Back in November- I made a sight unseen deal with a guy at work to buy his '53 Chevy 3100 truck thats been sitting for the last 13 years. $500. The catch? it was ~400 miles away.
My wifes always wanted one of these- so it was a no brainer. Last weekend after planning and plotting all all winter- A friend, my son & I ran down to Bend, Or. 6hr down... 8hr back loaded up.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v.../2014-03-23_14-50-24_HDR_zpsfb392409.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v.../IMG_20140323_145011_580_zpsdcf17b1c.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v.../IMG_20140323_122823_723_zps5e754d55.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v.../IMG_20140323_122754_020_zpsc6f1f83c.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v661/benstheman1/1953Chev3100/2013111595152854_zpsc1cae167.jpg'53 3100
NOM 235 (unknown year)
4spd (granny 1st)
Like i said- it has been sitting for the last 13 years- all 4 tires (which were new) now flat- interior hadn't been opened until his son opened it to take the pics at the bottom. It was running and driving until the brake line developed a rust hole, shortly after that he moved up here to seattle and its sat.
Has a brand new desert cooler radiator, new/restored heater core/fan, converted to 12volts, came with extra running boards, corner glass, and other misc goodies.
When he bought it 25 years ago, it didn't run, original 216 head had cracked. He located a rebuilt 235 six and dropped it in, and drove it regularly.
Its definitely rough, but for our plans it will be fine. Luckily, Bend Oregon is kinda desert country- so hot dry summers, and covered in snow for the winter- so doesn't look like the truck suffered much, even for sittin on dirt.frame is solid- cab and panels have typical rust in front half of floors, cab corners and bottom of the doors- but the rest looks pretty solid.
Plans are to get it running again- clean gas tank, lines, rebuild carb, etc... then all new brake lines-rebuild stock brakes if needed & suspension to make it reasonably safe. We'll be Keeping the outside ugly- though i will do some partial panel replacements to fix some rust out. Replace the bed wood- and make the interior look nice (actually already cleaned it up, and it looks great!
I have a side/hobby business restoring seats for vintage cars (mainly 60's & 70's muscle cars- though i've done a few 50's cars & trucks too), and I'm hoping to be able to "borrow" this from my wife to take to swapmeets with me to have in my booth... put a little magnetic sign on the door and display some seats in the back sorta thing.
Anyway- as i try to get it cleaned up and going again, I'm sure I'll be asking the usual gambit of noob questions.
First one is about registering it. I immediately noticed the VIN on the registration doesn't match the vin on the body. Did some searching and apparently this is common on these- and they used the Engine block number. We didn't bring home the original 216, left it in his storage unit in bend... I ran the codes from the registration and it came up as a '53 216- so i'm sure its totally legit... But what do people do if you change states and no longer have that original engine in the car?
We likely have a little title dace to do as the truck is in his & his ex wifes name- and he can't find the title... Hoping i won't also have to deal with the number not matching whats on the truck too...
anyway, we'll deal with that when we get there.
:-)
Ben
