Vintage Fire Trucks

I should've picked up on that as well, considering I worked on a '55 Star Chief Custom Catalina with a 347 CID V8; I looked at the valve cover and thought that I'd seen it before, but I just couldn't place it. And their basic design layout is carried over into the later engines, but that pic just didn't show the cylinder head. And I thought GMC had put Pontiac engines in trucks at that time because of an engine factory strike?

 

The way I understand it was because the small displacement of the Chevy V8's at the time were only slightly larger than the Big GMC I6's they started out as 228, 248 or 270 and grew all the way up to 302's. During the late 50's they were 270's & 302's so the SBC displacing 265 or 283 CI wasn't much of a step up from a 270 I6.
The Big Block W engines did not come out until 1958 with the 348 & 1961 with the 409. So from 55-57 it makes sense to offer the Bigger longer stroke Pontiac V8 as a GMC engine. And it didn't hurt for advertising to point out the different engines available for GMC truck's vs Chevy Trucks. Unlike today back then the GMC trucks were very different than today were they differ mostly in grill's & interiors.
The start of the bean counting at GM IMO was the decision to start butting the Chevy 283, 327 SB's & the Big Block 348's in place of the Pontiac V8's in the GMC line. Of course you cold still get the GMC I6 & the new 305 V6.

 

I did a rebuild once on an industrial V6 (351 CID, IIRC), and holy schamoly, they had coffee cans for pistons! They were huge! And my boss back then, Mike, looked up the stats, and it developed its peak torque at 1600 RPM!

 

Here's a V-6 dropped into a ligh duty vehicle. If it's as smooth as he says, it must be of 60° design?:

 

Get rid of that crappy 'patina,' lay a decent paint job on it, I'd drive it. The cab design's very cool.

 

Patina is just a cover for closet poverty, like "Rat-Rodding" is.

 

Considering how much 'poverty' Richard Rawlins puts on a vehicle with patina, it's no longer a poor man's game, just like everything else.

 

He's just greedy. He's the poorest example for justifying making it his game. Plenty of Jack Benny jokes could be applied especially to him. He thinks, just because it's a trend, he could overprice his junk of which he doesn't have to fork out for a normal paint job.

 

Along this line of automotive confusion I've been enjoying this weeks three nite series about the evolution of cars and how they changed the world.
I thought I knew everything about the Model T Ford. Now I found out the Dodge brothers actually created the Model T and most of it's changes for many years till Henry Ford fired them.
Henry hated change, wanted complete control of his company, considered the Model T a perfect car never needing up dated.
The part about it really being invented by Dodge was a surprise. Now I find Edsel actually created the Model A, against dad's wishes. Henry Ford was a stuborn mean old man! (I liked him.)
Plymouth had hydralic brakes in 1921 while Ford held out till 1939, something the Model T needed long ago.

 

Por men can't afford old collector cars anymore, just old beaters with real rust. Patina sounds French for worn out furniture.

 

You just about hit the nail on the head.

 

East German trucks:





http://www.feuerwehrmagazin.de/top-themen/feuerwehr_oldtimer-restaurieren_tipps-71334





A 1944 Opel Blitz:

 

Indian rocks (it sure does):

 

It's showtime:

 

"Eins! Zwei! Eins! Zwei! Eins! Zwei!"

Looks like Sgt. Schultz's son is on the head end of that rig.