1953 Chevy 3800 1-Ton Pickup

	Owned by Patrick Ware "pware" Bolter # 23588 Kings Mountain, NC Join the talk about this truck in the DITY Gallery

06 October 2011
# 2911

More info and pictures on my blog

From Patrick :

Here is a little history on my 1953 Chevy 3800 1-ton pickup. It had a truck bed on it at one time. The truck was my Great Uncle's Father-in-law's truck that he bought new. He used the truck to pull a cotton wagon. He then sold it to my Great Grand Father in the 1960's. He used it to haul soy beans when he first bought it. Later on and up until the late 1970's, he used it fire wood. After that, the truck sat for many years.

In the mid to late 90's, my Grandfather and his brothers got the old truck running and put a flatbed on it and used it to haul hay. They could never keep brakes on it so they parked it in a hay field and there it sat until 2002.

In 2002 they gave it to me and told me to restore it. I was 19. I went out to the field (about two miles from my home) and drained the gas, oil, antifreeze and replaced all with new. I also installed a new carburetor and battery and fired it up.

I drove the truck home with no brakes and four almost flat tires -- remember I was 19 at the time!

Since then I have sandblasted it, primered it, painted the frame; removed and freshened up the engine and put it back in. I bought all new glass and a new driver's door. I replaced the cab corners and a lot of other things.

Now for the cool part. When my wife and I started dating, I started attending her Church since she was more involved in her’s than I was of mine. I made friends with this gentleman in his mid 80’s. We have breakfast every Saturday morning. He was the main mechanic of our small town from the 1940's to the late 80's.  He serviced my truck for my Great Grand Father and for Mr. Hamrick (the original owner) all the years it was on the road. So I know the service history of the truck.

Work slowed down on the truck a bit over the past year. We had our first baby last November so she took priority. But contact with the Southern Stovebolters got me motivated to start going back out to the garage at night and getting a few things done. I’m prepping it for paint at this time. I took the week of Thanksgiving off and my wife is letting me take the baby to the sitter the first of that week so I can get it painted. I hope to have it on the road by April of 2012 (I’ve been saying this for the last two years) but we will see. I hope we can make it to the reunion in 2012.

Sincerely,

Patrick Ware

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