The goal is to have a unique cruiser sort of like Cory Smith and also benefit from the transplant like Big Dave.

I am going to try and build a very special Travelette and drop it onto a '90's era GM chassis.

The start of this dream goes back over a decade. I didn't get semi-serious until 2 years ago. And I didn't get real serious until a little over a year ago when I purchased the IH vehicles that would form the core of my build.

Here are some concept "sketches" of what I'm after.

Edit: and some progress pictures added 12/3/10

[sparkydog]

About 10 years ago I kept driving past a dead Travelette in the front yard of a house near Ruch, OR. Everytime I drove past it something would tug at me. I think it was that it had sunk low enough into the weeds that it looked kind of cool like a cruiser. I kept saying "that sort of looks cool but not really - I wonder what it is about that look?"

But I never did anything with the thoughts and then one year the truck was gone.

A few years later a red one popped up in Sutherlin right along I5. This was a crummy - a logging rig. I finally stopped and took some pictures. It was beat to chit. I went home and started playing around with crops of the pictures - trying to figure out what it was about the body that had made me think something that fugly had the potential to look OK.

I finally decided that IF:
a) the hood was shorter
b) the roof was lower
c) the bed was longer
d) the rear axle was further away
e) the crew compartment was a little shorter

That there was in fact a decent looking and very unique cruiser lurking inside the Travelette.

[SSIIbuild]

I finally decided that IF:
a) the hood was shorter
b) the roof was lower
c) the bed was longer
d) the rear axle was further away
e) the crew compartment was a little shorter

So just a short list then

I think they are cool the way they are, but can see the extra cool in your plan.

[sparkydog]

At that point it was fun playing paper dolls with photo crops. But once I had the basic look I was starting to get hooked. So, I said "hey what the hell - how expensive can a Travelette be?" So I hopped on the internet and starting trying to find one...

...that was in decent BODY condition..... but wasn't show quality.... and that was affordable.

Well ultimately I came to the conclusion that there wasn't such an animal. There are always a few Travelettes for sale but they all have had a hard life and their sheet metal is usually trashed. And then every so often there is a real cherry but it is usually available for top $$$$ and I AM A CHEAP BASTARD MOFO.

I pretty much gave up at that point.

Then I had a wild *** idea. If I was going to do a bunch of chopping on the cab anyway to get the unique cruiser look I wanted, then who said I had to start with a Travelette? I started wondering whether I could find a decent pickup AND a decent Travelall and then ... uh.... welllll um... just do some kind of magic whupass on the two cabs and make my own crew cab.

I still don't know why that makes sense to me but it does. Remember - I didn't say it made sense for a regular Travelette cab - but only under the concept I had that was already going to involve heavy sheet metal work anyway.

Well it didn't take much effort to find two trucks with decent sheet metal and for low $$$'s (pre economic meltdown $$$'s).

Sooooo..... I bought them!!!

[sparkydog]

That was about 1-2 years ago. The next phase was "catch a lot of crap from my wife and kids" phase. Also the economy tanked and life took it's twists and turns. And the two trucks sat and sat and sat.

Then I got frustrated and tried to sell them. Well nobody wanted them which was how I got them for a good deal in the first place. So they sat some more.

And now we are caught up on my little saga and it is October 2009. My job has changed and now I will be commuting between Portland and San Diego all the time. When I am in San Diego I will have nothing to do but whack off in the evenings so instead I am going to start cutting up the trucks and see where this takes me. Since I already mentioned that I am a cheap bastard mofo, I don't want to pay to haul them both to SD. Instead I am going to try and get the Travelall running and if I feel it is reliable enough and safe enough I will drive it down and haul most of my shop gear.

Today I got the motor running. It had a couple of issues one easy to fix. The other is the line from the main gas tank is blocked upstream of the fuel tank selector valve. I can always Mcguyver a gas can but would rather try to get the line unplugged. Anyone know what might be causing this?

[Bill Bennett]

The rubber fuel hose from the main tank to the selector valve is possibly smashed where it goes past the fender and under the body mount - - or somewhere in that area. Just follow the hose and when you get it out, you will see where the problem is. The hose may have some cracks also. Try to run the replacement hose a different direction.
I just had to do the same thing.
Bill Bennett 68 Travelall

[sparkydog]

Are the stock fuel tanks EZ to work on or - to remove? With the rig in the weeds and it being 2WD I am too fat and lazy to lie under and look. When I get it out and into my shop I'm wondering if it will be relatively EZ to work on once I get it up higher. Or should I just plan on bypassing the tank and rig up a temporary new one?

[sparkydog]

The Travelall sort of runs. I have a gas can on the cab floor and a hose up to the fuel pump. Got it to pull itself out of the weeds under its own power but it was pretty feeble. But I will still give it a for coming alive a little bit.

Brakes are weak or gone. Check fluid level and rear chamber is low so I will add some and see what happens. The lot I was storing it on is up on some hills so it is mostly downhill which ever way I go so will need to get some brakes going b4 I venture out onto the streets.

Power steering fluid is mostly gone so will add some of that too. Tranny fluid is tan and slightly milky which is not good (its an automatic). And probably have carb or ignition issues because as soon as I move into a gear the motor bogs down and won't idle. Have to give it alot of gas just to keep it running. Won't idle either without going to 1/2 choke no matter how warm the motor is.

Other than that.... it's practically brand new. LOL

If I can get it to stop reliably then I will drive it to my shop and see if I can get it to feel better. Otherwise I will punt and just tow her to San Diego.

EDIT: Brakes are OK! Ready to try driving it over to my shop. Sucker runs real poor. In P or N idles OK, but as soon as I put it in a gear it want's to stall out. Almost like the tranny is not able to slip much.

[sparkydog]

This is what I found when I dropped the tranny pan. Two tubes were in the bottom. One had some bailing wire around it and the other end is up inside the guts of the tranny. The other tube looks like maybe it is supposed to be clipped into the bottom of the pan but the bracket is broke off. The filter was hanging from the tranny guts but loosely. It had globs of red jelly all over the top and sides of it. Fluid was dark red and smelled ok. I can only see two holes in the tranny where the tubes might go. Are both supposed to be plugged into something?

Odds that I am driving this thing to San Diego are way down now.

[sparkydog]

OK 200+ views and NOBODY has any suggestions on what is wrong with my tranny????

Here is the situation:
In Park and with motor runs rough but can idle. Haven't had time to diagnose what is wrong with motor.

Soon as I move into any gear including N position - motor stalls unless I give it a lot of gas. And in any moving gear like R or D or L, the truck will move if I rev high but it acts like the tranny can't slip - like it is locked full up.

So I drained the oil and that's when I found the two 1/4 diameter pipes in the pan. (see picture in post above ^)

QUESTION #1 - Is this tranny a Borg Warner - Maybe the M11???. Anyone agree or recognize the pan shape in the photo??? It is most definitely NOT a Chrysler tranny.

QUESTION #2 - Anyone have any ideas what might have been causing the symptoms I listed when the truck was trying to move?

QUESTION #3 - Anyone know what the tubes are for that were lying in the bottom of the pan? There aren't any obvious places they plug into that I can find.

QUESTION #4 - Am I ed at this point for getting the truck healthy enough to drive for a few hundred miles without spending several hundred bucks on the tranny repair???

Thanks for any help!!!