'44/'45 NZ Chevrolet

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

David, Greetings from another David ( Dave),

I'm coming to you from deep in the south of New Zealand. I'm a dedicated Chev man having owned and restored a '29 two door sedan, a '34 Junior Coupe and a '39 Coupe and used both a '72 350 Blazer ( back in the late 70s) and an '84 305 2WD ute ( in the late 80s ) as daily transport.

At one time I had an acre of Chevs that were being tossed away by their owners, including the front axle for NZ's earliest known Chev, a 1914 Baby Grand. I found the rest of the car restored but with a 1923 axle fitted and the owner didn't want to know me !!

I have recently gone away from Chev for the first time in my life and restored a 1929 straight eight AUBURN racing car which I am selling and should appear for sale in the next issue of the English OCTANE magazine.

My next project awaiting is a 1940s military Chev hence my email to you as I'd like to ID the exact year before starting the restoration. I wrote to GMNZ who couldn't help and a very nice man from GM Canada tried without success but did put me onto you.

It is a panel van, the body of which was apparently built here in New Zealand. It is right hand drive, cab and chassis built, according to the name plate under the bonnet, by GM Canada. I'm told the body as far as either the front of, or rear of, the doors came out in knocked down form. It has a timber frame of course. It has the military khaki colour on the firewall. No chrome on the grilles nor the headlight lock ring - typical blackout model. It has a three speed gearbox but has double springing in the rear i.e. springs under the diff and substantial springs above the diff. which makes me wonder it it would be termed a 3/4 tonner. It has 115 inch wheelbase and 600 - 650 x 16 tyres, has a treadle accelerator pedal.

On the ID plate it says :

MADE IN CANADA

Model: 13NZ610

Serial: 5 1312 50494

Engine : CR 4056086


Now I reckon the CR in the engine# is going to tell an educated man like you what year that is but I can't see 'C' mentioned in your website. At best guess to me it is 1943 but then the '5' in the serial # could mean 1945.

I'm one of these fussy people, (I've written and published two family history books with English and Scottish connections ) who likes to see written info. I spent ages researching the 1929 AUBURN before pulling mine apart.

David, I think that is all I can presently tell you about it.

One sideline is that the town nearest to where I live was where
hundreds of wartime Chevs - large 4x4 US and Canadian trucks plus Fords were restored after the war by G T Gillies Ltd who tendered the Yanks and got boatloads of them, so many he had to buy a farm to store them. They all came out of the Pacific about 1947 or so. There are still many of these vehicles around New Zealand, especially on farms and G T Gillies still has brand new replacement parts for these.

Well, there I hope I haven't bored you to tears !!

Yours in Chevrolet

Dave Hill ( no, not the Corvette Dave Hill ! )

This is a very intesting truck! It's a 1/2 ton 1312 Chassis/Cab exported by Oshawa but not CKD I think, to GM New Zealand and assembled there and then fitted with local body. Note it's a '1945' Model but the engine # is a 1944 unit. My guess is that this is a 1944 military order and delivered as a '1945 Model' with 1944 engine..note 'CR' is the light truck, rhd prefix... similar to CMP units of the time that were assembled in 1945 and used '1944' engines. I just checked and the highest known CMP engines were in the region of 4057XXX

[David_Hayward (RIP)]

Plate photo...never seen one like it with the NZ stamp for GM NZ Ltd

[cliff]

These were imported into NZ as a flat cowl unit that had the stumps of the windscreen pillars and the channel for the bottom of the windscreen fitted to the cowl. When I blow the pic up I can see the little cover strip about 2inches up the piller.

All of these and Fords, Dodges etc that went to NZ were fitted with wood framed bodies. I once owned a jailbar Ford station wagon with the same wooden type frame as well as a 1941 Fargo 1/2 ton pickup. The Fargo was unusual as it had full length running bords and original rear mudguards with a local built flat tray sitting on top of the rear mudguards.

So to my knowledge most of the main makes in commercials and trucks were either flat cowl or had the bottom of the windscreen pillars fitted and were built with LP bodies in NZ during this era.

cheers
Cliff