Chev C15A - Late War Body?
 

I saw this Chevrolet for sale on MILWEB recently, but I wonder if the rear body is original to the Cab and Chassis. Assuming the round air observers hatch on the cab roof was a later type to replace the 'square hatch' from 1943-44 I thought a steel rear tub would have been used with it. But the rear tub on this is of wood which I find interesting. I doubt the Canadians were short of steel in 1943-44, so is this original or a recreation?

It could be with the shape of the tilt hoops and side window that this was a FFW truck.

Your comments please.

The 2H1 and the 2J1 were both late war wooden bodies.

Nothing wrong with that truck!! It's got all the right things in the right places (well, except it may have two left wiper motors but so what). It's nicely finished and marked.

The windows in the tarp are standard except for some late war tarps. If the truck was FFW (either a cargo bodied WIRE-3 or a house bodied WIRE-5) the giveaway would be a small square opening in the rear cab behind the driver for a canvas communication tube, or things like the coil mounted in a shielded box above the engine instead of on the block, neither of which you could see in this pic.

The body is a fantasy one , just made up to look a little bit like a 15CWT body ,
I don`t understand it , because to measure up a proper one and copy that means the same effort , maybe even less time , because you don`t have to invent everything.

Cmp
 

So the consensus is that it is a late war rear tub made of wood. I'll have to look more carefully in WW2 photos to see if I can spot any in NW Europe, Italy or Far East.

The box has some detail differences than this one on a wartime factory photo C-15A, but it's not all that different. This truck is a 1942 model so it doesn't tell how common (or if) wooden bodies were ever used on 1944 15cwts.

Other than what may be a bogus body (you be the judge) the rest looks pretty authentic.

As the war progressed through the second half of 1944 and into 1945, a lot of things were winding down. BCATP bases across Canada were being closed. Production contracts were getting cancelled or reduced in amounts. If this was happening with the CMP Body Manufacturers contracts, it would not surprise me in the least, if they were going into a ‘Let’s use up what we’ve got’ mode to complete remaining contracts, even if this meant filling some orders for bodies with older wooden NOS stocks.

I’m not ruling out the possibility the wooden box on this truck might be a new build, merely pointing out a logical option.

We should also be aware that the military had boneyards all over Northwest Europe post Normandy where damaged vehicles would be taken and parts scavenged. If one needed a replacement box for an otherwise perfectly good vehicle in a hurry, and the most readily available good box happened to be wooden, would they really care?

David

No, like Maurice said it is a made-up body. Good effort on building a cargo box of similar size and looks, but it is not a recreation of a wartime wooden variant like the 2H1: http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/sh...ad.php?t=24718