1938

In our 20 years posting Featured Truck series we have only listed a few 1938 Chevy USA made ½ tons. (January 2020) The 1938 Chevy trucks are much rarer than the other two years in this series, the 1937 and 1939. This is due to 1938 labor strikes that at times stopped production in most of the GM plants. It...

Thirty years ago I had the gas tank of my ’38 pickup coated inside to control rust. Since that time I would change the gas (usually three gallons) every eight weeks due to the gas eating away at the coating. Small bits of that coating would get into the fuel pump and carburetor wreaking havoc. When I found out there...

Steve Richards first got it delivered from California to New York!  It was very nice for an untouched work truck.  He says it was really expensive but often this is the least expensive way if you plan on a full restoration. As we watch for the more unusual, these before and after photos certainly caught our attention. Why General Motors...

Jerry Rivers of Polo, Missouri just purchased a 1938 Chevrolet 1 ½ ton truck. It appears to have been left by a pasture fence in a back field for so many years! Jerry wanted some of the parts that were still usable, so he pulled it out of the dirt (up to the axles and could sink no more). The...

We at Jim Carter Truck Parts are occasionally asked if an original 1937 under seat tank will fit in their 1938. This question is asked because the 1937 tank has been reproduced, however, the 1938 has not. We asked a good customer that has personally restored a show quality 1938 Chevy ½ ton. It is a show quality award winner...

Thirty six years by the same owner! Mike Odom of Kingston, Illinois purchased this 1938 Chevy 3/4 ton at a farm auction about 1985 for $1275.00. Why? It was the beginning of the pickup craze in the U.S. that still is alive and well. Mike wanted an older pickup long before he had the money to buy one, much less...

Wow! Here’s what you can do with a 2 ton 80 year old truck that has become almost beyond repair! Glenn Garrison of Germanton, North Carolina decided to build a roll back truck that was one of a kind. He wanted something no one else would have and yet could do car hauling duties as well as others. When he saw...

To add better night visibility to all Pickups, Big trucks, Suburban’s, and panel trucks, General Motors offered a 4 inch diameter 1940-1953 Accessory GM Reflector as a dealer installed accessory.  With the single small factory taillight, seeing of these vehicles on the road could be difficult especially if their one bulb burned out.  To help correct this problem GM offered a...

It’s 1938 and the GMC division of General Motors is entering its third year of small truck production.  Prior to 1936, the GMC line consisted of only larger trucks normally bought by Farms and businesses, for heavy hauling.  The Great Depression was in full swing and GMC needed more sales to add to their financial bottom line.  To help sales...

In the Chevrolet truck assembly plant in Petone, New Zealand near the capital city of Wellington, a bed was not part of the pickup. This was in the 1930's through mid 1940's. The reason was to keep cost lower and to sell more trucks. The two rear fenders were wired flat to the frame for the new owner's future use...

When it was new, my GMC was a water truck on the Altoona PA fairgrounds. It sat under a big oak tree for many years until the second owner bought it. It didn't have license plate on it until the 1970's. The second owner did a basic restoration and painted it in the same colors and scheme as it was when new. He also put two speed GMC rear end in it, shortened it, and made a fifth wheel out of it.

The Australian 1937-38 Chevrolet trucks are much like those in the U.S., however on close observation, one can certainly see unique differences. This United States relative is obviously GM but not quite the same. These Down-Under truck's final assembly point was in the Holden plant in New South Wales, Australia. (Holden is a branch for GM in that country.) Much...

Chevrolet introduced their basic nine inch single disc clutch and corresponding diaphragm pressure plate in 1938. This pair was used in their cars and most 1/2 ton pickups with three speed transmissions through 1953. With about one million of these vehicles sold annually, one can quickly realize the high numbers of this clutch system that was at one time on...

  Though at quick glance, the GMC grilles of these two years may seem the same, however, look close. Changes at the top show slight differences. The die cast assembly at the top of the 1937 grille gives the impression that the vertical grille bars extend through the emblem. They don't! It's an illusion and is die cast. The hood...

This early glove box lock assembly has a weak point that makes it difficult to find complete. Its die-cast vertical pointer is held in place by a small steel tension spring. After the truck sets outside abandon several years the spring rusts, breaks, or otherwise looses its tension. This allows the pointer to fall out and the glove box lid will no longer stay closed.

It is so unusual to find an unmolested mid 30s truck! When this all original 21,000 mile 1937 GMC appeared at a recent New England truck show, we had to take notice having never seen the correct installation of the small 3/8” bead cab windlace on an early model. Our camera did some recording.

Now, this is just like they used to be! A 1938 Chevy 1/2 ton rebuilt, beginning with the bare frame and made to look as it was on the dealer showroom over 70 years ago.

I bought my 1938 Chevy truck at an estate sale in Lindsborg, Kansas on October 4,2002. Since that time I have performed a frame off restoration on the truck. The frame and body panels were all blasted to bare metal, and the repainted to their original colors.