1955 Chevrolet Pickup
Panel Van
Restoration Process

We have a 1955 Chevrolet pickup that is being restored at the shop that is the kind of project that tries your patience and tests the skill of everybody on the place. From the welders to the techs that take care of the sheet metal work and the painting a lot of thought goes into the best way to proceed with any classic car or truck restoration.

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As stressful as things can be, it's a job that brings some excitement and a break from the usual broken windshields, cracked grills and wrinkled fenders that we repair on a day-to-day basis. It's fun to fix up an old car, truck or motorcycle and bring it back to new comdition.


Working on an old truck like this one and bringing it up to vintage car show standards is like working one of those 5,000 piece jigsaw puzzles. We're going to share what goes into the process with you, so stick around!

I took this picture of the 1955 Chevrolet pickup rear right hand fender to show the paint details. This truck has been used and has quite a lot of history. I will share the details with all of our subscribers along with the pictures of the 1955 Chevrolet pickup as we work our way through the restoration. The pics will carry you from the rear end to the front grill and from top to bottom.

Before anything else could be done, the paint on the truck had to be removed. Everybody had an opinion on the best and fastest way to do get the original vintage truck paint off so that the good sheet metal could be prepped for refinishing and the rusted pieces could be removed and replaced.

The standard paint removal method is to grind or sand the paint off, and that's the way the tech started out. We quickly changed gears as the original paint on this pickup wasn't letting go!

This 1955 Chevrolet pickup restoration made several points:

• No two restorations are alike
• Every step is crucial in getting the job done in a timely and professional manner

We are lucky to have a tech that has been involved in lots of restorations and is a master at custom painting, so he had some ideas on what to do when sanding the old paint off wasn't moving quickly enough. The method that eventually proved to be the most successful involved a chemical process and lots of hard physical work, but if there's one way that all vintage car work is similar it would be that it's SLOW and TEDIOUS!

I have a tip for you if you're shopping for somebody to restore YOUR 1955 Chevrolet pickup. If the guy says that he can whip the job out FAST look out or better yet, back up. Nine times out of ten, what you save in hours is going to cost you in lost original parts and the quality of the finished product. There's no glory in driving a poorly restored vintage car or truck. Remain involved in the process and be sure that you get the look that you want for that great old 1955 Chevrolet pickup!

Please visit GoGoCycles Used Motorcycle Classifieds to see the next step we take to restore this old truck.

Next in this series:

• Pictures of the interior taken through the back doors of the van
• Pictures of the front with the grill and hood removed
• Closeup photos of the dashboard, steering wheel
• Before and after pics of the Rebuilding of the radio mount and dash board of the truck
• Before and After pics of the entire truck

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