Question to truck owners of 1941 -1946

[GOPAPA]

Curious to know if or is there any difference at all between these two years of the Chevy Truck ,,and did they make GMC's in these years ?

[GOPAPA]

I was hoping to hear from some one who owns a 41 or 46 Chevy truck ..so far no one has posted about my question ,, I did look up what I could find and found that some say one difference is in 42 one windshield wiper and in 46 two wipers ,

[Rickysnickers]

I moderate this section Larry. Sadly, there's not a lot of people on this particular part of the board. Hopefully, someone will come along and be able to answer your question.

[GOPAPA]

Originally Posted by Rickysnickers

I moderate this section Larry. Sadly, there's not a lot of people on this particular part of the board. Hopefully, someone will come along and be able to answer your question.

Thx Rick . I know and have known a lot of people with collector trucks and I hardly ever see a 41 to 46 Chevy truck to chat with .

[docrock]

Sorry I didn't see this. 41 to 46 differences... very little. 1941 to first part of 42 has a pot metal trim around the back window. 42 to 46 just rubber. Gas tank filler neck seal had rubber until the war started and they switched to leather and a clamp ring. Early 41 had different park light on top of the headlights. The new style park light remained until 47. During the war some plants made the headlight trim out of brass, latter it was chrome steal. Not much else.

[GOPAPA]

Originally Posted by docrock

Sorry I didn't see this. 41 to 46 differences... very little. 1941 to first part of 42 has a pot metal trim around the back window. 42 to 46 just rubber. Gas tank filler neck seal had rubber until the war started and they switched to leather and a clamp ring. Early 41 had different park light on top of the headlights. The new style park light remained until 47. During the war some plants made the headlight trim out of brass, latter it was chrome steal. Not much else.

Glad you stopped in,, The war has so much to do with these trucks and what you stated is about it , thx for the info ,,now I can share it with an old buddy of mine that asks me this question I have ask

[3drburb]

Originally Posted by GOPAPA

Curious to know if or is there any difference at all between these two years of the Chevy Truck ,,and did they make GMC's in these years ?

There is not really any difference in the years that I know but there are slight differences in the models from 3/4 ton and larger trucks like, front fender openings and running boards for ones with bed or stake sides.

Yes, there is a GMC model in these years, mainly different grille.

[mr48chev]

There were no or very few Civilian trucks built between 1943 and 1945 due to the war effort in WWII. Those years don't show up on the GM Heritage Center Archives. https://www.gm.com/heritage/archive/...formation-kits If my 78 year old memory serves right civilian vehicle production stopped in mid 1942 production year and few new 1942 models were sold. That no doubt was soon after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1941. Any Civilian 1942 would have been built before mid December 1941.

Looking through 41, 42 and 46 vehicle info kits they are very detailed for mechanical specifications for those years but do not show options or even basic equipment. 47 only shows the
Advance design trucks making me thing that there were no changes for Early 47 deco trucks from 46.

[docrock]

I have been doing research on my family and found a lottery result in 1943 for my Grandfather getting a new chevy truck. In San Diego they had a lottery every month and they sold 3 vehicles to 3 lucky winners. Most of the people that were in the lottery were business owners. My Grandfather was a printer. He won the chance to buy chevy truck.

[LILREDGMC]

GOPAPA

I have a 1942 BK series half ton pickup. The title shows it as a 1942, yet with the adder on the Nebraska title, produced in 1945. It was originally a Nebraska Continental Telephone Company truck, lettering is/was on the doors. That was the way it was bought by me.
Bought it in Nebraska about 1979. I recall a few of the comments in the above posts. I also thought or recall something about the door locks being different. Memory is in the handle or on the door skin.
I will have to go back in my file with notes from VCCA members and Jimmy Carter in KCMO, for any other items. As I write this, I'm thinking there may be something with the headliner, number of pieces, possibly.
Again, with the war effort it made sense that this truck starting out in 42, went to the telephone company in 45.
Glad to share what I recall.

LILREDGMC

[gmc jr van]

Originally Posted by LILREDGMC

GOPAPA

I have a 1942 BK series half ton pickup. The title shows it as a 1942, yet with the adder on the Nebraska title, produced in 1945.

LILREDGMC

The month number in the serial number will tell you the month and year it was built.

[mr48chev]

As far as production stoppage during WWII this piece snagged from the net reasonably tells the tail. All of the automotive factories switched almost overnight to producing items for the War effort. The lines that produced what were basically civilian trucks but had special equipment for the military also produced some civilian trucks that were allotted to civilian businesses and those often were companies doing something in support of the war effort or were critical need businesses. I was born in 1946 and remember it being talked about when I was young and most of the time you had to have a critical need to get a new truck and new cars were not available at all.

I can remember seeing what would now be pretty valuable luxury cars out of the late 20's and early 30's that had been converted into trucks during WWII because they had frames strong enough and engines powerful enough to handle hauling the weight.

Back in the 50's the friends of my step father who were big on GMC always claimed that they had much stronger frames than Same year Chevys did and hat may have been true in the pre 47 trucks.

I don't know of any site that goes into detail on Deco trucks as far as year to year differences. There is even less available on GMC trucks of any year outside of the https://www.oldgmctrucks.com/index.html That is good for serial numbers to tell you what year and model of GMC you have up though 54.

Chevrolet and GMC were built on their own assembly lines until some time in the late 60's as far as I know. A search shows the last year of the 305 GMC V6 was 1969 and they used a 250 or 292 in 70 instead.