1957 Autocar Truck First Drive in 16 Years!!! Is it road worthy??

[Music] [Music] so hey there guys welcome back to diesel creek if you're new my name is matt and behind me is my 1957 auto car semi truck now i've had this truck almost two years now and i still have not gotten to drive this truck i did start it up for the first time when i bought it it hadn't run in 15 or 16 years but i did get it to start and it fired up pretty good there's a video of that right up here and if you don't see it it's down below so that was a good time and i was really excited when it started and i tried to drive it then now the rear end had been froze whenever i got it i think the brakes were just stuck from it sitting so long uh drums will tend to do that now when i got it running and i did break the rear end loose just forward and reverse forward and reverse and eventually the rear end started spinning but it was just so muddy out here when i did it that i couldn't drive it anywhere so here we are eight months later 12 almost a yeah something like that eight months later i want to drive this thing so today we're going to get it fired up get it driving so anyway here's the state of the old auto car at the moment and uh i have not got to work on it this summer like i had planned but i did get a lot of other things done and right now i'm going to work on getting the floor put in this building but that's unrelated to this video you are watching right now we're going to try and get this thing fired up and drive it out of here so that i can do the floor but this thing has not been started since the last video was recorded i don't remember when that was it was sometime during the winter i want to say that was maybe january and it was very cold uh it's summertime now so i'm hoping she just fires right up i did have to use a little bit of ether when i started it last time but uh this time hopefully we don't have to go that route uh but she had not been started in what 16 years or 13 years something like that i want gonna get her fired up and see if we can't pull it out of here the rear end was locked up in it the last time as i said everybody keeps telling me oh your spring cans are stuck on your spring cans you need air pressure to build up air pressure before the brakes will release not true people on trucks this old they did not have spring assisted brakes if you guys can see the air cans up there i'm not sure if you can yeah those are just regular old pancake type cans those have no safety springs in them and trucks this old if you didn't have air pressure you didn't have brakes so that's why you used to see all those runaway truck ramps and everything all over the old highways and that's why tractor trailer runaways and rollovers were such a big problem back in the day so spring breaks are awesome and definitely a big safety improvement for modern equipment but old girls like this they don't have such luxuries so i think the brakes were just stuck because it had sat for so long it was stuck when i got it i drug it back here when i fired it up i was able to get him to break loose a little bit but it was just so muddy when i started it then it wouldn't move so it's dry today if we get it running it should just drive right out of here i hope we'll see okay let's bump some batteries from this old girl how tough is a gearwrench socket set that tough [Music] it is worth mentioning that i have had great luck with gearwrench tools not paid or sponsored by them in any way although if you guys are watching from gearwrench ah not really they they kind of remind me of snap-on tools and the fit and finish and feel and they don't have near the sticker shock that's that's going to make my hands feel great in 20 years so these batteries were in this machine when i got it they've always held a good charge and until this moment i didn't know what brand they were press to like okay well that's a good brand oh man i tell you what you want a good workout carry around two of these things for a couple hours every day good god you're gonna work out shoe buddy now these terminals are all corroded so bad that they're broken and everything else so i'm gonna do the exact same thing this time that i did last time that you guys all yelled at me for and i'm just gonna give these a little tappy tap tap to seed them down on there make them nice and happy that guy's broken right happened too it's not like i'm beating on them i'm just tapping the toaster tapered they wedge themselves on that's fine all right well she's hooked up maybe she'll go just before we go trying to crank her up i should probably pull the cover i put off the intake yeah i should probably probably wouldn't want to start with a rag and some duct tape on the intake i don't usually like that kind and i guess i'll check the oil too i'm sure it's exactly where it was when i left it it doesn't seem to leak any engines nice and dry looking oh yeah plenty of plenty oil and i already checked the coolant too it's good enough for what we're doing that's where that rag went i've been looking for that all right let's give her we'll go ahead and uh hopefully she fires off with no assistance it's a 180 naturally aspirated cummins i'm gonna bring you guys in here for a close-up i've seen some terminals arc out before and get a little warm but that guy there let the lead out i mean she melted the post i think by the looks of it that that wasn't there a minute ago before i started cranking on it uh and but i think this guy here is really what did her this side also took a little blow so you guys go ahead and tell derek over at vice grip garage that i just stole his uh terminal clamps we're gonna get this clamped on here ah yep that's that's a torqued terminal right there i'm not so sure about this one but it's the only pair of vice grips i got so got to make it work [Music] so i got her spinning over but now the problem i'm having is in the cab you gotta pull a lever in there which pulls on this cable and moves some linkages over here and what that is is a compression release so you take all the compression away from the engine then you crank it you get her spinning good and fast and then you hurry up and release the compression and then it just slams her all at once and she pops off and that really makes starting it a lot easier but trouble i'm having is i pull this thing and it releases compression and i let go of it and it's not springing back so we're just gonna give her a little bit of lubrication here and hope she helps her out oh yeah oh yeah just just lube everything real liberal like let's try her again see that this thing still isn't springing my thing in backwards so go ahead and lube this thing up some more hopefully we can get her keep from sticking i think it's actually in here in this thing problem i might need to give her a little tappy tap tap all right i seem to have gotten her freed up pretty good there so i think we're ready for take three is this take three i don't even remember you guys better keep counting i i can't all right here we go again [Music] [Music] [Music] if you guys see how easy it is oh yeah we'll give it a second then we'll start trying to work her a little bit [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] he moved a little bit [Music] well that is exciting for me guys for the first time under her own power since i've owned it and the first time in 13 years i believe years my mistake i had to look at my own videos to get that for sure so heck we come this far i guess i'm gonna go ahead and take it for a little cruise and of course i'll take you guys with me well the neighbor heard the ruckus and he stopped down to do some bsn and take a look at the rig so i shut her down we'll fire it back up and get on our merry way with our little uh tour de farm [Music] so i just drove through the back of the shop here i've got it in second gear and direct drive and i'm gonna have to keep a little bit of momentum up going through this spot here because it is a little bit wet so i hope we don't get stuck and everybody asked to hear the horn it doesn't make any noise yet it's got a bunch of mud v nests packed up in the horn so i have to clear that out and then we'll hit it [Music] we made her i'm actually going to back up alongside my pickup and get a little bit of fuel out of it i don't know how much is in here but i want to get some fresh stuff in it yeah it's like granddaddy always used to tell me you can't find them grind them there she goes that's reverse [Music] we're not gonna fill it up but i'll put a five or ten gallon in it just something to really freshen her up you know if i had some atf out here i'd probably dump a quart of atf in there too but i don't have any a couple little dings here in the roof we've got to pop out see if we can't get them wasp nests out of there and get this thing back to honking i cleaned it out she still don't honk though i bet you the diaphragm and the horn end is probably messed up take it apart and clean it see if she'll start with no compression release oh yeah easy as pie baby [Music] all right let's go just go for a freaking drive [Music] do [Music] [Music] so so [Music] [Music] do well what do you think about that boys i am tickled to death with that oh man i'm gonna have a blast at this truck i love it you got that that big old wheel up there i mean it's got to be almost two and a half foot across the big wheel on that thing uh i backed it up here to the low boy the lowboy has not moved since i bought it uh the company i had that dropped it off dropped it right there and i don't have a way to move it i could probably drag it around with a dozer if i had to but there's no sense it ain't hurting anything there it's just killing a little bit of grass the cows don't get to eat but they'll get over it there's plenty else for them everybody tell you what this fifth wheel plate hasn't been hitched to anything and well at least as long as the truck's been setting so 16 years without being greased or oiled or probably moved so if i slammed this thing under there and it latched i'd probably play hell to get it unlatched so i'm just going to hold up on that operation that'll come in another video probably going to have to take that fifth wheel plate completely off of there and take it all apart clean up all the pieces and get it lubed up good grease the living crap out of it and then uh yeah we'll be we'll be ready to billy big rig what do you think about that oh boys i am just so excited i caught this side of the trailer with the stinking skid steer the other day i was trying to mow up close to this thing and the track hooked on it and i just ended up getting stuck against it oh i was i was upset this paint really was pristine on this trailer and i just scratched the crap out of it that's some good paint too that stuff doesn't rust there i tell you what she's going to be a good looking combination though i think this trailer is going to be nicely matched for that old tractor man that's a piece of history right there get me all geeked up do [Music] [Music] so generally when you're running an old rig like this that hasn't been driven for a while especially because the brakes were stuck on it you know you get it running and you start to drive her you really don't want to hit that old brake pedal up there because you could just lock the brakes right up and she won't be moving at all and uh then you'll really be taking something apart and uh kind of cussing yourself but you know you start driving around a little bit like i have here and i kind of just you know forgot you ever forget it happened to me and uh i i kind of stabbed the old brake pedal there and lo and behold she seems to be working i've hit him i don't know four or five times now and uh they stop you and they actually seem like they release they don't really get stuck so that's pretty impressive i mean uh i wouldn't call them road worthy but heck i'll take them around the farm worthy um [Music] [Music] so all right guys that was about as fun as i imagined it would be i'm pretty stoked to have driven this thing finally i've had it for over a year and it's hasn't been driven yet but finally uh fired her up and got her to stretch her legs a little bit and she acts like she's you know with a with a few minor checks and some tires i think this thing would be but of course lights i think she'd probably run right down the road just fine nothing feels crazy wonky or out of place i mean she's obviously going to need a lot of going through and going over and i'm sure a lot of little tlc things but i think most of the damage to this truck has cosmetic i really don't think there's anything too mechanically wrong with it in the next video we do on this thing we'll probably completely change all the fluids go through the brakes check the wheel bearings out u-joints i mean all the little basic things make sure the gearbox has all got proper uh well i said change the lubricants we'll go through the gearboxes too everything the horn started working there at the end for those of you that haven't seen the other videos of this truck or heard me talk about this truck in previous videos i bought an auto car because hey i really like the styling i think they are just fantastic looking old-school trucks when i think of old school truck and i really doesn't this is kind of the pinnacle this and the old needle nose peterbilts kenworth's those were those were some awesome trucks but you know you see a lot of those you see a ton of b model max you don't see very many of these so consequently it did take me a while to find one but when i found one i bought it this came from easton maryland when i got it and it hadn't run in 15 16 years so brought it home here and uh it's been sitting where it's awaiting restoration i'm waiting because i need to get my shop here kind of more shop-like before i can really start tearing into it but the reason another reason i went with one of these trucks was because my grandfather used to drive one back in the day he got one of these trucks brand new he didn't own it it was the company he worked for but it was his truck he brought it home he polished it in the driveway all the time and everything i never met my grandfather but i saw all the pictures and stuff growing up my uncle's sitting on the bumpers and stuff like that so it was just kind of cool to have that family tie to something like this if i was going to buy one why not buy one that has a little bit more meaning to it so that's where we're at eventually this thing is going to get a full restoration i hope uh the cab pretty rough probably try to locate a new cab for it but if all else fails we will be doing lots of patching and bodywork anyways guys i think that's all for this video if you liked the video don't forget to hit a big old thumbs up for this auto car helps the channel out a lot it makes me proud and if you haven't already make sure you subscribe because there's going to be a lot more videos coming down the pike on this truck this isn't a super high priority for me so i don't get to work on it as much time as i would like there's a lot of other projects that have to come first getting the shop done definitely one of them because we can't really work on this thing until i get a floor in there and the roof finished and everything else but you know when i have the time this is this is my four fun projects so i don't get to do those nearly as often but they are coming they are in the works they're always whenever i get the time i'm going to do them so you guys ask all the time and i can't really do anything more than i can do but i appreciate you coming out and hanging out with me today and i'll catch you guys in the next video [Music] later [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Diesel Creek

Views: 648,561

Rating: 4.9499741 out of 5

Keywords: autocar, heavyhaul, antique, trailer, classic, vintage, old, heavy, equipment, iron, bobcat, skid, steer, loader, caterpillar, gravel, stone, rock, dump, truck, construction, excavation, property, maintenance, international, 4900, dt466, eaton, dog, english, bulldog, birddog, english setter, 2a, s185, grouser, tracks, small, business, side job, diesel, kubota, farm, gopro, hero, black, dji, mavic, air, drone, partner, chop, saw, pipe, repair, komatsu, clearing, forestry, excavator, hydraulic, homestead, trucking, dc103, cummins, ironlung, road ranger

Id: M3_QdW3wXak

Length: 29min 54sec (1794 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 21 2020