1953 Chevy 3600

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"Fern" Owned by Matt Hall "Ferndale53" Bolter # 19707 Southington CT Join the talk about this truck in the DITY Gallery

From Matt :

After posting a million little questions on Stovebolt over the past two years, I figured it was about time I submit my truck to the Gallery.

The truck is a 1953 Chevy 3600, aptly named "Fern." From 1895 until 1969, my family owned a dairy named Ferndale Dairy. In 1969 the processing plant caught fire and was a total loss. Of the fleet of trucks and Divco's, Fern is the only Ferndale truck still around.

My Grandfather bought the truck new in 1953 for the dairy mechanic to use. Since the stock bumper is fairly weak, he swapped it out for two Divco milk truck bumpers stacked and welded together. This way he could push stuck Divcos with his truck.

Sometime in the early 1960's, the mechanic got a new truck and my Grandfather started driving Fern. Once the dairy burned down in 1969, the truck sat around for a few years before getting hauled off to the family farm.

It sat inside a barn at the farm till the early 2000's when it was dragged out into a field to make some space in the barn. From then to March 2009, it sat under a tarp.

I had wanted a project car for a while, despite having exactly no mechanical experience. After originally looking into old VW bugs, I remembered about the old truck sitting in the farm field. I first looked at it in January 2009. I knew right then I wanted it. Since it was buried in deep snow, I had to wait till spring to have it towed home.

In March the snow was finally gone so I had the truck towed home. With it finally sitting it my driveway it was hard not to think "what have I gotten myself into?" The years had not been kind to it, but it was a piece of family history so at least I had to give it a shot.

Over two years of hard work later, it is finally done. The only work I didn't do myself on the truck were the king pins and carburetor rebuild. All it took was one step at a time and a lot of assistance from very generous Stovebolt members.

Here you can see what transpired during that time. Here's the truck as it initially looked; the after picture is above.

• The interior: before and after.
• The bedwood: before and after.
• Door art: before and after.
• Rear view: before and after.
• Topside: before and after.
• Head shot - front grille: before and after.

Since the truck had a new look, I figured it needed a name, too. My brother jokingly started to call the truck Fern and much to my initial dismay, the name stuck. Now I'm happy to call the truck Fern.

It's been in my family for 58 years so far, and it'll definitely stay in the family for 58 more.

This is impressive! And what great history - before and after!! Hope it does stay in the family another 58 years. Be sure to update the Gallery page then! Thanks for taking the time to do all this. And thanks for sending in the story for others who are "new to this" to be motivated! ~ Editor

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