1951 Chevy 1/2-Ton 5-window

	Owned by Roy and Nancy Vaillancourt "RoyV" Bolter # 18605 Farmingville, New York

From Roy :

           Hi guys. In hunting for a 1951 truck, I came across your site. I LOVE it! We finally found our truck, a 1951 Chevy 1/2-ton 5-window. Here are a few pictures of our truck and a short story.

           My wife and I had been looking for an old pickup truck to restore for some time now. We like the early 1950's stuff as well as the "muscle cars" of the 1960's. When we finally got a little more serious about an old truck, rather then just wishing for such a vehicle, my wife said she wanted a 1951 truck of her very own. It "had to be" a '51. She wanted a truck made in the same year as her... Good stuff was made that year... I'll attest to that. An amusing tidbit: I was checking into the serial number and such and found that our truck was built in Kansas City in February of 1951. It just so happens that my wife's birthday is in February of 1951, too.

           Anyway, now that we had the year pinned down, I started the search for an appropriate truck. I showed her many pictures of Ford, Chevy, GMC and Dodge trucks. We both agreed that the Chevy was the way to go. It just has better lines. I'm a Chevy guy at heart as we also have a 1965 Corvette that is in the works, too. We have had the Vette since 1971 ... finally started on the full restoration a few years ago. This is also one of my retirement projects. Only have a year or so to go.

           Now that we had the make all figured out, the next choice was to pick between a regular cab and the 5 window. We both liked the 5 window design so the 5 window it was. The search continued. I searched Craig's list and eBay for a while and noticed all sorts of trucks, for all sorts of money, in all sorts of conditions. We didn't want a "done" truck as the restoration process for us is half the fun. We also let a few of our "old car" friends know we were looking. We even had a few leads local to our area. We checked these out and came across a guy that had eight 1951s sitting on his lot. About half of these were 5 window versions. So when we drove up, we got all excited. But ... after inspecting the lot, we discovered that not a one of them had an engine or transmission. We also saw that all the pedals and interior goodies were gone. Not exactly what I had in mind.

           So this trip turned out to be just a nice drive in the country. While doing all this research and computer surfing, I came across The Stovebolt Page. What a great find! There is all sorts of information about these old trucks. Seemed like a nice bunch of people with all sorts of knowledge. The education I got as a result of this site is invaluable. I visit the Stovebolt site at least three times a day now, reading everything I can on all the different aspects of these neat old trucks. Great stuff. Thanks to all who keep it going. I discovered the availability of parts I thought I'd never be able to find.

           Stovebolt helped make the "finding a truck" process better. I was excited about finding a project.

           One day I spotted this beauty on eBay. I sent the image home to Nancy and she responded "That's the one!" Well, I'm not one to jump into these things too fast so I figured we'd think about it for a while. You guessed it. It was off the market before I could decide. Seemed it did not reach the reserve but time ran out.

           We contacted the owner the next day and he said he would wait a few weeks and then put it back on to give it another try. If it didn't go by then, he'd contact us. So we waited and watched.

           Meanwhile I surfed and looked at others. There were a few. They asked more or less money with some being in better shape and some were in worse condition. So we looked and waited.

           Then finally that eBay truck popped up again, but this time with a "buy it now" price. The bids were not close to that number yet so I waited a day or so. Then I thought "can't let it get away a second time" -- so we bought it on the spot. Hurray! We were now the proud owners of a rolling pile of 57 year old rust.

           You see, it didn't run and it didn't stop once it was rolling. But that's what all the restoration adventure is about, right?

           Next step was to get it shipped from Georgia to New York. Getting a non-operating vehicle shipped such a distance is a short story in itself and I'm sure many of you know what I mean. Here she is loading up for the trip to her new home. But we prevailed and she arrived [ pix ] July 24th, 2008 on a very rainy day with thunder and lightning greeting her to her new home on Long Island, New York. After a little dodging raindrops and wrestling the truck off the trailer, we finally had her in the driveway.

           Best we can tell from the stories from the previous owners, my wife and I are only the fourth owners of the truck. Seems the original owner used it as a working truck on a farm and kept it up until 1990. He then sold it to a young fellow in Georgia who was going to make a low rider hot rod out of it. Seemed he ran out of ambition and money and lost interest in the truck before he could modify anything.

           In 1992 he sold it to his uncle who had an interest in it right from the start. The truck was partially rebuilt and returned to active duty. It was used as a run-around vehicle for the family and farm use. As any vehicle ages, things start to fail and caused the truck to get less and less use.

           The uncle kept the old girl running as best he could until one day it was parked and never ran again. They intended to do a restoration on her and even had their sons pitch in. But as a project like this sometimes goes, they were faced with major cost and time investments to bring her back to life.

           So the poor old girl sat for the past two years until the decision was made to put her up for sale in the hopes that the next owners would be enthusiasts who would restore her properly. My wife and I are that couple.

           Here she sits in our driveway [ pix ] waiting for restoration. I have already taken out the entire interior and started the welding and such on the seat "stuff." I have also dismantled most of the dash and wiring. I have removed the starter and it is off for rebuilding. It currently has an alternator installed but this will be replaced with a converted 12v generator correct for the period. The entire wiring system will be replaced and systems upgraded to 12 volts.

           The entire brake system will also get some attention.

           You all know the drill, right. We are moving along at a snails pace right now as I order parts and wait for parts, etc. We still have not heard the engine run and look forward to that day when the spark of life returns. Then it's full steam ahead for the rest of the restoration. We'd like to get it running, rolling and stopping for this summer so we can drive it around a bit and have some fun with it. Then next summer get to the serious sheet metal work.

           I don't need inspiration. I have plenty of that! I just need some time. I have many interests and hobbies but the "day job" gets in the way. Besides my "day job" as an engineer for British Aerospace and the old car hobby, I also participate in model aviation (here is a picture of me with a Typhoon). Nancy and I run a sideline business in the modeling world. Nancy intends to use the '51 as our "delivery" truck making trips to the post office and UPS to ship our modeling products as well as traveling to some of the local car and truck shows. Maybe even transporting a model or two from time to time.

           I'm rolling up my sleeves and getting dirt under my nails and rust in my eyes. Ah yes, heaven. What a great hobby.

           I'll keep you posted.

Roy and Nancy Vaillancourt

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