The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk my 49 chevy truck

I recently purchased a 1949 chevy off ebay it came out of the manhattan store of old navy inside the glovebox it says the motor was a 501 and it had 2 rear axles, so I know the cab is off a large truck I don't think this will cuase any problem making it into a pickup will it? pretty hard to find a rust free 5 window up here so I was glad to get it, also I bought a frame several months ago and it was well redone, but is there somewhere that deal with brakes for that? it already has new springs and rod ends and king pins, but i need pads and brake cylendars. I'm sure I'll think of more ?'s.

Thanks

Dan
I'll work on gettin some pics up in a few minutes.

heres a site where some of the pictures are,
http://www.freewebs.com/my49chevy/
thanks


dan

You sure it is a 49? That bed is not off a 49, and neither are the doors, due to the vent windows.

The bed looks like it is off of a 1954, flat bed top rails. Pretty truck

Hes correct. The bed is from a 54-55 1st series and thats not a 49 cab. Its missing the side vent on the cab and the doors have vent windows! Either way Good Luck with your project. Hope you have as much of a blast with yours as i have had with mine!

the vents are there on the cab,but it is covered in advertising tape soo thick you cant see them, I'll take another picture after I get the tape off, the bed you all would know better than me, what are the difference from the bed i have to a 49-50 bed?

Thanks
Dan

Not the vents on the passenger side. The cowl vent on the drivers side!

Dan,
if I understand it, Old navy has a yard where they collect these trucks before they ruin them? That is very interesting.

Dan,

Here is a diagram of the sides of the 1954/55-1st bed and the 1953 bed. I think the 47-53 beds looked the same.

Tim

I agree that you have a 54/55-1st bed. The 47-53 beds "looked" the same but they did have different number of "bed planks". See if you can find the plate on the driver's side , hinge side of door jamb. It will have some numbers stamped in it. This will tell you what cab you have. The doors are NOT 1949 unless someone went to a WHOLE lot of work to convert them to vent windows. If your truck is rust free, you are way ahead of the game. Your truck is NICE, regardless of what year(s) it is.

The easiest way I've found to tell if it's a '49 cab is to look at the gas tank and fire wall. If the tank is behind the seat and the panels in the fire wall are smooth, it's a '49. '50 to '53s had strength ridges stamped into the panels on the firewall.

well the gas tank is and always was behind the seat, if you look carefully at the pass. side you can see the vents in the tape ahead of the door, the tape covers them pretty bad on the drivers side. the door may well have been changed, the cad is off of a truck with a 501 I cant say I expect it to be original, but if it miss matchs but I have doors that are so good that this guy was the first time it was in the rain in 15 years and the doors filled up with water, you know there is no rust and the fire wall was smoothe, but it had alot of hole, I'm guessing for the air brakes.

Thanks
Dan

The louvered vents in the passenger side are for the heater inlet. I think all years have them. There should be a vertical door-type vent on the driver's side that opens with a lever. When they put in vent windows in 1951 the eliminated that vent. Doesn't matter what year you have as long as it looks good enough to you then it is good enough. Enjoy it.
Bill

Yep,54 bed,doors are 1951.What are the switches above the radio blank for ? I have looked at some of the old navy trucks and they are pieced together.I saw one, the whole floor pan was rotted out and the doors would bairly open.It had a beautiful chrome grille in it.

Reminds me of that Johnny Cash song, one piece at a time, where he worked at a cadillac assy plant and brought parts home in his lunch box every day until he had enough parts to build a whole car! The steering wheel is also 54. That's a good looking truck though, especially since it came from Old Navy. What kind of restoration kit should he get from Chevrolet?

Dan, post some more pictures and take one of the hood emblem. Post the VIN # when you find it and we'll be able to tell exactly what year and model it is.

thats why i bought it it had all the buitiful chrome, maybe this weekend I can pull the stickers off and you can see better, the cab is a gmc, i was looking in my chevy duty catalog and the nubers seemed different, di the chevy and gmcs use diferent number paterns?


Thanks
Dan

thats why i bought it it had all the buitiful chrome, maybe this weekend I can pull the stickers off and you can see better, the cab is a gmc, i was looking in my chevy duty catalog and the nubers seemed different, di the chevy and gmcs use diferent number paterns?


Thanks
Dan

I'm not sure if those knobs are even connected, I also notice it has a vacuum guage pickups didn't have that did they?