Specifications
STORY
Chevrolet's Advance-Design trucks reached dealers in June 1947, the first all-new American vehicles of the post-war era and a rare case of the truck line, not the cars, carrying a company's new styling. The all-welded Unisteel cab was wider at the hip by eight inches, mounted grille, hood and fenders as one rubber-isolated assembly and seated three. The short-wheelbase half-ton was designated 3100, and its hood plates read Thriftmaster - the name of both the light-duty range and its 216.5 cu in valve-in-head six, rated 90 hp gross at 3,300 rpm.
Little changed for nearly a decade: column shift and a synchro-mesh box in 1948, the fuel tank moved into the cab in 1949, door vent windows in 1951, a one-piece curved windshield and the 235.5 cu in six for 1954. In March 1955 the second-series Task Force line replaced it, bringing a wrap-around windshield and Chevrolet's first pickup V8, the 265 cu in Taskmaster; the 3100 designation ran on to 1959, by then wearing an Apache badge.
The 3100 is now the default American restomod donor - ICON's TR Thriftmaster rebuilds a 1947-53 five-window body on an Art Morrison chassis.
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