The beautiful 1952 Chevrolet 3100 Pickup

This is a 1952 Chevrolet step side pickup hot rod that I saw recently at Petrolheadonism Live 2022. What an absolute stunning car, and it really hit me hard with it’s beauty. The car colour, the chrome, the restoration. The Owner and his pal have done a wonderful job on the car. Here’s some information on this car in the owners own words.

The owner (Clive Hardy) purchased this Chevy for £500. What he got was a body shell and a pile of parts and no running gear. It took him, with his good friend Rob Clarke, 12-years to achieve the result you see here today working religiously every Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. Clive decided that with so many missing components the only sensible solution was to turn it into a hot rod. The pickup is painted in Kandy Apple Red from House of Kolor by OCS Paints at Northampton. The truck has been painted this colour in hidden places like under the hood (bonnet), under the sills and under the fenders (wings). Apart from the gorgeous colour the other striking visual difference is the lowered roof line. Rob and Clive deliberated how much metal to remove to chop the roof, 3 or 4 inches. Clive chose to go with 4 inches as this still left plenty of headroom in the cab.

As the Chevy came with no running gear they fitted a brand new 350ci Chevy engine with 4 barrel Holley carburettor and an Edlebrock intake manifold. The engine is coupled to a Jaguar IRS rear axle with a Salisbury differential. New adjustable shock absorbers and suspension complete the picture. At the front end a new Camaro front clip complete with new springs and gas shock absorbers was fitted, together with new rack & pinion power steering. In actual fact every item is brand new on this pickup with the only exception being the chassis.

Advance-Design was a pickup truck series by Chevrolet, their first major redesign after WWII. It was billed as a larger, stronger, and sleeker design in comparison to the earlier AK Series. First available on 28th June 1947 these trucks were sold with various minor changes over the years until 25th March 1955, when the Task Force Series trucks replaced the aging Advance-Design model.

The same basic design family was used for all of its trucks including the Suburban, panel trucks, canopy express and cab-overs. From 1947 until 1955, Chevrolet trucks were number one in sales in the United States, with rebranded versions sold at GMC locations. There are three main sizes of this truck: the half-ton, three-quarter- ton, and full ton capacities in short and long wheelbase. The 3100 designates this as a half ton truck.

The differences for the 1952 model year were the outer door handles were now the push button type as opposed to the previous turn downstyle. The speedometer was changed to read to 90 mph and dashboard trim was painted instead of chrome. Mid-year Chevrolet stopped using the 3100-6400 designation on the hood and changed the window and wiper knobs to a maroon colour. The original engine was a 216ci straight 6 with a 3/4 speed manual transmission.

Length 196,6”(4,990mm).

Bravo to Clive and Rob, what a wonderful car. I loved it. If you are ever down in the Berkshire region I’d love a drive out. All the best.

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