Virgin Iron '48 Chevy 1 Ton

[moronthethrottle]

I'm another new guy wanting some opinions on which way to go with this '48 Chevy 1 Ton. It was a freebie gift from my wife's Grandpa who used to be a mechanic. Since I was a racer, he wanted me to have it because in his words, "he gets it". Grandpa is a man of few words. Cool though-being Dutch I'll never turn down anything free! I'd like to keep it as original as possible, drive it as much as possible, but yet be able to turn heads.

If you're like me, the story behind the vehicle is a big part of what makes the vehicle unique. This truck has spent the first 60 years of it's life as a farm truck-certainly not babied! She has her dings and wrinkles, but amazingly is relatively rust free for an Iowan truck. The coolest thing I found about this truck was when we were cleaning out Grandpa's house before renovating it and moving in, was a 1934 Chevy truck sales brochure that had one page full of Grandpa's notes for every time he replaced the engine, re-ringed an engine, including clearances, specs, etc. I'll have to add on to the page the specs for the 350 that will be replacing the straight six in it now. Anyway, here are some pix that were taken in the low light of the machine shed. Sorry they're not very good, I'll post new ones this summer when the snow melts and I can get the barn doors open.
48FRNT00.jpg

48SIDE00.jpg

[Sam_Fear]

That thing is beautiful! KEEP THE LONG BOX!!!! Everybody always wants the short bed step side. Here's the rest of my .02$: Clean it up, leave the body as is, baby moons on the front (looks like a HD axle in the back) and deep tread snow/mud tires on the rear with wide white walls all around. Maybe ditch the west coast mirrors for some little rounds and update the wiring. Done.

Short beds look good high, but long beds look great low so I'd think about dropped to the weeds too.

Oh yeah...welcome to here. There is another NW Iowa guy or two on here also.

[wrecker55]

nice truck, like Sam says, leave it long and get her on the road

[moronthethrottle]

[QUOTE=Sam_Fear;78442]That thing is beautiful! KEEP THE LONG BOX!!!!

Oh yes...the long box will DEFINITELY stay! The first thing many of my buddies wanted my to do was put on a flat bed. What for? They're useless to me and the box is what makes it so unique. I have a set of aluminum finned type rims for it, but they are 16.5" and I am having some troubles finding the right tires to match the time era look that I'm thinking of...any suggestions? I like your other ideas though, and have always been partial to baby moons. Yes, it is a HD rear end.

[Gearhead10]

Welcome to the site goofball, yes I know this guy very well. I've even gotten to drive this truck, she's very solid. Old trucks like this are cool and you can do anything to em and they look good. The v-8 will definately help give it a hotrod sort of feel when you stand on the gas .

[BruceR&C]

Truck looks in real good shape to start with. The long box must stay. Not many of them done good. For ideas you can check out the thread in my signature. Momma's is a 1/2 ton, tho.

[Thunder1]

Great looking truck! Lots of history behind it too. Thats cool! If it were mine I think I would definitely bag it front and rear and aside from the 350 I'd leave it stock in appearance otherwise. It's a great candidate for that seeing that it's so long. The original patina is perfect! I'd leave that alone too.

Thunder1

[FlatBroke]

Welcome to here.....

I would say update the running gear and wireing harness and leave it alone.



Love these older trucks like that. They just scream "TUFF TRUCK"

[sixtall]

Good looking truck, great looking price ! CongRATs on the deal. I see blackwalls, painted wheels, white west coast mirrors, and a red or orange body.

[Shea Laking]

Nice truck!

Wish we could find stuff that clean here in Ontario (without IMPORTING it!).

The third member in those is interchangeable with late '60's-early '70's GM 3/4 and 1 tons, so a bit of searching could net you some more highway friendly gearing. I believe 3.90:1 was common in the newer ones and 3.73:1 was available, though harder to find, according to stuff I've read around the web. There used to be a link on www.chevytrucks.org to a fellow who swapped 8 lug disc brakes onto the front of his 3800 panel truck-looked like a fairly easy process, unfortunately his link is not there anymore.

Congrats on your find. Free is GREAT as well as how good you'll feel being able to keep a piece of family history alive. Good luck with your project.

Regards,
Shea