1941 Chevy Canopy Express
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Copyright © 1995-2008
Mechanicsville, Maryland
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| Owned by Will Corbin "wilcor" Bolter # 17295 Fort Walton Beach, Florida |
# 2399
From Will :
Hey Folks! Here is my work-in-progress 1941 Chevy Canopy Express for the Gallery. I don't know where they got off calling a 40-mph six-cylinder "express." 
This is how she looked when we found her [ pix ] .
I found the truck on eBay while casually shopping for possible next projects. (My previous undertaking, a 1936 Ford (Boo! Hiss!)
Phaeton, was nearing completion.) One look at this Canopy and I was hooked. I paid a little more than a thousand dollars for a rusted, dented hulk sitting in a reeking horse pasture (with a lot of other wrecks) on the Alabama-Tennessee border.
The truck was advertised as a 1946, but a helpful Stovebolter told me later that it was more likely a 1941. His suspicions checked out, with VIN and date etchings in the original windshield glass.
I don't know the truck's history. I bought it from a guy who wanted to use it for his barbecue restaurant in Alabama, but he decided it was beyond his restoration budget or capabilities. It may have come from a farm background in the upper Midwest. It certainly shows signs of being worked to death.
This GM Art Deco truck now has a working chassis [ pix ] -- with a Frankenstein 216 babbitt-pounder made from three separate blocks. It has a body [ pix ] that is slowly taking on something like its original shape (with some guesswork where the rust left no clue).
We're departing from the original Canopy to make it a Woodie hybrid. Where canvas originally covered the open box sides, we're building wood inserts [ pix ] that will fold down as tables on both sides of the truck. The tailgate (the original being long gone and irreplaceable) will also be made of wood and dressed up Woodie-style on the outside.
This should end up being an extraordinary truck and definitely unique.
In the meantime, I'm engaged in that worst kind of automotive substance abuse, a growing dependence on Bondo.
Thanks,
Will Corbin
-30-