01 November 2013
# 3040

	Owned by Hercamer Rose "Suburbia" Bolter # 23901 Layton, Utah

1940 Chevy Suburban Carry-all

More pictures of my old truck

Join the discussion about this truck

From Richard :

Years ago, my Dad's coffee buddy mentioned that he had a 1940 Chevy Suburban he wanted to sell for $2000. I bugged the owner to sell it to me because I've always loved the 1930-40 style trucks. When I heard about the 1940 Suburban, I was ready to buy it even though I had never seen it.

I carried around the wad of cash in my pocket for a month in case he would agree to sell it. Finally ... I became the proud owner of a rusty 1940 Chevy Surburban Carryall.

Over budget, and 13 years later, here's what my wife calls "The girlfriend" -- a labor of love. I hope to fire it up next spring!!!

The idea of a classic truck with some leg room -- heck, room for the whole family -- was appealing to me.

I've done all the work myself. That's why it has taken over a decade to get to this point. It's been restored from the frame up, piece by piece, and modernizing it to be comfortable to drive cross country as we plan to use it to see America.

This old truck has a 355 motor, 700 trans, disc brakes, power steering, and air conditioning to make it comfy.

My wife said she wanted it green and I looked through the paint color chip books for what seemed like forever. One day, I was walking through a parking lot and I spotted the new (2010) Camero in "Synergy Green" and I thought that was it. I painted the truck here in my garage. It took more time to make the garage a paint booth than the time it took to paint it. The front fenders and running boards are off, so I don't scratch em.

I actually started working on the truck in my Dad's shop. His business is not related to cars (construction), but I was able to use his place until he retired about five years ago. I had to move the truck to my small two-car garage here in the suburbs of Salt Lake City. So that has slowed me down some.

As far as history of the truck -- there was a lot of the Air Force blue color underneath when I sandblasted it, so it had to come from the nearby Hill Air Force base. The previous owner used it as a hunting truck until 1977.

My Dad is a Ford guy and he really likes Fords. All my life everything I ever owned was a Chevy. My first vehicle was given to me by my boss (a dairy farmer -- I grew up working for a bunch of dairy farmers) when I turned 14 (that was the legal driving age in Idaho). That was a 1948 Chevy truck. After that, it was one Chevy after another until I came across this one.

I have been restoring old vehicles all my life but this is the first one I have done from the ground up. I started on this truck in 2000. I have had it as long as we have had kids! We moved to Colorado for a few years and all I got done there was to build a custom dash.

Then we moved back to Utah and I have been working on it steadily, as I get time. I have done all the work, including body work, except that I had a shop build a rear differential since they had a jig for it.

So, the wife would like to travel around the country when we get it done. We have three kids and she was thinking we could drive it to Florida and live on the beach!

Anyway, there's a special place in my heart for Stovebolts, so thanks for the opportunity to share this with others.

-30-