The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk Original Truck Owners ????

Hi Guy's,
I have recently bought an imported 1952' 3/4 ton truck here in the UK. I was just wondering if anyone might know of any help i may be able to get to trace the original or past owners of the truck over in the states. i s there a website? or something similar?

just a general enquiry this one, but is always good to have a bit of history with your vehicle to see what sort of life it has had.
Any help would be great.
Many thanks
regards
Tim ( UK )

I highly doubt that any state's dmv has records over 20 years old, let alone 50 plus years.

I would like to be able to trace the history of my truck but I believe that is an impossibility. Check your serial number to trace where it was manufactured and when. I wonder if GM has old records of where these vehicles were transported to after mfg. A good detective might be able to scope it out for you. GM offers a packet for people who are interested. Someone here can give you details on how to get one.
Good luck Tim. Let us know if you root any information out.

I am in Mississippi and when I went to get a tag for my 52' 3100 the records only went back 10 years on vehicles that tags were not updated. The records were pulled from before that for a price from archives and histories. That only went back to when the truck was sold through a dealer and titled in the early 70's. Any info before that is lost to history. I was also required appear in person to get that info from the county court house. So what I am saying is that the best you are going to get is. It was owned by and American farmer, it hauled hay, took cows to the stock yard, pulled things out of the creek, hauled a john boat and a dog, spent Fridays and Saturday nights at some juke joint or dinner and went to church most Sundays. Their is also a good chance the previous owners did it on the seat at a drive-in picture show. Enjoy the truck.
Neil

Like many other old Bolts, mine was a farm truck. In Illinois, trucks were required to have the owners name painted on the sides, quite often on the bedside right behind the cab. I was able to carefully sand down the layers of paint to uncover the name of the original owner, and then used the Internet to see if I could find him, which I did. We ended up having a nice long conversation, and found out a lot my truck's history. It was very interesting! He and his wife were very surprised and excited to hear that their old truck was still around! I am the fourth owner of it, and have owned it since 1976.
Samantha

Tim, wash the seat!

Mine was also a farm truck bought in Victoria BC by a farmer living on Saltspring Island. For some reason he did not register it that year (1949) but did so in 1950. Consequently the license office lists it as a 1950. I met the farmer's daughter (sounds like a joke doesn't it) who remembers sitting on the porch of the house watching her dad drive up in it when he brought it home.

My Dad bought mine in the early 70s and owned it until he died. I'm not sure where he got it from.

From the info I got from trhe previous owner,and I found him to be a real liar,about the condition of the truck.It was originally a farm truck in Colorado.The second owner bought it in about 1990 and supposidly had it restored and painted. It is a 1955 2nd series.He then sold it to another guy in NM who took out the original boat anchor 6 and installed a 350 V/8 along with a M22 four speed trans.He then sold it to a dealer where it sat outside for about a year and a half,which pretty much downgraded the cherry wood in the bed. The guy I bought it from brought it back to Colorado,and I guess just took it to a few shows.He never updated anything on the truck. I bought it from him thru EBay in 2002.I took the frontend off,(fenders,hood,gerill,etc. Pulled out the engine and trans.Traded the four speed for a 700R4 trans.and installed a TCI M2 frontend complete with power R&P steering.Later on I replaced the rear suspension with a kit from TCI consisting of new 5 leaf springs ,new shocks,shock mounts,etc.,and flipped the rear so it is now above the springs.I took the bed apart and planed and refinished the cherry boards in the bed floor.I have been taking it to cruisins and shows since 2003.I have updated the ignition to HEI,and it is pretty much a show truck,not used for daily use.I do however haul a couple of lawn chairs in it to the cruisins.I am still running the original 3:90 rearend which works out very nice behind the 700R4 trans.She jumps out very good with that wicked low gear and gets 20 MPG all day long.By the way the 700R4 has been rebuilt for a racing trans,its not your everyday stock 700R4.

Tim,
You may want to start here with a GM Restoration kit.Just follow the instructions.

http://www.stovebolt.com/techtips/GMRestoPak.htm

My 50' 3600 came from the original family who purchased it new. It came with a title issued in 1953 when the grandfather paid the note off at the bank. It had lead a hard life since he owned a small silver mine and used it to haul ore to a tipple. The under bed supports were replaced with mine timbers. It was last licensed in 1966 and had not been on anything but local roads until the 1980's when it finally quit and sat out by the barn. I came along in 2006 and for $500 she was all mine. 216 had frozen and had a crack the entire length of the block on the DS. I intend to drive it out to their place in the spring to show them my restoration.

Tim, I hope we haven't high-jacked your thread. As others have indicated it can be very hard to trace previous or original owners. Due to the variety of title/license/registration laws in the different states sometimes the trail goes cold 10-20 years back. Original paperwork/documentation is best. As for my 50 3600 it came with an Illinois title dated 1974. The address is a town about 45 miles from me. (I actually bought it from a different person in another town about 75 miles from me.) There is a different name and town painted on the doors, that town only about 30 miles from me. I have not tried to investigate it.

Hey thanks to everyone that replied my post. Very interesting response from you all, some very amusing too!!!!!!!. As for the restoration kit, i think that's a great way to make a start, many thanks i will give it a go.

Regards
Tim (UK)

Hey . no worries, you haven't hi-jacked my thread, if anything it's turned out quite interesting.
Tim

The resto kit is a good start.. but only shows the birth-rights of the truck. The 50+ years of living is very difficult to capture. For my truck I recorded the tall tails of the previous owners. Luckily I was able to trace most of them down. (we all love to talk about our old trucks)

I have a 55.2 CA truck drom the orig owner who bought it in San Diego. It was the 19th truck off the line at the Los Angeles plant in '55. When the 'old guy passed, I got it from the grand son who did'nt drive it. It was used to get the mail and plow snow in the winter in Northern CA up around Redding.
dg

I had a 1955 210 back in the day. Based on the serial numbers it was the 14th car built by GM. According to a former engineer who worked for GM back then, the first car off the line was hand built and donated to the president of GM. It would be pretty much junk and he donated it to the Smithsonian Museum. The first 20+ cars are hand built because nothing fit and they had to "tweek" the parts to get a proper fit. By the time the 10/11th was built they were fitting very well. I remember my 55 never had a rattle and I figured it was because of the hand built deal.
Good luck with your 55.