(first posted 11/10/2017) We’ve had lots of them here over the years, but I just can’t not stop and shoot when I see one of these. Especially when it’s such a nice one, spotted a couple of blocks from the Mercedes SLC, and sitting in front of a vintage bungalow. My paean to these fine trucks is here. It was America’s favorite truck in its day (by a healthy margin), and it’s still my favorite pickup truck.
I don’t have the statistics at hand, but in its day, Ford pickups were a distant number to the Chevy. And the GMCs sold well too. I’m not sure exactly why Ford was so far behind…well, Ford had just really slid in the 40s, and it took some heavy lifting to get that ship righted after the war. But I don’t think Ford became a serious threat in pickups until a couple of decades later.
I love the sound of an old Stovebolt six; a gentle murmur at rest, rising to a slightly hoarse tenor under a load. Music to soothe modern stresses. These were everywhere when I was a kid in Iowa, all the Mennonite farmers had one (except the ones I stayed with) and they just exude reliability, strength and security. Well, to me anyway. Obviously it was the result of my youthful exposure to them. A timelessly great machine.
Yeah. That’s a real pickup truck. And it’s so nice to see one that isn’t hot-rodded.
Yep, my thought too. I had a ’53 Dodge b4b pickup late in the late 90’s bone stock, newer paint. Daily driver for a year when I was in nursing school. Loved it. Got more “thumbs up” then the totally restored Red ’84 300ZX when out and about with it. Foolishly sold it, wish I still had it. But don’t we all have stories like that?
Nice.
These are the ones that an example of which was in every Old Navy store in the U.S. back when they started up, right? Were those actual trucks or recreations from a mold? I never looked too closely but realized that EVERY store had one and they all looked exactly the same. I have no idea if they still have them and if not, what happened to them. Good looking truck though, for some reason I also mentally associate them with the Waltons. Not Wal-Mart Waltons, but “Good night, JohnBoy”, etc…
Apparently they were real trucks, sort of. According to this they were just shells with no engine or transmission, and just cosmetically restored, making them difficult to put back on the road should you buy one.
https://www.hemmings.com/blog/2009/08/20/2-years-after-old-navy-truck-issues-still-hitting-our-inbox/
Yes, the one I looked at up close was a real truck outside with the bare minimum done to it inside and lacked running gear.
Some of the retired Old Navy trucks wound up in a few Bass Pro Shop locations.
Ha! My exact thought when I saw this post… especially since the color is pretty close. I remember looking over one very carefully back in the day and it was basically just a shell, like the article that WildaBeast linked. Not even any Performance Fleece upholstery 🙁
My Grandfather Owen was a sign painter, as was his son. His first car had been a Model T, his second a new 1933 Chevrolet, which my dad had to teach him how to shift gears. Twenty years later he figured a truck would be a better work vehicle – Grandma had problems with a car that smelled of fresh paint and turpentine – and bought a five-window Chevy like this. It was one of the first vehicles I drove on the road, and I remember it as being a very user-friendly machine, much lighter on the controls than the stick shift Pontiac that my high school had as its Drivers’ Ed car. I was surprised when I drove a girlfriend’s example, twenty years later, and found it almost unmanageable! She had no problems with it, which of course didn’t help any …
My grandfather had only two motorized vehicles he called his own; a 1933 Chevrolet Master coupe and a 1951 Chevrolet 3100 5-window. He spent his early adulthood in New Orleans and was more comfortable riding the trolly and later the city bus there and, later, in Houston. His first vehicle was a Studebaker buggy and he did purchase a 1948 Buick Super, and later a 1957 Pontiac Super Chief, for my grandmother to drive. Since their home was close to the drug store my grandparents owned all the cars, but not the truck, had relatively low mileage for their age.
He bought the pickup when my father reached the age of 15 (legal to drive in Texas then) so he could make deliveries and fetch supplies for the store. The truck was still around when I first came on the scene in the early 1960s but had seen better days.
Since then I once owned a 1953 5-window that was a true rat-rod. I sold it in 2001 when we moved and I had no place to keep it. Last May I was fortunate to find a 1952 3600 (3/4-ton) 5-window in New Mexico which I had shipped back to the Houston area. It is restored to daily driver condition and very original except for the 12 volt electrics. Being a 3/4-ton instead of a 1/2 it has an open drive shaft and the wheelbase and cargo bed are about 10 inches longer. It definitely “rides like a truck” but on smooth roads, with the longer wheelbase, it is quite nice. The weather is great here today with high temps in the 70’s (no AC in this truck, of course) so I plan to do some recreational driving in my 5-window.
I have always enjoyed the look of the Advanced Design chevy trucks. That said I find the Ford trucks of that era attractive as well.
The truck and the bungalow both evidence love, lavished on them by Real People with real values.
+1 Paul… and it’s in my favorite truck color.
Dont know if such a blue was a stock color, but grandpa had his ’53 repainted in a similar blue after the original red faded to pink.
A family friend had one of these as his shop truck in the mid-sixties (he ran a gas station/ auto repair business). He taught all four of his daughters how to drive in the truck on the theory that if they could drive that, they could drive anything. I agree that these are among the best looking trucks ever, and am glad that this example hasn’t received the SBC hot rod treatment.
I like these old Chevys cloned by Vauxhall motors UK to produce some of their Bedford range.
Great old trucks. It is indeed amazing how Ford lost truck leadership from the days of the Model A/AA, especially with the number of rural Ford dealers in the US. I wonder if the torque characteristics of the flathead V8 worked against Ford in truck applications. A flathead six with lots of low end grunt might have been better as a work truck.
Although I am partial to the Studebaker R series, I do find these attractive and appealing trucks and would happily clear space in my garage for one.
Flathead Chevy? Perish the thought. 🙂
Chevy ditched flatheads back in the teens, and only built ohv engines ever since.
Ford’s (flathead) six came out in 1941 (IIRC) and it was an ideal truck motor, and had a better torque curve than the V8. I suspect a lot of Ford’s pickups and light/medium trucks used the six. I’ve seen it in a number of Ford trucks from the 40s and early 50s.
Doh – Friday afternoon brain fade where my mind defaults to Studes. Yes, the “Valve-In-Head” Chevrolet 6 was a staple from, what, 1929?
1914, actually. Only the very first Chevrolet Classic Six (1913-1914) didn’t have ohv; it had a T head. But from the 1914 Model H on, it was all ohv, including the V8 Model D from 1917, Chevy’s first ohv V8.
That V8 was quite a pioneering engine, one that might be fun to take a look at one of these days.
Chevrolet drive trains had historically been Buick like: OHV and torque tube drive. (And Powerglide was more like Dynaflow than Hydramatic..) Then again Louis Chevrolet did race for Buick.
The limited mileage and general longevity of farm trucks meant our garage was still servicing a lot of flatheads into the 70s.
The Ford flathead 6 was much more common in medium duty and up models while the V8 seemed dominant in light duty pickups. Even our old F6 wrecker had the 6.
Interesting thought on the torque curve. I worked on ’em, but never really questioned the “why” of truck buyer engine choices.
But Ford at that time had tried to catch up with the F-1 in 1948 and the F-100 in 1953 (Collectible Automobile did a article about the 1953-56 Ford light trucks). However Ford didn’t got his trucks referred like Chevrolet and Dodge got with “Advance Design”, “Task Force”, “Power Giant” and “Sweptline”.
I remember making an AMT model of a 50’s Ford pickup (when I was a kid) that had these same kind of front fenders. I loved the curves they showed. This truck is in excellent shape given its 60+ years. Great find!
Look at that Plymouth Voyager photobombing the picture!
I built that same model! I remember it was molded in gray while most AMT’s were white.
Nice truck .
Notice the NuVu corner windows that were an extra co$t option , not only on the Deluxe versions .
“Valve in head means ahead in value ! ” .
-Nate
I believe that was a Buick slogan, Not that it matters. A Chevy was a junior Buick with regards to power trains.
Could have been but Chevrolet Division pushed them using the same name, very hard as a safety item .
Back in the day lots of BIG AD farm rigs and yard goats came with these windows but no heater……
I spend a lot of time in the Desert so I made sure not to buy an AD with these sought after windows, I don’t like my neck getting sunburned .
-Nate
Oh yes,the sound! You didn’t have to see it,the sound and gear whine made it instantly identifiable.
The Chevy three speed had a distinctive gear whine, maybe only first gear, that was exhibited in my family’s 1958 Chevy Yeoman (equivalent to Delray sedan and way beyond (below?) stripper level station wagon. No synchro on first gear. No doubt that transmission was used for many decades.
As a kid we had a ’58 Biscayne (Slightly above the Delray) with a 6cyl and 3spd. Your right about that whine, LOL. I didn’t know if first was syncro or not as I was WAY to young to see over the dash, much less drive?.
Nice observation. I had forgotten that gear whine. One of those noises that would tell you the make before you saw the vehicle.
As a kid living on the bottom of a hill at the edge of town, I soon learned to distinguish truck makes by sound as they slowed for the descent into town or started their climb on the highway out of town.
Chev/GMC gear whine was so distinctive. The real trick was to tell a Chev from a GMC. Had to listen real close to the engine. Some of the GMCs with the Pontiac V8 could be real tricky to distinguish. 6’s were easier.
Here is one with a great paint job-notice the Jag. reflected on the door. This was at a show in Plymouth, Ma. Would love a CC on the 1917 Chevrolet V8, it sported nickle valve covers and 288 C.I. Its also a great chevy trivia question as most folks think their first V8 was in 55.
The Advance Design trucks also ride and handle (at least the 3100 1/2 ton models) better than a lot of contemporary cars of that era! As good as the Chevy’s were, the GMC’s were a bit better by virtue of their 228 and 248 engines.
The first truck Grandpa ever had, a ’50 Chevy in dark green, I believe. No pictures of it (it was a farm tool, not a suitable people-mover), but it got relegated to the back of the shed in ’74 when Grandpa bought his new pea-green F-250 Custom. With the 360 V8, that must have seemed a real hot-rod compared to the Chevy. A cousin of my dad’s bought it for $500 about ten years after that, and toodled around the county for a few years before buying a proper vehicle. I think he might still have it in the back of one of his sheds.
Grandpa had a 1/25 model kit of the 3100 pickup that he never started. It passed to me when he died, and I keep meaning to build it, but I feel like I’ll never have the time to sit down and do it justice. I don’t like doing model kits if I have to rush anything. So that and the Cougar and the W-body Grand Prix and all the rest will sit in their
My 3100 series is a 1953 Panel Truck & was my late brother’s. He had it for 20 years but never had the money to finish it. When he died in mid 2014 I used the $ from his estate to make it happen as a restomod, the inspiration was that of all the unfinished projects he had, even though he was so ill (liver cancer), the last thing he did was to put a rear end in his truck so that it was a roller. It’s got a 6.0 L LQ4, a 6L40E (Built), Ford 8.8″ rear, 4W disks, Vintage Air, Cruise, Fatman 2 IFS FE & power R&P, the wife sez it is scary fast & that is with a stock motor. We left the finish as he wished, it is a ‘natural patina’ but to keep that patina from spreading we used “Gibbs Brand Lubricant” which seems to be working – it is a rust preventative among other things…
I was a kid in the ’50s and I always liked Ford pickups a lot better than the GM. No logical reason. Same thing with ’49-51 Fords vs Chevys. I was more than right about the cars.
The tail light on the panel trucks was particularly annoying.
And no, this is not a tribal thing. My family owned random makes of cars including Studebaker, Plymouth, Chevy, and Ford.
Grandpa’s ’53 3600 was the first three speed I ever drove. The non-syncho first was a surprise as the only other stick I had driven at the time was a VW. What I still remember about that farm truck was the smell, gasoline and that combination of leaking oil and dirt under the hood.
A bit later, I helped an uncle restore a ’29 Chevy pickup. It sounded pretty much the same, but with a crashbox and mechanical brakes, more of a handful to drive.
The first Chevy of my own was a ’71 C10, 250ci six, all-synchro three speed, all-coil suspension and disc front brakes. I spite of all those changes, it still had some of the DNA of the ’53 and even the ’29, the exhaust note and a bit of gear whine along with the sloppy column shifter. Oh, and the smell of gas in the cab.
IMHO, never has there been a design that said “truck” like these old Chevys, though the early Dodges (1953) were quite similar.
This would be a great ride to own, what a beautiful sight!
What a great truck, and the neighborhood’s age suit’s it perfectly.
That’s a beautiful restoration. Always loved the look of these trucks, either stock or full custom.
Love the B-pillar windows. Such a memorable and cool styling touch.
This one used to do yard duty at a garden centre. I have not seen it in a year or two however.
Re-attach. The pickup must have been out of gas.
retry
The rounded hood, fenders etc have a certain appeal to them, I must admit. I don’t remember the rear quarter windows, were they an option or a certain year or what? And they may have served the era well, but I remember friends with them in the 70s and they sure didn’t seem like much of a truck. Numbers escape me but it sure seems like they didn’t have much rated cargo capacity, weight wise. And the then, universal stepside in those days left little bed space. As big as domestic cars had gotten by the 60’s it almost seems like full sized trunks had more cubic feet and maybe more weight rating.
Yeah, somewhat different eras and a bit of apples and oranges, but lets just say light duty.
I would call them cool, but not particularly useful.
Mike ;
GM began offering those nifty corner cab windows in1947 as a _SAFETY_ item ~ they were called ‘Nu-View’ and came on more than a few yard goats that had zero other options .
Chevrolet trucks were price leaders so they weren’t overly heavy duty but they (IMO) drove batter than the other low cost brands .
1947 ~ 1950 they came equipped with “Huck” brakes that were barely adequate for the 1937 Chevy Coupe they were designed for .
Totally unsuitable for actual work trucks .
-Nate
Found this one in the family albums. It was assigned to my Dad when he worked for the Indiana State Highway Commission.