1948 Chevrolet Thriftmaster

Owned by Dan Sutton "bowtiefan" Bolter # 26429 Greenwood, Indiana Join the talk about this truck in the DITY Gallery

More pictures of my old truck

From Dan :

I found my truck locally (in Indiana) through a stranger. I camp with Teardrops campers, and while at a campground, I mentioned to a visitor admiring my camper that I was looking for an old AD truck to pull it with. He replied that he knew a guy that had a barn yard full of old trucks, and gave him my number.

Sure enough the guy called and, after visiting him, struck a deal. He had actually brought this truck from Nebraska (last registered in 1972) for the running boards, as they are near perfect.

With tools in hand, he then decided the truck was in too good of shape to part out. It really is a solid truck, with just a little rust in the floor boards. It was stored outside most of its life as evident with the amount of surface rust.

After installing inflated tires, the truck rolled good, almost too good! As we were loading on a trailer, our hand come-along needed re-positioning and while doing so the truck rolled back over the 2x4 chock and completely off the trailer towards an exotic bird pen! Whew! Stopped in time.

The seller threw in a replacement driver's door and right bed side, extra 216 engine and trans, new headliner and window glass.

Once we were home, and after getting it in the shop, we found the cab floor covered with an inch of dirt from the farmer. There were mice nests everywhere, and like most farm vehicles, a huge amount of grease and dirt packed in and around the steering and frame components. Old farmers greased everything regularly, but rarely cleaned anything.

The right front drum was tough to get off, and we found the brake shoes wired together with baling wires and the entire air space around the brakes filled with mud dauber nests. The rear drums had rusted completely away and the brake cylinders were filled with a powder instead of fluid. After soaking the engine cylinders with Marvel mystery oil, the original 216 fired right up and runs like a top.

Upgrades so far include an S10 T5 transmission, 10 bolt rear end and a new drive shaft. I also added  3" lowering blocks, a 4" dropped axle, new king pins, new front brakes, S10 gas tank, oak bed, Model A taillights, 12 volt headlights, replacement seat, and a frame mounted hitch to pull my '47 teardrop camper.

I'm going for the "old school hot rod" look, so I have it sitting on a set of wide whitewall tires and new wheels! I have a Blogspot about the rebuild, if you care to follow along.

Future plans are to park my high mileage '00 GMC and drive the tires off this "farm vehicle". I might even decide to leave the patina look!

Thanks,

Dan

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