The Stovebolt Site Forums The Forum Gallery 1935 and older Trucks 1927 Chevrolet LM 1-Ton

An on-going frame off restoration that we recently took on.

The Cab is mostly done. The frame/chassis is done. The engine was rebuilt but still needs to be verified

Check out our progress in the Project Journals

Great bones to start with!!

Since you have a '28 head on the '27 block, the engine should get more than the 21 hp from 1927, but less than the 35 hp from 1928 unless the cylinders were bored out and aluminum pistons fitted in there. Any way you look at it, the engine is powerful enough to push the truck easily up to 30 mph or so down the road. Lurch cruises at 33 or so, but he's streamlined (no cab)! ;-)

Did you get the history of this truck from the previous owner?

Thanks for sharing! Dean

Dean ... I have multiple trucks represented in the parts collection and at least one car . All I have, history wise, is a Maryland title (truck is titled to the engine number not the cab data plate ). At least 2 previous owners owned it/them as a project. The "basis truck" (truck forming the backbone of the project) came from here in St. Mary's County. If so, it was probably sold new by Bell Motor Company here in Leonardtown. At the time it was sold a couple of years ago, it was the second oldest Chevy dealership in the country. It was sad to see it go. Not sure if the Weingardner Auto Group (that bought out Bell Motor Co.) kept all the records so I'm not sure. I will ask a friend who's friends with the Weingardners to see if they have records going back that far. It would be pretty cool if that's the case.

The body hardware I have suggests a bed made by Schurmeier-Whitney -- a horse-drawn vehicle manufacturer in MN that turned to horseless vehicles. But they were a regional company not a national one. So one of the parts donors may have been a MidWest truck. Or maybe a previous owner just bought the bed parts at Carlisle or something ...? I have no idea. The complete cab wood kit I have is addressed to somebody in Ohio... so who knows?

About the engine .... A Mennonite friend and former neighbor reminded me the other day that he has one of these engines in his "collection" that he showed me years ago and that he has hopes of restoring to running order. The interesting part is that it had been repurposed to power a big wood planer. Only ... they didn't need 20 hp, all the needed was about 10 hp. So they cut the front half off the engine to make it a 2 cylinder, 10 hp motor. He said it ran great and gave good service. So now I am interested in seeing this motor again.

A few years ago I had an old Chevy 4 banger that had been cut into a 2 banger. Here's that story: 1925/26 Chevy 2-cylinder engine

If you could acquire you friend's 2-cylinder Chevy engine, you could display it as a stationary engine in the back of your truck. Or, you could build a vintage trailer for the engine and pull it with your truck to shows. Would make for a great rig!

Cheers, Dean