1947 Chevy Pickup - Project Shop Truck

A Word On Registration
There are 50 states and about 50 different ways to register your '47 Chevy pickup. The most common are as a replacement body for an existing VIN, a special construction vehicle, or a series of hybrid ways depending upon the state you live in. For instance, in Idaho where they have a Street Rod License and Registration law all you need to do is provide proper paperwork (the Manufacturers Statement of Origin, MSO, provided by Chevs of the 40's, via Dynacorn, and Fatman will do the trick) and throw in receipts for the drivetrain and you will leave the DMV with registered truck.

Unlike cars, trucks in many states will require weight certificates and may also need to be registered as commercial vehicles. The registration will cost a few more bucks but nothing that should cause you any impact to your budget.

Many states will allow you to title your pickup as the year it most closely resembles, in our case a 1947, and inspect it as that year. This is the typical process in those 17-plus states that have the Street Rod and Kit Car registration laws resulting from the efforts of SEMA through the SEMA Action Network, local car clubs, and individuals. Other states will require you to title it as the year the chassis was built and then inspect it as to the year of the engine used, which is one of the hybrid methods mentioned earlier. Although in current dispute in the State of California, interpret that as confusion, should you have a Chevy 350 you can register it based on the "family" of engines that the 350 represents which was first brought out in '67-in Camaros.

The Fatman chassis comes with a MSO. Their MSO and 17 digit VIN number will assist you in getting a proper title from your local DMV. Fatman is listed with the Federal Government as a legal manufacturer and its MSO is the same paperwork provided with any new car. It is a violation of Federal law for any one other than the original manufacturer to supply a VIN number or to stamp one onto the chassis, or elsewhere on the body. Should you purchase a chassis from Fatman make sure to request this service before taking delivery as they cannot supply the number at a later date for you to stamp into your chassis.

When you order your '47 Chevy pickup from Chevs of the 40's a MSO for an Automobile Body is provided through Dynacorn and the paperwork lists a serial number, year of truck, and other pertinent information. You will find this makes registration a great deal easier.

Next Up
Over the course of the next few months we will get into the mounting of the cab, fenders, and running boards. We will also start from scratch with the building of a pickup bed from MAR-K out of Oklahoma. You will see as we did that building out the interior is quit simple since Chevs of the 40s has all the pieces and the cab because it is built to replicate the original will accept all of the original or aftermarket pieces intended for this truck.

Project Shop Truck is off and running now let's see if we can get it running in time to have some fun this year.