1953 M135 upgrade?

[Old Duece 53]

Would it possible to take the the cab and cargo area off of our 1953 M135 and put in a newer model- 1987 or 1993?

An organization I belong to has the 1953 duece with a custom pain job and we would like to upgrade to something with less maintenance and a newer motor/air breaks etc to make driving easier. I think it would be cheaper to use the existing parts vs the cost of a new paint job. The body is in decent shape but needs a few rust spots fixed

Attached is a picture from a parade last January

Thanks,

 

[Ferroequinologist]

These trucks are becoming rare birds. If your bent on a newer driveline etc, sell that truck and buy the cab etc off a parts truck, and then make the swap.

No way will you be able to do a body swap for less than a paintjob, even a quality one.

 

[Old Duece 53]

Thanks for the input. The truck runs alright now but we are starting to look into options before it gets too expensive to maintain.

 

[135gmc]

You could look at different engines, trans, axles, etc---and the end result would be a cobbled mess that no one would ever want to fix, drive, or buy. Likewise with doing a cab-ectomy. Nothing will fit without modifications, and you will be trading straightforward maintenance projects that need a wrench for projects that need a gas axe and a welder. You mentioned that you are starting to fight some rust - rust never gets better, only worse,and sheet metal parts for these old GMCs are getting very hard to find in ANY condition. It will be many many times cheaper to move up to an M35 A2 / A3 and paint it. The M211 (dual tires) you have now is very salable to a collector, and like Ferro said, these trucks are getting rare.
One other thought is that if your organization is tax exempt (an IRS 501(C)3 organization), you may be able to get a local body shop to either do the painting gratis, or at a discount (maybe with a PAINTED BY CHARLIE'S BODY....) on the finished paint job.

 

[hendersond]

What is on the list of problems? Looks to be in good shape.

 

[Stan Leschert]

If you want a newer truck, get one. Butchering that one, which from the pic, looks fairly good, will just cost. And you will have a mongrel of a truck, not a collectible piece.

Tell us what the issues are, and we might be able to tell you ways to solve them.

Or just sell it to a collector, and buy a newer truck with new unknown problems.

 

[Old Duece 53]

I suppose parting an old and new truck together would be alot of time and money. With anything this old we are concerned with problems might come up next.

We just replaced the exhuast,a large oil leak and the emergency break last week. The engine runs noticably better after that. The mechanic said that all of the brake system will need to be replaced soon and suggested finding someone with alot of time and is looking for a project to do this.

The engine and tranny run well. The guys that previous took care of the truck said to only use the gears on the left side of the column. They said using the right side had caused engine problems in the past. I dont know the details of why/what this is about. We can get close to 50mph which seems normal.

The truck was somewhat restored in 1987 when some body patch work and a paintjob were done by a local body shop, and yes, we are a non profit org and the company name is located on a couple places of the truck. Some areas of the truck are starting to rust through and will need to be fixed. This is stored indoors for most of the year which has helped keep in decent shape.

Any input or suggestions to keep this thing truck alive would be appreciated.

 

[steelandcanvas]

Any input or suggestions to keep this thing truck alive would be appreciated.

For starters, do you have the TM's on this vehicle? Between the Forums here and the TM's, you could very easily have a no-worry, dependable truck.

 

[Old Duece 53]

For starters, do you have the TM's on this vehicle? Between the Forums here and the TM's, you could very easily have a no-worry, dependable truck.

I have 1 owner/maint manual. I just looked through the TM forum and there looks to be alot of helpfun info and diagrams there.

 

[135gmc]

Its going to be a lot harder to find someone who knows the details and little repair tricks for this truck - lets face it -the truck is 60 years old, and neither the truck or GMC mechanics are getting any younger. If you trade up to a newer vehicle, like an M35A2, there are a lot of military-trained mechanics out there, some of whom may even help you for the fun of it. Brakes on your truck will be fun... GMC used two wheel cylinders per wheel, and they run into money. The air-pac (brake booster) is getting very hard to find except as new through the civiliam market. Mufflers for the GMCs are nearly extinct, and wiring harnesses often have to be custom made. The Douglas electrical connectors are also getting very scarce as well. New doors or windows are nearly impossible to track down. When you plan on any maintenance on this truck, the first part will have to be FIND THE PARTS, because you will increasingly spend more time finding parts than doing the repairs.

I owned an M135 for years, and I had new parts (carb, distributor, 25 amp generator, tail lights, instruments, etc) that I installed on it that were nearly the last of their kind. A friend of mine just restored a GMC, and he had to scramble for darn near every part. - when the last of the parts are gone, they're gone.

Do you want to repair a truck, or restore a truck? If you have a volunteer organization, its probably difficult just to get folks to repair it - now think about who will show up to restore it...

 

[135gmc]

You might want to check this Canadian web site - they have a lot of data on the GMCs, and links to download manuals as well: MilitaryTrucks.ca - M135 Deuce Truck

 

[hendersond]

I'll PM you my phone number. Maybe I can save you some time and energy.
Dan

 

[Old Duece 53]

So far we have been able to locate parts on ebay, or online but agree that they are getting harder to find, and nobody we know has experience working on this truck but have been able to figure things out.

We will be going over the repairs on the truck soon and will be meeting to see what we wantd to do next.

Thanks for all of the suggestions/thoughts.

 

[m1010plowboy]

G749 Parts

Some of the G749 parts challenge can be overcome with newly manufactured similar parts. We found CH, Chicago Rawhide makes some of the seals, bearings in Edmonton come from Commercial Solutions, Edmonton Brake and Clutch found us the crush washers and built brake lines, Reliable Radiator purged and cleaned the fuel tank (free with referrals) and Pat's Driveline worked on the PTO shaft.
The spark plugs came from Part Stop in Spruce Grove, donor trucks gave us steering components, box, bows, spare tire carrier, troop seats, data plates, a hard top for Gunfreak, air tanks and much more.

Brian Asbury in Ontario [FONT='PrimaSans BT,Verdana,sans-serif']brian.asbury@sympatico.ca [/FONT]has backed me up with pinion seals, water pump, exhaust, distributor, additional spark plugs and there can't be much left to complete a truck.

There are still parts out there. NOS, New Old Stock parts, still wrapped in the 50's or 80's packaging, are hiding in the sheds of those hanging on to these trucks or those not aware of the importance in giving up their stockpiles for the boys keeping them on the road.

Carbs and carb kits, fuel tanks and in tank pumps, exhaust manifolds, air paks and tailgates have been the most difficult to track down. Everything else can be bought.

My M135 wants an hour of attention for every hour she carries me around. If your 53's not getting the Love, she's going to make you lay underneath her for days.

It would be great to see a needs list once her fate is decided, maybe we can help out.

The "Parts Wanted" forum would be a great place to ask for specific components once you're sure you need them. In the mean-time we can help put a list together of the things you would need to do if you decided to save her as original.

It's great we have the G749 challenges, some folks have never had the pleasure of driving one.

 

[135gmc]

Exhaust manifolds and mufflers are hen's teeth on these trucks. A friend of mine did his, and would up building a muffler from the closest commercial muffler he could track down. NEVER throw away an old exhaust manifold - it might be repairable by someone who is more desperate than you are. I built a new tailgate for my truck - a local sheet metal fabricator bent me up the basic tailgate, then I burned the old straps, etc off the old one, cleaned them up, and welded them to the new one. The cost was less than the quoted cost to ship me a tailgate from NH.

Lots of parts are still out there, but they can often be crossed over to the original civilian parts that the trucks were built from -- remember, GMC didn't buy MIL parts for these, eg: they bought Chicago Rawhide seals in bulk, then the CR seals became MIL parts for the military to use for repairs. Fuel tanks came from a fuel tank builder, etc. If youc an figure out who could have supplied these parts to GMC, the same source can be used for repair parts.

 

[Gunfreak25]

If you want to be a GMC owner you will need to be CREATIVE. They are a very easy to maintain vehicle, but can be expensive sometimes. Parts are still widely available and there are MANY way's to adapt and overcome little parts obstacles. A LOT of information has been posted here in the past couple years covering anything from modern weather stripping, seals, brake parts, etc. The parts ARE out there. Did you know NAPA carries brand new AIR PAK brake boosters for $400 each as well as brand new Raybestos wheel cylinders? Electrical is a non issue as all the parts needed to restore your wiring are widely available. Exhaust parts are a little trickier, but if you know a "guy" (and you better know a "guy" if your a GMC owner) then making new exhaust bits (mufflers are easily reproduced) then your settin fancy free. If that exhaust manifold ever gets to leakin, a good solution is to not worry worry about it and instead SEAL up the cab as tight as you can so the fumes don't make it inside. It can be done, it is not that hard and I did it too mine.

I would absolutely love to own a factory original GMC. But mine came to me already repowered and I will be using mine as a daily driver and wanted a vehicle that was better suited for it.

If you still would like to go ahead with this repower job you would be wise to consider what I have done with mine. She'll sing happily over the hills at highway speeds, get great mileage, I sealed the cab up entirely and added carpeting and there are few parts I cannot find at your local auto parts house. I will be keeping spares at all times for any of the hard to find stuff which isn't much after all my modernization work.

I bought my GMC when I was 18 and am 21 now. I've done all the work to it outside using nothing but a 1 phase MIG welder, cutoff and grinding wheels, corded hand drill, engine hoist (which do not like the dirt that well) and a LOT of ingenuity. This is easy work, if I can do it anyone can.

 

[Old Duece 53]

It looks like I missed a few posts on this- Thanks for all the input.. The truck is still running and driving well. We had a couple of the break cylinders replaced with parts from ebay and a local shop was able to fabricate new break lines. This worked great until another break cylinder went out. We still have the truck and will be listing it for sale shortly as it runs, but will need some break work. We were able to pick up a 1993 M35A3 with low miles that runs great but will need some body work and a new paintjob (We have guys that can do this) So we will have a newer, more reliable truck that we can enjoy