I don’t want to sell.

But I have to. My finances are in dire straits and the only possession I have other than my house is this truck. So, for $25,000 I will let it go.

It is a 1954 Chevy that I have had for almost 20 years. I love it and I have tried to keep it good shape. It is not a show truck, it’s a daily driver that you can take anywhere.

The drive train (engine, transmission, front end and rear end) came off a 1984 Chevrolet C10 but I kept the original frame. The engine is a 6 cylinder, 4.100 cc (250 cid) with a two barrell carburetor. The transmission is a 3 speed automatic. Front disc, rear drum power brakes with proportioning valve.

The front end was modified in that I adapted a rack-and-pinion power steering. The truck has an independent front suspension and tilt steering column. I installed two bucket seats inside.

Three months ago I installed four new tires. The is new also although it is of a different brand and size.

The rear lights are LED units. Notice that I have installed lights as plugs to the bed holes which work in conjunction with the rear lights (park lights, signal and brake lights).

The front parking/signal lights were turned into daytime running lights as in the Corvette and other Chevrolet models.

Here are a few pictures of the truck. Ask questions if you are interested.

 

 

 

 

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Original License Plate

 

Many people have asked me about the license plate I have on my truck. It is an original plate from the same year of the truck, 1954 and I bought it during the “Turkey Run”, in Daytona Beach, Florida, back in 2000.

In Florida the law allows me to have this plate as long as I follow some rules. First, the plate has to be in its original state. In other words I cannot paint it or rebuilt it in any way. Then I have to fill a form and send it along with the plate to the Departament of Motor Vehicles, in Tallahassee for approval. The plate is then registered in my name and returne to me to be installed on the truck.

There are lots of sites on the Internet that sell antique old plates like mine and you can buy yours online. They are not too expensive and there are virtually thousands to chose from. But first I would advise you to check the law in your State to make sure you can do this and also to find out exactly what you have to do ir order to have your plate registered in your name.

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Take a little break…

Let’s take a break to watch this video that I did a few years ago at a classic car gathering in Davie, FL, USA.

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Make money with your old truck or classic car.

Owners of old trucks would never deny permission for somebody to take a picture of their vehicle. Do you want to take a picture of my truck? Go ahead. Next time don’t even ask.

Let’s suppose somebody came up to you and asked for permission to take a picture of your classic truck to publish in a magazine or a website. Would you refuse? Of course not. You’re proud of your truck and you want the whole world to see it.

But there are people who don’t want to have their classic trucks photographed or filmed. They spend a lot of time fixing their trucks, they go to car shows to show off what they have and yet they refuse to have their trucks filmed or photographed. It doesn’t make sense and it’s not very smart either. Maybe they don’t need the money. Go figure…

Now let’s suppose you had a chance of having your truck filmed for a TV commercial or, better yet, for a movie! How great would that be?

Let’s also suppose that some TV producer decided to create a new series based on the 1940’s, 1950’s or 1960’s. Wouldn’t he(she) need a lot of cars from those eras? And if the series became a hit the vehicles would be used again and again, wouldn’t it?

Yeah. It is possible and it’s not even too hard. You just have to promote your vehicle in the right places. There are companies out there looking for vehicles exactly like yours. Many companies in fact. They look for classic trucks for sale and they buy them. They look for classic cars of all types and they pay rent to the car owners in order to film the cars. There are companies that go after owners of vintage trucks in order to list these vehicles in large databases.

Advertising agencies put ads in the papers when they need an old car or pickup  truck for a TV commercial. Keep your eyes open because your big chance may come from that direction.

If you have a good set of pictures of your little jewel you’re one step closer to fame and fortune. Well, may be not fortune but fame is possible…

A movie production company may need classic trucks just like yours. They might need your truck to spend, say, three days in Hollywood and a week on location in New York. They would make the arrangements to have the vehicle transported to both places and might even be willing to pay for your expenses to go along. You would see how a movie is made and you could even end up meeting a couple of famous movie stars just because you own an antique truck.

The producer of a movie or a TV commercial may be looking for a beautifully restored old car, one that looks like it came out of the showroom a couple of days ago. But directors want their films to look real. Therefore they may need a regular classic vehicle, one that shows it’s been used. And they might even need a real wreck, a rust bucket so to speak. Your chances are real no matter what condition your truck is in. Don’t be ashamed of it. Go ahead and try.

And how does this thing work? First you have to find an agent, a company that has the contacts and knows where to go with your truck pictures. Get listed on their databases and be patient. You might get a call the following morning but it could also take a couple of years.

Here are a few suggestions of sites you can visit to learn more about this:

MovieVehicles.com

OldCarLocator.com

Cornwell & Sheridan Motor Cars

TVParty.com

Classic-Chassis.com

If you’re really committed to the idea of having your vehicle on a movie or a TV commercial you may do what actors do. Have a professional photographer take a series of shots of the vehicle and send them to advertising agencies or talent agencies. Even wedding planners may be interested in your old truck.

And here’s another very important thing to keep in mind: don’t hide your prized possession in your garage. Take it to shows, go to swap meets and take your chances at show prizes. You may win a simple trophy and you may also get some prize money. But make sure your truck is in show condition before you do that.

All of this is true all over the world. Movies are made everywhere these days and so are TV commercials. Classic car and old truck shows are common in almost every country and you can take advantage of that to make money with your truck.

Money? With classic trucks? Yes! It’s possible mainly because nobody is making trucks like yours anymore.

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How I got my old truck.

This 1954 Chevy was found in a small town in Brazil back in 1992. It was in fairly good shape but had lots of rust, the transmission was skipping gears, the brakes were bad and so was the steering, the engine was burning oil and so on. But I was able to drive it to another town, about 200 miles away the same day I bought it. I paid only US$ 1,850 for this old truck.

I had dreamed of a pickup like that for a long time. I remember when these trucks first came out at the end of 1953 and they were beautiful trucks, very different from their predecessors. And when I got it many changes had already been made to the pickup truck.

Even though they have recently found a lot of oil under the ocean the price of gasoline is very high in Brazil. In 1992 a gallon of gas was worth about US$ 2.60 there. Today, Brazilian drivers are paying more than US$ 5.00 per gallon of regular gas! In view of these high prices the previous owner of this 1954 Chevy truck had decided to replace the original six cylinder engine with a four cylinder, 151 c.i.d. “Iron Duke” coupled to a four speed manual transmission. The rear end was also replaced to better match the engine. In spite of the small engine it drove well and didn’t burn much gasoline.

Two years later I couldn’t stand the awful body noise and the fact that the doors kept opening by themselves and thought it was time to finally go ahead and rebuild the truck. The engine and the transmission were near the end of their life and the differential gears had lost a few teeth also. The brake shoes were worn out and the fuel tank, installed inside the cab was leaking. Besides the terrible smell it was dangerous to drive with a leak like that.

In Brazil you can’t find a restorer like we have in North America, who can tackle the complete restoration project. You have to look for a mechanic who would be willing to work on such an old truck and you have to look very hard because not everybody wants to do that. The body work has to be done somewhere else as well as the electrical wiring, the upholstery and so on.

Finding parts is another huge problem. There are no distributors there and you have to tour the junkyards and pray a lot to find what you need. Or do as I did and import from the United States. The problem with importing is that a few times I would call the distributor in the U.S. and buy the parts which were shipped out but never got to me. Somebody at Customs there must have an old truck and don’t know how to import the parts. So they steel them and complaining will get you nowhere.

The first thing I did when I decided to restore my 1954 Chevy was to disassemble the whole truck. I took the frame to a specialist whose shop was located in a town about 35 miles away. The engine and transmission went to a mechanic in another town. The body parts and the bed went to yet another town. Three years and about US$ 8,500 later the truck was ready.

It had the same four cylinder engine which was entirely rebuilt. The four speed transmission was removed and a five speed manual transmission was installed in its place. Everything else was original. The color was changed from red to white.

The most amazing thing was to see the heads turn wherever I drove the truck. And I drove it! I lived in the city of Sao Paulo and had a small farm in the country, 450 miles away and I went there and back at least once a month.

Many times I was being passed by a faster car on the highway and when I looked there was somebody in the car with a camera, filming the old 1954 Chevy 3100 pickup. At almost all stop lights and gas stations there was always somebody asking what year was the truck, how much it was worth and so on.

In 1998 I came back to America and had the truck shipped here inside a 20 foot container. It was a headache to take it out of Brazil because of bureaucracy and greed. I had to go to a dozen different government agencies in order to get all the papers needed to export my 1954 Chevy truck and everywhere I went there was a fee to be paid. The paper work, stamps, copies, declarations, certifications, affidavits and a bunch of other documents cost me about US$ 2,600 even before the truck got inside the container. Two months later is was arriving at the port of Miami.

No duties were paid upon arrival since the U.S. Customs considered this 1954 Chevy truck as “exported U.S. goods returning.” To get the papers and make the truck legal here took about two hours and cost me a little less than US$ 200.

This was back in April of 1998. During these ten years this truck has been my daily driver in Miami and has been on the highway a few times. But there were a few problems.

The first headache was on a trip back from Naples to Miami (about 90 miles). I had the bad fortune of having the rear axle broken right in the middle of Alligator Alley, on I-75, where I had to wait for three hours for a tow truck. Fortunately there were no alligators to be seen there.

In another occasion the wiring caught fire and if it weren’t for the fire extinguisher I always carry with me I would have lost my 1954 Chevy pickup to the flames.

One day the timing set gear broke in the middle of the worst rush-hour traffic Miami has to offer. I took the truck to a mechanic who did a good job on the engine but gave the body of the truck a few nicks and deep scratches. When I complained the mechanic simply took about 5% off his bill and told me to get lost.

The biggest tragedy that thank God never happened was back in 2003 when I went through a few financial hardships and had to put my 1954 Chevy truck for sale. I had it listed for about three months and didn’t find a buyer. Things got much better and I was able to keep the truck. I made a vow to keep it forever.

In April of 2008 the old truck was sent to a shop in Hollywood, FL. After about 11 months there it came out with a new six cylinder engine (250 c.i.d. Chevrolet) and three speed automatic transmission. It burns a little more gas than before but it also performs much better on the Interstate highways.

The cab now has two new bucket seats. A 1984 Chevrolet Silverado independent front suspension was installed with an adapted rack and pinion power steering. The rear end is also new.

The total cost for the new restoration comes to about US$ 6,000.

My truck is in good shape and looks great but it’s not a show truck. It will be driven all the time and it will go to many classic car events during the rest of its life. Maybe you’ll get to see in person one of these days.

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What kind of restoration would you do with your old truck?

If you have a classic car or old truck you bought it for a reason. Or maybe your father left it to you. Whatever the case, what do you do with your classic? Do you drive it to work and back home every day? Or do you only have it for an occasional drive on a sunny weekend? I hope it is not sitting in your garage gathering dust and rust, which would be a shame.

If you want to restore it you have to decide whether you would do a frame up (total) restoration or change or restore only a few parts. Make a plan before doing anything and do some research on the Internet about it, go to classic car and old truck events and talk to other owners. Try to find professional restorers in your area and get information on the availability of parts for what you want to do, cost of the project and so on. 

My truck is driven almost every day. This is why I replaced the drive train, the front and rear end and the seats. But that doesn’t mean that every classic car or truck has to be “modernized” like mine to be driven every day. It’s more of a matter of taste than anything else.

Modernizing an old truck is not that hard. Take the brakes, for instance. The old system of brake shoes is not safe at high speeds and may fail completely if you drive through a puddle of water. If you use your truck frequently you can completely replace the original front drums with a modern disc brake system in about four hours. You can do that in your garage or your driveway with no special tools and no fabrications. There are systems on the market today that will allow your truck to brake much better and will cost much less than you think. Your truck will no longer be “original”, but it will be a much better daily driver.  And disc brakes are so important that they are implanted in very expensive classic cars whose owners insist on originality. In these cases the installation of a disc brake system is done inside the original drums so that if you look inside the wheel of one of these cars you will think that they have their original drum brakes. In some instances they actually have four wheel power disc brakes completely hidden from view.

There are front end systems in the market today that will make your old truck ride like a dream. But they are not cheap and I would leave the installation to a professional because certain modifications will have to be made to the frame.

If you feel the bench seat of your classic car or old truck is not comfortable for you to seat on it every day, go to a junkyard and choose a pair of good bucket seats that will fit in your vehicle. Be prepared to make some adaptation to the base of the seats.

Don’t touch anything in your original classic car or old truck if you want to show it at car shows where originality is an issue. I once became a member of a classic car club and felt very uncomfortable there, because my truck is no longer original. I used to go on drives with all those original cars and my truck was always going ahead of the pack, because I could drive much faster than the others.

But even an original car needs a complete restoration and you may be able to do it yourself, even if you never did that before. It just takes patience and care. Money too, but the money issue may be one good reason for you to do the restoration yourself. If you don’t have all the money necessary you can do the work in steps. As the money becomes available you buy some parts and install them. Later you can get more money, buy more parts and so on until the job is finished.

Another important thing to keep in mind is that a classic car or old truck is only as good as it looks. Think very seriously about the restoration you want to do and make sure you know where you’re going with the project, because an ugly old car or truck isn’t worth much. Make is look good and try to do a good job and you either have a classic for the rest of your life or a valuable possession you may be able to sell for a very handsome profit.

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