Tobin Jansenberger's 1940 Chevrolet 3/4-Ton Stake Bed -- Restoring an old truck

Well, I have a background in building the typical stuff: muscle cars, custom bikes, etc. (for myself) and I realized that since this addiction to working on vehicles was not going to go away, I should focus on investing in tools for the hobby now that my latest project was done -- like get a truck to haul parts!

With gas prices what they are, I couldn't afford my '03 pickup with my commute. So I sold it and got an economy car. Then one day, I had a great idea! Why don't I look into getting a cool old truck, get it running so it has just some modern upgrades for safety and ease of use, but keep it relatively original. I will put it to work when I need it. So no show truck spending here -- but make it look like it rolled off the assembly line not too long ago. That did it! I was on the hunt (secret hunt, since I was still paying off my parts bills).

My wife's uncle is building a pro street '66 big window, and has a spare '55 big window truck in parts form in his barn (great project truck) so I snapped that up for a family discount price (with him storing it still, since my wife might have a cow if she knew). But I wanted something a little older for regular chores and duty. The big window will have to wait for a bit, since it may go the way of show truck some day, etc.

On a freak chance, a co-worker just so happened to notice me surfing this site, and says, "My grandpa has an old truck. You should see it some time!" I asked some questions, but didn't have time to go and look. She took pics anyway for me and showed me at work the next week. I couldn't see all of the truck, but I was hooked (the pics you see are some the ones she took).

I talked to Grandpa (Buster, as his friends call him), and I got a heck of a deal. It is a 1940 Chevrolet 3/4 ton stake truck It was parked in the late '70's from a broken rad, and was forgotten about. He still has the title. He was the second owner. He bought in the early '50's and used if for everything from hauling hay, to teaching his kids to drive. I loved the body style and the thought of this being a '40, enduring farm service that helped provide food for the boys overseas during the war, and helped build this country during the '50's and '60's. Well, I just had to have this symbol of good ol' American hard work and history.

The cab is fairly good. The right front fender is pretty banged up. The rest is all there including drive train. I will have all of the chassis and sheetmetal blasted to re-do properly since I hate rust with a passion. I am still researching what my options are right now, since I did want a 1/2-ton instead of a 3/4-ton. So I am picking some brains on the board and doing my research to see what is possible. I will update for my decision to keep it as is, or convert it to 1/2-ton with a box. This will be a long term project too, since we are saving for a bigger house (then I get my own shop, instead of half of the 2 car garage that I do now).

This board is amazing and I have to say that without a resource like this, I would have just thought about buying a project like this ... and then probably not had the confidence to take something like this on. Really looking forward to getting started this fall with a piece-by-piece approach. (We have our first baby on the way right now due in August, so progress could be pretty slow. I look forward to getting it started between poopy diapers!)