1957 GMC 100 pick-up EVERGREEN HAULER

Classic Fifties pick-ups don’t get any more handsome than GMC’s line. Zack Stiling discovers a fantastic example living (and working) in the north-west of England and whose owner is pleased as punch with the classic hauler…

- Zack Stiling

Prior to 2010, Adrian Backhouse had only a passing interest in classic American cars and trucks, his first love being for motorbikes. “I’d had American bikes for 30-odd years, so I had that interest in Americana.” However, for all that we in Britain can buy into the American Dream with the right vehicles, music and clothes, we can’t invest in the West Coast sunshine. And since bikers tend to suffer the most from the worst of the weather, he started to think seriously of buying a pick-up.

“I’d been looking at internet auction sites for some time, weighing up what I’d like if the opportunity arose. In my mind, I narrowed things down to a Chevy from the late Forties to mid-Sixties or a Ford from the Forties to the mid-Fifties. This 1957 GMC 100 came up and the opening bid was the top of my budget. It expired on Friday morning and there were no bids against it. When I checked in the morning, it had been pulled so I sent a message to the seller and agreed to have a look at it.

“The truck was in a body shop where it had been blasted and painted. I was shown pictures of it stripped and it all looked good to my untrained eye. I returned the following week to pay for it and drive it home. The 130-mile journey to Barrow-in-Furness was a bit of a baptism of fire. It had been sold ‘as seen’ and was in need of finishing. The door rubbers had been trashed in removing for paint, so the doors rattled on their catches and there were no carpets – to say it was noisy was an understatement!”