The 1947 - Present Chevrolet & GMC Truck Message Board Network

Hello,

I am new to this forum, I am leaving in a small village, around 160km (100mi) in north of Paris, France.
I will be 53 tomorrow. I am married, have no childs but 3 cats!
I am the proud owner of the 1955 3600 2nd serie Chevy truck since december last year.
The Truck is an import from US, the title was mentioning that it was coming from Portland, Oregon but seems to have not stayed in Oregon for long as the title shows also that it came from Atlanta few monthes before.
It has arrived in my home early in January and since then, I have worked a lot on it in order to pass the inspection. I had to got it before March 7th.
The Truck was not in running conditions, the few things which need attentions :
The front wheels were blocked (brakes shoes not well installed and set)
5 tires to replace
Exhaust can to replace, was broken.
Rear shocks shot, including fixing points
Front axle sway bar fixation missing (I don't think that the front axle is original one at it has a sway bar installed) so I had to build new ones.
Replace the fuel tank cap (removing the old one without having the key has been, let say interesting...)
Parking brake drum shoe to replace, this has created a begining of fire at the first driving of the truck, the shoe was set too close to the drum!
Lighting system not working, I have spent a lot of time on it and finally found that two wires were connected wrongly, so nothing could work !
Register the truck on french administration.

Here is a picture of the Truck:
http://i57.servimg.com/u/f57/15/47/04/62/michel10.jpg

After the inspection, the other things I have done are:
Replacement of the door locks
Tried to replace the ignition switch lock, not finished due to difficulty to remove the cylinder from the old switch.

What I have to do now:
Cure a severe oil leak from the gear box plus another one from the rear axle, so I will need to remove the transmission axle.
Replace the clutch release bearing as it is very noisy. It seems that there are several possible types of clutch plates.
Replace the heat riser spring on the manifold, it has broke on last sunday :-((
Find and replace the front left outside wheel bearing which is scored.
Repair the wipers.
Repair the cabin heater.
Replace the ignition system, spark plugs, wires, distributor cap, points, condenser. The engine is l6 and 4 speed box.

I know that every thing will feel easy for you who knows well these trucks, but for me is quite complicated because they have never been imported in France, so there are no spare parts available at local shops, I must buy and import all parts from US and must be sure that the parts I buy are the correct ones..
Ok, that's all for now, thank you to welcome me on your forum. I will come soon with a lot of questions for sure.
Last but not least, as being french, english is not my native language so means I make a lot of mistakes, sorry for that.

Just to complete my self introduction, my hobby is to 'revive' old tractors, here is a link to my homepage:
http://kivafaucheuse.perso.neuf.fr
you will need flashplayer to see the page.

Michel