After the World War II, America was eager to get back on it's feet again. The auto manufacturers spent most of production during the war producing vehicles and equipment for the war effort. Most customers were glad to get a truck at all, so sales were good, but the manufacturers knew that they had to get on with new development. Introducing:

The Advanced Series

The Advanced Series was introduced 1947. It was a good looking model, with plenty appeal:

Being a 1/2 ton model with the attractive rear corner windows makes it the most popular model, both for hot rodders and restorers. Half ton models have a shorter wheel base than the 3/4 trucks. 3/4 ton trucks also have a second stake pocket in front of the the rear fender. After a major paint polish, and a set of chrome reverse/baby moon wheels with Radial Wide Whitewalls, this truck definitely got some "eyeball" back.

As of 1950, the grill ribs was painted as supposed to chrome in earlier year because of the Korean war, because the nickel was needed for war manufacturing. Today, the painted grill almost looks like custom de-chroming.

Sorry about the long shadows, we are happy to get any sun in the winter.

Bumpers were also painted in 1952, so this truck has been up-graded with the shiny stuff, and that doesn't hurt our feelings at all. This truck was sold new without blinkers, something we added for safely. This uses the front parking lamps as blinkers, eliminating the parking feature, since the stock bulb only has one filament. We may change this later.

Chevrolet stopped using the "3100" designation under the "CHEVROLET" emblem on the hood side in mid year 1952.  If you have the numbers on your 1952, you have an early model. 1950 was last year for driver side vent, but the louvers remained on the passenger side as seen here.

The office: Velvet seats material in not stock, but it beats the cold and slippery vinyl. For being 50 years old, this is a pretty comfortable.1952 models also saw painted dash trim, as supposed to the earlier models that had stainless trim.  In 1952 the speedometer also change from 80 mph to 90! Like we could even get close to that with 4:11 gears and 6 cylinder power! Three speed models like this one had column shifter, the four speed models had floor shifters.

1952 also saw push button handles. They were esthetically nicer, since they didn't sag like the older style" turn" handles. For some reason, there were only one lock cylinder on these truck, and it was installed on the passenger side! We assume the reason was that the owner would lock the drivers door, and then slide over to the passenger side, and exit to the side walk. Well, we changed that. The old handles were pretty blistered, so we replaced the with new reproductions. We then installed the lock cylinder in the drivers side. Works great!

This green "John  Deere" special is sporting the older style handle. Nothing wrong with it as long is it isn't sagging, then they look a little "tired"  . We saw this truck at a local car lot.

Straight six offers adequate power, but the 4:11 rear end ratio makes the truck limited on freeway travel. Future plans call for either late model 4 or 5 speed trans with open driveshaft and taller gears, or possible V8/4 speed combo. We know the car scene it always appreciative of anything other than the proverbial small block Chevrolet, but you can't argue with success. Plus, there is not much that beats the sound of a manually shifted V8! Either way, it will require a replacement rear axle for taller gears. Let's shake the parts tree in the future, and see what falls down.

We also applied "Poor mans lowering kit" We simply removed a number of leaf springs in the front, and 4 inch lowering blocks in the rear, until the truck sat right. This also made for softer ride, something that was welcomed. Yes, it does lessen the load capacity,  but we are not planning to haul rocks in this thing. For right now, it's a great driver for parts chasing.

Read the article about changing rear axle for higher gears.