01 January 2012
# 2933

	More pictures of my old truck

1950 Chevy 1/2-Ton
Pickup Truck

"Buttercup"

Owned by
Joe "joetravjr" Travaglino
Guilford, CT

From Joe :

Here is a bit of the story of my 1950 Chevy 1/2-ton pick up truck.

The specs are:

• 350 engine with 700 r4 transmission with 3:08 ten bolt rear
• power steering (Mustang II )
• front disc brakes with a Monte Carlo front clip
• Vintage Air heat and AC unit
• American Racing wheels
• power windows
• interior has leather bucket seats
• Sony Xplode stereo
• satellite radio / GPS

This "old" truck is a great driver and stress reliever.

Before I opened my first Mobil station here in Connecticut (that is what the door art is about), I worked for a Chevy dealership. I fell in love with these trucks. I worked on quite a few back then and knew that I would get one when the time came to play.

When I was finally getting ready to retire, I built a post and beam barn to do woodworking in. I was looking for a truck on the Internet and this one in St. Louis listed on eBay caught my eye.

When the truck arrived, it took over the barn. No woodworking was done in there after all. Working on the old truck brought back a lot of great memories or me. The last 25 years with the Mobil stations, most of my work had been administrative in nature. Now, I had my hands back in the grease and it was great.

The previous owner of the truck started to hot rod it and I continued since it wasn't stock. It was too far into the hot rodding to turn it back. There were a lot of things I had forgotten about working on a stock Chevy and that's when I came across Stovebolt! I grew up in the 1960's when we were all hotrodding Chevy trucks. I'm not a speed kind of guy but it was nice to consider adding some conveniences.

I read all through the Gallery stories and saw that almost anything is possible. I was doing all kinds of crazy things with the truck. Every day there was something new that came along that sounded like a good idea.

When working on the truck, we quickly found out that these trucks were not built for an easy change or add-on. When I had to change the speedometer, it was so much easier to add a GPS speedometer than to spend hours calibrating with the gears and all. This one just sticks under the dash and it's works via satellite. It's awesome!

So, on the outside, the truck looks pretty stock and it's hard to tell it's been updated. People comment that it's like a truck their Dad drove. It's always fun to hear the stories and comments.

I've done all the work except the engine swap. I just recently put Mar-K bed sides and had it painted. Put a new bed on the back since it was all banged up from being used.

I wanted to put the Mobil station's logo on the door and had been doing some research. I found an old sign painter who made a little stensil of our logo with the old Pegasus. I watched him as he brush paited it on. This guy did such a beautiful job.

It seems I agonize over everything I do with the truck, even down to the wheels. To me, it's a very personal expression of yourself.

Stovebolt is a great site - there is so much knowledge here! Some guys don't seem to know one end of a screwdriver from another and they are wanting to swap out a tranny! And the 'Bolters are there to help make it happen! I check the site at least five times a week. Your site certainly has helped to make her what she is. Keep up the good work.

Probably the best part of this hobby is you learn something every day.

Thanks,

Joe Travaglino
"joetravjr"
Bolter # 20040

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