1921 Chevrolet 490 roadster pickup

[J.H.Boland]

Back in 1968,I was told about a 490 Chevy in a garage on a narrow back road about 30 miles away We found the owner of the car to be the grandson of the original owner,and he was in no hurry to sell it. Finally,after four years of visits he agreed to part with it.. It was a thrill to dig open the garage doors and pull a very dusty old car out into the daylight for the first time since 1931.

Restoration was to take seven years,mainly due to scarcity of parts.We discovered that most of the wood in the body was charred,which led to converting it into a pickup back in the day.I could have gone either way with the restoration,as I had all the parts to make it back into a touring,but it had been thoughtfully converted,right down to a roadster top.We left it as a truck.Restoration was completed in 1979 and it is still a popular exhibit wherever it is shown.

The John Deere logos were added when I heard that a two cylinder John Deere meet was to be held nearby. We sort of crashed the party with a John Deere service truck !

Edited August 14, 2017 by J.H.Boland
better pictures (see edit history)

[Guest]

Neat truck.

[J.H.Boland]

I polished the old girl up for a show recently. The pictures are higher resolution than the first ones and more accurately show the color. When the restoration was done back in the seventies, multiple coats of hand rubbed lacquer was the way to a show finish. The lacquer is cracking now in places,but it still shines like it did back in 1979.

[J.H.Boland]

I was going through a bunch of old photos Saturday night and found this picture of me taking the '21 Chevy for it's first test drive ca.1977. Thought I'd share it.

 

Jim