Posted by Clint Dixon on Monday, September 08, 2003 at 11:23AM :
That is an interesting Bell truck you found. I thought I remembered seeing photos of others. I went searching and here is what I found:
The Feb. 1997 issue of Power Wagon Advertiser listed a 1956 Power-Wagon utility truck for sale in Spokane, Wa. There was a good photo and the bed on it looks exactly like yours. It has the same shape for the retractable roof, a small rectangular box is located right behind the driver's door on the front of the bed, a small compartment is located behind the rear fender, and the rear fender has a "lip" that protrudes wider than the utility bed. The one in the Advertiser looked like it had a channel type front bumper where as yours looks to be original Dodge. Also the bracing to the derrick frame was slightly different on the one found in the Advertiser, and its pole derrick appeared bent or under stress when in the stowed position. That truck had headlights buckets and turn signals on the crown of the front fenders.
The Jan. 1994 issue of Power Wagon Advertiser listed a 1955 C3PW telephone truck for sale in Boulder, Co. There was also a good photo included with this ad, but the design of the utility bed and retractable roof is different from yours. It had doors for larger compartments that more resembled those found on today's trucks and there was no small rectangular box behind the driver's door and no lip to the rear fenders. It also had headlights and turn signals. The derrick frame appeared constructed from larger material. Part of the pole derrick appeared to be rectangular in shape rather than round tubing.
There was a fellow from Minnesota who came to the VPW Rally in the late '80s or early 90's who showed a photo to me of a Bell truck that he had.
I also believe there may be another Bell Power-Wagon in a collection in Portsmouth, VA.
Great find!
Clint
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