Owned by Conrad "classiclover" Bolter # 37833 Belgium

1946 GMC Longbed

"Jesamine"

More pictures of my old truck

From Conrad :

Hello from Belgium. My English is not so good, but I’m learning. ( Hey, Conrad ... your "truck language" is just perfect! ~ Editor )

I have someone special to me that lives in Arkansas USA. I started going there about eight years ago. Arkansas is like home to me, now.

About three years ago, I saw on the side of the road a Chevy C10 truck from 1963 for sale and I liked it. So I purchased the truck and shipped it to Belgium. I sold it to a friend who liked it a lot and was crazy about it.

I discovered Craigslist and I kept looking frequently for a truck.

I was in Arkansas again last December and January and saw this nice 1946 GMC longbed truck on the list. We went to see her and I liked her immediately. There was a lot to do on that truck so we negotiated on the asking price and we came to a deal. The owner was a Harley fan and did not use the truck a lot. He kept it in a garage. He told me about the Stovebolt website (although his truck was not in our Gallery ... wonder who it was .. hmmm? ~ Editor)

I drove the truck to my Arkansas "home" and parked it in the garage. I asked for a quote for shipment to Rotterdam and now it is in my shop in Belgium. ( I‘m a mechanic and body repairman. ) I asked a few times if they were going to take good care for her when traveling to Europe and they did promise.

They came with a closed trailer and drove her inside carefully ... but I was already in Belgium then.

She was in good condition no damage after this long trip.

When I finish the restoration job on the ‘63 Chevy, I will start on the ‘46 GMC truck.

As you can see in the photos in the Bolt Bucket, these are not the original wheels on the truck. I would like to have the original wheels but I have no idea what are the originals -- I only see that there are 6 nuts / bolts.

The motor is a 6 cylinder straight. The color was red. There is a number on it starting "GMC /4 232" and more numbers.

There is a 4 speed on the floor. I know this is not the original gearbox because someone cut out the floor panel and removed the fuel tank.

There is no emergency brake. I think  they removed the handle when they put the 4 speed in it. That’s going to be a big problem to find a handle.

I drove on the interstate 55 miles, and she runs good. The windows go up and down, the front glass too -- forward and back.

The frame is rusty but good.

We have tough technical inspections on vehicles in Belgium and I have to do all this work anyway to pass control. So why not do a complete restoration and bring it back to the same condition as it left the factory! Maybe make it better than new.

I don’t have family beside that special person that lives in AR so driving in this old truck is like being a little bit in AR and thinking about the times I dove it with the grand kids in the bed when she was still there.

There are not a lot of old trucks in Belgium so people ask me a lot about this old truck. When people see this truck, they like it a lot and want to take place behind the steering wheel.

I will take her to a historic car club for ‘40 and ‘50 cars / trucks when she is going to be restored and all original. She's got a name now. We name her "Jesamine" from that old song from the Casuals. But that is an other story. I read on the website that a lot of people give name to there trucks. So it's not funny or crazy to name her.

I’m going to need a lot of parts to restore her and its going to take time, too. If some one could give me information about the original wheel sizes, it would be a big help.

Thank you for the time and effort people put into this site. It's going to be fun to see my truck on the website and be like a little bit a part of that big family of old trucks.

Conrad

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