I have always had an appreciation for a good car sign. Not like “Taurus”, I mean a car used as a sign. I have driven past this one for several years and one day a few weeks back decided to stop and snap some pictures to share with the CC faithful. These pictures have languished in my computer during my summer convertible fling, but Michael Freeman’s piece yesterday gigged me out of inactivity, so here we are.
A Chevrolet C-10 may not be as rare as the Panhard Dyna Junior that our intrepid Editor-in-Chief found in Eugene (Here), but you must admit that the sign component is a LOT more imaginative.
In chatting with the Owner of Dad’s Muffler Shop, he reports that the truck was a daily driver up until a few years ago, and could get back on the road with some work. But until then, he is having some fun with the sign idea which some of his guys welded up for him one day. The sign certainly works, because I look at it every time I drive across E. 46th Street in Indianapolis.
This truck is a four speed like Michael’s, but is equipped with a 327 instead of the six. And given the size of the muffler, I’m sure that it’s a LOT quieter than Michael’s was. Probably better brakes, too.
Actually I’m thinking those dual chrome “trumpets” poking out from under the bumper likely sound pretty sweet with a 327V8 exhaling through them. He ought to fix it up and drive it to car shows on the weekend, signage and all!
It looks to me that the box mounts are rotten. Or the frame is bent?
Or, just the opposite, like those 70’s-era Ford F-150’s that look as if they carried too heavy of a load more than once, and have that slight sag that was very common.
Nice use of an old home heating oil tank, but the finest moving sign vehicle ever is the Oscar-Mayer Wiener Mobile!
Thing is, don’t let Murilee Martin see that muffler – he’ll steal the idea for one of his “Lemons” so-called race cars!
This was the last of Chevy’s three-year run with a torsion bar front end…finding parts for it are probably a challenge but if you don’t mind going non-original you could use a ’63-’66 frame…I think even a ’67-’72 would work if you changed body mounts. Go ’71-’72 and get the disc brakes…
This clears up a bit of a mystery for me. I always wondered why the slightly newer versions (’63-66) seemed relatively common while these with the wraparound windshield are so seldom seen. I never knew about torsion bars on a Chevy.
Send me pics of that torsion bar front end please!
There is something about the long bed stepside that makes a truck, a truck in my opinion. It’s uber-utilityness makes the whole truck look just a bit more useful, even if it isn’t. With an exception of course for my favorite, 1960’s era Fords. The long bed stepside on them counterbalances the effeminate front end and makes it look even more graceful. Like those hot Isreali woman soldiers in their ugly green uniforms.
You just wanted to post that picture, didn’t you? 😛
I still find it amazing that wraparound windshields made it into pickup trucks back then!