Is there such a truck as an early 1954? Which has the same styling as the 1947-1953 AD trucks? A friend in New Mexico has a 1954, which he claims looks like my 1951. Until I can get him to email me some photos, we are not sure what he has. Another question, just in case Nate reads this post. Does the OFFY carb linkage for a dual one barrel carby setup have progressive linkage? Or do both carbs open in synch. with each other equally? Thanks, Junkman
Junkman, i've never heard of an early '54 which has the same styling as a '47-53 AD. The only thing i've ever seen in books is second series 47's and first series 55's. it could be that your friend might have a 54 that someone put older fenders and grill into for any number of reasons. Ask him to give you a description of the bed to see if he has a 54 bed. the side rails on the 54 will be flat while the rails on the 47-53 is angled. heck, while you're at it, ask about the dash too because the dash is different in the 54 also.
Back in the days the trucks and cars were titled when they were sold . Often , a left over prior year vehicle would be sold as a current year and titled as such so there's plkenty of '52's that were titled as '54's , '55s or what not . The Offenhauser dual carby intake manifold opends both carbies simultaneously , gives good performance and peps up and old inline 6 banger engine . once proprly adjusted , the carbies _do_not_ go out of adjustment , that's BS promoted by incompetent ' mechanics ' . Try one , you'll like it but both carbies _must_ be matched ! jets and all orofices .
Thanks Ken and Nate. The angled bed sides are a good give away, and should be easy to spot by non-enthusiasts. He claims it has the same front end as my 1951, but it's his Dad's truck, who has stated it's an early 1954. I have a 1955 second series, and know the deal about the 1954 and early 1955 being of the same ilk. This same gentleman, although very well intentioned, earlier this year, told me his Dad had a 1966 full size Chevy for sale, i.e. a Biscayne or Bel Air, and he used to drive it back in High School. The car actually turned out to be a 1964 Chevelle!! He apparently does not know his Chevy's. When I get a photo of the truck from him I will post it on this thread. Also, I did not have an opportunity to reply to the "Thank-You Nate" thread, and read it just yesterday after not posting on this board since the spring. Your encyclopedic knowledge of this subject is quite impressive and your willingness to share greatly appreciated by all. But, like some others, I thought perhaps you were in your 70s. I was born in 1955, same as you! I was wrenching on a 1966 Biscayne back in 1969 before I was old enough to drive it. I like cruising my old truck in the desert too, and a song by Neil Young comes to my mind frequently...."Long may you Run". Long may you run, Nate.....
Thank you . I guess the differance is : by the time I was 6 I was allready working on machines , any machines I could , I was born to this . After I got kicked out of public school , I discovered a wood shop in the new school , run by a very nice old Vet. who allowed me to repair all the broken drill presses and belt sanders etc. I never did learn how to work with wood , sad to say . I've learned a huge amount on this list too and I try to learn something new every day . Why don't you look on the VIN tag in the driver's doorsill and de-code the simple number stamped there ? that'll tell you _exactly_ it's model year and the plant it was built in too . 1955 was a great year for Chevy passenger cars too ! that's my favorite of the " Tri 5 " years due to its conservative , balanced lines and design .
Nate, you're beginning to scare me! '57's were a dime a dozen when we grew up! Give me a '55 any day! My dream car would be a '55 2-door hardtop painted Coral/Shadow Gray two-tone with a 265 V-8 and a "slip and slide" powerglide transmission. Throw in a wonderbar radio and i'm in heaven!
It could be titled as any year but even your not real in the know friend should be able to tell if it has a one piece curved or two piece flat windshield.
Tri-5 Chevvies I'd like that but of course , with a nice 235 or 261 inline.... Maybe swap the R & P to give it better road speed for these lonely desert highways.... A story : I came back from Guatemala in 1976 , landed in Boston but by then my home was in L.A. so I was thinking of buying some old nail and driving it to L.A. , sell it to pay for the trip .. a buddy told me of a 1957 BelAire convertible for $35.00 , the rag was shot but it ran , his comment : " Nate , I bet you could get $500.00 for it in Los Angeles..." I passed on it as I don't like '57s nor rag tops... OOPS -Nate
i just went to www.cars-on-line.com and looked at the 57's. there were 6 restored rag top's in there. The cheapest was $59,000 and the most expensive was $125,000! Simply amazing!
We Have A Saying..... ...In the auto trade : ' There's an ass for every seat ' . This means that somewhere , someone wants the old POC you're selling , no matter how bad it is nor how much you may dislike it.... When I was just out of High School Will (a buddy) had the '57 Chevy jones and he had it really bad . he was also a drinker and not very sharp when it came to maintenance issues , good thing his uncle had a scrapyard down in East Los somewheres as Will would fix one up and then wreck it a month or so later . about the third '57 Two door he wrecked , he landed one with a good 283 engine (V-ate) that he'd then swap out into the next $45.00 junker his uncle would sell him after drunkenly wrecking yet another one..... Once he came by in a nicer than usual looking one (it was gold & black , original paint and seat covers) and as we pulled away from the curb I (sitting in the back seat) heard the traction bar bushings go " clink-clunk " gently as the power took up and the rear end shifted back 1/4" or so ~ I told him this was a simple fix and he should get to it ASAP , he crossly hollered at me ' them dang things do _NOTHING_ ! I'm not wasting my time changing any stupid bushings...' Maybe a week later the car was travelling down a major thorughfare when the rear end shifted back far enough for the front end of the driveshaft to drop out of the back of the tranny , life being full of coincidences there was this pothole right there for the tip of the driveshaft to drop into , this vaulted the back end of the car (containing a very surprised Will) some 10' into the air as the entire rear end rotated over it and then the car crashed back down with the driveshaft dragging behind it and no brakes having torn the rubber hose...... Will eventually stopped calling me after he borrowed my pair of brandy new jack stands and his girlfreind tossed him out so I couldn't follow him to get them back...
Just so you know, there is such a thing as an early 54 (it does look like a 53). The late 54 looks like a 55
For what it's worth.... my '54 that I've only had for a few weeks has the angled bed like the previous years, as well as the front clip that resembles the previous years. The interior of the cab appears to be a 1954.
HMmmm..... That's odd as the frame was changed in 1954 (reduced the " kickup") to allow the flat topped bedsides , this allowed easier loading plus you could attach campers , shells and so on to it . I'd think a look at the VIN # on the driver's side A pillar and sbusequent decoding (the latter part of the VIN is the sequential build number) to ascertain if it was indeed an early or late production vehcle that maybe had a bde swap done.....
I would bet that 54 had face and bed transplant. If you can find any original paint on the various parts, that might explaine that.
Remember when ford started building the newly designed 61 pickup and put the old 60 and earlyer bed on it? Yuck.... Chris
OT : Brand 'F' Beds Yabutt ; Look at it this way : they used the same rear fenders from 1956 to 1967 , making them super easy & cheap to find N.O.S. rear fenders well into the 1980's.... You guys knew I've owned a couple '59 F-100's , right ? one setpside and one fleetside , both were good (6-banger natch) trucks I worked hard , even if they were from the ' enemy ' -Nate
Zig is right, I don't think GM ever designated such a thing as an early 54. Some 53's may have been sold late and titled as 54's. They had a "high cab" and "low cab" in 37 and some 46's are labeled as 47's and of course the 55.1 and 55.2. I don't have a front view but the curved windshield is obvious on this 54 that we put a 53 front clip and slanted top rail bed on. This is one of several we've done and I've seen several others done the same way. Most just put the 47-53 front on because they like the grill better.
