The Helms Bakery Company started delivering bakery goods door to door in 1932 and had a small fleet of trucks servicing the Los Angeles area. The company was very successful, and by the ’50s it had a large fleet of Chevy panel trucks delivering to Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley. The fleet consisted of early ’50s Chevy panel trucks that were modified inside with wood and glass cabinets to store bread and other bakery products. When the trucks were purchased they were ordered with heavy-duty springs that worked well with the heavy wood cabinets installed inside. The company upgraded the fleet as needed, so there were plenty of ’50s Chevy panel trucks that were retired in favor of new trucks in the ’60s. The company eventually succumbed to changing lifestyles in California and closed its doors in 1969.

Dean Brown, a longtime rodder, was in the market for a new project car and stumbled across this ’52 Chevy panel truck, which turned out to be one of the original Helms trucks. The bakery cabinets had been removed but the body was in good condition, and it was still running with the original six-cylinder engine. Brown thought the truck was very cool, so he made a deal with its owner and drove it home. He formulated a plan of attack and started acquiring the parts he needed to turn it into a hot Chevy panel. The parts included a strong-running V-8 engine, a Turbo 350 transmission, a Fat Man Fabrications IFS front suspension and a new rear suspension that would provide a softer ride quality.

In this story we will show you how the rear suspension was improved, in this case with a kit from TCI Engineering, but there are many companies that offer just such an upgrade. The truck was already equipped with dual parallel leaf springs, but the springs were extremely heavy-duty units. These suspension kits come complete with springs, front and rear brackets, shock absorbers and a shock crossmember. Different manufacturers will offer different shocks and bracket assemblies, but they all do virtually the same thing.