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Introducing Project Brutus – Our Totally Sweet 1968 C50 Wrecker!


Introducing Project Brutus – Our Totally Sweet 1968 C50 Wrecker!

Well, I’m doing it wrong again. After bringing my 1966 Chevy C50 Goliath back to life and spending all summer running around in it, I’ve really grown to love the big lug. That’s why I was immediately conflicted when I got an e-mail from my college buddy Paul Lafayette with a link to an eBay ad featuring a 1968 C50 tow truck. I’ve loved tow trucks since I was a kid and with this one staring me in the face, the price literally dropping by the week, and then a threat from the seller to crush it if it didn’t sell, my mind was racing. Ultimataly, I pulled the trigger on buying the truck to save it from the crusher and to scratch the 31-year itch of wanting to have my own old wrecker. 

You’re wondering, “What does this mean for Goliath?” Well, Goliath’s final fate has not been 100% decided either way, but most likely the truck will be sold. It will be sold with the rolling stock from the wrecker on it and the big Firestones will end up on the wrecker. I will keep you all posted on what happend to Goliath, but he’ll most likely go to a good home, or perhaps, in a long shot, stay at mine.

To the truck, which, after consulting the BangShift forum crew, has the name Brutus and I think it fits to a T. The drivetrain in Brutus is an exact carbon copy of Goliath, with a couple minor caveats. There’s a 292ci straight six, single speed rear end, four speed (this an SM465, Goliath has the older but nearly identical SM420), dual rear wheels, virtually the same spring package, manual steering, power brakes, and a bench seat in the cab. It also has solid sheetmetal all around, for the most part. There some rust repair to be done on the driver’s side of the cab in the rocker panel area and a tender spot or two on the body. Unlike Goliath, Brutus doesn’t have the cab mounts rotting through the floor, or cab corners that you can jam your arm through. 

The business end of the truck is where the real fun is. Behind the cab is a custom made split boom wrecker body. This setup was made by Weld-Built out of NY in 1968. Weld Built is still in business and has record of building this truck. They have committed to sending the build sheets and information along to me. There are a pair of 15-ton winches powered by a PTO off the side of the transmission, a big tow bar in the back and assorted J-hooks and chains coming with the truck. The “split boom” design means that both of the booms can be swung out to the sides, up to 90-degrees and independantly raised and lowered with the use of cranks on the side of the body. The winches are activated by the handles you can see at the rear of the truck. We already have plans to rip, lift, and drag a bunch of heavy stuff to test out Brutus’s strength!

The vintage paint and lettering will stay, with a couple matching additions. We’ll be adding some “not for hire” script, and a couple other vintage call outs on the truck as well. The addition of Goliath’s white wheels will also spruce it up some.  

So what’s the “project” angle to this truck? Easy, we’re going to put a big block in it. Not a zooty 454, but a warmed up, and we mean mildly warmed up 366 or tall deck 427. Why put lipstick on one of those pig big blocks? People are basically giving them away, we have no intention of making this big truck “fast” and frankly, we’ve never seen anyone mess with one before. Doubling the stock power of the 292, which was about 170 will be possible and the torque will be pretty major. Finally, the 366 was an available engine in these trucks, so a big block could have been (and should have been!) factory equipment.

Lastly, the truck is in NY, I am in Boston 500 miles away. Starting this Friday, I’ll be driving it all the way home. Yep, never actually seen it with my own two eyes, never driven it, and going entirely on the trust bond between myself and the seller, I’m going to hop in, hit the key and slowly rumble East. The truck will go about 60mph tops, just like Goliath.

We’ll have some stuff set up so you can follow the ups and downs of the trek, and we’re sure that there will be both along the way. Stay tuned!

Check out this photo gallery tour of Brutus, our fancy new 1968 C50 Chevy wrecker!



 


Brutus 1968 C50 wrecker

 

The business end of the truck

Wrecker interior

Tower of Power 292

What a face!

 


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14 thoughts on “Introducing Project Brutus – Our Totally Sweet 1968 C50 Wrecker!

  1. CTX-SLPR

    Forget the big block V8… go big block V6!! I’m not sure if it was an option or not but they were on the same year GMC’s. Imagine telling someone “yeah, it’s a 401 Magnum GMC V6” and the weird stares.

  2. Jimmy O

    I love these old trucks. My dad had a couple different ones like this with stake beds when I was a little kid. They had the same dash, steering wheel, park brake lever, etc. as this one. I wouldn’t go too crazy on the engine … one of the “charms” of these old things is lots of shifting, not much acceleration. You just feel like you’re going fast.

  3. Anonymous

    put a nice motor in it then rewire the spools with newer cable and put that med duty tow truck back to work towing motor homes and anything else over 5 tons

  4. Anonymous

    more i look at the wrecker body it looks like that’s a holmes 600 series twin boom set up ………… this had twin 15 ton winches . i used to work forr a towing company that had a 77 ford F600 with a holmes 600 series twin boom set up . with a undereach set up and the capacity of the holmes 600 twin booms i was easily able to lift 15 ton trucks and more capacity if i frame forked using the under reach set up
    the swing out boom set up was really nice when doing recovery’s

  5. Anonymous

    I’d tend to leave the 292 in it and toss a blow through turbo on it.

    Have fun changing the plugs on the BBC….

  6. 428FE

    Well, if this was “blog tow truck” I vote to leave the high torque 6 banger in it. Its probably got like 5:36 rear gears in it anyway. Freshen up the cosmetics, maybe add A/C and drive it.

  7. Joe Roberts

    While the wrecker is really cool, I had to see Goliath defaced and sold off to support it. Since the first pictures ever posted of Goliath I have thought of it as one of the coolest trucks ever (and I am not usually a Chevy guy), but then the wrecker does have possibilities I reckon.

  8. nevrdun

    The one picture that shows the rear axle also shows the inner tire one the right rear dual. Looks like alot of tread seperation to me. Check it out be fore you start driving back.

    Norm

  9. Chris's 46/515

    Hey: 6 MPG would be good on my 46,with a top end of 40MPH,500 miles would be a long trip! Those swinging booms look a lot like a Holmes. Very nice Big Bolt Wrecker!!!

  10. Ched

    He’s the God of this site, his life, his vehicles, his wife, his kids, his dreams, his house, his driveway, his trees, his tractor, his dad, his daily schedule, his world is for you to read about non-stop on his website. It’s all about Brian.

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