In 2021, I bought this 1955 first series five window Chevy pickup with 101,000 miles on it. It ran and moved, but it wasn’t road worthy. I’ve had several of this body style over the years, but this time I wanted to refurbish this one and keep it. I brought it home on a car trailer, and started on the process of making it a driver.
The truck had three previous paint jobs, all different colors. The factory color was Commercial Red. The thing I liked about it was it was 100% stock, with its 235 c.i. 6 cyl. engine and truck 4 speed transmission. I also wanted an open driveline, and 1955 first series, being the last of the 1947-1955 was the first Chevy to have an open driveline. It also had new tires, a new break job, and exhaust system. The truck was going to need all 4 cab corners replaced, most of the floor pan and rocker panels replaced. Fortunately, the truck came with all new aftermarket replacement parts to replace the rusted parts.
Mechanically, it had several oil leaks in the engine and transmission and didn’t run very well. I did a compression test on the engine and all 6 cylinders were within the normal limits for the motor.
I knew I’d have to strip the paint back to bare metal, but I wasn’t sure what was the best way to do that, without taking the vehicle apart. I decided to use a random orbital sander and use 50 grit Velcro discs. This was dead of winter and it took me a month to strip it all back to bare. All outside, I couldn’t work in the rain, so that’s part of the reason it took so long. After each part was stripped, I used rattle can primer paint to protect the bare metal.
After that was finished, I got the truck where I could drive it. After changing all the fluids, I did a full tune up, including plugs, plug wires, and timing. The truck came with a new Pertronix electronic module, so I used that instead of points and condenser, as well as a new cap and rotor. Now the motor was running as expected.
A friend of mine offered to help me replace the rusted parts. I’d already taken the fenders, and bed off the truck, in preparation for cutting and welding the new parts on the truck. I took it to his shop and over the course of three months, it was finally rust-free. At the same time, we pulled the motor, replaced the leaky oil seals, replaced the clutch, pressure plate, water pump, and painted the motor with the correct engine paint. At the same time, I cleaned the engine bay and repainted it. When all this was done. I drove the truck 5 miles back to my house without the doors and bed and fenders on the truck. Since I had to remove the behind the seat gas tank, before the welding took place, I used a three-gallon boat tank mounted behind the cab to move it around.
Once I got the truck home, I converted it from 6 volt to 12 volt with a kit from LMC. The starter was rebuilt and the radiator was boiled out and pressure tested. Since winter was over, I wanted to drive it. I put it back together and took it to a few car shows in 2022. After that, I started preparing the body for paint. I had never done this before, but after watching car shows on television, I knew I had to try. I bought a gallon of Bondo, a body hammer, dolly kit, and began the never ending process of dent removal, Bondo, and sanding. The truck was very straight, as it had never been wrecked, I also removed all the glass, as all the glass would need replaced.
At this point the truck was in pieces, with the doors, fenders and bed off the truck. The hood was left on, as it closed correctly, so I didn’t want to have to readjust it after paint. I hadn’t picked a color yet, but I knew I didn’t want the original red color. I already had an adequate air compressor, so the next step was to paint everything with epoxy primer. I was nervous at first, but I had a practice door to use as my first part. It all went well, using a new spray gun, the truck was finally ready to paint.
I picked a satin dark gray color, mainly because it didn’t show some small dents that were still there. I was going to paint it myself, but a friend of my son, who had a lot of experience with auto painting, offered to shoot it for me. This was August of 2024. By this time, I had spent about $13,000 on parts from LMC Truck. Part of that included two new doors and rear fenders, hinges and hardware chrome bumpers, all new glass and glass and door rubber. Since August, I put everything back together and can now drive it. I’m soon to have a new wire harness installed by a local company, which will complete this build. It certainly isn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but good enough for me. One final note, I couldn’t have done this without LMC truck. The parts came in a reasonable length of time, and when there was a problem with my order, which was mostly my fault, LMC worked with me to send parts back.
I wanted a stock truck, and now I have it. I’m 75 years old and completing this project is a huge accomplishment for me.

Oil leaks in the motor, and transmission.