The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Interesting 1955.1 3600 NAPCO

Tim, I'm assuming that the Silver Books are printed earlier than the model year starts so that they are available to dealers ahead of time. The conversions began being offered by NAPCO during the 1953 model year, not before, and as I understand it were first targeted at the heavier duty truck market. They were first offered for 1.5 and 2 ton Chevrolet trucks, and the light duty kits followed. I do not believe that they would have been in time for the Silver Book printing from the history that I've gathered, and so I believe that is why the vast majority of the marketing literature shows the 1954 models. I only recall ever seeing one pre-1954 model shown on a NAPCO ad, and it is a 1.5 or 2 ton dump truck. If you look closely at the attached photo of an original installation manual, the one the reprints are derived from, you'll see that there is clearly a NAPCO badge centered above the Chevrolet badge, the same the photo of my truck shows. I used to have the original full page print of an ad that uses this same illustration which I've also attached, and it clearly shows the badge. I'm still trying to locate a high res copy in my digital files. Anyway, it is very very visible when you see it in person or scanned at high resolution. Of all the original, unmolested Advance and New Design NAPCO trucks I have had hands on, and seen pictures of, I have never seen one that did not have the badges, or the holes where they were mounted, and I know of one truck in particular that is owned by a good friend that has been in the same town since new, and was upfitted by the previous owner, and all the history on that truck is known. It's a 1951 model that was upfitted in the fall of 1953 so that it could be taken into the back country to go deer hunting with the owner's son who was home on leave from his deployment to Korea during the war.