The Advance-Design is a light and medium duty truck series by Chevrolet, their first major redesign after WWII. It was bigger, bolder, and featured a horizontal 5 bar grille which is recognized to many as one of the most iconic designs in all of automotive history, Its GMC counterpart was the GMC New Design, It was billed as a larger, stronger, and sleeker design in comparison to the earlier AK Series. First available on Saturday, Jun 28, 1947, these trucks were sold with various minor changes over the years until March 25, 1955, when the Task Force Series trucks replaced the Advance-Design model.
The same basic design family was used for all of its trucks including the Suburban, panel trucks, canopy express, and cab overs. The can overs used the same basic cab configuration and similar grille but used a shorter and taller hood and different fenders. The unique cab over fenders and hood required a custom cowl area which makes the cab over engine cabs and normal truck cabs incompatible with one another while all truck cabs of all weights interchange. The primary exterior change on the 1954 model year of the medium light duty trucks was a new front grille resembles the iconic Dodge intersecting cross bar grille and an updated bed design which remained unchanged from the previous years from 1948 to 1953.
In 1954, only year for significant design changes. Windshield now curved one-piece glass without center vertical dividing strip. Revised steering wheel. Revised dashboard. Cargo bed rails, previously angled, now horizontal. Tail lights round instead of rectangular. Grille changed from five horizontal slats to crossbar design commonly referred to as a “bull nose” grille, similar to modern Dodge truck grilles.
This vehicle came in to do a compression test on the engine. We will be converting the drum brakes to disc brakes. We will also be diagnosing the steering and front end issues.
