1949 Chev Pickup - Green with Envy

Ever since Ken Bell was a kid, he loved the shape of the '47-54 trucks. Unfortunately, he would never own one until many years later. By that time, he had kids of his own--teenage daughters, no less! But Ken must have raised them right, because when approached with the idea of bringing home a new project (Ken already has a '34 Ford three-window), Brittany and Jacqueline were extremely receptive to the idea, mostly because they knew Dad could not drive them both at the same time.

A friend of Ken found this '49 Chevy in the yard of his mother's neighbor in Cottonwood, Arizona, and snatched it up. But he eventually decided not to restore it, so Ken picked it up for a song and relocated it to Tempe. Being a lifelong Arizona truck, it was rust-free and in relatively good condition. In fact, every piece of sheetmetal on this truck is factory original. Jacqueline and Dad put the truck in the garage and proceeded to disassemble the entire truck. Ken's fondest memories were of all the "Hey Dad, what's this?" questions that were asked during those days.

Eventually, all of the body parts and the frame went off to soda-blasting, and then they were delivered to Rod Palmer of Arizona Street Rods for the suspension fabrication, body, and paint. All of the superfluous holes on the frame were filled and smoothed over. The Heidt's IFS and four-bar setups were grafted onto the front and rear of the vehicle. A disc brake Currie rearend was hung out back, and Coddingtons shod with Goodyear Eagles were bolted to each corner. A mostly stock 350 was topped with a polished multi-port injection system from Street & Performance and backed with a 700-R4 transmission.

Because the factory steel was so nice on the '49, the body mods were kept to a minimum. The emblems were shaved and the hood was welded and smoothed as were the inner fenders and firewall. The running boards were smoothed and flared for the exhaust tips and the bedrail ends were capped. A custom roll pan with LED's was installed, and the new front chrome and bed floor were waiting in the wings. All that was left now was for the girls to decide on a color. And once they did, the DuPont Pearl Green was sprayed and rubbed to perfection as the truck was reassembled. George Fimbres recovered the stock seat and other upholstery in tan leather, while the stock dash was fit with all the best from ididit, Lecarra, and Beede.

Since its completion, Ken drives the truck as much as possible, which presents a problem due to the fact that Brittany and Jacqueline also drive the truck as much as possible. This past spring, they hit the road to Del Mar for the Goodguys Nationals with Dad following along in the '34, where they caught our attention and picked up a Top 10 award. The girls also hit all of the local cruise nights, and according to Ken, the guys seemed to like it.