The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Art Deco Info Needed

I know I've seen a picture here or ? of an Art Deco (1941 I believe) with a wooden factory bed.

Just so we're clear... I'm not talking about the regular steel bed with a wooden floor.

Anyone know where I can find any pictures and information of this rare breed?

A buddy of mine has one, but not knowing what he has, he's talking about ripping it apart and putting a flatbed on it.

I need any information etc. that I can find to convince him that it was truly a factory truck and that it is indeed the rare bird I'm telling him it is.

Thanks in advance for anything you might be able to share.

I believe the truck you are refering to is Rob English's GMC Huckster.

http://www.stovebolt.com/gallery/english_rob_1951_01.htm
http://www.skywaytools.com/truck13.html

I remember seeing a 194something with a wooden box, too, Jed.

I don't think it belonged to a 'bolter, though.

I'll do a search and see if I can find the thread.

ETA: Can't find it. Sorry.

Bigbadswingdaddy, Thanks, but that aint what I'm looking for. It is an interesting truck, but I've never seen that one.

Brendan, I thought for sure I'd seen those pictures either in a post, or in the gallery here on the SBP. Although, I remember it's been quite a while.

I haven't been able to find anything on the 41 wooden bed trucks on any of my attempts of an internet search. BUT...

I know someone's gotta know what I'm talking about and or be able to locate some information on em.

I'll continue to hope that the proper person sees the post.

Thanks for the help guys.

Jed, could you please take some photos of your friends truck. I have a 1940 gmc and was thinking about doing the bed like Rob's. It would be interesting to see what that bed looks like on a deco truck. Good Luck, sorry I couldn't help.

John

John,

I'd gladly do that, but he's got very little of it left. Thus, the search for pictures and/or information on the truck itself.

Since he's never heard of such a thing, he's thinking he's got some home-made POS and just wants to slap a flat bed on it.

I want to convince him to restore it back as it came, and save a valuable and rare piece of history.

It actually could ba a homemade pos. Many of the trucks of this era were sold without beds, so the customer could put one on that better suited his needs. Anyway, sounds like a real cool truck.
Start by getting a restoration kit from Chevy. I got mine in about a week. My kit had a sketch of all the models, some of them were simply just a chassis and the front sheet metal as other bodies were mated to them to turn them into ambulances, armored vehicles, and other speacialized vehicles.

definitely homemade, no "restoration" involved - aside from the "cab and chassis" model daddy mentions, it was pretty common for a real workin farm truck to have the bed so thrashed from use that it was replaced w/ whatever - a previous owner just got creative - like like our friend Dusty

Bill

I have a 46 Canadian Model with the original wooden bed. I haven't started working on it yet as I'm working on the cab and drivetrain but if you wish I can send you a few pictures. It's in pretty rough shape and when the wood rotted out whomever had it put a layer of plywood over it so I removed it down to the origina wood.
Bob T

Bobt,

I would appreciate any pics you could send. My e-mail address is [email protected].

Red58, Not trying to be argumentative here, but the wooden beds were really a factory produced item and I believe are VERY rare.

This is the only one I've seen firsthand, but I know there have been pics here in the past of someone else that had one.

I do appreciate the help.

I really don't think that they were from the "factory" if what you mean by "factory" if GM. I checked both the 1941 and 1946 Chevrolet Truck Data Books - for Chevrolet Salesmen and there are no flat beds in there with the exception of the biger trucks. I get the impression you are talking here about a 1/2 ton. There were 3/4 ton (3600 Model Group) flat bed and stake trucks. I still believe that the flat bed trucks the wood was added after the factory.

Here are three pages that I scanned into a .pdf that show one of the many options how the trucks could be purchased for various after market box/beds/etc... adobe scanned page of body option

photo of one with a wood box


This is the best photo I have of a stake bed truck which is on page two of the adobe .pdf document. stake truck

And finally a photo of the Model 3609 with what looks like the back 1/2 removed. This is the best i could come up with. I thought I had a more recent photo of one of these but I can't locate it.

Model 3609

Tim,

The link of the photo of one with the wood box is the closest, if not the same thing I'm talking about.

http://www.sheridanzone.com/images/46chevy/stoveboltposts/woodbox.jpeg

I've been known to make mistakes, but I felt certain that there was previously a post here on the bolt that described these as a limited production stock bed for the 1/2 ton that was neither, a flatbed or steel sided standard pick up bed.

I've been known to make mistakes too, Eric, but I'm bettin, without being argumentative as well, you'll never find any documentation of any such thing - the one Tim links is just like the one Dusty built .... homemade, patterned on old style horse drawn freight buggys

and I'd bet there were quite a few similar built by farmers on 3/4 and 1T pu's back in the day for carrying grain to the bins, farmers who couldn't afford a 1.5/2T flatdeck to do the job

Bill

I really like the looks of the wood box. It is different and if done right can really draw some attention to it. Keep trying to encourage him to keep it original!

Thanks for the help guys. I guess the quest continues.

Sure wish I could find where the original post I saw on these trucks was...

At any rate, I'm going to press on, and continue my efforts to persuade my buddy to replace the wood rather than slapping a flat bed on it.