(posted by A. Kwanten) It may be down at the heel at 64 years old, but this ’51 Chevy Deluxe would surely do Dinah Shore proud. It is apparently still a driver, despite pretty heavy rust in the sills. But the patina of age is almost always more interesting than the perfection of restoration, and this car wears all it’s miles on the outside.
Chevrolet built 380,270 Deluxe sedans in 1951, all of them powered by the old Stovebolt Six. This hardy flathead overhead valve powerplant had debuted in 1929 and would be steadily improved until 1962. In 1963, it was replaced by a new generation of six cylinder engines, which first debuted in the 1962 Chevy II. In 1951, Chevrolet offered a 216-cubic inch version on cars with manual transmissions and a larger 235-cube version on Powerglide-equipped cars.
The 1951 Chevrolet cars were lightly restyled after what was essentially a carry-over year in 1950. This generation of car had been introduced in late 1948 as 1949 models and would continue – with a heavy restyle in 1953 – until the fall of 1954.
Not my favorite Chevy, but what a beautiful photo!
Although I’ve never owned or driven a Chevrolet, let alone one of this vintage, I’ve always admired the 1949-54 Chevy cars and trucks. I’m sure my grandparents had at least one of these cars when my mom was a girl. 🙂
Proving again that something does not lose it’s usefulness because of it’s age.
Except for my wife. ?
Sort of an interesting pattern. The rust isn’t nearly as old as the car, and the chrome parts are unpitted. Maybe this car lived in a dry place for the first 40 years, then moved to a wet place.
Looking at the rear bumper this car could have what was called “Korean chrome” that was sub-par in quality due to the Korean War. The trim around the windows could be stainless steel.
D-U-L-L.
GImmie the same year Ford, please.
Oh, how I wish we still had the optimism of the early 50s, as Dinah so beautifully expressed.
*sigh*
“life is completer in a Chevy”! and She’s a swell looking doll too! Yeah! if anybody doesn’t have this tune in your head…..You’re a Commie!
CC Effect – I went for a longish walk in town yesterday with my wife and some friends, saw a white 4 door Chevy of this vintage parked curbside. I broke stride and checked it out quickly and then put it out of mind, but remembered it right away when I saw this post this morning. None of the others seemed to even notice a car older than any of us. There was also a similar age Dodge pickup parked outside the restaurant where we ate dinner, also un-noticed by the others. But earlier we had walked by a very clean split-windshield VW bus, nice but not that uncommon in our town, and it got lots of oohs and ahhs.
What a beauty, even with all this patina. I’ve seen a ’54 Chevy in person (helped the owner to sell it even), but IMO the ’49 to ’52 were the best looking.
Betsy! That’s what we named the flat black version of this car my mom drove when I was a toddler. This was in the ’60s, and it had already seen better days. Some of the car’s features form some of my earliest memories: dog dish hubcaps, red (plaid?) interior with a rope across the back seat for lap blankets, and big vertical stripes of chrome on the dash. I remember sitting up front (no seat belts or car seats then) looking at that chrome dash as mom was about to leave her parking spot at the doctor’s office when a woman backed into the car pushing me head first into that bright chrome work. I remember looking down to see my toddler overalls go from grey to a wash of red. I still have the scar.
Worse yet, I used to stand on the front seat of Mom’s ’53 or ’54 Chevy. Her arm always flew up to hold me in a quick stop.
+1
That’s a beautiful photo. You inspired me to go through some old family photos, and I managed to find a scan of Mom and my cousin Dave from about 1955, posing in front of the ’52 Chevy that my parents eventually replaced with a new Corvair in 1960.
Similar to the 49 Dad had. It saw it’s last day when he was taking me to school and a student in a 51 like this centerpunched us, gave me a concussion and a broken collarbone, and killed the frame of the car. Never really liked 51s from then on.
Too bad about the rust ~
These were amazingly good drivers in spite of the trunnion front suspension .
The old ‘ babbit pounder ‘ Target Lubrication 216 C.I.D. i6 engine , if sharply tuned , easily out ran Ford’s flatheads , 6 or 8 cylinder but couldn’t with stand continuous high speed operation sadly .
I really like these in Coupe format .
-Nate
“…easily outran Ford’s flatheads…”
Ummmmm………
?
I guess you had to drive and work on both to understand Mark .
Nothing wrong with old Fords , I’ve had a few .
-Nate
From what I remember reading, theres only like 5 hp difference between the Chevy six and the Ford eight.
The six could cruise all day long at 60mph, but destroy it self at 65mph from what I’ve read.
Actually, the Chevy six and Ford flathead were often rated the same, with some years the Chevy being rated higher. From 1937-1940, both had 85 hp. In 1941, the Chevy was ahead with 90 hp. In 1942, Ford’s new 226 flathead six was rated at 90hp, the V8 at 85!
From 1946-1949, the Ford was ahead with 100hp, to the Chevy’s 90. But then the Chevy 235 came out, and it had 105 hp, to the Ford’s 100, in 1950. They then traded spots a in 1952 and 1953, when the Chevy had 115 hp to the Ford’s 110.
The Chevy’s ohv valves allowed it to breathe better. The 1953-1954 Corvette had a 150 hp version of the six; Ford could not likely have pulled that off with the flathead.
“1951 Chevrolet Deluxe – It Saw The USA”
You have my vote for the most clever heading of the month. Brilliant in my opinion, especially when you know the history of Chevrolet’s advertising…
🙂
These were still plentiful when I was a young lad in the early sixties. It appeared then that they were all driven by old people. They appear to be the prototypical early post war American car. Now i still see quite a few dolled up as Lowriders. The connection is so strong that I could never bring myself to buy one.
My grandparents had a ’53, and traded it in on a Studebaker Lark in ’62. Both are ingrained in my head as old folks cars because of that.
One California aunt had a 1950 Bel Air hardtop in gray over pale yellow, and another California aunt and uncle had a 1951 4-door sedan in “Mister Thrifty Guy” format, light gray with no options, including no heater.
Ah ! My first car back in 1964. Mine had the “two in the glue” Powerglide. What a great car. It was a great car. With it I learned a lot about driving and life, too.
Wow. I thought my first car, a 1952 Chevy DeLuxe two-door looked bad when I bought it in 1968. At the time, that car was only 16 years old and was as badly rusted as the one above!
An old friend and I have recently had several discussions about when we grew up and the community we lived in and the cars around us. The midwest salt and lack of rust-proofing back then turned many cars into sad-looking bombs in not too many years.
I’m surprised the ’51 above is still alive. I wonder if the old babbitt-beater 216 is still under the hood churning away?
You Chevy guys may correct me, but I thought that the new Chevy 6 of 1963 was pretty much a clean sheet design tha didn’t share anything with the old Blue Flame other than 6 cylinders and overhead valves.
And what a great picture. But am I the only one tempted to rant at someone trying to use ventpanes as air scoops? Plenty of fresh air came in through the cowl vents. The vent windows were for outflow.
Correct ~
The new thinwall 6 cylinder was much lighter and gave better power to weight ratio .
-Nate
And seven main bearings. Even the legendary Mopar Slant Six had only four.
My bad; I should have caught that.
Strictly speaking, the “Stovebolt” six from 1929 was replaced by the “Blueflame” six in 1937, which had no common parts with the older six.
JPC, I’ve seen several CCs this hot summer with their vent windows cranked all the way open to cram more air into the front seat area.
A college friend drove one so much like it in the ’70s it could almost be the very car! Simple, tough, durable, 1949-52 Chevys have a high survival rate. I joke that every one built is still in existence somewhere, just turn over any rock and there they are! On a recent western trip, still saw a dozen or so without trying!
I have read that these cars were built to withstand the poor roads of pre-interstate America
Just after graduation from high school exactly 40 years ago I nearly bought a 1951 Chevrolet for sale one block over in our subdivision that was the quintessential mid fifties midwest suburb. It was a forest green (possibly early metal-flake?) four door sedan with a Powerglide. Even then, I was interested in older cars and other antiquities, and I think part of my decision was based on the fact that I was currently reading Raymond Chandler’s “The Long Goodbye” (written in 1953) and it looked like something Philip Marlowe might drive (in fact I think it was mentioned that one of the characters was driving a Chevy). Anyway, I passed and the following year went in an entirely different direction with a 1966 VW Beetle.
I forgot to add that I first saw Stan Kenton in 1975 and was hooked for life. That summer I was able to track down a copy of what remains one of my favorite of his albums, New Concepts of Artistry in Rhythm, recorded in 1952, so that added to the appeal of what likely would have been a costly disaster. Of course, who knows?
Shame about the rust, but it sure is picturesque. Thanks for sharing this photo with us!
Neat car, before they became bloated and overstyled. Now I’ve got Dinah’s song going round and round in my head!
Such a beautiful, all-American image. I like this car all the more for its patina.
My paternal grandfather had one of these, same year, but not the Deluxe as I recall (didn’t have much chrome on the sides). It was black. It was eventually traded in for, wonder of wonders, a new 1964 Rambler American 2-door hardtop.
Now that relations have been restored, could we sell this car to a Cuban? It would fit right in.
I had a 1951 Styleline Deluxe I bought from a local Toyota/Fiat dealer when I was in college. I was always working on the POS Fiat and they had the ’51 sitting in the shop after someone traded it in on a new Toyota. I bought the ’51 and loved it. I had that car for almost 35 years and finally sold it when I was unable to work on it anymore due to severe arthritis in my hands. I miss that car so much but my wife has promised me I could get another old car again soon. One that is in good enough shape that it will only need maintenance.
Here is a picture of my ’51.