The first thing my dad gave me to drive when I got my license was a '47 3100 pickup. I loved that truck, but he sold it within 6 months and bought a '62 Chevy II SW so I could haul the kids around. As an adult I have restored several older vehicles but never an AD truck.
About a year ago I bought a 1947 Chevy panel that is a one ton dually. Chevrolet didn't make dually panels, so best guess is that it was done by a coach builder. My dad says there were dually panels running around back then and you could buy the kit for the rear of his '49 for around $100.00. He said a lot of guys didn't bother doing the front conversion, so the wheels were often different on the front.
Mine has the dually extensions on the front hubs, and the running boards have been cut and widened behind the doors. The whole thing is so well done that I'm thinking it was probably done professionally.
A couple other interesting features is that the rear door glass has been replaced with louvered sheet metal, there are vents added to the roof, there are holes in the floor, one up near the gas tank, about the correct size for a fuel line, and a couple near the back roughly the size of a baseball. The original color of the truck appears to be orange. I'm guessing that a D.O.T. or construction outfit used this to haul a big gas powered generator or air compressor around. I think they fed it right from the gas tank and ran the cables/hoses out the holes in the rear of the floor.
I bought it with the intent of transplanting all the good stuff from my '89 Suburban. I love my Suburban, but the rust is going to kill it. I was initially looking for a pickup, then decided a panel would be more fun. When I ran across this one, it just started talking to me. Now I'm thinking I need to keep it a dually, so the 350 in the Suburban is probably too small. For now I'm just gathering information and working on the show stoppers.
There are plenty of cobbled up problems on it, but it runs and I have rebuilt the brakes, so it stops. I plan to rebuild it with current technology, but AD Stovebolt looks and make it our main hauler for long trips.
