1946 Chevrolet COE

	Owned by Travis Garson "Garson" Bolter # 20003 Sylvan Lake, Alberta Canada

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From Travis :

When I was about 12 years old, I saw a movie by the title of “Jeepers Creepers.” In the movie, a monster drove an old truck, which happened to be a 1941 Chevy COE (the truck itself is actually on Stovebolt.com). Upon seeing this, I henceforth wanted one of these trucks. However, I was still quite young and owning any kind of vehicle would obviously be not a concern at this point in my life.

As the years went on, I still enjoyed watching the movie and still had an interest in that truck. Sometime in my 18th year, I ended up researching to find out what kind of truck it was. Turns out it was / is a 1941 Chevrolet COE.

I informed my Dad and printed off some pictures to show him. He later informed me that COE stands for Cab Over Engine.  My Dad thought these trucks were neat, so he played phone tag with a few guys and eventually found one in Invermere, British Columbia. A vehicle collector there had one that originally came from Carstairs, Alberta.

We phoned the guy and asked him if it was for sale. He said that it was, but it had no engine or transmission, radiator, etc. He wanted $1500 for the thing and we said we’d buy it.

About a month later, we went to Invermere to pick up the truck. As we turned into the yard, I was very excited at my first glance of it. It looked just as cool as the one from the movie.

I jumped out of my Dad’s truck and examined it. I asked Dad to take a picture of me in front of it. We proceeded to take pictures of it from all angles, as well as snapping pictures of whatever else the guy had in his yard.

We loaded up the truck and brought it back home. The next day (this was the fun part) we started stripping the thing down. Over the next few days, my Dad, Uncle and I totally disassembled the truck. Afterwards, Dad made a call to auto wrecker / restorer near Edmonton looking for another truck for the power train. He said he had one there, but he wanted the cab to make a hot rod with. So he sold us the chassis and power train for $800. We brought that home and now had a majority of the parts we needed.

Since we bought the truck in April, the chassis has all been re-done for the most part. The brakes and suspension have all been rebuilt. We are now working on the cab and fenders. We have hammered out the dents and are proceeding with the body work. The truck had some minor rust repair to do, so we cut it out and made patch panels. We have started putting the body filler on and sanding it.

Dad rebuilt the transmission and will soon start on the engine and rear differential. We hope to have it running and mostly finished by summer 2009.

Here is our photo line-up:

• When we picked it up in Invermere, BC
• When we got home
• Where were we are with the chassis
• The cab

My Dad (Greg Garson) has four Stovebolts: two 1946 Chevrolet COE's and a 1945 Chevrolet  1 1/2 ton. He bought another 1945 Chevy (2-ton) just this month! He's working on one of the COE's -- the others are future projects.

-Travis G. Garson

Pop says: Travis will be 19 in April. He has been interested in the COE since he was 12. It wasn't until the last year he really became interested in old trucks and cars. He liked them some what before. Now he can look at many old trucks and tell you the year and model. We use to go to a car show and walk through once and go home. Now we spend most of the day looking and talking to the owners. He had me take the picture of him and the truck first thing when we got there to pick it up. Travis was so excited when we turn the corner and saw the truck for the first time.

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