Thanks for the research and the quick response.
Sorry, I should have posed my question a little more directly, without all of the unecessary description.
What I was trying to find out is: was it unheard of in the late 50's for Chevrolet dealer's service departments to upgrade from the six cly. to the v-8 if they didn't have such an equipped model in stock, and the factory couldn't deliver an equipped model within a reasonable amount of time?
And also why is the 283 in my apache painted grey, when everyone I have talked to said the v-8s were all orange? My 1958 chevrolet truck manual says they offered two 283s that year, the trademaster and the taskmaster. The taskmaster had a 6 quart oil pan, and 8.0:1 compression, while the trademaster had a 5 quart oil pan, and 8.5:1 compression. Could it be that the taskmaster was the only engine painted grey?
My theory is that an impatient farmer or rancher wanted a truck with the taskmaster option, but all the dealer may have had on hand were models with the thriftmaster 6.(which there is no doubt in my mind that's what my truck was built as) So maybe they put a taskmaster in for him and sent him on his way. Which would explain why a 6cylinder truck would have a grey v-8 283. Either that, or the engine was pulled out of a wrecked truck as well as the parts on the truck particular to the V-8s. Well it's an interesting theory, but I don't know if there's anyone still around these days who would remember how things operated back then.
Most of the conversions I've seen around south Texas are real butcher jobs and not set up just like from the factory. That is what has had me curious about it all this time
