So i came up with the brilliant idea of taking a coe and turning it into a hauler for a vintage airstream and or car trailer. Being that I live in NYC there are NO coes to be found. I found a 52 chevy coe on here that was in Wisc. Bought is sight unseen and had it shipped to NY. Finally got around to looking at it today. Needs: driver and passenger side fenders Door glass on both Cab corners front bumper 2 grill bars front bumper splash pan Which of these parts can be used from a regular 3100 pickup? Plans are to either make or buy a 1ton dually chassis. Going to put a diesel in it too. Air ride. custom flat bed with wooden stakes. Truck will be painted in an original blue enamel. gotta love the bullet hole in the door.
Wow, great I love the idea of a custom car trailer and the coe is so cartoony - the best body for that project...keep it posted. BTW, you might have seen this one-off Mercedes Renndienst trailer from the 50ies? Have a good christmas time.
Kool idea, good start. I think it would bee asier to start with a dually chassis. The door glass and cab corners should be the same I'm not sure about the rest. From the pics the fenders don't look that bad, can't they be repaired? There is a guy in Lisbon, ND, I don't have any other info on him, but he is the only guy in Lisbon with a lot of old cars. I saw hiscars a few years ago and he has three or four fields of them. attached is a pic of the Chev coe he had at that time. I know he advertises in the free auto for sale you can pick up. I will see if I can find an old one laying around with his number in it. If I find it I will let you know.
^like he said I think cab corners and door glass is the same... other than that you may be able to use a set of regular fenders to patch yours? Love the idea of using a coe as a car or camper hauler! Maybe one day I can do the same...
Grille and splash pan should be the same as a regular truck.....same for the front 1/2 of the fenders. Looks like a nice old truck, have fun with it!
Cab corners and door glass, yes. Grille bars, seems like that's a yes, but if I remember correctly, you can not put a truck grille in a cabover. Splash pan, no. Bumper....you can put anything on there you want if you can fab brackets Fenders, absolutely no. And good luck finding some nicer than what you have(as they appear to be pretty good in the pics) That looks like a pretty decent start---focus on mating it with the chassis first, and all the cosmetic stuff will work itself out later Good luck with it----at one time I had 5 cabs and various donor chassis...whittled down to 3 now, and STILL haven't started on one yet. It's a fairly easy build but intimidating at the same time(to some like me anyway) I'd suggest you work toward mounting the body and sorting out what steering box/setup you want FIRST, then decide engine location(under cab or behind), THEN, the rest will fall into place. Just my two cents worth.....
Nice start. Hit your area classifieds and car/tow yard auctions. Look for a wrecked pick up or motorhome that has a diesel chassis. That'll give you a great start to the project w/o a ton of fabrication.
Hey Guys. Thanks for the replies. The truck is in decent shape to start. Not great. The drivers fender is rotted through above the headlight, lower front fender is rotted off and lip that attached to the step is rotted to hell. Cab corners are rotted. Cowl has some rot on drivers side. Dent in the back below window. A few holes from mounting mirrors here and there (nothing major). Passenger fender front lower is rotted off. 1-2 grill bars are pushed in and dented. Front bumper splash pan is only 1/2 there. As for the chassis, I am looking at wrecked 1ton trucks and motorhomes that run and drive. Also looking at short school busses (diesel and dually). Shouldnt be that difficult to do the swap. Thank you for the comments on using it as a camper hauler, there is more to it and you will see more as it begins to unfold. Our local yards and classifieds have a classics section of about 10 cars. Really bad selection. Not looking to make it perfect. Dents are fine along with the worn paint. Just dont want the rot. Idea is to make it as original and keep the patina there, old farm truck look.
Those fenders don't look TOO bad, if that's all you can find. After having them blasted, I'd graft on '55 Buick headlights, and do the neccessary patch panels. Primer red would look okay with the faded yellow. LOVE those COEs. got one in my future...
The cabs are the same except for the lower front area. They put a piece of floor in there with the fender cutout and I have seen pickup doors used after making the cut for the fender. The OEM chassis is pretty much a straight rail frame that has a lift frame on top of it for the cab, so if you want to change chassis, look at a stepvan. They have a similar configuration and the steering is in the correct position to get into the cab without changing the geometry of the steering linkage. They do fit on a Chev pickup chassis with some work, and the width of the front wheels can be an issue. The wheel opening for the OEM 20" splits looks too big when you put a regular sized tire in there too, so you may consider recontouring the wheel opening. I've seen them with front or rear engine builds, pickups and flatbeds, so there are any number of ways to make it work.
Well after getting off the phone with eklers, classicparts, lmc and chevsofthe40s I seemed to get some answers. Grills are different Splash pan and bumper are different Fenders are obviously different in some areas, although eklers sells the pads for the fenders Door glass and cab corners are the same as well as many interior parts. I just sold a set of 54 fenders off my 1st series. Could have cut thoughs up and used the parts. Week to late. Seems like I will have to patch many of the parts and fabricate where need be. If anyone knows anyone with parts, please send them my way. Thanks
should have looked in the old classifieds,,i have a 47 autocar coe in massapqua....its susiside from the factory
..you're too dang fussy!.........jus kidden, that truck looks pretty good for it's age. Good luck with it.
Give me a call @ (336)987-9992. I've owned close to thirty Chevy, & GMC COE's. May be able to answer alot of your questions. Do a google search for "Spankys COE's", or "Spankys COE's 2" for my webshots albums. Also check out, http://www.classiccoe.com/spanky.htm
See some of you guys have seemed to use a motorhome chassis to mount the COE on, I am in the process and have run into the problem of the steering box being right in the way of the front lower fender. Any ideas as to how to resolve this problem? My chassis is a 78 Chevy motorhome.
COE in NYC that isn't a common hobby vehicle, looks like a good start. I looked ober a grille for one of those at Hershey two years ago, think there is a cut out or notch for the steering box, and the lower pan differs from conventional cabs. Look forward to progress reports.
used a '79 Chasis.. I built a chain drive to get the steering shaft to line up. View attachment 1521511 View attachment 1521512
I also have a COE...53 GMC which is almost the same as Chevy, and several other COE's. Your project Chevy is in better than average shape, and the good HAMB members have given good info and ideas. Check out my post on closing the profile/wheel fender opening on a '52 Ford COE, and my albums on other COE's. Contact me if you have concerns about patch panels and rehab on fenders...with a little help and incouragement your project will give great satisfaction! Griffdaddy
The Jalopy Journal
