"It's beautiful, pre-war history and heritage, solid, simple, I can haul stuff."
After about two years of searching (and a few near misses on eBay), I finally got my dream truck: a 1940 Chevy 1/2-ton.
Performing my usual Sunday morning search on Craigslist, there it was "my working but not too well to be expensive" find. Being located just 30 miles from my home in Portland, Oregon, I was in the car 10 minutes later.
Things started out with excitement from the beginning - she ran out of gas on my test drive as we had to push it along for about a quarter mile. It was actually perfect, running out of gas on a beautiful fall day, a gravel farm road, an "iconic moment" that actually gave me some time with the truck while the former owner went to fetch gas.
From what I can tell the truck had spent its first 70 years in southern Washington State as a farm truck. Although it had some body work and a recent "quickie" paint job, the body is quite solid and it seems to have most all its originally intended parts.
The last owner updated to 12 volts and a 235. Other that that it's all stock and needs some loving care. Following the wise advice from others, the brakes will be the first order of business. (I used a Bolter's tip about the garage door pulleys to get the emergency brakes back on line!)
I plan to go the "rebuild" route and use it as a daily driver around town. (Never having driven an old truck before that seems like a great thing to do but we'll see). At the top of the list are: brakes, wipers, windshield gasket, cleaning up the wiring, tuning up the front suspension, refurbishing the dash gauges, etc. etc. I'll be sure to leverage all the Stovebolt help I can get.
And the "why" -- I'm still trying to figure that out. It's beautiful, pre-war history and heritage, solid, simple, I can haul stuff. Every where I go people tell me stories and share their memories...
Stovebolters -- thanks for the inspiration and information!
Doug Cooke "truckin39" Portland, Oregon
Edit June 2023: More pix in the link in Doug's signature line. Definitely worth the look-see. Also, the Dream Truck made it into the Classic Gallery back in February 2010. Good job.
Doug, old Chev trucks is as American as you can get. Take good care of it and it will take care of you. Just let us know how we can help. Congrats on a good find. How sweet it is when you get one you can drive from the beginning.
Oh, did I say Welcome!... and be sure to post a link to some pics when you can.
Terriffic to see another prewar pickup in the group.
I love the red and black , and the 15" artillery wheels.
I have done the bendix upgrade , but only because I have a '56 pickup diff in the '40. (the original was left outside for 10yrs and was just a ball of rust).
Hi Doug, great clean truck!! It funny to have that kind of story in this days, just 60 years earlier. Did you have a positive change with the Shroud pattern installed? I'm curious if I can do the same. Thanks and welcome, Alfonso
The shroud... works but did not provide any significant cooling advantages. I now have the adapter plate to move the water pump up 4" and hope tp get it on the the next month.
I'm also going to have the radiator thoroughly checked out.
Once I get things running again I'll be sure to post the results.
Doug, Saw that you said the shroud didn't really help w/ cooling; How did you finally fix the overheating?
I've got a 37 Chevy 1/2 ton pickup with a 307 Chevy engine that overheats at idle and slow speeds (cools down just fine to 180 above 15 MPH). Was all set to go with a shroud (vs adding small electric fans) till I saw your post. Any advice? Thanks, Mike
Woah - I think I am a little late in getting your message (10 years)! By now I'll assume you get your overheating problem fixed.
To fix mine I initially had a shop take a look at it to discover the timing wad way off and there was not enough airflow through the radiator (since the 1953 235 sits a lot lower on the radiator). The shop adjusted the timing, made a spacer to get the fan closer to the radiator and put on a 6 blade flex fan. The overheating problem was better but not gone. Still I could get around except on hot days.
Then one day going to a car meet up here in Portland, I hit a bump and the flex fan "flexed" and chewed through the radiator.:-(. At this point I had to get a new radiator but I also got a water pump adaptor plate to move it up a few inches and went back to the original 4 blade fan. Now the problem is all but cured. I'm thinking i may try to make a shroud one day when there's time to eliminate the problem once and for all - but first I have a front end suspension rebuild to tighten everything up, hooking up the heater wires, getting my wipers working again....
