Auction Pick of the Week: 1952 Chevrolet Pickup
I don’t think we ever found out what Floyd the barber drove on The Andy Griffith Show, but it doesn’t take much imagination to picture this 1952 Chevrolet pickup in front of Floyd’s Barber Shop in downtown Mayberry.
The show emphasized that sometimes the world is best viewed low and slow, off the main drag. The “slow” part wouldn’t be a problem with this Hagerty Marketplace Auction Pick of the Week: It has a 217-cubic-inch Thriftmaster six-cylinder with a single-barrel carburetor, and the transmission is shifted via a “three on the tree”—the shifter is on right side of the steering column where a modern car’s wiper stalk might be.
Restomods are undeniably nice—something like this truck but equipped with an LS V-8 and an automatic transmission, with wide wheels and tires—though there’s something endearing about an almost all-original vehicle like this ’52 Chevy. Something gets lost in the chemistry when you yank out the original engine, forever gone, and replace it with a crate V-8 off the shelf.
And this truck on Hagerty Marketplace is probably 95 percent the way it looked when it rolled off the assembly line, but better. A genuine (and coveted) five-window model, it has a custom snap-on tonneau protecting the lovely wood bed, which even has a wood cover over an in-bed locking toolbox.
Inside, the dashboard is period-correct; a steering wheel cover and an added-on tachometer appear to be the only modern touches. Under the hood, the Thriftmaster engine is painted blue. Running boards are in excellent shape. The grille and chrome bumpers appear to be near-flawless. The undercarriage is solid and simple. The 6-volt electrical system has been replaced by a 12-volt, a very good thing for most buyers.
There are a couple of dings in the handsome metallic brown paint, but this ’54 Chevy is a runner, not a trailer queen. It’d make an excellent Home Depot weekend errand truck.
Information posted about the truck says that it was restored before the current owner bought it six years ago, and it has been driven modestly since. If your name is Floyd, and you used to be a small-town barber, we have your pickup.
The auction ends June 15 at 4:20 p.m. ET.
***
Check out the Hagerty Media homepage so you don’t miss a single story, or better yet, bookmark it. To get our best stories delivered right to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletters.
