After two and a half years, it is hard to believe I am about through. I still have a few things I want to work on. I guess you never get completely finished but I’m at the point where I have to look hard for something else to do.

I guess I will be doing my Camaro next. It is a 1977 LT with a 350 motor and 4 speed transmission. Only 8,200 +/- were made with this configuration from the factory. I would guess that less than 1/4 of them are still around so it is worth saving. But as they say, “that’s another story.”

I hope to enjoy it some now, maybe hit the Blue Ridge Parkway with a basket of chicken, coleslaw and rolls and some cold soda.

I hope the information and photos contained are of use. I know I sure could have used some help along the way. I learned a lot by doing it. I know you can’t get in a hurry. Photograph, label, make drawings and put in baggies what you can. Even the simplest of things looks entirely different months later when you go to put it back together. I got a lot of the new stuff from “Chevy Duty” now “Classic Parts”, “Jim Carter”, “L.M.C.” and” Brothers.” They all have excellent parts and I found that if you ordered in large orders they would cut you some slack on the shipping.

These trucks were made to be workhorses and most of them spent their lives being just that. They were so loved and well thought of by their owners that they couldn’t bear to part with them even after they died. That is why there used to be one sitting out beside every barn.

It seems more and more old vehicles are making their way into scrap piles to be sent over seas. It is getting harder to have one sitting around. The old adage “one man’s junk is another man’s treasure” doesn’t seem to hold much weight anymore.

I do wish more people would try and save them though.

Now if I could figure out how to recondition myself. I was ten months old when this truck was built.

I have to tip my hat to The General and Mrs. Motors for making a good truck.

I can’t help but wonder how many of the people that built my truck in Baltimore back in April 1949 are still around or if they ever thought something they created would wind up with a second life. This was only about thirty years from the time when General Motors had made their first truck. I love them all Chevy, Ford, Dodge, Studebaker, International and all the old “American Iron”. I wish we could get back to saying, “Made in the U.S.A.” and have it mean something.

All done bring on the next one…

In 1949 the boards would have been yellow pine painted black. I went with oak. I just didn’t have the heart to paint them. I painted my strips blue. They are stainless steel (unpolished). I thought the polished strips would be too much. I like the look of the painted strips better anyway.

As I was by myself I used a magnet on top to hold the bolts while I put the nuts and washers on the bottom. It wasn’t too bad but I still banged my head a lot. I had to use masking tape to tape some of the nuts and washers to the socket to get them started. The tailpipe heat plate goes just above the high crook on the tailpipe.

When I ordered my cross bars I got one center bar. It takes two so I had to order another one. One goes on each side of the frame hump.

I know, the tailgate would not have had the “Chevrolet” painted cream; It would have been painted the same as the rest of the truck. I painted it the same cream as the grill bars because I wanted to. At this point it is my truck and I thought I could have a few things the way I wanted them. Back in the day most everyone painted them anyway.

The thing about the bed is there seem to be few pictures of how they were put together. Just pictures of what it looks like done. Most of the old ones have long ago rotted away and modified every which way. Homemade steel beams welded in and steel plate for floor.
Looking back it is not a lot to it but it wore me out not having anything to use as a guide. Note the nine boards on the 1949 are of different widths. I really don’t know why I would think for strength. When you think about it the truck bed (some folks like to call them the truck box) got it’s roots from the old horse drawn wagon beds and haven’t changed much to this day. Sure they are made of steel but the design is basically the same. I guess you can’t improve on something so “tried and true.”

Getting the bedsides in primer. I welded some bolts into conduit to use as spacers to hold the sides in place while sanding and painting.

I made some long skinny sawhorses for assembly and painting of the bed parts. This worked out well. It helped me keep everything square and plumb during assembly.

The floor boards after Minwax Spar Urethane. Four coats with sanding in between.
Once again parts made their way back into the house den until I needed them.

I put the sawhorses on my car dollies this aided in moving the bed around.

I put two rows of floorboards on each side in (could have went three rows) before setting the bed on. This made it easier to drill the holes in the back brace and center braces.
Three other guys and myself set the bed on the truck frame. It wasn’t that heavy but I wanted to be careful. I covered the cab and some of the other parts with blankets to keep from scratching them in case I bumped into them.

 

1949 Chevorlet truck? I had a 1950 when I first got out of the Air Force in 1971. I loved that old truck but had to sell it when I was laid off from work. It killed me not having it every time I saw it go down the road, so I bought it back. After I returned to work a fellow I worked with bugged me so bad I sold it to him. You guessed it I bought it back yet again. Hard times hit yet another time and the guy who bought it from me the first time was there with cash. I guess I would have bought it back yet a third time if he hadn’t hit a tree. I always said that I would get me another one. Now that I am retired I could work on this when I feel like it and mabe keep me out of trouble. There used to be two sitting behind every barn. Not so anymore. Old Navy has 800+ of them in their stores. The shreaders got a lot, what’s left are either being fixed up or used for parts. The trouble is the parts you are looking for are the same ones everyone else would like to have.
I had my eyes open for a late ’40s early ’50s five-window Chevy truck for awhile. The five-windows were the deluxe models with a chrome grill and chrome bumpers, so they’re the hardest to find in any condition. There are people cutting holes out of old cabs to make them 5-windows.

In January 2004 my brother Barry heard this old boy had a ‘49 five-window up in a field in Copper Hill in Floyd County, VA where it had been going to rust. It sat in that field for seven years and didn’t move. All four wheels were locked up and two tires were flat.

My Dad and Barry (my brother) just stood there shaking their heads when I said I’d take it, but a few bucks and a handshake later we were loading it (more like dragging it) onto a flatbed trailer. We hooked up three come-alongs to winch it out and if the ground hadn’t been frozen I don’t think we’d have gotten it up on the trailer.

There are a lot of people making customs out of them. Mustang II front clips, 350 V8’s, 350 turbo transmissions, Ford 9″ rear end, etc. It costs as much to put one back original as it does to customize one and it is a lot harder to for example to restore a seat frame from 1949 than to go to the junk yard and get a couple seats out of a Cadiliac and bolt them in. It’s all good though. I just wanted to drive it some like it was in the old days with the straight axels and knee action shocks. I may go back and change every thing to custom later who knows. It will be a lot easier because all the hardest parts like the body work will be over.
This website details how I brought it back to life.