History of our 1952 Chev Delivery Truck

History of the 1952 Pacific Builders Chev Delivery Truck

This truck was the first delivery truck when Pacific Builders Supplies started in 1959.  It was originally used in logging by Andy Simard and then bought by the business as part of Andy’s equity in the fledgling building supply business.  Andy and his two sons were silent investors who were bought out in 1964.  You can see his name on the bottom of the door and the phone number “19”.  We joked that our father was very optimistic starting a business in little Cobble Hill with only 18 other potential customers.    It had assisted mechanical brakes which meant in practice that when you were going down a hill fully loaded and using the brakes a lot, the drums heated up, expanded and soon you almost had no braking power.  At some point, it ended up back with Andy Simard and parked along his property for a number of years.  It was then bought by Cliff Latter who had a large forested acreage and used it on the property.  In 2004 Cliff’s son Paul started working at Pacific Homes and several years later mentioned he had this old rusting truck on his parent’s property.  We bought back the truck and set about restoring it.   It was restored by Tony Hill who had worked for years as a mechanic at Pacific Builders.  After almost 2 years, and at a cost of many times its original factory price it was restored in time for the 50^th anniversary of Pacific Builders in 2009.  It still has its original engine and most of the original frame.  We kept the truck for several years to display in the Duncan store and finally donated it to the Cowichan Forest Discovery Museum in 2011 for permanent display.