A half-ton 3100 may give a better ride for daily hauling duties, unless you’re really using this truck as a heavy-hauler. It has a great look, and if there’s a more iconic green for Chevy pickups in this era, I’d be surprised. This 1949 Chevrolet 3600 can be found here on Facebook Marketplace in Auburn, Kansas, and they’re asking $9,500 or best offer for this great-running and driving 3/4-ton pickup. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Zappenduster for the tip!
I wouldn’t change one thing about this truck inside or out. Once you see the interior and engine compartment, and then think back to the $9,500 asking price, it’ll seem like a reasonable deal. I don’t believe those “hub caps” say CHEVROLET on them, so they? I’ve zoomed in, and they look smooth, other than the left rear one. Page 19 of this Chevy literature shows the wheel covers, and these don’t appear to be factory pieces. I believe this truck is Forester Green, according to the chart on page 18 of this literature?
The mottled paint gives this truck even more charm, if that’s a decent word to use about a tough 3/4-ton truck. The tailgate always seems to take the brunt of the abuse. This truck has a fairly new trailer hitch hiding under the well-worn bumper, and I’m always surprised to see the taillights on these old pickups in place. They’re so perilously positioned that you’d think they would always be broken off. Here’s what the inside of the bed looks like.
Chevy’s first big redesign of its truck line after WWII, the Advanced Design series was made from 1947 through 1955, and page 17 of this fantastic 1949 Chevrolet truck brochure shows the 3604 pickup. The interior looks nicer than I expected, maybe because the seat has been recovered and the door panels have been recovered with similar material. Here’s another brochure showing the engineering features of the ’49 trucks. This one appears to have an optional 4-speed manual and floor shifter.
The engine should be Chevrolet’s smallest engine available here, a 216.5-cu.in. OHV inline-six, with 90 horsepower and 174 lb-ft of torque. The seller says it runs and drives great and has been converted to a 12-volt system. How much would you pay for this ’49 3/4-ton Chevy pickup?
Apparently, I’m one of the very few interested in history, and this truck is dripping with it. Referring to the ’51 Vicky, how about this. 2 brothers from a rural Kansas farm, went to war, luckily came back, brother 1 came back to the farm, and bought a brand new “5 pedal” Chevy pickup, seen here. Brother 2, stayed in the military, for a couple more years, and a bit more showy, came in the farm driveway with a new Ford Vicky. While “o;d fashioned” by todays standards, the AD Chevy was really a modern truck. Gone were many of the pre-war things that made a truck a truck. These were actually car like, and for many farms, this was their only vehicle. From poop hauling to Sat. night, hopefully not on the same day. Many learned to drive at an early age on these, and for years were this “standard old truck” that few wanted. Then came the resto-mods, and completely turned things around for these, and I suspect the same will happen here. That’s okay, limited interest like this today, clown it out.
please explain 5 pedals
From left to right, parking brake, clutch, brake, throttle, starter button.
E brake, clutch, brake, accelerator and engine starter
I’ll go along with what Howard said. I like history, but only certain things. Such as old houses, old barns, and anything thats old and mechanical. That’s whats so great about a site like this. Love this truck. I just don’t know if I’d keep it as is, or go for the gusto, in for a penny, in for a pound and restore the whole exterior. I definitely like this truck. I may be wrong, but those rims may not be original, which may explain the plain baby moon hubcaps on them. You can definitely tell the spare is a new rim. Which, really, isn’t all a bad thing if safety was an issue.
I’m with you on the wheels. I thought I saw in the first/lead in picture an outer split rim. But I don’t see any evidence on the rest of the wheels. The tires look like radials which is a dangerous thing with split rims. GM even had a recall many years ago when their standard steel wheels were breaking at the bead area because of stress of a radial tire. I like this truck also. And I would be at a loss as to what to do with it after upgrading the brakes. I would most likely figure out an overdrive (transmission or aftermarket) and maybe some period correct hot rod modifications on the engine.
I am a history buff too. I didn’t like it in school and barely paid attention but later on it developed of it’s own accord and hasn’t stopped. I also was one of those who learned to drive in an old Chevy truck. I don’t remember what year it was, or if I even knew, but my dad had a flatbed half ton and he taught me to drive on the hard sand beach in South Texas when I was nine. We were only five miles from the beach and we’d go down on weekends and pick up four watermelons for a buck on the way and spend the day. I still remember the first day sitting in front of him and he was doing the shifting while I drove it. That was a very cool day for a nine year old kid.
From 1958~1963 My dad had a 1950 half ton this same color and running gear. As a matter of fact, dad’s truck was in the same condition as this one and looked a lot like the feature truck.
In Lawrence county Ohio where our farm was, there was a law that no more than 3 people could sit in the front seat of a truck. Dad and mom had four kids at the time. As we drove along, if mom or dad saw a policeman my brother and I had to get down in the floor until we passed by. My sister got to stay on the seat. What a gyp! My little brother was only an infant so mom just held him on her lap where you couldn’t see him. Ahhhhh good times!
I am one on Howard’s history lovers.. Buy this truck and leave it like it is!!! An excellent entry into the antique / historical truck hobby. If you have to be a shiny man, repair the running board, surface rust and paint it.. The interior looks to be refurbished already.. This will be a great weekend work horse to Home Depot and a conversation starter at a local show or Cars and Coffee.
Well, I didn’t learn to drive in one of these. (Did that in a ’57 Plymouth in 1962 at the ripeold age of 9!) BUT later, but still before driver’s license I had one if these in the panel delivery version. It was procured for hay storage for my agricultural project. Dad didn’t know that I had managed to get it running and used it quite often on the fire roads behind our property . (He kept complaining about the fuel economy on Moms car. (1963 Impala 4 dr 327 4 barrel with dual exhaust) Never realized that I was siphoning gas out on a regular basis. Any way what I did learn on that truck (3 on the tree) was how to double clutch as 1st wasn’t synchronized. I read about double clutching in a book and perfected it on the old Chevy truck.
I still have the ’49 3100 that was my daily driver in the early ’80s. At that time I got hooked up with a guy that worked at the Cat dealer he had a ’49 3600. He convinced me that he had enough contacts to start our own shop (we did, he didn’t) a story for another time. Anyways, I could always stay ahead of him till we hit Edsin Creek hill, he always caught me at the top, differance between 4.11s and 4.56 gears.
These are great old trucks with little to go wrong. Buy it! Drive it!
My father a 1954 same truck same color in 1968 i was eight i went with him to the Chevy dealer he bought a new 1968 half ton pickup. For a couple of years that 54 sat in the backyard for a few years and became a toy for us kids until my uncle dragged it home got it running and become his daily driver until around 1985. My father sold that 68 to my boss and was used until around 1990 as a daily work truck until around 1990 and was sold still running to someone as a landscape truck. My uncle sold the 1954 in 1985 still running those old Chevy trucks would take everything thrown at them and kept on going i wonder sometimes if those two trucks are still out there running and working.
Contrary to a lot of opinions around here at this time, I tend to prefer these restored, at least to driver quality. Too much emphasis has been placed on the P-word and that is getting monotonous. However, it’s whatever floats your boat.
Bearing that in mind, I like what they did to the 3600 in Redline Rebuilds.
Lots of these out west. Of course there were lots more plain half-tons. GM was well represented.
Those old babbitt-pounders were amazing engines. I saw them take a tremendous amount of abuse and still come back for more. Some people talked about the stovies hammering out rods and chucking them out the side. From a service standpoint, I only ever saw two of these come in knocking. I saw at least three 261s come in with pieces making their own exits.
I remember one that a family friend had. It was a 3800 and it was used on the farm to spell off the main truck during harvest. Their hired man borrowed it to take a trip home about 60 miles away. Two days later, he phoned and said, “There’s a knock in the engine.”
My friend and I took the flatbed trailer and retrieve the truck and the hired man. The engine sounded like hell when we drove the truck onto the trailer. We could only imagine what the insides looked like.
We took it to the shop and pulled the engine. Quite surprisingly the noise was a lot worse than what was actually wrong. Two rods gone and one valve guide that I’m sure you could put two valves into.
Sent the crankshaft and rods away. The mains were nearly perfect. A set of rings and a valve job and the engine ran like a good 216 should.
It was when we were putting the finishing touches on the engine that we heard what actually contributed to the engine failure.
The idiot hired man (a Hutterite kid about 18 who had left the colony) tried to drive the truck at 70 mph! A 216 in a tonner with 5.86 gears going 70. Needless to say, he didn’t get a chance to drive the truck again…
GEO, I agree with you on a refurbrushment / restoration to driver quality.. Then use it, cruise it to coffee and cars, and enjoy this wonderful truck.