Well in the case of the pictured dash, it is, the original
mileage. I bought it with 53553 mi. from the original small
town where it was purchased and spoke with the mayor who
verified the mileage from the maintenance records when it
was sold in a sealed bid back in '05.
Also have a '54 here which came from the original owner who
was 15 years old when his dad purchased the truck for him.
So I'm sure of the provenance of that vehicle also. That's
an original 48843 mi. vehicle.
But I've heard so many stories about low mileage trucks it
just got me to thinkin' about it. When you look at the
patina, it's obvious that there's more than what shows on the
odometer. Another give away is the exhaust pipe. Low mileage
trucks probably had the muffler and tail pipe replaced at
around 25K or 30K back in the 50's, but the exhaust pipes
lasted about twice as long. The original exhaust pipe should
have a large sweeping curve from the manifold back to the muffler:
http://www.pbase.com/dennygraham/image/122229771/largeThe replacement pipes will have a sharp 5" radius bend
below the straight section from the manifold as those are
standard shoes for the replacement pipe benders.
I was just thinking about the contrast between the old and new
vehicles, where the new ones are expected to turn over 100K
at least once and its recorded as such.
But like has been posted, without documented history, it's
really guess work on these old trucks isn't it.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
