At that time, the upfits were generally done by the dealership the truck was purchased at, if it was done when the truck was new, or at an authorized equipment dealer. We purchased my first truck in 1994( which I still have but it's in pieces right now ) from the son of the original owner. He was a teenager when his dad bought the truck new. He went with him to buy the truck and also to have it upfitted. So I know when and where that work was done.
I think it would have been very very rare to have a consumer upfit their own truck at that time. The price of the upfit alone was equal in cost to buying the truck. So if you had one upfitted at the same time you bought a truck, it was like buying two trucks. It was around a 4-5 hour job to have the equipment dealer do it, with all the right tools. Doing it yourself is a much harder job. Considering these trucks were not hobby vehicles back then, I can't see how it would make monetary sense to try to do it yourself. These trucks needed to make money as quick as possible once they were financed or paid for.
This truck came from a collection of NAPCO trucks like I have never seen. I had no idea any one person had this many of the AD's in one place before, and he showed me pictures of more trucks of his on other properties that he's consolidating to this one property now that he's retired. The truck I brought home was one of seven Advance Design NAPCO trucks on the property and by my count, 15 that he has between three properties. There were at least that many 55.2-57 NAPCO trucks as well, and quite a few very interesting AD 1 ton two wheel drive trucks. I'll say this, if he ever decides to thin out his collection, a lot of really cool trucks will go back out in to the world.
If I hadn't have been running hard against the clock I'd have spent a lot of time documenting the trucks he had. As it was I only got to take a hand full of pictures.
The NAPCO part of the equation on this truck I posted is pretty standard. Like I've said this is my 2nd complete Advance Design NAPCO that I own. I've had hands on and inspected now around fifteen complete original AD upfit trucks since I became interested in them. I've found them in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. I've owned several partial and complete AD running gears, and several upfit and factory 55-57 complete NAPCO trucks over the years. Based on how this truck presents, I'd wager that it was upfitted very near to when it was new. The serial number of this upfit is pretty close to my first truck as well, but a little lower. Definitely later in the first generation trucks, which were first offered in 1953.
In my experience, which at this point is with trucks upfitted on the West Coast, and now in the Rocky Mountains regions, upfitters tended to do things the way they wanted, and pretty consistently. Hood badges will be in one spot pretty consistently, transfer case shift and warning plates will be pretty consistent in location and configuration of placement. The holes in the floor for transfer case shifters will be cut and finished very consistently in a 'style' that points to the same crew doing the work.
I just found the 54 badges on this truck to be a real head scratcher. The way it's weathered does not show any signs of an older paint color. It looks to have always been Ocean Green. It doesn't show any signs of ever having been repainted. All the paint that is remaining, as you can tell is very thin. The hood looks like it's always been attached to this truck. The only thing that tells me the hood may have ever been off is that the engine is a later model 235 or 261. I haven't taken the time to look for captain's bars or run the numbers yet. I think it's possible, if not probable, that it left the factory with these badges. I just find these quirks interesting, especially when there's no obvious or clear explanation for them. Also, as far as the relationship between the Chevrolet badge and the NAPCO badge,... My other truck had the NAPCO badge placed behind center of the 55.1 style 3600, which avoids hood brace, and therefore the need to drive screws into the badge, which has four studs cast in. I've seen the NAPCO badges on several different locations on the hood and the side of the cowl even, and in later trucks often on the front fenders. I don't think they'd have done anything special for that reason.
Last edited by BlueChipper; 10/25/2020 6:02 PM.
