Kevin Muise bought this 1949 Chevy 3100 half ton in 1978 “to keep myself out of trouble”.
Two years later Wilson Whynot did the bodywork and paint that transformed the pickup into the much-modified truck we see here, but with a conventional box and original roofline.
Forty years later another Whynot repeated the process – his son ‘Boomie’.
They were both 70 years old when working on the ’49. At his shop in Milton, Boomie chopped the five-window top by three inches, modified the box to incorporate 1961 Cadillac tail fins and applied Soul Red Crystal Metallic paint, covered with four coats of clear.
1949 Chevy 3100
The original 216 cubic inch straight six and three-speed manual are long gone, replaced by a blown 350 V8, built by Boomie, mated to a 350 turbo hydramatic transmission.
Kevin Muise, currently the Deputy Mayor of the Region of Queens Municipality, found the 1961 fins in a farmyard near New Germany. There were a couple from a 1959 Caddy there as well, but one of them was in bad shape.
“Besides,” Kevin added, “I was born in 1961.”
One year and a half after turning the project over to Boomie, Kevin drove the truck from his home in Hunts Point to Boomie’s shop on the west side of Milton to have the new box installed.
Parked alongside the beach at Hunts Point that evening, the red ’49 drew a steady stream of admirers, putting a smile on the face of a proud owner.
