maandag 7 juli 2014

Big change in plans, probably!!


Well, call me weird, but I am having second thoughts about hot-rodding this vehicle. I’ll tell you why, but first I want to share information with you my truck is indeed a 1929 1-1/2 ton. I received this information from an American fellow truck enthousiast, after he had taken a look at the pictures I have on-line:
“Your truck is a 1929 1 1/2 Ton. The dash gauges tell me it is 1929 as 1930 where round. The rear wheels have 10 nut on them which tells me it is 1 1/2 Ton. 1/2 Ton used 6 nuts and there was no 1 ton in 1929. 1928 was the 1 ton model and it had 8 wheel nuts (NOT RIM NUT).”
This is the confirmation I was looking for, and it will help in my parts search.

Now about why I might do an original restoration on this truck. I started this project by saying I bought a truck now, because they are slowly becoming rare. Little did I know how rare. In the time since I wrote my first post in this blog, I became a member of various forums, amongst which VCCA chat. Of course, on such a vintage forum people dislike the idea of hot-rodding the truck. But amongst all remarks about keeping it original, some folks actually took the time to motivate their opinion and educate me on the subject. The common denominators about the rarity of the truck are:

- The truck is a 1929. First year of the straight six engine, the 1930 design and beyond was changed on many points. So a 1929 is a first year and only year for some features, and ‘only’ 156830 were made.

- Most trucks did not receive a lot of TLC (you can also tell on mine…). They were used hard, fixed on a budget if broken. And if no longer economically viable, abandoned or scrapped. Not like passenger cars loved and cared for by families, these trucks were tools.

- In the second world war, the US government was looking for all scrap metal they could get their hands on to support the war effort. So anything metal you no longer use, you would donate to the state for them to melt and re-use. Many old trucks, abandoned and in dire straits, were simply donated and melted to become P51 mustangs (not really, as those are mostly aluminium, but it is a nice thought. They probably became ammunition or armour plating…)

So, in short, finding these trucks is not easy. Using the simply tool Google I can find plenty pictures of old trucks, but nowhere near the number of pics you can find of cars from that era. And on specific 1929 Chevy trucks, relatively little is found.

I have not made up my mind completely, but the idea of the original restoration is slowly growing in my head. Also I keep finding more resources for parts and information, which is a motivation for the original choice. Anyway, I’ll let you know when I finally make up my mind…