Prior to 2000, my Dad and I occasionally talked about restoring a Brockway. As time went on, he retired and I built a garage so I figured it was good time to start. My Dad originally purchased a 1946 260XW and then I followed in 2000 with the 1955 155W. Four years later, we learned about a 361 that was in storage a few miles from the house. It turns out that it was stored in the same warehouse that we used to store our two cars in over the winter months. My Dad always talked about getting a 361 so we went to take a look at it. It was a 1970 E361T with a 671 Detroit and a RT910 Roadranger in it. It was stuffed in the back of the garage sitting in front of an Autocar. Here is a pic from when we first looked at it back in February of 2004.
It turns out the previous owner had bought it from someone who performed an amateur restoration, basically just some paint. So in March of 2004 a deal was made and we finally pulled the truck outside in order to get it ready to drive home..
With some help from a forklift and a couple of fresh batteries, we were able to get it started...
It had good oil pressure and held air so we decided to drive it home...
Just before bringing it home we started to learn a little more history about the truck. It was originally purchased by Sears Oil in Albany in 1970. Sears actually ordered 10 trucks from Brockway in 1970. They were all E361T‚ and were consecutively numbered 73435 through 73444. We confirmed this by requesting the original chassis record from the Mack Museum in Allentown. There was also an excellent article on Sears Oil and its trucks in Brockway Today a few years back.
Our truck turned out to be S21, which was still evident on the air cleaner although it was painted over. At Cortland this year S23 was for sale. Here is a pic to show what the truck would have originally looked like back in the day...
After we got the truck home, we quickly realized it was extremely rusty. The floors, fenders, back of the cab, rear frame, WOW‚ not good. But anyway, rust free cores are few and far in between so we figured we would drive on and deal with what we had. Even sitting still in the garage, the truck was raining rust and oil all over the floor. So we moved it outside and gave it a good bath...
After the bath we immediately started in on the floor and floor supports. Here is what we started with...
And here is what we ended up with after (without the sheet metal installed...)
After the floors I started looking at the air and fuel lines. The fuel lines were literally crumbing in my hands and I started to think that it was nothing short of a miracle that we were able to drive it home. We had plans on taking it to our local show in Harford (2004) but unfortunately realized it just wasn’t going to happen. Shortly after that, we decided that instead of working on two trucks at once, we would finish one and then move on to the other. The 155W was picked to be first since it was much further along. So the 361 got put on the back burner and was moved to the back of the garage
In the meantime, we started collecting parts. We were able to find a Farr air cleaner, decent steel front fenders, a pair of glass fenders, a new radiator, a chrome bumper and a bunch of misc. parts. We even had new frame rails made to replace the rusted and cracked ones.
More to follow...
Good luck and post LOTS of pics!
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