Steve VandenBerg's 1957 Chevrolet 150 Delivery Wagon and a 1940 Chevy Caprice

10 April 2006

From Steve: 

          I was on my way to Texas with a shell 1956 Chevy and stopped for gas before we left town. A man approached to look at the car and mentioned that he had a 1957 Chevy just across the street he wanted to sell. We decided to take a quick look -- we were behind schedule any way.

          A couple months later, I called the guy and asked to see the car again. What I picked up is a 1957 Chevrolet 150 series Delivery. This one has the one piece lift up tailgate. The interesting part is the windows in the rear. Deliveries have steel panels in the rear, not windows.

          This two-door Delivery wagon is 1 of 92 made. Many were bought by the Forestry Service and Armed Services. This one was bought by Northwestern Bell. You can see where they rubbed their logo off the door.

          If any one has more information or pictures of one of these deliveries, I would like to hear more about them.

          The 1940 Chevy was sitting in a heated garage for over 16 years when I found it. The kids inherited it and decided to sell it. They told me about it and I went to take a look. I bought it from them and took it home. After a couple of weekends, I was able to get it in running and driving order. I took the front seat cover off and I think that the original owner probably never sat on that seat. The mohair was near perfect front and back. Apparently the original owner was a smoker and drinker. You could tell by the dents and what looked like barb wire scratches on the front -- that drinking and driving probably didn’t mix. I couldn’t find one burn mark in the car. It had 69,693 miles on it. I drove it around for the summer and put about 2600 miles on it.

          Around Thanksgiving that year, a man from Texas stopped and inquired about the car. We ended up making a deal and he cancelled his flight home and drove the car back to Texas from South Dakota. About the time the deal is done is when I think I should have kept the car.

Steve VandenBerg
"Builder"
Bolter #6449
Sioux Falls, South Dakota [an error occurred while processing this directive]