1954 Chevrolet The Remedy Is a Bed-less Pickup That'll Have You Question Reality

Almost all of today's vehicles of the kind can trace their roots to the late 1940s, but also to the 1950s. Even if some of the families born then are no longer around, the ideas they brought to the segment still inspire today's vehicles.

For Chevrolet, just like for its competitors, the respective decades were years booming with inspiration. The '50, for instance, are the years that gave birth to the still beautiful Bel Air, and the still omnipotent Corvette. The decade prior is when the line of Advance Design trucks was born and rose to fame.

Chevy had been making trucks long before the war, but the lessons it learned during those hard years, combined with the realities and demands of post-war America led to a complete shift in the way trucks were made.

The Advance Design came as the first new line of trucks following the conflagration, and completely different in terms of styling and technology than what came before.

The first truck of this kind rolled off the assembly lines in 1947, and the breed quickly grew to include several important names for the light and medium-duty truck segment. By the time production ceased in 1955, the range already had hold of a major slice of the market.

So important was the Advance Design for the average American driver that the love for it still lingers in our time. Just like the C/K series that followed, the Advance Design still is in the news today, thanks to the many examples that have survived and got modified by talented shops across the country.

And there's no better example of that than the 1954 6400 truck we have before us. Put together by a crew called Rust2Rodz, it's a one-of-a-kind machine that's been featured in various specialized shows, winning award after award.

For background, we'll remind you the 6400 was a two-ton truck, and those are less favored by the custom industry than the half-tons. Yet even this beast of a machine can impress audiences if done right. And the unnamed scary monster before us sure seems that way.

It's not the blackness of the thing that strikes first, or the many visible, shiny rivets, nuts and bolts carefully aligned along the edges. It's the complete absence of a bed at the rear, leaving the custom-built chassis and some of the hardware that makes the truck move exposed to the elements and the naked eye.

When looked at from a certain angle, the truck seems to be broken in half, trailing behind it through invisible means the rear axle, with the 20-inch Mayhem wheels completely hidden under massive fenders. The sight is so strange that it'll make you question what your eyes are seeing for a second.

But then you really get to look at the thing, and it all starts to make sense. You see some of the hardware that forms the suspension system, things like the RideTech adjustable shocks and the air ride.

You then see the front end of the truck, complete with the cab, and here the build seems totally normal. Except, perhaps, the LED lights that have been added as a touch of modernity.

The long hood, decorated with touches of British Racing Green and Candy, lifts to reveal a 454ci engine of unknown output. This one is tied to an automatic transmission and breathes through a hand-made exhaust system.

The interior is simple, disappointing even, considering the sight from the outside, and only stands out through the custom covers pulled over the seats, and the Dakota Digital gauges fitted on the dashboard. We have no info on how much miles the truck's odometer shows.

The truck is called in this form The Remedy, as clearly stated in metal on the rear axle, and it is scheduled to sell during the Mecum auction that takes place at the end of September in Dallas, Texas.

The auction house makes no mention as to how much the truck is expected to go for, but there seems to be a reserve on it, meaning at least some expectations are at play here.

It's not clear exactly what those are, but whoever plans to bid for this truck gets a mild warning: because of the non-traditional manner of applying the VIN, the truck could be subject to a state inspection and require a new VIN in some states.

Or we could see it pop up for sale again, as it often happens in this crazy world of custom vehicles.