While we’re full-blown car dweebs here at BangShift, we’re also minor league movie dweebs as well. That’s why we nearly drove off the road on a recent family day trip to York, Maine, when we spotted this neat 1947 GMC Suburban Carryall on the side of the road. The movie part comes in with the name painted on the side of the truck. Shawshank Prison was the setting for the movie, “The Shawshank Redemption” which starred Tim Robins and Morgan Freeman. Robins was the hero, Andy Dufresne, a man wrongly imprisoned for killing his wife and the dude she was seeing on the side.
As the movie was set in the 1940s this truck, being a ’47, would be right at home. Seeing as though it was parked in front of a gift shop that targeted tourists, we don’t think it had any actual connection with the movie (which was made in Ohio) or the actual Shawshank Prison that was located in Thomaston, Maine, and closed in 2002 after 178 years in service.
From the factory this Carryall would have been powered by a 228ci I6 engine and backed with a three-speed manual transmission, shifted on the tree. As you can tell by the photos the body has been placed on a “modern” Chevy 4×4 chassis. It’s in tough shape. There is a large sign on one of the windows demanding that gawkers keep their, “HANDS OFF.” This may be a precaution against a possible tetanus lawsuit or perhaps prevention against someone’s hands actually going straight through the rapidly decomposing body. There were wooden blocks stacked up under the front axle to keep it on an even keel. It seems to have been dry docked for ages.
The movie was based off of a Steven King story (hence the Maine roots) and although it was a commercial flop when released in theaters it has taken on a life of its own through cable and other means of viewing. It is a personal favorite of ours.
Onto the photos!
….don’t believe the frame’s been changed, just the wheels…I did this on a ’49 Chev pick-up. the front center caps would have hole in them for the lock-out hubs if it was changed…..so it’s got 4 rear center caps on on it……
……it should sit higher off the wheels & have transfer case lever inside, if the frame was changed……….
Nice panel truck. It’s not a Carryall suburban, since it does not have windows on the sides of the body.
And it’s also not a 4×4….notice the lack of locking hubs up front, and as mentioned it would sit at least 4 inches higher if it were a 4x.