Texas Truckin'
Frank Sawberger of Roanoke, TX is the newest owner of this '62 Loadside. I first heard about the truck in 1999 from Bud Steele (Elverta, CA) but he couldn't remember who exactly owned it! Frank and I connected by chance in the summer of 2002 and I came to realize this was the truck Bud had told me about.
This truck, like a few others in the registry, has a government heritage. The special paint code was the first clue. There are signs of an auxiliary data plate having been mounted to the glovebox door (like Burt Lippold's truck) and there is an extra bit on the original VIN tag that probably is of government origin: "C 62 490".
Update May, 2011: Joe VonDerHaar's truck, built earlier in the production run, has the same sort of extra information on the VIN tag: "C 62 200". Dave Newell commented, "These look like government purchase order numbers to me. There is a number very much like this ('BID NO C 61 133') on the VIN plate of the '61 sedan that was purchased by the Atomic Energy Commission." Perhaps "C" indicates Chevrolet or Corvair, "62" for the 1962 model year, and "200" and "490" the sequential number.
Also, given the equipment found on Joe's truck is very much like that on Jerry' Goffe's truck, it makes sense that Frank's truck may have also been a Forest Service vehicle originally.
The truck has a gas heater and 4-way flasher, two desirable and rare options!
I hope Frank has a chance to send some photos soon.
Information from the data plate
Description |
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|---|---|---|---|
STD |
Standard equipment |
SPEC |
Special paint |
(Click on a heading in the table for more information on that item.)