Car of the Week: 1954 Chevrolet 3100 pick up

Greg Pellegrom always had it in the back of his mind. Maybe… possibly … if the right one came along … and the timing seemed just right… sure, he’d like to buy an old pickup truck.

“I guess it was just a matter of opportunity,” says Pellegrom, a retired resident of Stevens Point, Wis.

That opportunity came out of the blue back in 2000. Pellegrom was traveling for business and found himself in Tupelo, Miss. He was a long way from home, but he was enjoying himself, in part, because of the number of nice, old pickup trucks he noticed driving around.

“I was talking to a guy saying, ‘Man, it’s sure been fun being here and looking at all your old pickup trucks,” Pellegrom recalled with a chuckle. “He said, ‘Y’all looking for one?’ I said, ‘Well, all Yankees are, aren’t they?.’ He said, ‘My cousin has one for sale!’”

That 1954 Chevrolet 3100 half-ton had apparently belonged to a chicken farmer in Tupelo. It was in pretty decent shape — good enough that it needed somebody to either get running good enough to enjoy in “as is” condition with a little TLC, or somebody with bigger plans to finish restoring it back to original.

Pellegrom wasn’t sure which direction he was going to go with it, but he simply couldn’t pass up the chance to buy an old Chevy pickup that had lived on a chicken farm in Tupelo.

“He had the thing in primer, and it had been sitting in his garage,” Pellegrom said. “His uncle bought the truck originally…. It ran, yes. The brakes were not good. I drove it up and down the road a few times. But the bed was gone. The tailgate and front of the box were both beat up… The guy kept track of some of his oil changes, and it looks like it went years and years — maybe 10 years at a time, between oil changes. I think it spent a lot of time sitting in a barn.”

An old farm truck that needed some love was just fine with Pellegrom. It was exactly that kind of truck that he remembered from his childhood.

“It was an impulse, but I always kind of had it in my mind that I wanted an old Chevy pickup truck, because in my youth, my dad’s cousin used to go up and down the street in our hometown of Grand Haven, Michigan, and he had produce on the back of his old Chevy pickup,” Pellegrom recalled. “I’ll always remember seeing that truck coming down the street, heading for the market or wherever….”

Pellegrom jokes about having to OK the acquisition with his wife Jackie. That conversation took an interesting twist when he got home. Turns out Jackie had scoped out an old pickup at an antique shop while Greg had been on the road. She gave some serious thought to buying it as a surprise.

“She said, ‘Wouldn’t it have been fun if I had bought it for you?’” Pellegrom laughs. “I said, ‘Well, funny you should say that, because I have something to tell you about.”

1954: A Better ‘Advance-Design’

Chevy’s Advance-Design line of trucks were introduced following World War II in 1947, and by 1954, they were due for a fairly substantial refresh.

There was a new and more open grille. The opening was filled with a massive cross-bar arrangement. The main horizontal bar extended the full-width of the body. Below it were rectangular parking lamps. The outer radiator grille bars were done in body color, and the inner bars were Thistle Gray (except trucks painted Commercial Red had Argent Silver inner bars, and trucks painted Pure White had Pure White inner bars). “Chevrolet” was stamped into the grille header bar and lettered in Waldorf White. Bumpers were finished in Anvil Gray.

There was a new instrument panel with defroster openings that extended the full width of the windshield. The instruments, grouped in two clusters, were now recessed into the panel to minimize reflections. There was also a redesigned “dispatch booth” (glove compartment) and a restyled ash tray. A revised steering wheel provided a better view of the instruments and incorporated finger grips on the horizontal spokes. A new load box featured a 2-inch lower loading height, flat side panel tops, deeper sides and a tailgate the same height as the sides. The 1954 taillamps were round. When the optional rear bumper was ordered, the license plate was mounted in the center of the box, under the tailgate.

Some of the numerous technical changes included a more rugged three-speed manual transmission; a new optional Hydra-Matic transmission; and a more durable clutch for automatics. Frame rigidity was increased by a heavier cross-member at the rear of the engine. Chrome fender bars were available as Deluxe equipment on panel trucks only. A switch to a gray-and-maroon interior was made for Suburbans. A Juniper Green body finish with cream medium striping and black wheels was standard finish for all models.

Eleven other colors were optional at no extra cost. They included: Commercial Red with Argent Silver; Jet Black with Argent Silver; Mariner Blue with Cream Medium; Cream Medium with Jet Black; Yukon Yellow with Jet Black; Ocean Green with Jet Black; Transport Blue with Cream Medium; Copper Tone with Shell White; Omaha Orange with Jet Black; Autumn Brown with Shell White; and Pure White with Juniper Green. Standard wheels were black; on Deluxe monotone and two-tone trucks, the wheels were the color of the lower body; on two-tone trucks, Shell White was used exclusively as the upper body color and the belt line was usually striped with the lower body color. Exceptions included trucks with the lower body done in Pure White, Cream Medium or Omaha Orange, in which cases the striping was Jet Black or Onyx Black.

Early in 1954, Chevrolet introduced a new Deluxe Cab option for all 3000 Series trucks. It included two-tone interior trim that harmonized with the exterior color; stainless-steel windshield and side window reveals; chrome-plated Ventipane frames; right-hand sunshade; left-hand armrest; cigar lighter; twin-tone horns; and curved rear corner windows. The two-tone interior colors with Light Green and Juniper Green; Light Blue and Dark Blue; Birch White and Brown; and Pear Beige and Maroon. The interior included a color-coordinated cloth seat; a color-coordinated rubber floor mat; color-coordinated wind lacing; and special colored plastic armrests.

The 235.5-cid six was improved with output now up to 105 hp, thanks to new insert bearings and high-pressure lubrication. The same engine had been introduced on passenger cars with the two-speed Powerglide in 1953. Torque-tube drive returned, and Hydra-Matic was optional.

The base price of the 1/2-ton 3100 pickup was $1,419 for the 1954 model year. The 3100 Series also included a cab and chassis; chassis and cowl; panel delivery; canopy; and Suburbans with either doors or tailgates in back.

Cruising Through Retirement

Like anybody who picks up an old vehicle to restore — or at least finish — Pellegrom had a fundamental decision to make regarding his 1954 1/2-ton: Try to return it to authentic factory condition, or make a few modifications to make it a reliable driver. The decision for him wasn’t a difficult one; he wanted to drive the truck as much as possible.

“I wanted to paint it and restore whatever I had to,” he says. “I didn’t want to get inside the engine if I didn’t have to. I just wanted a truck to have some fun in, go to a few parades, a few car shows, and talk smart with the fellas.

“If you go by the book, you could pick apart just about everything. It’s not a blue ribbon concours vehicle, and I’m not a blue ribbon concours guy.”

Pellegrom had a friend help him tackle all the bodywork, and paint. They went with stainless divider strips and oak planks for the bed — a combination that looks great, but is a little flashier than what came from the factory.

One of the biggest decisions he faced was what paint color to go with. The truck was in primer when he got it, so it was a blank canvas. Pellegrom said he was leaning toward red, but his wife wanted yellow. “Then I was on another business trip out to Kansas and I saw a guy that had about a ’53 Chevy pickup on a K5 Chevy chassis and it had a real nice mellow green on it.”

That sighting changed his mind. 

“I just really liked the green. It’s easy on the eyes, and just kind of low-key. This shade is actually closer probably to a Ford color. The same buddy painter who went to get the truck with me and help me with the bodywork painted the truck in his garage with a 20-inch box fan for ventilation. We probably broke every OSHA rule there was!”

The new grilles on the ’54s were originally available in chrome, but that was more expensive and not common. On painted grilles, body color was used on the outer bars, while the inner bars were White, Thistle Gray or Argent Silver on red trucks. Pellegrom decided to break with authenticity and go with cream for the grille, which was used on other trucks of the era, but wasn’t a Chevy option in ’54. 

“The White was so stark, it was really bright. I just didn’t think that it looked good with this color. I liked [the cream] because it doesn’t jump out at you … And the front and rear bumpers are about $10 worth of Rustoleum! Same thing with the running boards. About $10 worth of Rustoleum paint, painted in my friend’s garage.”

The previous owner had already painted the interior of the steel cab a tan color. Pellegrom tackled the vinyl seat upholstery himself in his basement, and added seat belts for himself and passengers.

“I was a safety guy for Sentry Insurance for 37 years!” he jokes. “I gotta do the safety stuff.”

Pellegrom also added outside mirrors, stainless taillamps, a heater-defroster and a few other goodies. A local garage just a couple blocks from his home did some brake work on the pickup and replaced the starter. The electrics on the truck have also been swapped from 6 to 12 volts with a generator now in place.

“I also went to 15-inch wheels and rubber,” he points out. “The narrow whitewalls are not authentic, but I wanted to go with the radials.”

Pellegrom said it took him nearly three years from the time he got it home to get the truck “done.” He was still working full-time back then, and he said he looked forward to coming home from work every night and on the weekends and having the resto project to keep him busy. The truck eventually led to another vehicle, too. He now has a sweet 1931 Ford Model A in his garage.

“The whole project was a lot of fun for me. I always knew I was doing the right thing,” he says. “Just the process was something I really enjoyed, and it was something to look forward to and something different from my day job. The project itself kept me going.”

He says a spin on a country road in the old Chevy takes him back to simpler times and reminds him its OK to sometimes take life at a slower pace. When you are bouncing along in a 70-year-old truck, well, you don’t really have much choice but to slow down.

“Yeah, it doesn’t go very fast. The rear end has farmer’s market gears in it — 45, 50 mph. You know, what’s the rush?” Pellegrom concludes. “It’s all just recreation. It’s all just about having fun.”

Love Chevy trucks? Here are a few more articles for your reading enjoyment.

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