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Apr 26th, 2026 | | AD Chevy Trucks  Over 6,000 pictures Brad Allen has an awesome collection of Chevrolet factory pictures that he has set up from film strips. Check them out!
Lots of work on Brad's part ... pure enjoyment (and references) for you!
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For helping keep this great
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on the Internet for over 30 years! and not clogged down
with Ads!  Again, thanks!
| | | | Joined: Jun 2006 Posts: 4 Apprentice | | Apprentice Joined: Jun 2006 Posts: 4 | I'm Dave Garcia, Californian, native to the central coast,Monterey Bay north side east of Santa Cruz,very rural and loving it. A few years ago , while visiting a friend, lighting hit the big redwood tree in his nieghbors yard and dropped 100 feet of tree into his yard. It broke the corner of his house,glanced off of another friends pick up and slammed my 74 chevy van, insurance claims for the van where rejected..."act of God". 2 months later at a local lumber yard , a fellow woodworker was teasing me,"What'd you hit"? I told my story and wondered out loud, not for the first time, "I gotta find another van". Thats when Jim says that hes got a 53 Chevy Panel in his garage and I should come have a look.It's been sitting for 12 years,stripped down and painted(badly painted)and Jim has lost interest in it,I can have it for $2500, it runs but it needs to be assembled. Although it appears that all the parts are there,well most of you know what I found out, if it is apart, it's not all there. Swap meets, E-bay,word of mouth and the stovebolt page,I have enjoyed even the frustrating bits and would probably do it again. Not that I'm finnished yet, is there such a thing as finnished?
Last edited by Peggy M; 05/09/2025 10:01 PM.
| | | | | Joined: Mar 2007 Posts: 4,215 Moderator | | Moderator Joined: Mar 2007 Posts: 4,215 | Hey Dave, sometimes I, too, wonder if they're ever finished. Yours looks like it's coming along nicely, similar stage as mine. Good luck.
Leo | | | | | Joined: Dec 2001 Posts: 14,522 Moderator: Welcome Centre, Southern Bolters, Legion Hall | | Moderator: Welcome Centre, Southern Bolters, Legion Hall Joined: Dec 2001 Posts: 14,522 | Panel boy, it looks like your coming along real nice. And thats a nice story. You just never know where these things are hid.
Good luck and keep us posted. (got any extra rear door latch parts?) | | | | | Joined: Mar 2008 Posts: 3,750 'Bolter | | 'Bolter Joined: Mar 2008 Posts: 3,750 | Dave,that's a pretty solid looking panel you got there.
Thankfully no-one was hurt when the tree came down.
If that didn't happen would you ever have found the panel?
I'm a firm believer in Karma,OK so you lost your '74,but look at what you ended up with!
Pity you couldn't have sold the lumber to recoup some of your losses....
1950 Chevy Advance Design 3100 in ScotlandIn the Stovebolt GalleryMore pix on Flickr. I've definately got this truck thing in my blood ... my DNA sequence has torque settings"Of all the small nations of this earth,perhaps only the ancient Greeks surpass the Scots in their contribution to mankind" Winston Churchill.
| | | | | Joined: Jun 2006 Posts: 4 Apprentice | | Apprentice Joined: Jun 2006 Posts: 4 | right jockbolter, the panel would likely still be in Jim's garage. as many times as I've been to his place , how is it that I never noticed it? The friend who has let me bring it to his place to work on has a 51-3/4 ton panel and a 50(?)GMC dump truck , I was thinking of talking him out of the 51 about the same time Jim offered his. you never know how the gods will behave. | | | | | | ZooKeeper Unregistered | | ZooKeeper Unregistered | Only 2 years?????
darn you're fast.
Mines been in the works for almost 15yrs now...Joe | | |
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