I have been going by this Chevy tow truck for many years. Yesterday I just realized that the grill is very similar to the 54 Ford grill.
Anyone know what year this is?

 

Chevy



F4 Ford

 

It is a 1957 the 5, 6, and7 all look alike except the 57 had the humps on the hood, and still single headlights.

 

But isn't this the 57 Chevy grill?



55 and 56 seem to be variations on that theme.
Edit: Maybe the bigger trucks had different grills?

 

True. The humps in the hood say 57, but that grille is not like any I've seen before. The typical 57 chevy pickup grille looks like this...


Searching google images, I found a 57 big 8500 series chevy truck, the equivalent to our F-8, with the grille in question...


We really do learn something new, every day.

 

Got it, Skalywag was correct 1957.
I searched for 1957 chevy tow truck and it popped up immediately.



That seems awful close in years to copy another manufacturer.

 

Wayne beat me to it.

 

I read somewhere in one of my books that the 54 grille was designed to look like the wing of a fighter jet fighter of the early 50's. Perhaps Chevy in 1957 was a few years behind the times.

But why did they have different grilles for their larger trucks?

 

My first guess would be it was cheaper and less fragile than the intricate piece they put on their pickup trucks that year.