The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk NAVY OWNED, 1957 chevy short bed stepside truck

Hello, I am new here so I am not sure I am doing this right, sooo here goes, I am a mother of 1 son, I am 63, my son is 40, he has always wanted to fix up a nice truck to drive, one day he saw a red truck for sale, it was a 1957 chevy, so he saved money and bought this truck, he drove it to some car shows and after about 8 years he decieded to start to fix it up better, while doing some work he dicovered a brass plaque in the door jam,it was owned by the navy, maybe to load ships on the docks , we are not sure, we did find out it was manufactured in NORWOOD, OH. we would like to find out what navy and where it was, any ideas would be helpful. thanks and GOD BLESS

margie,
Welcome to the stovebolt. To help identify your truck it would be nice to know what the brass plaque in the door jam has written on it. Perhaps some veteran Stovebolters here would have knowledge of such stuff.
You say you have found that it was made in Norwood but the entire serial number may give more info.

In many cases like this we have to do what I call "the journey upstream" meaning finding the owner before your son bought the truck and then on "back" upstream until someone sheds some light.
Another clue could be the color...or the color underneath what you see. Many times a "military" vehicle will be of one color which is usually detectable under the hood, on door jams, under the bed, and even by the serial number and trim codes. If your son is mechanically inclined I believe on that year model there may be a number on the chassic??? So many questions. Be patient and don't give up.

There are several Stovebolters in Indiana so perhaps someone here will see your post and maybe come take a look.....

Not everyone stops in here at the WELCOME Centre so I will move this post to the General Truck forum to see if the guys there can shed some light on this.

Cletis, the moderator in General Truck forum, may see different and move it to the Greasy Spoon forum??..... Either way good luck on finding out the info you need.

This is interesting. I will be following this myself.

Sounds like a good question for here.

I highly doubt that there is anything on the brass plate that will ID where the truck served.

I've had a couple of TF Air Force trucks, still blue with the yellow stenciling on them. Both had full flow oil filters on them that had the steel canister with the cartridge type filter and were mounted low on the left rear area of the block. Also heavy duty air filters that crossed over the valve cover and had the oil bath hanging down from the underside. These came from Carswell AFB and I have no idea whether all were like this or if they were equipped by a local vender to the military. There wasn't any tags as I recall, just stenciled numbers on the firewall and doors so your's may have been made for some other country.

I have 2 old vehicles that once were owned by the military. The military can't keep up with the inventory they have now, much less what was probably sold 40 or 50 years ago. Before Kelly AFB closed down, I used to buy stuff there. Buyers were instructed ro remove any military identification tags. I doubt that many buyers actually did this.

.....I just remembered the '47 Plymouth I had. It was green on the firewall and had been painted blue everywhere else. I sent the "numbers" to Old Cars Weekly for some info and if I can find that paper I'd list what they said although it was 10 years before the truck in question was even made.

I hope "margie" gets back to us with more info.

hello, its margie, well I have been on the NAVY sites and not much luck, I called a navy recruter near my home town, he put me onto another navy petty officer who might try and help me. (I sure hope I'm doing this right) I'm still not sure how to work this computer. the plaque is: 3 1/2" by 6" at the top stamped are the words NAVY DEPARTMENT UNDER under it is the words truck-cargo 1/2 ton 4x2, then model # and some serial #, the one guy told me the long # is s n s, for ordering parts for the truck. then it tells about weight and height and width, length, and warranty, then manufactured by chevrolet division, this is a very heavy brass plaque, not something you can bend with your hand, I hope people are seeing my messages, I am kinda computer illiterate, and dont really understand this site..sorry, I appreciate all your help to me, and the kindness to me to help my son, it is very important , more than you know. love to you all and GOD BLESS

hello, its me margie, forgot to tell you, tried to find the guy who owned the truck befor my son , his name is tom sawyer, can not find him either.
thanks again

Just a guess, if this truck was registered more that once or twice you might try a carfax report, may come up with something that way. Your truck may have even come from the Great Lakes Naval training Center, I think that may be the closest facility in your area, of course could be from most anywhere if it was driven or towed. Hope this helps.

Besides all that Margie Welcome to the Bolt U will find lots of nice people here.