1956 Chevy Panel

Owned by Les Parker       "Roadmarks" - Bolter # 16500 - North Carolina

18 February 2008
# 2233

From Les :

           I don't have a new picture for the Gallery (just yet). My 1956 panel really isn't in the mood for pictures just now. You know how they are. So, I've sent a neat old Polaroid picture (here's a larger image of the one above) that was taken at the time of the story. I just noticed that the driver's mirror was gone then, too. My panel is about two years from being on the road.

           I paid $175 for the panel in 1972. I got it from an Army surplus dealer. According to him, he didn't want the panel but had to take it in a "lot" of trucks he bought. He also told me that it had been a mail truck that picked up over seas mail in Washington, DC and delivered that mail to Fort Meade, Maryland and Fort Belvoir, Virginia.

           After I bought it, I drove it all over -- from North Carolina, California, Mexico, Canada, Maine -- that kind of all over. The 235 finally got really sick and I replaced it with a used, rebuilt one out of another truck -- and continued the driving all over. Here is another picture of the old panel when she was on the road for the Gallery. This is Purcelville Station c1979 or so. I was rail fanning the remains of the W&OD RR which is now the W&OD Trail from Shirlington to Purcelville, Virginia.

           The panel was built in Baltimore and I was born in DC. It still has the military ID plate on the glove box door, part of which says "Truck, Panel Body, 1/2 Ton, 4X2." Small world, huh?

           Then in 1984 I committed the cardinal sin. I loaned it to a "friend" with the reminder that he needed to keep a close check on the oil. I was then out of town for several days and when I got home, I found it parked in my driveway with a caved in drivers door.

           When I started it up, it knocked and smoked so badly that it hurt me to back it around behind the house where it still sits.

           About a year and a half ago, I helped a real friend put a late rebuilt 235 into a 1951 pickup that had been in his family since it was new. Before we started, I researched the swap on line and that is how I found Stovebolt.com The swap and your site brought back a lot of memories, and I decided that the '56 deserved better then to be a shed. I lurked for a while on stovebolt, then joined. I now have an actual plan for putting the panel back on the street.

           I'll do it in stages, starting with the suspension and brakes before I do an engine. It'll probably get a 250 or 292 because I like the oiling and the spin-on filters. It depends what turns up and what the budget will allow. I already have a bell housing that fits the cross member and either engine -- thanks to the help I received on your site. I located all the brake parts and most of the suspension parts locally. I'm just waiting for the weather to break!

           I also collect and restore antique gas engines, and my wife collects Hog Oilers. Our first show of the season is the same weekend as the Stovebolt Homecoming at Stovebolt HQ. Keep me in mind, though. When I decide to do something, I usually get it done. I want to put another half million miles on the panel!

           Some of the guys on the Stovebolt have been very kind and helpful. Alvin (Achipmunk), Bill (red58), and Woody (Czechman) are the ones who come immediately to mind. My thanks go out to them.

All the best,

Les

You can see 'em better when the leaves are off the trees.

           Glad to hear our boys are in there helping you out. That's what we are all here for! (Good-going guys ) ~~ Editor

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