Good lord I had no idea that they were still using babbit bearings for anything in 55! So when it started knocking did you just flog it until the rest of them went ka-plooie? Dads Model A has babbit main cap bearings, I had the rare experience (for someone my age that is) of patching a rear main bearing with shoe leather on the way to the MAFCA national meet in Buffalo NY more than a few years ago. Took it apart in a Hojo parking lot and got back on the road less than three hours later. Wasn't my car thank God.....

 

The truck was a 52 model, I was driving 55 MPH when it started knocking.... 1955 was the year Chevrolet finally went with inserts.... I remember an old drunk that spun a connecting rod bearing in a 6 cylinder Chevy II. He smoothed the rod journal with emory and and crocus cloth and shimmed the inserts with pieces cut from an aluminum beer can.... He actually drove the thing for awhile until he crashed it while drunk.