Was it a Staff Car - 1940 Chev

[John W Mackie]

Hi All,

We have recently purchased a 1940 Chev sedan, the previous owner believes it was ex Military. It's painted green, but the previous colour is showing through which looks possibly a bit more military green. the paint code is 253 MD GRN
It was on VIC rego CP642
On the firewall it has number 4012.M.2686
It has been repowered with a Blueflame engine sometime in it's life.
Basically everything else is original.

Is there someway we can identify if this was indeed a Staff Car or some served some sort of military role?

We tried doing some searches but without a chassis number (yet unable to find) and engine change out has made it difficult to find anything.

If anyone can offer some assistance would be much appreciated.

Regards

John and Jess Mackie

[David Herbert]

Some nice original run marks there !

David

[Mike Kelly]

The AOMC ( have a look at their web site ) have the old Victorian registration cards , they will do a search for you but the fee is high. You will find the original engine nr. Is still there in the cards. The registered owners documents were destroyed by Vicroads because of privacy reasons. CP prefix is a civilian wartime reg. The car may have been purchased new by a doctor or hire car firm/taxi business , essential users could apply for a new vehicle

[Mike Kelly]

John

If you don't have it already the " History of Holden ' book by Norm Darwin is worth reading.

[Tony Smith]

Originally Posted by John W Mackie

Hi All,

We have a 1940 Chev sedan, .....
On the firewall it has number 4012.M.2686

We tried doing some searches, but without a chassis number .....

Regards

John and Jess Mackie

Is that the Chassis Number? It seems to be the typical format of a Melbourne assembled 1940 Holden.

[Mike Kelly]

The book lists 1599 standard and 2129 Master sedan bodies built at Woodville for 1940. Civilian and military I guess ? Also 620 AMF deluxe bodies built in 1942 along with 324 Ridemaster . Paint code prefix: 253 = Duco and DLX = Dulux. The normal army paint code was khk dlx ( khaki )... I've seen that on various Holden bodies built for the army. I think your particular paint code is civilian .The date code on your tag is 1940 0 = 40 the month code was Jan. = A Feb. = B and so on

[John W Mackie]

Thanks everyone for your responses, much appreciated. We have decided to engage the AOMC and are now waiting for them to hopefully provide us with the history.

We have since discovered a serial number on the VIC rego papers, we are not familiar with what a serial number is as we don't have them on the NSW rego, could this be the chassis number or is it indeed the number written on the firewall.

My father has the book ''The History of Holden since 1917'' by Norm Darwin, is this the same book you are referring to? as I'll need to import it from Tassie to read it :-)

Would it be a bad thing to dress it up as a staff car?????

Thanks!

Jess Mackie

[Mike Kelly]

Hi Jess

Little confused .If you already have the Vic. Reg. Certificate ?? You don't need to do the AOMC search , the reg. paper should display the original owners details , engine , chassis nr and any subsequent change of ownership. Regarding the staff car paint job you want to pursue ,it wasn't unusual for a civilian vehicle to be transferred over to the Dept of Defence , this scenario occured even after the initial 'impressed vehicle' period was over.. I have a wartime Vic. Reg certificate for a Inter truck that was transfered to the DD around 1942.

[Mike Kelly]

Pinched this pic from facebook. A different perspective of a 1940 Chevy fitted with a notek light and some kind of rank pennant ? Appears to be a ridemaster model with IFS

[John W Mackie]

Originally Posted by Mike Kelly

Hi Jess

Little confused .If you already have the Vic. Reg. Certificate ?? You don't need to do the AOMC search , the reg. paper should display the original owners details , engine , chassis nr and any subsequent change of ownership. Regarding the staff car paint job you want to pursue ,it wasn't unusual for a civilian vehicle to be transferred over to the Dept of Defence , this scenario occured even after the initial 'impressed vehicle' period was over.. I have a wartime Vic. Reg certificate for a Inter truck that was transfered to the DD around 1942.

Hi Mike,
The rego papers only show the people we bought it off and so forth, but we would like to try and find it's original history from the 40's onwards if possible.
Unfortunately we haven't had any luck from the AOMC, basically the engine number appears to have come out of a 1934 car; however it's a 1953 engine, so I'm a tad bit confused, so next step is to do an FOI from VIC roads and see if they have any extra info they might give us.

Thanks

[John W Mackie]

Originally Posted by Mike Kelly

Pinched this pic from facebook. A different perspective of a 1940 Chevy fitted with a notek light and some kind of rank pennant ? Appears to be a ridemaster model with IFS

Nice photo, the Mrs doesn't want to paint the grille or the bumper bar But what are the things in the windows, rather bizarre looking.

[Mike Kelly]

I wish you all success with your search John. Dont want to sound negative but apparently Vic Roads destroyed the most interesting information many years ago.... I mean the previous owners details . I think it was a indexed card system originally.

You can do a search of the AWM registers ,these are online now. You might find a few 1940 sedan engine numbers in there just to give you a rough idea of the engine number range .

[David Dunlop]

John.

The items on the windshield are ‘Frost Shields’ applied on the inside surface to prevent condensation from building up and turning to ice in the winter. Very common here in Canada up until the early 1970’s when they fell into disuse.

David

[Mike Cecil]

John

I agree with Tony: that's most likely the chassis number.

4012.M.2686 translates as the chassis number for a 1940 model Chevrolet 'Pullman' passenger car with a conventional front axle on a standard passenger chassis of 113 inch wheel base.

40 = production year
12 = Model abbreviation
M = assembled/manufactured at Fisherman's Bend, Melbourne.
2686 = the 2,686th for that production year.

The underbonnet nomenclature painted on the firewall became an Army requirement in mid-1942. Though not required in that exact format, there was plenty of interpretation at Unit level about what to paint, hence some variation. It does include the essentials: model and year.

Hence, your car was most likely in Army service in the second half of 1942 (at least) when the underbonnet nomenclature was painted.

Looks like it's time to start scouring AWM126 (both AIF and AMF books) for that chassis number. It's not guaranteed, of course, but in the absence of anything else, it's a good start.

David: thanks for the info re frost shields: don't think too many Australians will have heard of them before.

Regards

Mike

[Mike Kelly]

Likely the body shell was built at Woodville, Sth Australia then railed over to Fishermens Bend Melbourne for fitting onto a chassis imported from Canada. I believe the whole front end was imported: bonnet, grill and guards plus the chassis and major mechanicals , engine and RHD steering components so on.

I estimate the CP rego prefix is from around late 40 or early 41 . If it was taken on army charge, then maybe the car may have been released by the army after a short period then re-issued to a civvy owner sometime during the war. Being a original factory green already maybe means the army just didn't bother painting it ? If only the car could speak to us