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A Cool Old Truck

Tim Ayr's

1951 Chevy 1-ton Wrecker


21 December 00

From Tim

I have a '51 Chevy 1-Ton wrecker, and was wondering if you guy's might want it in your gallery. It's a work in progress, so the pics aren't for the faint of heart.

Here's the story. My truck was put together from a 3804 cab and bed by New Haven Truck Body, for a small garage here in Connecticut. It was in service from then until the mid 70's, when my uncle spotted it in their yard with a for sale sign on it. He went in to inquire, and apparently they wanted quite a bit of money for the ole boy, and he walked out truckless.

His friend, however, did buy the truck, and used it for a few years, doing some high speed towing. And I think everyone reading this knows what revving a 216 under a load for an extended period of time does to it. So he blew the motor, and sold it to my uncle for a much more reasonable price.

So now he had a good truck, with a blown motor. Not to worry. While perusing the local boneyard for some oddball parts for a friends VW Rabbit, he saw a languishing '57, rotted in half. He opened the hood, and, lo and behold, there lay a freshly rebuilt 235, still with the rebuilder's sticker. The motor was purchased, brought home and dropped into the wrecker.

This was around 1978, and the truck was registered as a daily driver, which must have been swell with it's 5:14 gears. Nonetheless, the truck was doing fine until if broke a front leaf spring around 1988, and after that it was relegated to the yard, moving his various heaps around, such as the '55 Buick you see resting next to it on it's floorboards.

The truck finally stopped moving around 1992, and had sat until last year, when I finally moved in for the kill and bought it. I aired up the tires, rebuilt the carburetor and tuned it up, and she started right up. I threw it in gear, and promptly moved it to the other side of the yard, where it sits now.

A full restoration is in order, but on a college student's budget, it's gonna take a LONG time. But that's okay, the truck gets doted on regularly on the weekends, and I'm happy.

That's my truck.

Tim

If you want to see some more pictures of the "wreck," go to Tim's web site ... they are huge files (under "wreck") ... but great photos! -- editor


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