1946 Chev 1/2-Ton
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Owned by Jay Connely Talking about this truck |
# 2799
From Jay :
I am part way through the second restoration of my Dad's 1946 Chevrolet half ton. My Dad purchased this truck in 1969 and spent the following four years rebuilding it in the Roadrunners Club in Hamilton, Ontario. He restored it to the daily driver condition and did a pretty good job of it with the resources available back then. He finally had it on the road around 1974, which was the year my older brother was born. I came along in 1979, followed by my younger twin brothers in 1983. It was around that time that interest in the truck was lost and it sat around and basically rusted away.
I began to toy around with it when I was in high school but I did not have a clue as to what I was doing or the money to do it with. Therefore, more years passed with it resting at the bottom of a pile of junk in my Dad's single car garage. My Mom finally got fed up with the wasted space so she had my Dad move it out to a warehouse in downtown Brantford.
In 2001 my Dad mentioned that he had someone interested in buying the truck off of him. I was devastated that he was considering it. So, I took it upon myself to convince him that I would work on it, because basically once you sell it, you no longer have it. Anyway, still living at home with a single car garage and my Mother who did not want the truck back in there, I considered joining a car club with a shop I could use. I went to a few meetings to different clubs and quickly became fed up with the politics associated with these clubs.
So, in 2003 I decided to buy a new house with a garage. Over the following four years I tinkered with it more and more and did not really make any progress. I spent more time tearing things apart rather than fixing them and re-assembling them.
In 2006 I once again moved the truck into my second house and the garage there was not set up for a project of any kind.
Finally in 2008, I really got down to business.
My Brother Randy and I hold "Truck Tuesdays" (or Wednesdays, Thursday, Saturday ... whenever we are available and the wifey will let me) and are making some solid progress. Just about 95% of the mechanical is complete and we have purchased a lot of parts to complete the restoration.
This March 2010 the truck was supposed to be going in for the body work but our body man decided to sell his shop. We are in the process of finding another body man or seeing what our original guy is doing in the future.
We look forward to working hard at it throughout the summer of 2010 and hopefully reassembly can begin next winter. Possibly 2011 will be our year but I'm not going to set a deadline!
Check out my Flicker site and watch our progress! Feel free to email me, too.
Jay
This is a gooood story with lots of pictures. Your truck has been apart of your lives for many years. After a long stretch with little or no progress, it has become a brother and brother project. Your "Truck Tuesdays" is a great way to maintain momentum on a restoration. Thanks for this motivating story. ~ J. Lucas, Stovebolt Gallery Curator
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