My dad still has my great grandfather's 1950 Chevy 3100. I pulled it out of the shed and got it running again when I was in high school because I hated driving the 82 Pontiac Grand Prix I got as a hand me down from my mother after the transmission had to be rebuilt. The truck has the metal dash, no radio (optional), 3 speed on the column, no power steering or brakes, no heat, no AC, no rearview mirror (has a mirror mounted on the door on driver side only), no turn signals (apparently optional?), and one brake light on the driver side rear. But it looks a lot cooler than an 82 Pontiac lol. It is great that the vehicles have the options they have now, but you do have to pay for them. I will probably buy an XL myself. Plenty of options available on them now.

 

Did the 3100 have the floor mounted starter pedal?
Thanks,
Phil

 

It probably had the headlight dimmer switch on the floor like this one - no carpet tho.

 

Yes, it does. You turn the ignition on with the key. Then depress the pedal to turn the starter. And the entire system is 6 volts lol.

 

When I pulled the truck out of the shed in...1992 or so, it still had a 1970 something inspection sticker on it. So it hadn't been on the road in a while. It has less than 50k miles on it. I redid the brakes on it in high school, changed the oil, did some body work, put more modern wheels and tires on, and sadly had it painted (wished I'd left it factory paint and surface rust). I drove it a little while in high school, but it quickly became apparent that the truck is too antiquated for anything over about 50 mph. It would be fun for an "around town" truck, but getting on a highway with a posted speed limit of 70 mph would be darn near suicide lol. It was made to haul a little firewood or hay, with a trip into town to buy a Coke thrown in the middle. And that's about all it'll do. A simple truck for simpler times that are long gone.

 

Don't forget the switch for the bright lights was on the left side of the floor.

Totally missed this being mentioned above

 

we didnt have trucks back home, but my parents VW back in the late 80's / early 90's had all you mention... 3-speed auto, 55hp diesel, crank windows of course, AM radio only, cloth seats, no power anything (backing up trailers with that thing was a lot of fun...)
wonder how we survived back then...

 

 

I remember when I was still I high school a friend my brother and I went flying down the road where we live. We met a brand new 64 427 2 fours Ford in a curve took the whole front end off of it. The car still had 30 day tags on it. It was a Ford and we had a 58 Chevy. I'm sure the guy driving it was sick but to us to was just a Ford and we had a Chevy.

 

My first accident was in a 1956-8 Ford PU. I was about 8 years old, living on a farm, and my Dad let me drive the PU to the overhead gas tank to fill it up with gas (maybe a 100 yards total distance). I drove to the gas tank and filled up the PU and forgot to remove the hose and nozzle before I drove off. Luckily the tank was nearly empty and when it fell on the truck it just dented the real fender. I remember not sitting down for a while.