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1948 Chevy pickup "Motorama" concept car.

53K views 269 replies 19 participants last post by  MARTINSR 
#1 ·
Well, I thought being I actually put a wrench to my truck I would start a build thread on it. I have no idea how steady I will be working on it but we will see.

A little history, I bought this truck in Dec 73 a few weeks before my 16th birthday with $200 paper route money. It was owned by a family friend and had been used on a farm since new until he got it as his first car. His brother made the flat bed (it was like a piece of furniture, very well done) and he drove it to the same highschool my mom graduated from in 1936. He made the intake and headers with my brother in metal shop class and was quite ingenious if you ask me. The first photo is from the day I came home with it. Now mind you, I didn't have a license yet, only a learners permit so my mom was riding shotgun that day. :D







There was a two other trucks like this at school and I wasn't going to have one like everyone elses......so I chopped the top about two months after my 16th birthday. :D



And drove it to highschool looking like this as this photo was taken in the school parking lot.



I painted it orange, "Competition orange" or so I thought. I picked the color out of the 76 Corvette color chips, one problem it ended up being the only year the Corvettes were painted "Omaha Orange" a Chevy fleet color since 1936 and the color of the Cal Trans dept trucks! But after spending $33 dollars on that gallon of paint and with it masked up and ready to shoot in my garage, I went ahead and shot my second paint job ever Aug 1st 1977.



And off to my first rod run, Andy's Picnic Aug 7th 1977 with my brother and his Model A, the my first paint job ever. :D



And no, I was not taking this picture of the guy in the short shorts, did we really wear those in the seventies? YEOW
Nope, this was inside Andy's picnic and I was digging the attention MY little truck was getting. :D



Ok, that was the first "incarnation" of my truck, it looked like this up until 1979 at some time. This was the last photo of it before the big metamorphosis.



It was a 3/4 ton originally (with a foot or so cut off the rear of the frame behind the rear axle) when I got it. A replacement 1/2 ton frame was found and it would change forever.

 
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#142 ·
Thanks, I really dig it.

I thought they were all the same and never have measured them just assuming they were. Now that you mention it, the quarter windows certainly look lower at the top don't they. Hmmmm I'll measure and see and if they are I may just raise up the tops to they match the rest. But it's also hard to say until the windows are in and rubber mounted too, hmmmm you got me thinking now. :D

Brian
 
#143 ·
Brian... I was talking about even the side windows,,, I like your idea of the back window,,, I just like all lines to flow as much as I can make them..I was just trying to picture if all the windows was even top and bottom how it would look.. Not sure if the side matching the rest would flow or not,,, But I would make the three match for sure..Looking very good...:thumbup:
 
#144 ·
You got me thinking and I measured it and all the rear windows and the side are virtually 11 inches tall and the door opening is the same height at the corner window so as it stands they all match. The rear three without a doubt are nearly identical. But here is where it will all change, when the windows are installed and the rubber around the rear windows will most certainly make the opening smaller than the opening on the door, crap. But we will see, they will match out back so that's good.

Now, it's got me thinking about different rubber? Hmmmmm, there is different rubber that could make it better, maybe passenger car rear window rubber? I am thinking about this for the windshield being I am going to run the passenger car divider moulding which is about half the width of the truck one so maybe the whole car rubber?

Anyway, thanks for the thoughts and we will see what happens as it progresses. :thumbup:

Brian
 
#146 ·
No, not with this theme, I want it to be nothing newer than 1954 or so. I could MAKE it 1954 like flush, I guess I could do that but as of right now, I will be sticking with the rubber. Thanks for the thoughts on it, that's where a lot has came from, you guys tossing out stuff like that.

Brian
 
#151 ·
So! With all your attention towards window height and such, and being it's a Motorama truck and all, he'rs a question to get your head spinning the different direction.
Whatcha ya gonna do with the bed????? Surely Harley wouldn't just stick a standard box on a Motorama Truck. So now we have WWJD, FMaD, and WWHD
You might start thinking about how the Cameo bed started out on paper. The bed might effect the doors.

BB :mwink::mwink::thumbup::thumbup::confused::confused::thumbup::thumbup:
 
#152 ·
You can't confuse me any more than you already have BB, I'm sorry. What I am doing is keeping everything super conservative, that way changes added or left out aren't that big of a deal.

But thanks for the interest. :D :thumbup:

Brian
 
#154 ·
Ok, since the theme is way out there, coolest-of-the-cool for 1954....what about (power) roll up corner and back windows? If you could pull it off, you would be more likely to keep tha glass size closer to being the size of the openings.

And no, I have no idea on how complicated that would end up being.....
 
#155 ·
Damn you guys! I NEVER would have thought of that, I NEVER would have thought about power windows I actually hate the idea on an old car. I drive old cars because, well, I like old cars! But DAMN that's an interesting idea!

Thanks so much for tossing it out there, VERY interesting! Hell, come to think of it, they don't need to be power! I could make a friggin crank up and down quarter window!

THAT is the kind of thing that would have been on one of these cars, it fits the theme perfectly! And it isn't hard at all do to. For me personally, a hell of a lot easier than cutting glass! Fabbing up that stuff is right up my alley. Wild, just wild, hmmmmmmmmmmm

Brian
 
#164 ·
Yep the TurnPike Cruiser in the late fifties. But I am not sure about a GM car, but I don't care as far as that is concerned. If it's something that could have been thought about in the GM design studio I am good with it.:mwink:

Brian
 
#165 ·
I could put a crank down window on the corner too, it doesn't need to be power. The hard part would be making the opening look like they would have done in the early fifties. Making a channel welded in, for the window to go up and down in, piece of cake. But making it look like they would have done back then is another story. It would HAVE TO have chrome around it right?

Brian
 
#171 ·
"Cosmic Ventilation" LOL

I went out and looked into this tonight and it's all a but just a fleeting thought as of now. I would still have to cut the glass so that would have been the biggest reason to dive into it, to avoid the glass cutting. As of right now, I am going to start studying the glass cutting and we will see where it leads me.

Brian
 
#172 ·
I had a window made for my New Holland ag tractor a number of years ago because it cost to much to get one from Germany. The glass has to be cut and formed before it is tempered. Once it is tempered, there's nothing they can do with it.

The tempering process can allow the curvature to change if it isn't supported properly too. Since the glass co didn't have a mold for this, they wouldn't guarantee it to fit exactly when done. It didn't. In the end, I bought one for the other side from the manufacturer to get the fit the door needed to look and seal correctly.

You may be able to have safety glass cut and formed for less than tempered and that can be sanded on the vertical belt sander for final fit. I would definitely have the rear glass made in safety for that reason alone. I had a window in my Pete for 17 years that filled the huge opening for the bunk. I did replace it a couple times over the years after it got 4-5 "bullet" chips from rocks coming off the drive tires...:eek: You can see the white dots in it here. It really should've been replaced again, but I sold the truck in June...;)

 
#180 ·
But I like "Cosmic Ventilation" more. I think the "Astro Ventilation" was simply the vents in the kick panels wasn't it? It came out in 68 when they eliminated the wind wing in a number of models. They had to have a replacement marketed so people didn't freak about loosing the wind wing.

Brian
 
#182 ·
Nope 1971. What Astro Ventilation really was , was a positive air pressure inside the car for the purpose of keeping carbon monoxide out. The blower motor never shut off. We got lots of complaints early on because of that motor never shutting off. The vents in the trunk lid didn't work out to good. They were designed to expel 8 gpm of rain water. Unfortunately they didn't plan on car washes working on 13 gpm. a service bulletin and repair kit followed shortly.

BB :thumbup::thumbup:
 
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