Many people don’t know what Canopy Express is, and for just that reason, Linda Butler now has two of them.

“Going to car shows, I was always looking around to see what’s not there,” the Fairborn resident said recently. “I wanted something unique, and my husband and I were searching online for a car and I ran across a Canopy Express and I thought it was pretty unique, so I bought it.”

That was eight years ago when the 1948 Chevrolet Canopy Express arrived from Colorado. Built on a truck chassis, the panel truck with the open sides was built for vendors who needed quick access to the bed, and produce vendors were the number one customers.

“They’ve been called ‘hucksters’ in honor of the neighborhood vendors who used them in the ’50s,” Butler said.

Chevrolet built them from 1931 until 1955 while General Motors, Dodge and International Harvester also built a Canopy Express model in the 1930s and ’40s. Chevrolet’s original had bucket seats, a straight six under the hood and the classic “three-on-the-tree” manual column shift transmission.

Butler’s 1948 Chevrolet is highly modified and just came off a rebuild and new paint job, and the results are spectacular. The Canopy Express shared the Grand Prize/Best of Show award at the recent HotRod Fest in Dayton. “We were really excited, and the crowd really enjoyed the truck,” Butler added. “They had a great turnout and we answered lots of questions about it.”

The “Butler Farms” truck now sports House of Kolor Bittersweet II with pearl paint applied by Terry Ray of Ithaca, Ohio.

“ We had No Joke Upholstery of News Carlisle do the interior,” Butler explained, “and Mike Smith did the pin striping and the door lettering. Its all hand panted. There isn’t a decal anywhere on this truck.”

As a teenager Butler saved her babysitting money and bought a ’57 Chevy.

“My Dad got under the hood with me and taught me how to work on cars, and when I turned 16 and got my driver’s license, I had a ’57 Chevy to drive,” she said.

As for the Canopy Express, under the hood sits a 350 cubic inch Chevy crate motor that puts out 330 horsepower. “This has an automatic transmission, but we installed a floor shift that looks like the old truck shifter.” Butler said.

The truck bed is new wood with a glossy clear coat to accent the polished metal strips.

“When I go to outdoor shows, I have a vintage scale hanging on the back and produce in the bed, just like the old days when these were in use,” Butler said.

The Canopy Express truck is becoming quite rare, and this ’48 Chevrolet is believed to be one of 12 that still exist. Butler recently found a mostly stock 1948 GMC Canopy Express in Washington state, and just bought it.

“It’s really neat, mostly stock, and I wanted it. After all, this is the 100th anniversary of GMC,” she said. Spoken like a true car woman.