1959 Chevy dump truck

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SonOfRDgear

Greasemonkey
May 18, 2011
189
17
18
Boston
Bit of a story with this one:

So about a year ago I was renting a woodworking shop in Waltham, MA. The door to enter it was right next to a pair of dumpsters, and an old garage that was being used as a general contractor's shop. Well, after about 2 months of being there... I realized that one of the dumpsters was actually an old truck (hard to tell, cause it was covered in junk). Upon further inspection, I realized it had "For Sale" painted on the side of it, and since I'm a nutjob who loves old crap like this, I couldn't stop thinking about it.

After inquiring around with the other tennants (the building had 3 other shops in it), I was finally able to ascertain that the truck was owned by the contractor, and that he had been trying to sell it a couple years back. He failed to sell it, I assume, because 1) he had no phone number or contact info on the truck, 2) he was never around. Finally one day I happened to come in and catch him while he was at his shop, and started talking about buying the truck. Apparently he had been the owner since 2003, when he bought it for $200 from a local welding shop which had a customer abandon it there after doing work to it. He then had it made road-worthy by his mechanic and used it for laying hot top and paving driveways until about 2009, when it was parked. He said he wanted $1000. That got me all giddy.

Unfortunately I didn't see him again, and before I could, I moved out of that shop, on to other work prospects. But I still couldn't get the truck out of my mind. After a few months I decided to try to get in contact again, which took me another couple of months (no wonder he couldn't sell it). The deal was that I would buy it for $800 if he cleaned it off and got it running for me (he insisted it was still in working order). I kept making arrangements to meet with him, but he kept flaking. Finally I got a little fed up and offered him $500 as-is, if I did all the clean up and moved it myself.... and he said yes! So, after a few days of cleaning it off and getting it towed to my house, I am now the proud owner of this 1959 Chevy Viking dump truck.

Heres how it looked after I cleaned it off a bit:
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Amazingly enough, once I pushed it back far enough to get under the hood, all I did was pour some gas from a dixie up down the carb and it started right up! The battery wasn't even dead! Unfortunately I didn't have many options for moving it... so I convinced a friend to move it with his rollback truck. I have to admit it looked a little silly.
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And here she is at her new home:
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I thought it was going to have a stovebolt-6, but I was pleasantly surprised to find a 283 V8 under the hood
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I figured a truck with this much character deserves a name, and I've settled on "Heavy Duty Judy". I thought my family was going to freak the heck out when they saw it, since they generally don't approve of my automotive tomfoolery. To my surprise, however, they loved it. Something about this truck gives it a certain vibe that makes people love it, same thing that happened to me. Now that I think about it, this is starting to sound like a Stephen King book....
 
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SonOfRDgear

Greasemonkey
May 18, 2011
189
17
18
Boston
After a little elbow grease, I got it up and running to the point where I felt it was road-worthy. It had sat so long that all the brake fluid had evaporated, but that was just a matter of re-filling it and bleeding the lines. Registering it was a little funky... In MA all duallies are required to be registered as commercial vehicles, but since my title was so old, it only said "truck", Geico assumed this meant it was a pickup truck, and insured it as a non-commercial personal vehicle. I went to the DMV to register it, and a similar thing happened: since nobody knew what the heck a Chevy Viking was, they gave me non-commercial plates. The real kicker is when I went to get an inspection sticker: I had to take it to a commercial truck inspection station, but when I drove it in, the owner looked very confused. Initially he was checking out the truck, then he looked at the plate. "How the hell did you get that plate on this truck?" he asked. Knowing full well what had happened, I just stared at him, shrugged my shoulders and said "I dunno". I thought he was going to tell me to get lost, but he started chuckling and said "I've been trying to do that for years!". He went over to his computer and said "If it goes through somehow, I'll give you a sticker"... it did! One surprise after another. Not only that, but he got all excited and started talking about old trucks with me and showed me his beautifully restored 1946 Chevy oil tanker. After asking what year the truck was, he dug through an old pile of stuff and handed me a pair of 1959 license plates! He also gave me some nice new mudflaps. He was genuinely excited, and told me to come back whenever I wanted... I gave him a good tip, seeing as how he had just saved me over $100 in inspection fees.

The following day I drove her to her first car show:
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78chevolds

Greasemonkey
Jun 25, 2013
126
50
28
cool story and it looks solid for a truck in NE. BTW, I'm from Waltham too
 

Longroof79

Rocket Powered Basset Hound
G-Body of the Month
Oct 14, 2008
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Love the truck....and thanks for sharing the story. It seems pretty complete for it's age. Heavy duty Judy...LOL!! love the name ,too.
 

SonOfRDgear

Greasemonkey
May 18, 2011
189
17
18
Boston
cool story and it looks solid for a truck in NE. BTW, I'm from Waltham too

It's definitely been patched over the years, but the frame is super solid and everything works, except the speedometer, so yeah I agree. Are you still in MA?
 

SonOfRDgear

Greasemonkey
May 18, 2011
189
17
18
Boston
Love the truck....and thanks for sharing the story. It seems pretty complete for it's age. Heavy duty Judy...LOL!! love the name ,too.

Thanks :) . From what I can tell it's all original, except the paint. It's probably been 6 different colors throughout its life. Looks like the original color was baby blue... if I ever restore it I'll probably put the factory color on it.
 

Longroof79

Rocket Powered Basset Hound
G-Body of the Month
Oct 14, 2008
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What are your ultimate plans for it..keep it as a dumper or flatbed hauler?
You did very well picking it up for the price. You could easily do a few hauling jobs and get your money back.
I'm sure it's covered in snow at thsi time.
BTW, I dig the Zappa pic in your Avatar
 

SonOfRDgear

Greasemonkey
May 18, 2011
189
17
18
Boston
What are your ultimate plans for it..keep it as a dumper or flatbed hauler?
You did very well picking it up for the price. You could easily do a few hauling jobs and get your money back.
I'm sure it's covered in snow at thsi time.
BTW, I dig the Zappa pic in your Avatar

I sort of want to build a stake bed dump body for it if i ever get around to doing a restoration. For now It's holding together the way it is. I'm building a Chevy C10 right now, so I don't want to start this project until the other one is done. Until then, I'm driving it around as it is. And yes... there is a lot of snow everywhere :blam:
 

ssn696

Living in the Past
Supporting Member
Jul 19, 2009
5,543
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Permanent Temporary
Your truck totally rocks! Amazing to find such a survivor in salt-soaked New England. Nice luck on the 59 plates. I could use a friend at the DMV...my state can't figure out how to handle a pre-1981 VIN when they can't find it in two places. In this vintage, the vehicle serial number was either the body number or the block number. No engine? No title.
 

DRIVEN

Geezer
Apr 25, 2009
8,062
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Very cool! The '58/'59 was always my favorite body style.
 
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