Chevrolet Pickup

Chevrolet is known all around the world because of the high quality cars it manufactures that are a strong competitor on the market. In the truck niche, Chevrolet has done a good job as well, starting the truck business in 1918 and ten years later, in 1928 was released the first Chevrolet pickup.

The 1928 Chevrolet pickup was manufactured and released on the market as a competitor for the Ford trucks. This rivalry begun in 1910 and by the middle of the ‘20s these two companies were “neck in neck”. The Chevrolet trucks manufactured in 1918 had a modest design and a capacity ranging between half a ton and one ton. These trucks were based on the 490 passenger car equipped with a 102 inches wheelbase.

This pickup is nothing like its modern version. In fact, it looked like a roadster with a cargo box in the trunk. For the 1928 Chevrolet pickup, the company used components supplied by other manufacturers including the fenders and the hood, the drive train and other accessories needed by the buyers. Only the chassis and the cowl were provided by the Chevrolet Company. All the features that characterize Chevrolet pickup’s cabin are the same as those used for other car models manufactured by Chevrolet, such as the handy instrumentation panel, the foot pedals, the steering wheel and the shift lever.

The 1928 Chevrolet pickup came with a light-duty line and was longer than the other cars produced until then by Chevrolet. The 107 inches wheelbase and the 56 inches front and rear explain those dimensions. The pickup is equipped with a half floating rear axle, eight leaf front springs and twelve leaf rear springs and a worm drive rear end. Other features that equipped the Chevrolet pickup were the front balloon tires and the solid rubber rears. To complete the exterior of this pickup, the Chevrolet team designed deep fenders, amazing bullet headlight housings and a high cowl.

When it comes to the power, this 1928 Chevrolet pickup was equipped with a 224 cubic inches four cylinders engine. Later on the engine was updated to increase the compression ratio by designing larger valves and an exhaust manifold made from two pieces. Even if all these improvements were made, the horsepower didn’t increase much keeping its value around 35 horsepower, but the torque and the responsiveness made the difference. In addition, the 1928 Chevrolet pickup was equipped with four wheel brakes which were standard for all the cars in that era.

The chassis of this pickup was retailed for only $495 and different body styles were listed and available on the market, such as the hearse, the sedan delivery and the ambulance produced by Henney. Despite the fact that the conventional bodies weren’t manufactured in Chevrolet factories, the “home-made” bare chassis was a real success used in most of the cars sold. An interesting approach is related to car dealers that sometimes brought the body to the Chevrolet Company that built the entire pickup and afterwards gave it back to the dealer that sold it. That’s an interesting way of doing business. Even customers had the opportunity to choose a non-standard body manufacturer and get the rest of the Chevrolet pickup built.

Nowadays, the 1928 Chevrolet pickup has become an amazing classic car, a real masterpiece with sentimental value and not only. Any car collector wants to own one, because it’s a rarity worth investing in.

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