1954 truckbed tear

[Dan Sutton]

After many teardrops behind my 1948 Chevy pick up truck, I decided to build one that matched the truck a little closer. A trucker friend in Ohio had a truck bed from a 1954 GMC truck. Just the bed no frame or anything else. So the journey began..found a used utility trailer and modified it to accept the bed. Added birch plywood walls and pine cross stringers, wrapped it in Filon,added vintage lighting and decor, whitewalls radials, and so on. Paint matched it and added some “patina” , vintage camper windows and hardware. Came up with a 1952 propane bottle and single burner stove, and a 1938 Dayton military bike to the front.. Just trying to create a vintage look

[Dennis L]

Looks pretty cool. Is it an eight foot or six and a half foot bed?

[SteveC]

Long admired the truck.Great vintage look together.

[Nick T]

Wow. I've been planning something similar---- not a teardrop-shaped version but a vintage-look camper shell that fits on the tow vehicle, so I can carry gear in a [vintage-look] covered pickup bed and still tow my built-to-look-vintage teardrop. Originally I'd planned to buy a 1953 to '55 F100 tow vehicle to build the shell on, then the popularity of those trucks went thru the roof, meaning so did the prices, so I switched my plan to 1947-1954 Chevy 3100. Bad timing again--- not many years before, you couldn't give them away. ("Who wants to drive around in an old TRUCK that looks like it came off a FARM?!". Everyone wanted classic cars, not trucks). So I went to Plan C, Chevy C-10 trucks. LOL, obviously you know how that plan went, in terms of "let's pick something affordable--- like a mid-60's C-10". The exact C-10 years I was looking for suddenly became the hottest thing going. You can buy a livable, small house on an acre of NC land for the same price as a running reliable classic truck. Timing is not my strength when it comes to buying classic cars... . So, still pulling the teardrop with a "modern" truck, and definitely not going to build anything vintage-looking on that.

Thanks for the post & the great photos.

[Barb bulfinch]

Love the look , inside and out !

[Dennis L]

I know what you’re saying about prices. I have mine 43 years, I paid $700.00 for it. Restored it from 1997-2003. Love to go camping with it.

[Dan Sutton]

Got the roof rack done