The Stovebolt Site Forums Project Journals Archived Journals 1953 Chevrolet Panel Truck 3100 - when I first saw the truck.

On a nice, sunny, warm Friday, near the end of August of this year, my wife and I went to take a look at this 1953 Chevy Panel Truck that she had found. The guy we talked to was selling it for another guy (his friend).

The guy told me that his friend's brother had bought the truck nine years ago and probably had it towed back. He had the intentions of restoring it but he was going to build a house first out on the farm property.

So while he started building his house, his health took a turn for the worse. He passed away and the truck sat along a dirt road by the woods on a private farm road.

The guy told me the truck sat like that for nine years. Then the brother of the guy who passed away told his friend to sell the truck for him. That's where I came in the picture.

Now I went with my wife and looked at it. It looked pretty ruff but it looked pretty much complete and wasn't hacked up anywhere.

The body needs a lot of work. Patch panels on the cowl (innner & outer), firewall panel, toeboard. Fenders need some new metal welded in. The body is really pretty darn straight !!

We made a deal with him and we came back the beginning of September. Again, on another nice, warm, sunny Friday and had it hauled back home to PA.

I worked hard getting stuff organized in my garage so that I could put it in there and work on it (for the next several years.) My wonderful wife bought me four dollies so that I could easily move the truck around inside the garage.

First thing I did on the truck was I took a brown Scotchbrite pad and went over half the truck. In about 30 minutes, I took off what I call fallout from the truck sitting along side that country farm road, at the side of the woods. That made it look a lot better.

I got some time to work on it a couple days this week and did some cleaning up and vacuuming inside the panel truck. Spraying a lot of things with Kroill. Took out all the cardboard panels and jute padding. I found some more rust above the wheel wells on both sides that will need new metal welded in. Guess I am going to be doing a lot of welding in my future -- after I get money saved up to buy patch panels.

These old panel trucks are really getting hard to find and especially around my area. They used to be so plentiful . So many businesses had these delivery trucks.

My Dad had a 1954 Chevrolet Panel Truck and I grew up as a little kid riding in that truck. So I have a lot of good memories about that truck. I have had several dreams of seeing this truck and in one dream I was actually driving it and I could feel myself shifting into all 3 gears (3 on the tree).

Now, finally, I have a Chevy Panel Truck !!! and A LOT of WORK to be done to bring it back to life and road worthy again. But that's all fun and pleasure.



Some good start to this adventure began in Garageguy's Welcome Centre post followed by even more in his post in Panels & Burbs forum.

Here are a few more pics. of the Truck.

Guy,

You HAVE done a good job with adding images! Some great shots there.

If I might ask: can you add a description (of sorts) to go with each image. That way, some of your write-up will be supported by the images you post.

Seems you got the hang of adding a title for the image but I think a description of what each image is would be very helpful.

Looking forward to seeing / reading more of this adventure!

Thanks,
Peg

Great story and start for your Project. You will become a welding expert after welding in those patches. As you said, that’s the fun part. Looking forward to your posts and I will be following your build!

Hello Garageguy6078,

Welcome to the Stovebolt and the Project Journal forum! Your '53 panel truck project' will be of great interest to our forum participants. I'm really looking forward to watching you bring it back to life. Be sure to ask your questions in the appropriate forum(s). There's a wealth of knowledge here on the SB. I see that you checked into the Welcome Center and introduced yourself, an excellent first step.

I'll send you a PM with some additional Project Journal information. You can just click on the flashing red envelope in the upper righthand corner to open it. Stovebolters love pictures..........

Once again, welcome. You're gonna love it here!

yesterday i removed my heater unit out of my 53 Panel Truck because it had to come out so sometime I can replace some of the firewall and floor. I need to disassemble it,clean it,replace anything needing replaced and then paint it,but thats for another day. Im focusing on replacing the floor in the foot area and part of the firewall . Next id like to remove the brush bar and bumper,then the front clip .then next month sometime ,pull the engine and transmission,then when funds arise I have alot of metal to cut out and replace and weld-in new. Here is some pics. of my Heater partially disassembled .

Yesterday I pulled the front bumper and Factory Brush Guard off of my 1953 Chevy Panel Truck. The big heavy brush guard would serve the purpose for what it was designed to do.but it looks so much better with it off. My plans down the road are to replace the grille with the Chrome 5 bar type grille ans Chrome Bumper. That will look really good. He is a pic. with the bumper and brushguard on,and a pic. with both removed.

Getting ready to remove the hood,grille,front fenders on my 1953 Chevy Panel truck. I cant remove them together as a clip because I dont have the room to store them that way. I will have to store them apart seperately as I prepare to remove the engine and transmission so I can replace the floor boards,firewall,inner and outer cowl pcs. and kick panels. Alot of new panels I will have to weld in. If I get half of that done by next spring I'll be happy. Takes money as you all know. Also have to replace that piece of metal inside above the windshield from left to right. The truck sat for 9 yrs. where I got it from and who knows how long before that ?? At one time someone had a Electrical business and had a ladder rack mounted on the top.So they took the ladder rack off many years ago and didnt plug the mounting holes up and Im betting that water came in every time it rained (for at least 9 yrs. +) and rusted out the metal panelabove the windshield (especially on the left side) and rusted out the floor boards and toe board, and kick panels. What a shame. But at least these pieces are all available.

Do you have a question?

Personally I would gut the inside of the cab and see how bad the rust is before removing the front clip.
There are rear cab inner and outer panels. If water migrated there, you may have internal rust especially around the rear window.
Weigh labor and parts cost towards doing a used cab swap.

Cab swap? Panel truck?

buoymaker, this is a Panel Truck. I can see what rust I have . front floor boards ate out, toe boards rusted,strip across the windshield inside the cab is rusted on the drivers side.inner and outer cowl will be replaced along with the floor boards and Im going to get the firewall panel and replace it also.And the piece inside the cab above the windshield I will replace. dash is good .someone had a ladder rack on this truck when they had their Electrical business and when they took it off and parked the truck they must of tried to cover over the holes with maybe some type of caulking and it wore off or didnt stick very long and water got down inside and I believe thats what caused the floor boards to rust out and the piece of metal along the top of the windshield inside the truck to rust out also. I have to replace the kick panel area metal also. Ive got alot of welding and replacing panels in my near future,but I love what im working on and that makes all the difference. I will be posting pics. along the way of these areas.

Enjoying My Christmas Present !!

Now that is an awesome Christmas present!

Enjoy and Happy Holidays

You need to park that outside so everyone else can enjoy you present too! LOL

Phil,

Some people have all the luck! Merry Christmas!

Darn, I though the present was going to be boxes and boxes of patch panels.
And a suburban load of expert AD panel stovebolters in coveralls ready to go at it, and ruin your restoration fun and get it done.

I'd put the brush guard back on when you're finished because it's cool looking and nobody else has one.

Just catching up with some pics. I had taken of my 1953 Chevy Panel Truck 3100 . These where from November-December of 2022. I had taken a brown scotchbrite pad and went over the whole truck then in a little over an hour and just knocked off the fallout that was all over the truck from sitting out in the country. what a difference in just a small amount of time.

I love the lettering on the panel and doors, do you have plans to preserve that?

Here are a few from last week. I removed the hood first, then the front clip, (fenders,grille etc.) as a unit. next i will be pulling the original 216 6 cyl. motor and transmission so that I can get to places that I need to weld new panels in. Fun,fun,fun .

After I finish all the bodywork and paint, i will have someone handpaint My Grandpaps old Lumber Business on the sides,then my Dad and my Uncles old business on both doors.I will feel like im Honoring all of them and their business that I was too young then too be a part of. All of them have been gone for many years now, and I dream and think of how cool it would of been to work at my Grandpaps Lumberyard then,when he used to get lumber by railroad car and take the company lumber truck down to the depot and hand unload the railroad car and take back to the Lumberyard and stack it. And also would have loved to work at my Dads and Uncle business (Carpenters,General Contractors) with them. I was just born too late then to have enjoyed working in those Family Business's that I often dream about and always think about. I keep pictures of both in my Garage on the wall where I can look at them every day .

I'm with Bouymaker, the cabs on AD panels are the same as the other trucks from the doors forward. If you can find a decent cab from a pickup or a big truck you might be able to do some transplanting. There are stripped out cabs in some of the wrecking yards in this area, maybe there are some in your area too.
I'm in the desert though, surface rust but not much rust out.