Mark Kovac's 1950 Chevy 4100

24 April 2006
# 1505

From Mark:

        I just got back from a leisurely drive from Missouri where I picked up my recently purchased 1950 Chevy 4100 (maybe could have been originally a 4108 or 4109) and drove it back home to Northwest Pennsylvania. The drive back was surprisingly uneventful -- one battery discharge problem and a major pileup on the interstate -- but no real truck problems.

        The guy I bought the truck from said that there had been a lot of work done on it and this turned out to be very accurate. It has a relatively new Chevy small block (said to be a 327 with about 500 miles reported on it), what looks to be an almost brand-new Edelbrock 4-barrel, and a relatively new TH-350, which is kind of an odd tranny choice for this truck. What's even stranger (in my mind anyhow) is the fact that it has a Hurst ratchet shifter (did this truck do a lot of time at the local dragstrip? - do they make slicks for duals?). It also looks like the frame is just amazingly straight and new. I wonder if it came of a suburban or something. Same for the rearend. I can still see yellow grease pencil markings on the drive shaft -- must be pretty new, too.

        My wife and I moved from San Diego, California to Pennsylvania recently to get a big, old house that we could afford. The only drawback is that we can't afford to heat the place in winter with the current cost of natural gas. However, the Amish lumber mills nearby sell waste "slab-wood" for very low prices. So this 4100 is going to be our firewood hauler. The only problem with the truck so far is that the bed (looks like a semi-custom aluminum job) attachment to the frame seems a bit flimsy (possibly some scrap lumber spacers between the bed and frame, and a couple of U-bolts holding the bed and frame together). I'll probably get this fixed before doing any serious wood hauling.

Mark Kovac
"markk"
Bolter # 10732
Pleasantville, Pennsylvania
(south of Erie, north of Pittsburgh typically colder than either Bangor or Bismarck)

        Mark suggested we pick whichever photos were suitable. WOW! This is a neat big truck ... we had to include all of them! ~~ Editor