New here! Question about my 1954 Chevy truck

[Rudoo]

Hi! I'm new here. I just bought a 1954 Chevy truck. I am just learning about these trucks. I have always likes old truck and I finally decided to get one. I was told I am the 4th owner of this truck and 90% is original. So now I am trying to see if this is so. One item I am wondering about is the hood ornament. The previous owner said it was on there when he got it. Here is a pic. Is it original?

[mr48chev]

i don't recognize the hood ornament offhand but in the 50's stores like Western Auto, Pep Boys and then the JC Whitney catalog sold a lot of bolt on goodies and usually had huge hood ornament selections. That may be one of those. The usually dealer installed Chevy pickup hood ornament was a bit simpler with no wings.

[jocko]

Interestingly, your hood ornament matches the 1950 ornament in the first pic. So, either it's a 1950 piece or your PO and the pic guy have the same taste at JC Whitneys...

The correct 54 hood ornament is shown in the next 2 pictures (a 54 and a 55.1).

So, in a nutshell, yours is not original to the truck. But it's cool!
Personally, I'm a non-hood ornament kinda guy - so if you want originality, you could scrap that one for a correct 54, or just scrap it period - but that leaves you with some holes... I'd leave it as is, it adds "character"!

And nice truck by the way - I love 54/55.1s!

[mr48chev]

It was probably pulled off an earlier model pickup or bought off the dealer's parts shelves then.

Almost all of the accessories on the Advanced Design trucks were dealer installed either after the truck was sold or to load it up before it went on the showroom floor or sales lot. That's one reason that you see so many different mirrors and rear bumpers on these trucks.
Plus the aftermarket had a lot of chrome goodies for them as I said before.

[Rudoo]

Thanks Jocko and Mr48Chev. I was kind of thinking it might have come off another year. But, who knows, maybe it has been on there all along and was put on early on. Thanks for your help!