A 'virtual garage' of antique Chevy & GMC trucks from around the World

1953 Chevy 1-Ton Canopy Express

Owned by Mike Elam "mike e" Bolter # 16128 North Central, Illinois

01 October 2007
# 2067

From Mike :

           Hi! I just joined your group. Looks like tons of info. I wanted to send in a few pics of my 1953 Chevrolet 1-ton Canopy Express. Here's a shot from the driver's side.

           Here's a little story about my truck. I was looking in a trading times classified paper for a Chevy project car. I handed it to my wife to show her a Chevelle I liked. After looking, she started to thumb through the pages when I heard her say "Look at this hideous truck." As I looked at the truck, I knew I had never seen anything like it. So I searched on the computer. After finding out how rare the canopies were, I had to have that "hideous truck."

           After a little negotiation with the wife, and the bank, it was mine. Now my wife loves to say that I would have never found it without her.

           I bought it last year in Iowa. Me and my Dad drove to Iowa on a Saturday to look at and maybe buy. I had gotten a money order with the intention of buying the truck. After looking the truck over, I decided to buy it. Man, then I realized that the money order had been made out to me instead of being blank. So we drove all the way back home and went back on Sunday to pay for the truck and take it home.

           My truck has the original 216. It turns over but will not start. I intend to take the motor out of the 1954 Chevy 4100 that is in the background of my other pics. It has a 235 that I had running five or six years ago. The canopy is very solid with only a few bad spots. The front floor has a few small holes in it and the kick panels are shot. The tailgate is also in bad shape along the bottom. Other than those things, the truck is very solid. I can jump up and down on the running boards. The doors shut great.

           I have no other stories about this truck yet because I pretty much bought it and put it straight in to storage. I only recently brought it out to take a few pics of it. It is all original. It even has the original side canopies. I have the dividing wall but it is laying in back of the truck.

           The only really bad thing is I need a title for it. The owner died in 1971 and the truck was passed between family a few times before the nephew sold it. He said he could not get proper paperwork together to get a title.

           I hope to start restoring it back to original very soon so I can attend local car shows and drive in parades.

This is a great web site.

Thanks,

Mike

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